Release Notes 2023
  • 14 Dec 2023
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Release Notes 2023

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16 November 2023 - Cirrus is not affected by Reptar
18 October 2023 - Cirrus is not affected by HTTP2 Rapid Reset
09 August 2023 - Cirrus is not affected by Downfall or Inception - CVE-2022-40982/CVE-2023-20569
26 July 2023 - Cirrus is not affected by Zenbleed / CVE-2023-20593

Cancelled: Christmas maintenance weekend [SYSOPS-729]

Through optimizations of our system operations processes this year we are able to avoid the need for a Christmas maintenance weekend (now removed from our status page).

Contrary to previously announced Cirrus will be normally available December 22nd 18:00 CET through Sunday 24nd 18:00 CET.

NOTE Instead for EU customers the Boxing Day release December 26th will take a bit longer than usual: 06:00-09:00 CET.

26 December 2023 Service (06:00-09:00 CET)

Longer downtime on this Boxing day release will be used for an infrastructure upgrade: 06:00-09:00 CET

Improvements

  • [EU Only] Maintenance: Infrastructure upgrade until 09:00 CET - SYSOPS-307

Bug Fixes:

  • FTP export: PDF with same file name are corrupt - CR-21969
  • A item marked incorrectly marked as false in very rare conditions - CR-22221
  • Missing pagination control in “Marking: Remarking > schedule title > candidates list” - CR-22263
  • Questions are not shown in form if contain section imported via Excel - CR-22271

12 December 2023 Service

SAML Single Sign-On customers who have manually copied the metadata

We urge you to start using the "metadata URL", see Step 2. Setup your Identity Provider (IdP) [at customer]. Even IdentityProviders that in the past did not support the "metadata URL" probably will have added support by now.

Improvements:

  • New Custom Field for Webhook Payload: Added {{schedule_hierarchy_id}} as a custom field in webhook payloads. - CR-22057
  • Hierarchy-Level Exit URL: Now you can set an exit URL at the hierarchy level, which will override the global setting. - CR-22120

Bug Fixes:

  • Fixed issue with 'Try Again' Option for Candidates booked through 'Create Schedule API' with External Attempt Workflow - CR-22119
  • Assessment Form Improvements: Multiple improvements/fixes have been made to the "Assessment form". - CR-22133
    • A new drag and drop icon is now available for each row in the form > questions section.
    • An informative overview has been added to the footer of the form > questions, including:
      • The number of rows selected.
      • The total number of included questions.
      • The total score of included questions.

Screenshot 2023-11-30 at 16.44.20.png

Improvements

  • [AU/CA/SG] Maintenance: Infrastructure upgrade (longer nightly maintenance) - SYSOPS-307

30 November 2023 Hotfix

We have identified an uncommon issue where some candidates may experience being stuck in the waiting room during their assessment process when using extended blueprints. Understanding the critical nature of this problem, especially as it affects a select group of candidates, we are implementing an immediate hotfix. Our team is prioritizing the resolution of this issue under change request CR-22201.

28 November 2023 Service

Introducing difficulty in forms - CR-21076

  • Set desired difficulty level when creating forms
  • Display difficulty per question within forms
  • Display average difficulty per form

Difficulty in forms
With the latest release, we introduce the possibility to set the desired difficulty level per form. You will now be able to set the percentage of Easy, Medium and Hard questions. This can be done for both fixed forms and random forms.

How does it work?

Difficulty of items can be expressed in either P-values or Angoff values. The main difference between these two is that P-values are automatically calculated by the system every time a question is exposed to a candidate. Angoff on the other hand is an alternative method to set the difficulty values when you haven’t used the questions and thereby have no data on the difficulty. A panel of subject matter experts discuss the expected difficulty of each item and enter them in the item bank.

By setting the desired difficulty level when creating forms, you ensure that the form is up to the standards, fair and reliable. It’s especially important when using random forms, where every candidate gets a unique set of questions. By setting the difficulty level, you ensure that each candidate gets comparable questions, equal in difficulty.
Choose to use either P-values or Angoff values.

In the Forms overtab tab you will be able to see the average difficulty per form.

Tip: Using the Angoff method to set the cutscore is a great way to ensure an even greater fairness with your assessments. Angoff takes the difficulty of the assessment into account when calculating the cutscore (percentage to pass). A difficult exam has a lower cutscore than an easy exam. In other words, you need more correct answers to pass an easy exam than a difficult exam.
More information on our knowledge base article

Bugfixes

  • Various bug fixes in forms CR-22097

16 November 2023 - Cirrus is not affected by Reptar - CVE-2023-23583

Cirrus does not utilize the CPUs/instances mentioned in AWS Security Bulletin CVE-2023-23583 - Reptar

P.S. We publish these notices to proactively help security sensitive customers that may get questions from their security experts and auditors.

