CirQlive MEETS May 2022 Release

Improvement to appointment booking

Students and course administrators now have a search feature for appointments. Filtering can optionally be done by date range, time of day, day of week, and specific teachers.

Improvements to course events and recordings

Teachers and course administrators can now share course events from one course into other courses.

• Allowing for upcoming sessions to be offered in multiple courses simultaneously.
• Past sessions can be shared, which will offer access to its recordings. This can be used to bring recordings from previous semesters to the current semester.

Improvements to attendance

Teachers and course administrators now have access to MEETS’ conferencing service access log and recording access log. In other words, all course staff can now view internal attendance records. Previously, aggregate data built from this information could only be accessed via usage statistics in MEETS Administration.

• Staff can now see when users tried joining sessions via MEETS.
• Internal attendance can be more accurate than conferencing service attendance, as it will identify each user correctly, whereas some conferencing systems allow users to use a different name than their official one.
• Attendance now also includes information regarding recording viewership. Staff can determine what recordings were accessed, by whom, and when.
• Improving access and playback troubleshooting, as staff can now get information regarding how the user tried joining/viewing, and which browser software they were using.
• All course viewership data can be exported to CSV, which can be used by popular spreadsheet software:
• Some compatible applications:

·       Apache OpenOffice Calc

·       Calligra Sheets, formerly KSpread. Use Data -> Encoding: Unicode (UTF-16), Format -> Delimiter: Tabulator, Format -> Textquota: ".

·       Gnumeric

·       LibreOffice Calc

·       Microsoft Excel

Improvement to usage statistics

The “at a glance” statistic in MEETS Administration now includes general information regarding appointment booking usage.

Improvement to guest invites

Some clients reported that guest invites and links that they tried emailing either directly or indirectly were being blocked by some poor spam filters. These filters incorrectly concluded that the guest page in MEETS being linked to was offering software downloads, instead of just being a normal webpage. The format of these links have been slightly restructured so that these poor spam filters do not block these links due to this issue. Note: This improvement will not fix other kinds of issues with overly restrictive or poor spam filtering.

Conferencing Services

In addition to all the services we already support, we have added support for RingCentral Video. If you are interested in using this service, please contact your CirQlive sales representative.

Supported services now include:

• Cisco Webex Events
• Cisco Webex Meetings
• Cisco Webex Trainings
• GoTo Meeting
• GoTo Training
• GoTo Webinar
• RingCentral Video
• Verizon BlueJeans
• Zoom Meeting
• Zoom Webinar

CirQlive MEETS now also has the capability to restrict scheduling with a particular conferencing service, while still allowing previously scheduled sessions to occur, and past recordings stored on that service to be viewed. If your MEETS license includes support for multiple conferencing services, but you’d like to restrict scheduling with some of them, as you do not wish to use that service in the future, please contact technical support to make this adjustment.

CirQlive MEETS November 2021 Release (version 7.3)

 

Improved appointment booking

• MEETS now makes it even easier to access all the appointment information, including recordings, meeting IDs, call-in phone numbers, and other access details.

• Administrators in courses can now schedule appointment blocks on behalf of a teacher, as well as reserve or cancel booked slots on behalf of a student.

• Teachers can now restrict booking of a specific slot in an appointment block. They can later choose to open that slot for booking. 

• Teachers and course administrators can now invite guests to an appointment. Teachers can offer access to an appointment’s information, optionally including its recordings.

• An appointment can now consist solely of guests. This allows appointments with prospective students, parents, or anyone else who isn’t an official member of the course while keeping the meetings organized in the course’s appointment calendar, and allowing the administrator to see the teacher’s availability to book these appointments on their behalf.

For More information please visit https://cirqlive.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/8000058842-3-1-appointment-booking-in-meets

New teacher notes system

• A secure note system has been added to allow teachers to keep track of their own notes regarding individual students, organized within each course.

• Administrators can choose whether they want their teachers to have access to this feature or not.

For more information, please visit https://cirqlive.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/8000097944-3-5-documenting-notes-about-students

Improved quick launch events

• These by default now include the name of the course, making it easier to correlate these events when looking at administrative statistics or via the web conferencing side of things.

Improved language support

• Added support for German.

• The MEETS Administration section now also offers translations. Each administrator can set their own personal language preferences.

Improved LDAP Authentication security capabilities

• Configurable security options are now available, including a proof-of-work work-factor, CAPTCHAs, and login throttling.

For more information on connecting the MEETS platform an LDAP service, please see https://cirqlive.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/8000080886-setting-up-federated-authentication-in-meets

New Administration features

• Administrators with appropriate access now have an easier time managing the other admins:

• They can now directly e-mail other administrators a password reset message.

• Administrators are now automatically emailed when their login information is altered or updated.

• The list of admins now includes their last login time, and all information is sortable, facilitating finding and managing those who have left your organization.

For More information please visit https://cirqlive.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/8000047899-creating-and-managing-administrators

• The MEETS Administration authentication process has been revamped to be friendlier and also offer more capabilities.

