We’ve just launched new Instructor Tools, tailored specifically to meet the needs of instructors like you who host virtual training events. Here’s how this new feature can benefit you:

• Real-time Participant Monitoring: Easily track progress and spot participants who need help before they fall behind.
• Raise-Hand Functionality: Allow your participants to notify you when they need assistance, ensuring a smoother learning experience.
• Streamlined Communication: Send messages and share formatted code directly through the platform, reducing the need for external tools.
• (Coming early November) Screen Sharing and Collaboration: Share your screen and work together with participants effortlessly.

For more information about the new Instructor Tools, read our docs or watch the video tutorial. If you have any questions or feedback, don’t hesitate to reach out via Slack or contact your account rep.

We've released some exciting new product updates and security enhancements!

Version Control (Beta)

Streamline your team’s collaboration and maintain complete control over content changes with Version Control (Beta), offering detailed change tracking and seamless integration with your existing workflows, without the fear of overwriting each other’s work.

With Version Control (Beta), you can experience benefits like:

• Real-Time Collaboration - Allows multiple team members to work together simultaneously without overwriting each other’s changes.
• Comprehensive Change Tracking - Keeps a detailed audit log of all modifications, showing who made changes, when, and why.
• Easy Conflict Resolution - Enables seamless comparison, resolution, and merging of conflicting changes directly within the UI or via Git.
• Version History Access - Facilitates easy rollback to previous versions, helping with bug fixes and content evolution tracking.
• Smooth Integration - Connects effortlessly with existing GitHub workflows, enhancing efficiency without disrupting established processes.

Learn more about Version Control (Beta) in our documentation. 

Third-Party Forms

Securely integrate user data from third-party forms into Instruqt, enabling seamless lead tracking, enhanced ROI measurement, and stronger customer retention through deeper platform integration with key systems like HubSpot and Salesforce.

With Third-Party Forms, you’ll gain:

• Seamless Data Capture - Effortlessly funnels user data from third-party forms into Instruqt, ensuring comprehensive tracking of user interactions.
• Enhanced User Identification - Reduces anonymous interactions by securely capturing PII, enabling better user identification and segmentation within Instruqt.
• Improved Data Security - Provides a secure method for handling and storing PII from third-party sources, safeguarding sensitive information.
• Deeper Insights - Enables more detailed analysis of user behavior and engagement within Instruqt, leading to more informed decision-making.
• Enhanced User Experience - Facilitates personalized experiences by integrating richer data directly into Instruqt, improving user satisfaction and retention.
• Increased Platform Value - Strengthens Instruqt’s role in your marketing and sales efforts, making it an even more integral part of your strategy.

Learn more about Third-Party Forms in our documentation.

We are thrilled to announce that the new lab UI is now in open beta, allowing all of you to create custom layouts!

From August 1 to September 29, you can opt in to enable the new UI for any of your tracks using a toggle in the track dashboard. If you do not opt in, nothing will change with your tracks. However, after September 30, all tracks will automatically switch to the new lab UI, and the old UI will be deprecated. We encourage you to give the new UI a try and start to update any content or materials that needs to be updated before September 30th. Read more below about what this means for your existing tracks and how to prepare.

➡️ Start here with a short tutorial video.

What is the New Lab UI & How Does It Benefit Me?

Improved User Experience: The redesigned lab UI simplifies navigation, making it easier for users of all experience levels to explore and understand your content—they can quickly get started and navigate content more easily.

Use Case-Driven Layouts: Customize your tab arrangement to suit your goals. For example, you can display multiple interfaces simultaneously to see live outcomes of user actions or embed a lab with a row view to seamlessly integrate with your documentation.

Challenge by Challenge Layouts: Tailor the user experience to the specific needs of each task by creating custom layouts for each challenge. This flexibility ensures that the most relevant tools and information are always at the user’s fingertips, enhancing learning and engagement.

Updated Style & New Theme: The updated look and feel bring a modern aesthetic to the lab, making it more visually appealing and less cluttered. Additionally, a new theme option allows you to choose the appearance that best suits your team.

What Happens on September 30

On September 30, all tracks will automatically transition to the new UI. However, nothing will change with the layout of your existing tracks. They will still play as expected and users won’t experience any disruption. However, there will be small changes to overall design, so we suggest beginning the process of updating documentation and resources well in advance of September 30.

How to Enable the New UI

Via the UI:

1. Select the track for which you want to enable the new UI.
2. You will see a new widget on the right-hand side called “Layout & Theming.”
3. Turn on the “New Lab UI (Beta)” toggle to activate the new UI.
4. The new UI will now be used anywhere this lab is deployed.

Via the CLI:

To enable the new UI feature for a track, configure the lab_config root-level object and set the lab_v2 flag to true.

For more information about the new lab UI, read our docs or watch the video tutorial. If you have any questions or feedback, don’t hesitate to reach out via Slack, email [email protected], or contact your account executive.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts on the new lab UI. Don’t forget, the old lab UI will be removed by September 30, 2024.

All the best,

The Instruqt Team

VM images reduce the wait time for users starting tracks. By using images, you can pre-install your software and files, removing the need for track setup scripts. Take full advantage of this with our new image builder.

You can now create, configure, and customize images directly in Instruqt.

No More External Cloud Accounts

With our integrated image builder, you no longer need a Google Cloud account to manage custom images. Enjoy a streamlined creation process within Instruqt's ecosystem.

Manage VM Images with Ease

Our centralized management system allows you to effortlessly handle your VM images, enhancing consistency and reducing setup work for each lab.