15 November 2023 - Encryption At Rest

After rolling out strong Encryption at Rest [Wikipedia] throughout all systems and services of the Cirrus platform in Q2/Q3 2022, by now, enough time has passed that, we have been able to also wipe the last remaining unencrypted backups.

14 November 2023 Feature

SAML Single Sign-On customers who have manually copied the metadata

We urge you to start using the "metadata URL", see Step 2. Setup your Identity Provider (IdP) [at customer]. Even IdentityProviders that in the past did not support the "metadata URL" probably will have added support by now.

Improved Forms Page in assessments - CR-21393

We’re enhancing the Forms Page: We’re adding the new table component to enhance your filtering and search options, making it more efficient to manage questions and sections. The quick visibility of labels further streamlines your workflow.
image.png

Whats new:

  • Seperate tab for page and questions: There will be a seperate tab to maintain your intro,finish and other pages.
  • Table Component: Users can now customize columns as per their needs, enabling a tailored view of the dashboard.
  • Improved Filtering: Advanced filtering options make it easier to find specific data.
  • Showing new column: Last answered: Showing the date when a candidate answered this specific question for the last time
  • Showing new column: Topics: Similar to the Learning objectives the topics will now be available

Setting pass marks using Angoff method - CR-21927

We’re further adding the ability to use the Angoff method for setting passmarks. This new feature allows you to calibrate passmarks based on the exam’s difficulty, thereby increasing both the accuracy and fairness of your assessments.

Screenshot 2023-10-31 at 12.45.37.png

Improvements

  • [EU Only] Maintenance: Infrastructure upgrade - SYSOPS-840

Bugfixes

  • Invigilation, Print keycodes > Add username - CR-22007
Related Knowledgebase are being updated

Currently we are working hard to get all KB articles up to date with the new release.

31 October 2023 Feature

Fixes

  • Fix voiding from within Creatio - CR-21228
  • Coordinator dashboard and Assesment form improvements and fixes - CR-21642

Improvements

  • Reliability/Performance: Improve autoscaling (scale more robust for when load comes in successive waves) - SYSOPS-852
  • [AU/CA/SG Only] Maintenance: Infrastructure upgrade - SYSOPS-840
  • [RC Only Oct25] Maintenance: Infrastructure upgrade - SYSOPS-840
  • Blackboard LTI keys for EU updated - CR-21945

18 October 2023 - Cirrus is not affected by HTTP/2 Rapid Reset - CVE-2023-44487

See AWS Security Bulletin CVE-2023-44487 - HTTP/2 Rapid Reset Attack

P.S. We publish these notices to proactively help security sensitive customers that may get questions from their security experts and auditors.


17 October 2023 Service

Performance/Security - Enabling HTTP/3 (QUIC) - SYSOPS-414

For users with HTTP/3⧉ enabled browser Cirrus will load a bit faster with integral security.

Improvements

  • Optimize Anonymization off hours job to better handle large amounts of exam data - CR-21657
  • Performance: Optimize "get remaining time info" call after invigilator actions - CR-21773

Bugfixes

  • Fix regression of missing horizontal scrollbar in very wide tables - CR-21790
  • Fix set moderator of schedule via external api (submit scores issue) - CR-21781

03 October 2023 Feature

Improved Invigilation dashboard - CR-21068

Following our update on the 12th of September, we've made further improvements to our Invigilation Dashboard to enhance its functionality and user experience.

Whats new:

  • Table Component: Users can now customize columns as per their needs, enabling a tailored view of the dashboard.
  • Improved Filtering: Advanced filtering options make it easier to sort and find specific data.
  • Showing IP-Address: The dashboard now displays the IP address of each invigilation setup for enhanced security and tracking.
  • Showing Browser Agent: Browser information is now visible, providing additional contextual data.
  • Showing Keycode in overview: When using keycodes
  • Export to Excel: Users can easily export data to an Excel spreadsheet for further analysis or reporting.