• Web Authentication (hardware keys) is now supported. Including FIDO2, U2F, and platform authenticators like Windows Hello and Apple Touch ID.

• TOTP authentication codes are now supported.

• Multi-factor authentication with two or three factors is now available.

• Administrators now have their own easy access menu to change their account settings, view recent login history, and logout other devices of theirs.

• Administrators can now set their own theme for MEETS Administration. Prior to this version, the default theme setting affected both MEETS for regular users and MEETS Administration, but only regular MEETS users had the option to use a non-default theme.

For more information, please visit https://cirqlive.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/8000097945-personal-settings-for-the-admin-portal

CirQlive MEETS January 2021 Release (version 7.2.)

The CirQlive Team is happy to update you on some recent product enhancements.

Improved Statistics

• Statistics for past events now includes participation information.
• The amount of guest users is now available via statistics.

Support for non-LTI LMSs

• Platform connections can now be created which connect to any website or service. MEETS is no longer limited to LTI-based LMSs, You can now use MEETS and its features with any portal or service within your organization.

Additional Administrator Settings and Capabilities

• Administrators can disable student access to recordings.
• Teachers and administrators can view course users. Administrators can remove users who no longer belong.
• Whether students are allowed to book slots themselves in the Appointment Booking module is now an administration option.
• Administrators can now disable the main event calendar and event scheduling, enabling offering connections only for older recordings or solely for appointment booking.

Language Support

• Added support for Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish.
• Administrators can set the default site language.
• Users can choose their own language.

Improved Appointment Booking Module

• Improved Appointment Booking interface.
• Appointment booking blocks/slots can be limited to the current course or deployed site-wide.
• Teachers can book and cancel appointments on behalf of their students.

Additional Updates

• Users can choose their own theme.
• MEETS has dropped support for Microsoft Internet Explorer and Apple Safari 8 and 9. Microsoft Internet Explorer users can switch to Microsoft Edge (now available for Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10). Those on older Safari versions are recommended to upgrade to a newer version. Modern versions of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are also recommended alternatives.
• TLS 1.3 is now supported.

Please view the CirQlive Manuals for more information regarding using these recent updates. 

CirQlive MEETS March Product Update

Improved Usage Statistics in the Administration Panel.
You may have noticed the recently updated Usage Statistics in the Administration Panel. The Usage Statistics tab has been significantly redesigned, providing a wide range of detailed statistic views and export capabilities. Utilizing these statistics can assist in improving the performance of online education and training, and track system usage.
Please visit the CirQlive Knowledge Base to learn which statistic views are available.  

CirQlive MEETS December Product Update

• Enhanced Authentication User Interface in the Administrator Panel: You may have noticed the improved Authentication UI in the MEETS Administrator Panel. The recently updated Authentication tab easily allows administrators to setup their organization's SAML and LDAP authentication methods with MEETS. Setting up federated authentication with MEETS enables including secure links in email invites and reminders, allowing users to securely access meetings from their personal inbox and calendars.
• Reassociate Account option in MEETS: MEETS now allows users to reassociate their web conference account credentials with their user in the LMS. Reassociating an account is needed when changing a user's web conferencing account. Performing this process would previously require CirQlive tech support. This option allows users to easily reassociate their account from within the user's MEETS Account Settings. 
• Improved guest login page: The guest login page has recently been updated, providing an improved experience during the login process. Guests attempting to access web conferencing sessions before the allowed time, will now be presented with a greyed out Join button, indicating it is too early to join. The event guest invite link now offers the option to display event recordings when the session concludes. This enhances the experience for guest users. 
• Cisco Webex and Zoom specific features and fixes: 
• For customers using Webex Events, CirQlive added the capability to mute/unmute attendees upon entry for Webex Events. If your Webex site does not offer you to tailor this option and you are in need for configuring the mute/unmute global setting, please contact CirQlive Client Services for your desired setting. 
• Due to some recent changes with the Zoom Recording API, some recordings did not appear correctly in MEETS. The CirQlive development team has since released a fix, and Zoom recordings now appear as expected in MEETS. Please contact CirQlive Tech Support for any further questions or issues. 
• Moodle specific capabilities: Using LTI Custom Parameters, customers using Moodle can create a direct link to another course's MEETS interface, or even to a specific MEETS tab. This allows administrators to use the same MEETS link across several courses, directing users to the same MEETS events. Further, linking to a specific tab, allows more functionality, such as creating a link to a past course's recordings.

CirQlive MEETS August Release (Version 7.1.)

You asked, we listened.
The CirQlive August update (version 7.1) includes some of the following features for the MEETS integration suite, integrating Cisco Webex, Zoom, GoToMeeting/GoToTraining/GoToWebinar and BlueJeans with Learning Management Systems. 

Please see our manuals and share them with your teaching staff for descriptions of these features, or contact CirQlive Client Services for more information.

Dial-in numbers for Scheduled Sessions:

• Support for viewing audio conference phone numbers when using Zoom Meeting and Zoom Webinar. 
• MEETS already supports viewing phone numbers as well as SIP/H.323 numbers to dial-in from a video endpoint when using Webex Meetings (with supported versions of Webex). When using video endpoints, session recordings will be automatically organized in the course page along with attendance information when recorded with Webex.

