ArcLab Platform Update — What’s New?
Editor’s Note: Last month, Joanna interviewed Claire, our former dev intern so instrumental in assisting CTO Steven in building ArcLab. This month, Joanna speaks to Rohit Rajesh and Kimberly Pontanares to get their perspectives on working with Steven to develop ArcLab.
Rohit interned with us after completing National Service and while awaiting University admission. While not formally-schooled in software development, Rohit brought substantial coding knowledge from self-study and Tinkercademy classes, a relentless drive to build great software and a great learning attitude.
Kimberly continues ArcLab’s tradition of collaboration with Singapore Polytechnic’s School of Computing, following in the footsteps of Claire, Francis, Darryl, Zainul and Bing. Adept in coding and possessing a great visual sense, she’s a showcase of the excellent work SP does in nurturing industry-ready tech talent that will play (and are already playing) a big part in solving real-world problems to improve lives and livelihoods.
We are excited to once again bring you a new ArcLab Platform Update for August!
This month, I interviewed Kimberly and Rohit who were involved in the upgrade of the new ArcLab dashboard.
Joanna (J): “Hi Kimberly and Rohit! Thank you for agreeing to this interview. We wanted to get some insights from the creative minds behind the new ArcLab upgrade!”
Kimberly (K): “Thank you! First, let me explained what we have designed: ”
Learner Analytics — Filter Feature
Filter your learner analytics and view the analytics of your published project by date. Simply select the start and end date on the calendar tab to segment your learners (by cohort, etc.)!
Media for EVERY ArcLab screen
Media can be added to almost every screen … or not — the choice is yours!
“Project Settings” — Reloaded
We have also split “Project Settings” into 3 tabs — Manage Learners, Manage Emails and Question Settings, so that Training / L&D Managers have greater granularity of control!
Folders
Lastly, we added a folder system in the ArcLab Dashboard. This feature allows you to move projects to folders, so you can manage your various projects more easily and effectively. You also have the ability to rename, delete a folder and remove a project from a folder.
J: “Wow! I hope ArcLab users will find these updates as useful as we did! Could you guys share about the reasons behind including these features?”
K: “For sure! The folder system was something Claire and I discussed to be included for ArcLab’s UI/UX Refresh. We included it to provide users a way to manage their projects more efficiently by enabling them to further categorise their various projects and facilitate easier access.
While the filter analytics by date was included to further enhance users’ experience when studying learners’ analytics by allowing them to view the calculated statistics (which learners completed the module, how many attempts did a learner take on a specific date, etc.) This also makes it easier to find specific learners that completed the module within a certain date, and help L&D managers segment users into cohorts for easier tracking.”
Rohit (R): “Meanwhile, media inserts were added (and made optional) on a variety of screens so that learners can be exposed to media regardless of the ArcLab screen type. All in all this allows for more flexibility in the creation of projects for learners — to make learning more effective.”
J: “Thank you for sharing! Lastly, could you give us a sneak peak of what we can expect in the next update?”
R: “Of course! Do stay tuned for the next update because ArcLab’s dev team is excited to bring you:
What to expect in the next Dev Update?
ArcLab’s team is always listening to your feedback and seeking ways to improve — part of our never-ending quest to build the world’s Simplest Learning System.
You can next expect:
- A “Discover” feature where L&D Managers can source for training templates to adapt to their organisations’ specific needs.
- Further enhancement of the Learner Analytics Dashboard
- Additional features such as editing and uploading photos in the Question Bank.
… and several more! Follow ArcLab on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to find out!”
J: “Thank you for your hard work, Kim and Rohit! With both your internships ending soon, what did you learn most from your time at ArcLab?”
R: “Firstly, I learnt how to work effectively from home as I sadly only managed to spend a day in the office before being restricted to WFH. I realised that creation of daily task lists and a rough timetable for the day help immensely!
Under the guidance of our CTO Steven, I was exposed to DevOps as well as technologies like Docker and Jenkins in order to streamline development processes in the firm. Some notable ones include the creation of Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery pipelines allowing for rapid deployments and testings, and containerisation of the application for developmental work. I was also further exposed to tools in Amazon Web Services (AWS) such as Lambda, S3, CloudFront, and Elemental MediaConvert in the creation of the video upload feature for learners.
I also learnt how to work closely as part of a team. As a lean team, communication and teamwork is paramount to the monthly updates we push out for our users. This includes biweekly sprints, where we gather feedback from users and prioritise tasks. We have weekly “standups” where we talk about what we have achieved in the previous and the coming week, and, of course, daily chats with fellow colleagues on bugs that were discovered and/or any user requests that require urgent attentions. With WFH, the importance of communication was amplified, as you could no longer just shout over your shoulder to find out what your fellow dev was up to or to look for help.”
K: “While working at ArcLab, I learned a great deal about the process to find the most efficient way to develop and implement features that give our users the best user experience. I am truly grateful to have had the opportunity to work and learn from everyone here.”
J: “Thank you to both of you for sharing your insights!”
Now check out the Brand New ArcLab User Guide: https://b.arclab.io/u !
Postscript — Rohit will soon start his undergrad studies at National University of Singapore, while Kimberly heads back to Singapore Polytechnic for her final semester. We wish them both the very best and hope they put ArcLab at the top of their list when considering future employment. 😊