Screenshot 2023-09-26 at 11.41.21.png

Assessment forms tab overview + adding new form - CR-21149

As part from some other upcoming (yet to be announces) features we've updated the forms tab in assessment with our table component

Whats new:

  • Table Component: Users can now customize columns as per their needs, enabling a tailored view of the dashboard.
  • Introducing new columns:
    • "Avg.Angoff": in case Angoff is enable on your platform the avg angoff is shown
    • "Status": indicates if the questions is Easy, Medium, Hard
    • "Avg. Rit": Similar to our performance data a Avg. Rit is shown
    • "Reliability": Similar to our performance data the reliablity is shown
  • Updated UI for adding a new form
    Screenshot 2023-09-27 at 16.23.20.png

Preliminary Report improvements - CR-21377

Based on feedback of our customers we improved our preliminary reports.
Whats new:

  • Added new columns:

    • IP address
    • Time spent
    • Marking progress status
      With options:
      • 1st Marking Complete
      • 2nd Marking Complete
      • Moderation (1st Step Complete)
      • Moderation (2nd Step Complete)
      • Moderation (3rd Step Complete)
      • N/A
      • (autoscored)
  • Change title headers:

Current header titleNew header title
Marker CommentFirst Marker Comment
Marker ScoreFirst Marker Score
Marker CommentSecond Marker Comment
Marker ScoreSecond Marker Score
Moderator commentModerator comment - Step 1
Moderator scoreModerator score - Step 1
Moderator commentModerator comment - Step 1
Moderator scoreModerator score - Step 2
Moderator commentModerator comment - Step 2
Moderator scoreModerator score - Step 3
Moderator commentModerator comment - Step 3

UI: Refresh look-n-feel of dashboard steps - CR-21434


A make over of the to-do steps is been made, which applies to the:
- Assessment dashboard
- Candidate review dashboard
- schedule Dashboard
- Marking coordinator Dashboard

Bugfixes:

  • Update Oct2: Improved PDF resources handling (performance regression) - CR-21768

Other improvements:

  • Improve Safe Exam Browser texts that keys are required when enabling 'keycheck' - CR-21684
  • Formula editor requires Sowiso add-on for new questions. (no impact on existing use) - CR-18294
  • Reliability: Log FE queue restarts / save answer after connection issues - CR-21667

19 September 2023 Service

Maintenance Updates have been renamed to Service Updates to prevent confusion with other Maintenance, hence the title "19 September 2023 Service"

Improvements

  • Candidate Review - Ensure review title code completely visible - CR-21225
  • GET /result API score format hide decimals if zero - CR-21539
  • Efficiency: Optimize saved answer queries - CR-21206
  • Change the default filter value in Invigilation overview (ongoing + not started) - CR-21646

Bugfixes

  • Update: Create Assessment with few templates leads to blank screen - CR-21662
  • Assessment settings with few templates leads to blank screen - CR-21662
  • [Let assessor decide] When change allocation by > marks and submission are saved - CR-21414
  • [Plagiarism] If scheduler doesn't have UserId > plagiarism is not generated - CR21649
  • O365 - In certain (white) skins, name of uploaded excel files does not show until highlighted (author+ candidate delivery) - CR21653

15 September 2023 DPA/SLA Update

As per our service agreement we announce an update to our Data Processing Addendum (DPA) and Service Level Agreement (SLA) available via our Compliance page.

  • DPA: Customer Feedback/ISO Audit: Introduced 36 hour notification period for Data Breaches [CISM-297]
  • SLA: Remove January 7th as public holiday (obsolete), Rename Maintenance Updates to Service Updates to prevent confusion with other Maintenance, minor text/referential corrections

12 September 2023 Feature

22 August 2023 Feature

All features of 22 August 2023 Feature are released again as part of this 12 September 2023 Feature update.

and all others mentioned under 22 August 2023 Feature.

Together with fixes/improvements from our investigation, and some other fixes and improvements originally planned for September 5th.

Improved robustness of all front-end processing - CR-21552

Ensure Cirrus exams will continue working fine, see our Post Mortem , by improved robustness of front-end processing so that if any error will occur there, or in similar places, a.o. sending answers cannot be interrupted (and furthermore send a message to the invigilator log).

Invigilators may encounter new "queue processing" messages

Improvements

  • Improve wording of Q43 message: Add "Do not reload or close your browser! Or you may lose any answers not send yet (or if submitting, may not be submitted)!" and added this new "Or lose answers" warning also to other connection error dialogs - CR-21567
  • Improved wording of offline invigilation log message as it also occurs for candidates navigating away to a new tab. Added "or who navigated away" to the end of "There are {0} candidates without internet connection." - CR-21562
  • For Creatio customers pre-fill coordinator schedules to save time - CR-20748
  • Better moderation scripts for handle heavy marking so they appear faster - CR-21411

Bugfixes

  • Prevent moderation scripts generation issues after auto-scaling - CR-21564
  • Eliminate (fix) distracting "Uncaught Type Error" false alerts in the invigilation logs - CR-21560
  • Eliminate (fix) distracting "Last answer Id is not valid" false alerts in the invigilation logs - CR-21565
  • Invigilators unable to see bookings without View user logs permission - CR-21549
  • Review session window time correct across daylight savings changes - CR-20211
  • Preliminary not downloading in special cases - CR-21572
  • Scrolling though questions in collections can cause an error in special cases - CR-21571

05 September 2023 Maintenance
has been superseded by 12 September 2023 Feature.


23 August 2023 Rollback

See Rollback on status page of 22 August 2023 Feature (below).

