We are always looking at striking a balance with making the existing system better and adding new features and that is exactly what we have done with this release. There are some much needed enhancements to Mentis, some bug fixes, and two completely new features to make your experience with Mentis and its apps more enjoyable and productive. Here is a list of everything you can expect from this release.
Restricting login to a list of user
Up until now, the only way to restrict valid users from logging into Mentis was by creating rules at the institution. With this release the restrictions can be configured in Mentis making it even easier to implement – one more thing less to do!
Customized Import Template
Importing from excel files was always possible in Mentis, but required you to download our pre-configured template and adding your data to it. We now support your own data templates. Just upload your existing file, and match the columns of your files to what is in Mentis, and get your data in without further manual intervention.
Bonus: You can now also import courses directly into the system using Import tools.
Additional fields available for Courses and Subjects
Courses now support adding optional fields like instructional method, schedule type, campus and degree level. Additionally a subject can be associated with a Unit. All of these new fields will enrich reporting capabilities within Mentis and allow the system to provide more intelligent analysis. Stay tuned for more on this.
E-Learning Compliance (ELC) – New Features/Enhancements
- Re-organized side-bar: The ELC sidebar has been re-organized to make it easier to find various functional options from the ever growing list of features in Mentis.
- State Activity Tracking: You can now manage your physical presence directly for States independent of a specific program. This will eventually allow to automate reports for physical presence triggers and make it easier to apply certain triggers to all programs that are being tracked in the state. Once you have added some information, reports are readily available to start viewing your data from different angles.
- Customizing Statuses for State Authorization: This is a BIG one! You can now customize the display text for the core authorization statuses that are available in ELC. For example, SARA Exempt can be labeled as Authorized via NC-SARA Membership and Authorized can be relabeled as Authorized to offer. You can not only change the status labels, but also change the colors you want to use for the status along with adding an additional detail which can be made visible when visitors are viewing any programs applicable with that status. Last but not the least, you can also create new statuses on the fly – as long as they are similar in their requirements to an existing core authorization status.
- Tracking Student Enrollment Numbers: In our last release we enabled tracking of student enrollment. In this release, we have made it better. You can now let your program coordinators track numbers for their programs, or use import tools to bulk enter. In addition, you can now run reports on the enrollment numbers that are available in the system.
Other Bug Fixes
- Document type was not getting registered in the system for document uploads. This is now fixed.
- Overlapping or concurrent semester sessions are now allowed to provide greater flexibility
- Duplicate entry issue for degree was fixed (Profiles)
- User can now update their own social network links (Profiles)
- State Agencies without a URL do not get hyperlinked anymore (ELC)
- All ELC data is now getting indexed on any change to make reports and explore real-time (ELC)
- Same course cannot be added more than once to an online program (ELC)
- Courses that are not being taught are also available for viewing under Associated Courses for Explore (ELC)