Recordings:

• Share access to recordings using external links which can be set to expire at a specified date.
• External links to a recording can be secured and set to require users to authenticate by your organization, or specific membership. MEETS enables you to connect your organization’s SAML 2.0 and LDAPv3 directory services to the platform, enabling this capability. 

Attendance and Statistics:

• MEETS now offers APIs for pulling attendance data and aggregate statistics automatically. The API tokens and instructions now appear in the MEETS admin panel. This supplements the existing ability for administrators to view attendance data in the course page and get aggregate statistics in the MEETS admin panel. 

Improvements to the Online Appointments Module:

• A new Online Appointment Module has been recently added to MEETS, which can be used for booking virtual office hours, tutoring, counselling and more using your organization’s web conferencing service. 
• A series of usability improvements have been made to the module, including allowing students to choose the teacher to book an appointment with in an easy manner. 

Guest Invites for Inviting External Attendees:

• Guest invites can be e-mailed directly from MEETS itself. These can be used for inviting guests who are not enrolled in a course, for creating public sessions or for placing links to sessions in other platforms. 
• Guest link access can be set to require authentication by the user (secure links) or not require authentication (public links). MEETS supports connecting to your organization’s SAML 2.0 or LDAP v3 directory services for authenticating users when using secure links. 
• Guest links can now include access to recordings, and be set to expire at a specified date.
• Attendance data captured in MEETS will also include those joining via guest invites.

Calendar Integration and Email Reminders:

• The ability to sync personal calendars with MEETS has been recently added to MEETS, allowing individual users to see upcoming MEETS sessions in their personal calendar on Android, iOS, Outlook, Google Calendar and other calendaring software. 
• Upcoming MEETS sessions in personal calendars can now be set to contain a link to join the session directly from the user’s personal calendar. 
• Email reminders for upcoming sessions and schedule updates can be set to include a link to join the session directly from the reminder email as well. 
• Link access can be set to require authentication by the user (secure links) or not require authentication (public links). MEETS supports connecting to your organization’s SAML 2.0 or LDAP v3 directory services for authenticating users when using secure links. 

For Administrators:

• Specify a message for users on their conferencing account settings page. This can be used to inform users of any steps they need to take to acquire a conferencing account or for internal support information, streamlining your internal support workflow. 
• Choose between two site-wide themes: Contour which has depth and contrast to it, and Smooth, focused on a clean look. 
• Set a default time zone, alleviating the need for new users to set their time zone when first using MEETS. This is useful if most of your users are in the same general location. Please note that a user can always adjust their time zone. 
• MEETS offers an API to pull information from MEETS. This can be used for statistic collection, to display a calendar of upcoming sessions in other platforms, or even access MEETS from non-LMS platforms, such as portals, CMSs, CRMs, and more (some API functionality was available in the past to specific clients by request). 
• The LTI connections page, Authentication page, and API Tokens page include links to manuals containing technical information regarding these features and how they work, in order to allow your in-house developers to make best use of these technologies.

CirQlive sponsoring EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Feature Sessions - So much to learn!

CirQlive is the sponsor of the featured sessions on Wednesday at the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative @EDUCAUSELI conference in Anaheim, CA this week. All of these sessions at ELI will be packed with great insights and many take-aways. As we looked through each program, we found the clear theme is commitment to helping students succeed. We wouldn’t be in the education business if we didn’t have the collective commitment to seeing people around the globe learn and grow. It’s an exciting time to be a tech company with a behind-the-scenes but an oh-so-important solution for making learning online significantly easier and less cumbersome. We hope you’ll join us at one of the following ELI sessions on Wednesday, Feb. 20.

Strategies for Growing a Scalable and Sustainable Learning Analytics Initiative at 9:15 a.m.
University of Wisconsin-Madison (@UWMadison) Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning Steven Cramer (@cramersm), Director of Academic Technology Linda Jorn and Senior Evaluation Consultant Kimberly Arnold (@kimberlyarnold)

Helping Faculty Create Different Student Interactions with a New Online Conversation Platform at 10:45 a.m.
New York University (@nyuniversity) team including Chief Instructional Technology Officer Ben Maddox and Vice Provost William Shirky

Three Critical Strategies for Influencing Students’ Success at 11:45 a.m.
Vice President for Student Affairs at Cal State Fullerton (@csuf) Berenecea Johnson Eanes (@VP_BJEanes), Vice President for Research and Policy at NASPA (@NASPAtweets) Amelia Parnell (@AmeliaParnell)

This Mess and We Can Innovate Out of It at 3:15 p.m.
Director of Academic Technology at the University of Colorado, Denver (@CUDenver) David Thomas

The Chief Academic Technology Officer: A Unique Tech Exec at 4:15 p.m.
Chief Academic Technology Officer at UC Berkeley (@UCBerkeley) Jenn Stringer (@jenn_stringer), Chief Academic Technology Officer at the University of Oregon (@uoregon) Helen Chu (@helenchu)