22 August 2023 Feature

Programming Questions - VPL 3.0.1 Upgrade [CR-17012]

If you are using VPL Programming questions, you must upgrade on August 22nd 2023. Our service desk has liaised with customers and together agreed on this date.

The installation manual has been updated. For this and more background information see our VPL Execution Server page.

Coordinator Dashboard [CR-20486]

We're introducing a powerful addition for coordinators in this update. Now, coordinators will enjoy an all-inclusive perspective of the progress and activity of every allocated assessor and moderator. This comprehensive report equips coordinators with the tools to maintain assessment timelines effectively.

Key Benefits:

  • Enhanced Oversight: Get a complete view of assessor and moderator progress.
  • Timely Interventions: Identify and support assessors needing assistance.
  • On-Track Assessments: Ensure assessments are completed according to plan.

More information can be found here

Invigilation overview - [CR-21073 ]

In this latest update, we have focused on improving table components to provide you with a personalized viewing experience that preserves your filter and search settings.

Update on Invigilator Screen Schedule Visibility

We've noticed some concerns regarding schedules not appearing on the invigilator screen. Please be assured that your schedules remain intact. The current default filter is set to 'Ongoing'. To view schedules with different statuses, you can either deselect this option or add an alternative filter.

More information can be found here

Front-End faster load - [CR-14872]

Cirrus will load faster as the code downloaded by the user's browser, aka "Front-End" has been drastically reduced in size (nearly halved). In particular this will benefit users with slower internet connections.
This has been made possible by a major upgrade of our front-end build tooling.

No end user impact except even shorter waiting time when starting Cirrus.

Delivery Performance - Asynchronous [CR-20790]

By making all remaining API calls during exams "asynchronous", Cirrus performance is more consistent under higher loads. Asynchronous means heavier calls will no longer block Cirrus from processing other calls.

No end user impact except our load tests show even more consistent responsiveness.

Improvements

  • Security/Maintenance updates - No end user impact - CR-20886/CR-20889
  • Compliancy updates - No end user impact - CR-20259/CR-20260

Bugfixes

  • Resolved issue where PIN code was displayed despite being configured to be turned off in new assessment versions - CR-21293
  • Addressed issue with sending results to LTI (Sakai) for auto-scored assessments configuration - CR-21407

09 August 2023 - Cirrus is not affected by Downfall - CVE-2022-40982 or Inception - CVE-2023-20569

See AWS Security Bulletins CVE-2022-40982 - Gather Data Sampling - Downfall and CVE-2023-20569 - RAS Poisoning - Inception

P.S. We publish these notices to proactively help security sensitive customers that get questions from their security experts and auditors.


08 August 2023 Maintenance

Bugfixes

  • Assessment > Statistics: an issue with Angoff column disappearing after reloading page - CR-21265
  • Layout improvements to UI columns in Assessment > Statistics - CR-21268

Improvements

  • Support handling of even larger candidate attempts (>100MB) - CR-21147
  • Improve invigilation and delivery performance - CR-21183

26 July 2023 - Cirrus is not affected by Zenbleed / CVE-2023-20593

See also 25 July 2023 Feature below [SYSOPS-748].


25 July 2023 Feature

Compliance: Only load support widget after help button clicked - CR-21094

During our data privacy review we noticed several new US hosted dependencies that turned out to originate from our support widget powered by Document360.
As most users do not use this support widget Cirrus will now only load the support widget dependencies after an author clicks on the (?) menu item.
End user impact is neglible though note that this introduces a small, 1 second, delay the first time (?) is clicked by a user.

DPA and List of Sub-processors updated

For Compliance the gains are considerable as we are now back to having only AWS as Core Sub-processor.

Our List of Sub-processors and DPA have been updated accordingly.

Redesign schedule overview table - CR-21018

We've upgraded Schedule Overview: Aside from the general search, filter and sorting improvements, we’re also adding a very handy new feature to the Schedule Overview: You will be able to see at a glance how the scheduled assessment is secured, either with Safe Exam Browser or Proctorio, or not secured at all (see the last column in the screenshot below).