Ready to Dive In? Jump straight into VM image creation by visiting settings. Look for the 'Host images' option, where you can use our builder to get started right away. If you need a helping hand, our support team is just a click away and our docs contain more information on this feature.

Your feedback drives our improvements, so please share your experience with us via our Slack or through the support platform.

Warm regards,

The Instruqt Team

Check out this video overview of our most recent product updates. Reach out with any questions or feedback!

Coming the 9th of Jan, we're excited to announce some crucial updates aimed at bolstering security and protecting against abuse. These changes affect both track creation and invite settings.

Track Creation Updates:

To prevent misuse, all new tracks created via the UI or API now come with

• Default time limit of 20 minutes
• Idle Time Feature enabled with a 5 min default

Updates to Invites:

• Access Restriction Default: Invites will now have access restrictions set to specific by default, rather than unlimited.
• Risk Warnings: We've added warning notifications for any settings that may pose a higher risk of abuse

These enhancements are part of our ongoing commitment and work to ensure a secure and abuse-free experience on our platform.

Stay tuned for more updates, and thank you for your continued support!

• We’ve added a completely renewed “Track Statistics” page where you can see key data about track performance.
  This page now includes a new challenge dropoff chart making it easier to identify where tracks can be improved and understand learner behaviour.
   
• Also during this last month, we expanded the tag filtering options to the "Users" and "Plays" reports enabling a deep dive from the overview into which users or plays are connected to the tags selected.

All the latest additions to the platform are designed to help you get the most out of your tracks and enhance overall learning experience.
We hope these features help you get the most out of Instruqt. If you have any questions or feedback, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’re always here to help!

We're excited to share with you a roundup of this month's updates. We've been working hard to make sure our products continue to meet your needs, and we think you'll find these latest enhancements both useful and easy to navigate. Here’s a quick overview of what we've been up to this month.


Customizable Loading Messages

Customize your user experience with our new Customizable Loading Messages. Tailor loading messages to fit the tone and style of your organization or disable them entirely for a more personalized touch.

Run Code Button

Enhance your content creation with the upcoming Run Code Button. This feature allows learners to execute code snippets directly from the content, eliminating manual copy-pasting and ensuring a smoother, more efficient learning experience.

Autosave on Editors

We're excited to announce the launch of the Autosave on Editors feature! This new functionality ensures that all progress made by learners in the Code editor is automatically saved. Say goodbye to the frustration of losing unsaved work due to accidental closures or interruptions.

Improved Visibility of Deleted Hot Starts

Gain more control with our new Visibility of Deleted Hot Starts feature. Now, even deleted hot starts are visible in the UI table, offering a complete history of activities for better resource usage and cost management.

Video Support in Markdown

Expand your creative possibilities with our new Video Support in Markdown! Easily embed videos into markdown-formatted documents like notes or assignments. This upgrade makes our markdown editor more versatile, allowing for richer, multimedia content creation.

1 note type to rule them all

No more needing a note per video, or image. Introducing Markdown Support for All Notes! Create dynamic and interactive notes by combining text, images, and videos in one unified note. This enhancement simplifies note creation and enables more engaging and diverse content. Current notes will continue to be supported

UI updates to the  Lab

We've made some small tweaks, including colour adjustments and repositioning the refresh button next to the active tab for better user context and accessibility.

Quick Access to Track Resources 

Speed up your workflow with Quick Access to Track Resources! Directly jump to resources from the track dashboard with a simple click, streamlining your navigation and saving valuable time.

Email Display on Teams Page

Managing teams just got easier with our Email Display on Teams Page feature. Team administrators can now view user email addresses, simplifying user identification and communication, especially in cases of name duplicates.

Want to help shape the future of Instruqt? Your response to this short 10-question multiple-choice survey is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your input!

We are excited to share the addition of a new user role: The Instructor role.

This new user role allows you to add users, who can share content, create invites and run sessions without the ability to edit content. Allowing you to share more, run more workshops all with less content nightmares such as duplicates or accidental breaks to tracks.

Role breakdown

• Access and View Content: Users can be added to the workspace as “Instructors” and given access to view specific tracks. They have the ability to see the overall structure of the content and interact with it, such as playing a track, to get an understanding of what it contains and they have permission to share it.

  
  How to add a user

  Select “Manage team” in the side menu Enter their email and select the “Instructor” option from the role dropdown

  How to give an Instructor access to content (Account admin)

  After the user accepts the invite and creates their account come to the “Manage Team” page Locate the user you want and click the option in the Track access column. Now you can add this user to all tracks or select specific ones you want them to access

  How to give an Instructor access to content (Content Creator)

  Go to the track you want to share access to. Click on the Authors (Next to the Share button) Click the Add user button Select the user you want to give access (Instructors will have share permissions only)

• Create Invitations: Instructors can create invitations based on the content they have access to. However, they are only able to view and manage the invitations that they have personally created.

• Assist on Invitations: Instructors can be added to existing invites by Content Creators, to help them collaborate or use the existing invite.

  How to add an instructor access to content (Content Creator)

  Go to the track you want to share access Click on the Authors (Next to the Share button) Click the Add user button Select the user you want to give access (Instructors will have share permissions only)

Access Control and Permissions:

• Limited Editing Capabilities: While instructors can view and interact with the content, they do not have the ability to edit the content.

The Instructor Role is your solution to scaling workshops, content sharing, and collaborative sessions without the risk of content alteration. Empower your team to do more, share more, and engage more, all while maintaining content integrity.

Try out the new Instructor Role today and see how it transforms your content sharing and workshop experiences!

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need further assistance. Happy instructing! 🚀