Key features on Schedule overview:

  • The introduction of our table component allows you to personalize your overview.
  • A new column dedicated to see at a glance how the assessment is secured

For a deep dive into these features, you can refer to our Knowledge base article

Angoff methode score will support 3 decimals to have a more accurate scoring - CR-21066

By supporting 3 decimals instead of 2 the main adverse effects of rounding errors can be prevented.

Improvements

  • Update System updates applied (even though Cirrus is not affected by Zenbleed / CVE-2023-20593) - SYSOPS-748
  • Performance enhancement on Proctorio API calls - CR-19663
  • Show remarked feedback and annotations as default in candidate review session (if remarking is used) - CR-20703
  • Adding word "(copy)" to title of copied questions - CR-20882
  • Limit answer length to prevent Excel corruption - preliminary reports - CR-21131

Bugfixes

  • When using the search function - Editing assessment details shows an empty screen - CR-21256
  • In very rare cases the assessments were not shown on the creation schedule dialog - CR-20508
  • Statistics calculation fails for questions with a lot of choices (for example extended match with 20x20 choices) - CR-21101
  • Published assessment dialog active time span does not show date + should be disabled - CR-21167
  • Webhook not firing with multiple attempts with only satisfactory option - CR-21227

12 July 2023 hotfix (No downtime)

See Hotfix [No Downtime] on our status page. Due to caching users may have to restart their browser for this fix to go into effect.

11 July 2023 - Maintenance

Marking coordinator overview update - CR-20485

We've upgraded Coordinator Overview: It will now show you the marking progress of all your assessments in one consolidated view. This will save a lot of time, allowing coordinators to quickly assess the overall status of assessments without having to navigate through multiple screens. It also helps them identify any potential bottlenecks or imbalances in marking workload, and take appropriate action to ensure smooth progress.

Key features on Coordinator overview:

  • The introduction of our table component allows you to personalize your overview.
  • A new column dedicated to tracking progress.
  • Convenient archiving options.
  • Possibility to view scheduled assessments with a simple workflow in the Coordinator Overview, and change assessors if necessary. Previously, you could only view assessments with extended marking workflow, which sometimes led to issues if the assigned assessor became unavailable.

For a deep dive into these features, you can refer to our Knowledge base article

Remember filter/search setting in session for all tables - CR-20879

We've also made enhancements to our table component. Now, your filter and search settings will remain intact, even when you dive into your results and return. This change ensures a consistent and user-friendly experience which is available for tables within the platform

Bugfixes

  • General bugfixes on Assessment dialog + statistics - CR-21030

27 June 2023 - Feature

Autoscored Exam Results Publishing Workflow Improvements - CR-19384

In response to customer feedback, we have improved the autoscored exam results publishing workflow. Previously, there were confusions and delays associated with publishing autoscored exam results, especially for exams with only one attempt. To address these issues, we have made the following enhancements:

  1. Autoscored exams with one attempt and the "Auto-scored" workflow (previously known as 'do not assign assessor') enabled:
  • Previously, results were not published until the schedule ended, causing unnecessary delays to view statistics.
  • Now, results are published immediately upon submission per candidate, with the status labeled as "Final Result."
  • The published date is updated to reflect the submission date.
  • Webhooks are triggered accordingly.
  1. Autoscored exams with multiple attempts and the"Auto-scored" workflow (previously known as 'do not assign assessor') enabled:
  • Previously, the "Published Date" column showed "N/A" and the status was incorrect for pending attempts.
  • Now, the "Published Date" column displays "Pending final result" instead of "N/A" for pending attempts until the schedule ended or all attempts we done.
  • The status is labeled as "Intermediary Result" to indicate it is not the final outcome until it's final
  • These improvements provide clearer visibility and eliminate unnecessary wait times for autoscored exam results
The change will not affect already handed in results before the 27th of june

The change made on 27th of June will only affect new handed in results by candidates. Older handed in results will fase out by time via the old logic.

Creatio improved schedule naming - CR-20718

For our mutual Creatio customers collaboratively we have enhanced the schedule names created in Cirrus.

Further improve processing health check and monitoring - CR-20864 / SYSOPS-712

We were able to release the first improvement from the (Incident Post Mortem) on June 13th (CR-20864) this further improvent follows now.
Update: Our monitoring and alerting has also been improved to included a.o. scheduled jobs processing - SYSOPS-712
All follow up from (Incident Post Mortem) is now in place.

Improve LTI logging and Grade Services - CR-20858

Revised our LTI Grade Services for increased robustness and added ids and root cause to its technical logging to facilitate its support.

AU/CA/SG Maintenance - SYSOPS-450

As part of this release we will also perform infrastructure maintenance to our AU/CA/SG Clusters [SYSOPS-450]. Due to its larger size for the EU Cluster this maintenance has been scheduled separately on July 2nd.

Bugfixes

  • General bugfixes on Assessment dialog + statistics - CR-21030
  • Remove obsolete -aus -> -au redirects (DNS CNAME) - SYSOPS-721

13 June 2023 - Maintenance

Improvements

Add navigation option to Sections - CR-19079
Give test-takers the freedom to take their exam in the order that works best for them, while staying in control of the overall exam delivery. With the new ‘Navigation in sections‘ feature, you can allow free navigation through the exam, but limit candidates to forward-only navigation within sections. This can help test-takers build confidence by tackling the questions they feel confident about first, and help reduce anxiety and stress levels.

Improved saving mechanism Office365 questions for candidates - CR-20314
Office already had the opportunity to auto save your changes, however with our new update the latest changes a candidate make will be automaticly saved upon submitting your answers at the end of your exam, without manually submitting your answers

(Update) Further improve processing health check - CR-20864
Fast-tracked follow up from the (Incident Post Mortem)

Bugfixes

  • General bugfixes on Timer per question and rational on Fileresponse/office question - CR-20498
  • Checkmark gets removed (if several alternatives checked quickly) - CR-20809
  • The link from the Dashboard to Assessments is broken - CR-20834
  • Results not showing in marking when using Turnitin - CR-20797

SLA: Reserved Maintenance Window - Sundays 03:00-05:30 AM

As part of our continual improvement and annual review, we have decided to introduce a recurring maintenance window during the time when usage of the Cirrus platform is neglible, further reduced by tailoring it to each region:

Reserved Maintenance Window
  • EU (incl. EU Premium): Sunday 03:00-05:30 AM CET/CEST
  • CA: Sunday AM 03:00-05:30 EST/EDT
  • SG: Sunday 03:00-05:30 AM SGT
  • AU: Sunday 03:00-05:30 AM AEST/AEDT

These windows are configured as AWS maintenance windows to enable regular low risk patching of some of our auxiliary services and infrastructure.

Still as regular service level cannot be guaranteed our upcoming SLA will be adjusted accordingly.

Additional disaster recovery backup in Stockholm for Premium customers

As part of our continual improvement and annual review, we have decided to set up an additional daily backup of our Premium customer's data in another EU/EEA AWS region; AWS Stockholm (Sweden).

All Cirrus backups, also for non-Premium, are already being encrypted and geographic distributed over three data centres ("availability zones") in a AWS Region. Therefore this is just an additional daily copy with a retention period of 1 day.
Our Premium SLA and List of Sub-processors have been updated accordingly.


30 May 2023 - Feature

HTTPS/TLS Security improvements - Caution!

On May 30th, as pre-announced on March 30th, Cirrus will improve the security of our HTTPS/TLS configuration [SYSOPS-643] by enabling TLS 1.3 *), besides TLS1.2, and phasing out some older ciphers. ( *) now that AWS ELB supports TLS1.3).

If your users are running a supported browser/system this should have no impact.
NOTE: In case you are using a system with outdated TLS support to call our REST API please update it, asap!

Connection test against RC api.cirrusrc.eu

On March 30th Cirrus RC has been updated to enable you to test. If your organisation does not have an RC environment your IT (or users) can still test by just doing a connection test to https://api.cirrusrc.eu (and ignoring the "404 Not found", "401 Unauthorized error" or blank page). Your test is successful as long as the connection itself succeeded.

Supported Ciphers
TLS-AES-128-GCM-SHA256 (new), TLS-AES-256-GCM-SHA384 (new), TLS-CHACHA20-POLY1305-SHA256 (new), ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256, ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256, ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384, and ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384.

NOTE: All other ciphers listed under TLS-1-2-Ext-2018-06 here will no longer work.

See also OWASP Transport Layer Protection Cheat Sheet and IT Security Guidelines for Transport Layer Security (TLS) v2.1 from NCSC-NL, guideline B2-1 to B2-4 and table 2, 4, 6 and 7 (in English).


Improvements:

Upgraded assessment overview + statistics- CR-20366

The upgraded assessment overview table will feature enhanced filtering and searching capabilities. Plus, you can effortlessly identify assessments that require updates, such as when items within them have been modified. This streamlined experience makes managing your assessments more efficient than ever!

You will also be able to update and publish assessments in bulk.
image.png

Use available assessments as Templates - CR-20053

Save time with assessment templates!
Introducing assessment templates! This handy feature allows you to build new assessments based on existing ones, rather than starting from scratch. With assessment templates at your fingertips, you’ll save valuable time when crafting multiple evaluations. It’s a game-changer for streamlining the assessment process!
image.png

Other improvements

  • Reliability: Further improve background processing health check - CR-20740
  • Reliability: Advance attempt generation (15 minutes) - CR-20309

Bugfixes:

  • UI Fixes in the Improved Library (CR-19249) - CR-20409

    • Secondary header is not shown using login as - CR-20726
    • Notification overlap header - CR-20298
  • Results cannot be published when workflow is changed - CR-20717

  • Auto score schedule results cannot be found - CR-20744

16 May 2023 - Maintenance

Rationale in File Response / Office365 Questions - CR-20190

  • New Rationale text fied for file response questions, including for O ffice 365 - CR-20190
  • Include Office 365 files and the new Rationale to the PDF exports - CR-20191

Improvements:

  • Improve publish assessment dialog - CR-20073
    • New prases
    • Auto-scored option will always be visible although not able to click when using manual scored question

Bugfixes:

  • [Marking>results>candidate overview] Disabled publish button when result can't be published - CR-20304
  • Cannot print score report as an author - CR-20469

Tightened security help.cirrusassessment.com

For security reasons you can no longer show our Knowledge Base embedded into your own website (e.g. IFRAME).


02 May 2023 - Feature

Timed auto feedback for results - CR-19083

Introducing a new 'assessment option'
When choosing to show any feedback when the exam has ended you can now setup a timed feedback session. Only possible when choosing the options for 'Show candidate results':

  • After each attempt
  • After last attempt

An extra option duration will be available and the max time will make sure that the candidate is directly able to see feedback after the exam for a fixed period. When time has passed, the results will no longer be available.
Of course in a later stage it's still possible to setup a candidate review session

Screenshot 2023-04-21 at 16.26.27.png

Improvement:

  • Updated Safe Exam Browser versions (added 3.5.0, dropped <3.2) - CR-20450
  • Several further improvements of background processing for increased performance and resilience - CR-19115, CR-19119, CR-19942

Bugfixes:

  • Multiple triggered webhooks for the same results - CR-20071
  • Candidate feedback show warning if none of the users of the question item has an email - CR-20006
  • UI Fixes in the Improved Library (CR-19249) - CR-20408

Safe Exam Browser 3.5.0 Released for Cirrus

After the SEB team released Safe Exam Browser 3.5.0 for Windows our QA expedited their testing and we have now released SEB 3.5.0 for Windows for use with Cirrus after May 2nd.
Please download and upgrade SEB asap but no later than July 1st, 2023.

18 April 2023 - Feature

Improved Library management - CR-19249

During our Quality Assurance we identified several minor issues, which will be fixed for the 02 May release (CR-20408)


The library revamp will make it easier to organise and use items, while the new filters will give you better control and allow you to filter on a granular level.
Including:

Ensure the reliability and validity of your exams

Psychometric data gives you invaluable insights into the quality of your items and helps ensure the reliability and validity of your exams. In upcoming upgrades, we will will make several quality of life improvements to the Statistics tab:

Timer per question - CR-16407

Allowing to set a time per questions in which the candidate can answer. We've added a new option in all question types (expect the mathematical question) to setup a max time allowed for the candidate to answer.

Improvements

  • Performance improvements to Office365 file processing - CR-20148

Bugfixes

  • Candidate cannot answer SFL due to resource file in very rare conditions- CR-20116
  • When customer URL is incorrect > incorrect page is shown - CR-20084
  • [Reports>Schedule/Assessment>Candidate tab] When Select all Flag for remarking is NOT applied for all results - CR-19860

4 April 2023 - Maintenance

  • Preliminary report didn't work in all scenario's - CR-20252
  • SEB Settings in assessment not copied to schedule when using API - CR-20251
  • [Feedback Content management] Filter perper assessment fix - CR-20133
  • Admin level 'labels' were not saved - CR-20114
  • Candidate review dialog save button wasn't always saving - CR-20113
  • Marking>Results>score report tab export button did not show - CR-19874
  • Fix on filter 'view by candidate' - CR-19867
  • Possible to open reveiw session page by using url - CR-20034
  • Review session is locked when second user - CR-19882
  • [Reports > Statistics] Select all checkbox is not shown - CR-19861
  • Notification on Marking>result is shown while it should not - CR-19845
  • Overview info is not shown when change PIN in active session - CR-19760
  • Candidate are stuck in waiting room, due to versioning assessment - CR-20332

SOWISO maintenance - 01 April 2023

Sowiso will have a maintenance on April 1st at 09:00 CET and expect to be finished by 17:00 CET. Expexted downtime will be 2-4 hours.
This only affect on who is using this mathematical question type.

30 March 2023 - RC updated for HTTPS/TLS Security improvements

To give our customers ample time to test our HTTPS/TLS Security improvements.

If your organisation does not have an RC environment your IT (or users) can still test by just doing a connection test to https://api.cirrusrc.eu (and ignoring the "404 Not found", "401 Unauthorized error" or blank page). Your test is successful as long as the connection itself succeeded.

21 March 2023 - Maintenance

Offline mode interrupted by Q43 using Heartbeat - CR-19854

Extra measures build in to be able to work in offline mode for a longer period.
Will not affect existing customers.

Creatio Integration: Safe Exam Browser (SEB) setting - CR-17178

Customers with an Creatio Integration can now control Cirrus' schedule level Safe Exam Browser (SEB) setting from inside CreatioGreen.

Bugfixes:

  • Excel Export review session > the order of review session is the same as in UI - CR-19781
  • Coordinator tab > schedul window time sensitive to DST > ST change - CR-19311
  • Audio files within section able to restart - CR-20101

7 March 2023 - Feature

Candidate Feedback - CR-16974

As part of their continous improvement one of our customers needed to enable their candidates to report feedback on question items during their exams.
To minimize the administrative burden, Cirrus facilitates Candidate Feedback Adminstration from within Cirrus.

Improvement:

  • Reliability: Improve (Result) API logging (for our support engineers) - CR-19376

23 February 2023 - Hotfix

See Hotfix on our status page.

21 February 2023 - Maintenance

Improvement:

  • Marking > Improved loading spinner on marking submission screen - CR-19829

Bugfixes:

  • When only permissions 'Delivering' and 'view candidate review tab' are ON unable to open candidate review tab - CR-19864
  • Older questions not showing 'criteria scoring' on candidate result page for reviewing questions - CR-19496
  • Clean-up/Compliance: Remove obsolete and unused Google Maps/Userguiding remnants - CR-19076/CR-19337

7 February 2023 - Feature

Turnitin support for Office365 - CR-18981

Cirrus' Turnitin integration now also supports our 'Office365 question type'.

On November 1 of 2022, we introduced a brand new integration with Turnitin for plagiarism detection in Essay questions. This powerful collaboration is now also supporting Office365 questions.

Score per alternative for MCQ - CR-18547

We made it possible to add a separate score per alternative in MCQ-Items, instead of only a score for the correct answer.

This enables you to add scores to other alternatives that are partially correct and thus be more flexible.

Enhanced touch screen support Virtual keyboard - CR-19395

If needed, Cirrus can add a virtual keyboard to your platform, to enhance touch screen support.

By default it's NOT active and will not have any impact on your platform.

Please be aware this will not change our system requirements.

Keyboard supports:

  • Login (regular/keycode)
  • Pin code
  • During exam delivery following question types:
    • Fill in the blank
    • Numberic (only numpad)
    • Short answer

Our Servicedesk is happy to help you here in case you would like to know more.

Compliancy with respect to colours of feedback for Extended Match question - CR-19395

Improved the accessibility of our extended match question type by:

  • Adding a legend in feedback
  • Improving indicators to differentiate between the colours and their meaning.

Bugfixes:

  • Export- candidate results - Topic and LO percentage is incorrect after rescoring when change score - CR-19875
  • Reports > Exporting a report leads to error message for Safari browser - CR-19693
  • Reports > Excel Export ignores filters - CR-19093
  • Assessment options > Improved dialog for adding multiple hierarchies/clusters 'Available for scheduling by' - CR-19269

24 January 2023 - Maintenance

(Planned features have been postponed to February)
Improvement

Bugfixes

  • Upon reconnecting to exam Flagged questions appearing unflagged - CR-19158
  • Unable to manage clusters in admin, due to limit - CR-19223
  • Cannot extract reports via reports when extracting data for more multiple pages - CR-19850
  • For old questions the criteria scoring was not shown in candidate review sessions - CR-19857
  • Several Re-marking improvements and fixes - CR-19407
  • No Proctorio recording when login using Keycodes before starttime schedule - CR-19876
  • 'Candidate review' sharing overview loading issue - CR-19821
  • Keycode reset with every keycode slip print - CR-19881

10 January 2023 - Maintenance

Improvements

Bugfixes


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