What's new in CyberFaCES
Every feature and improvement we have shipped, newest first. Jump to a month, or filter by the part of the site you care about.
September 2026
A completion rule for every material, and uploads that no longer stop at 100 KB
Set what it takes to complete each material
Whoever builds a module now chooses, material by material, what counts as finishing it: opening it, keeping it open for a set number of seconds, or the learner marking it done.
Courses Open the course builderVideos play without error pop-ups
A video whose progress could not be recorded raised an error dialog every two seconds while it played. It now plays quietly and records what it can.
CoursesMark a material complete, and see how many are left
Materials you finish yourself now carry a Mark complete button, and a module shows how many of its materials you have done.
Courses Open your dashboardA one-line description on every material
Materials now carry a short description shown beside the title in the list, so a row says what the thing is rather than just "week1.pdf".
CoursesAudio length and file size in materials lists
Uploaded audio now reports its length, files show their size, and a long recording reads "1 hour, 20 minutes" rather than being cut to "1 hour".
CoursesAugust 2026
A rebuilt dashboard, quiz results you can rely on, and a way to test out of a pre-requisite
A dashboard that shows where you left off
Your learning home now opens with where you stand — not started, under way, finished — followed by the modules you have opened but not finished, so you can pick straight back up.
Courses Open your dashboardJump to any part of a course from the sidebar
The sidebar now shows the whole course — every module, section and item — so material elsewhere in it is one click away, instead of going up and back down.
CoursesA way back out of course material
Material, quiz and score pages now open with a Back button at the top of the sidebar, returning you to the module or course you came from.
CoursesFull titles in the breadcrumb trail
Names in the trail at the top of the page were cut off at 30 characters, sometimes mid-word. They now appear in full.
CoursesYour quiz results, on your own dashboard
Sit a quiz as a learner and your dashboard now shows how many attempts you have made and your best score. Previously your results only appeared beside the quiz itself.
CoursesCompleted courses count properly
Finishing a module you also teach was recorded against your instructor role, not your enrolment, so it never reached your totals. Existing records are corrected.
CoursesTest out of a pre-requisite module
A module can nominate one of its quizzes as a placement quiz. Passing it meets that module's pre-requisites, so someone who knows the material can go straight in.
CoursesLimit how many times a quiz can be taken
Instructors can cap the number of attempts, or leave it unlimited. Learners see how many tries remain, and the best attempt counts, so retaking never loses a pass.
CoursesYour quiz attempts, kept on the record
A panel beside every quiz shows what it holds, what you need to pass, and each attempt with its score and date. Past results stand even if the quiz is edited later.
CoursesAnswer review shows the right answer
The question-by-question review now marks the correct choice alongside the one you picked, so a wrong answer explains itself instead of only being marked wrong.
CoursesChoose when a quiz opens, and shuffle its questions
A quiz can be held back until the module's other materials are done, or left open as a pre-test. A new Shuffled option serves the questions in a random order.
CoursesCallouts that stay where the author wrote them
Challenges, key points, instructor notes and the rest now appear in the body of the material at the point they were written, and nest inside one another to any depth. Footnotes, definition lists and highlighted code fences render as well, and a file's metadata header no longer shows up as text at the top of the page.
CoursesJuly 2026
Copy a course in one click, and a guide for every role
Duplicate an entire course
Copy a course and its structure instead of rebuilding it from scratch. A Duplicate action sits on the course admin list, on course cards, and on the course detail page.
CoursesReplace an asset file in place
Swap the file behind a course asset without deleting the asset and recreating it, so links, ordering, and learner progress survive the update.
CoursesMay 2026
Discussion forums inside communities, and a way to apply
Module-aware course sidebar
The course sidebar now knows which module you are in, numbers the modules, and links straight to each asset.
CoursesFind your way back from any viewer
Every asset viewer carries a back button and a breadcrumb that keep the surrounding course context.
CoursesApril 2026
Announcements, community analytics, and a much richer reader
A better markdown reader
Course material now renders with a table of contents, colour-coded headers, and discussion, callout, and spoiler blocks. Links are rewritten to match your context.
CoursesWarnings for units you have not started
The course menu warns before you jump into a unit you have not started, and its dropdowns behave more predictably.
CoursesMarch 2026
Read PDFs and play media without leaving the course
Stable course links
Course URLs carry the course ID, which keeps links working when titles change.
CoursesFebruary 2026
Smart Search and Communities arrive
Markdown in course descriptions and materials
Write course descriptions and material in markdown and have it rendered rather than shown raw.
CoursesCarpentries-style callouts
The markdown viewer recognises and styles Carpentries callout blocks, so lessons written for that format render as intended.
CoursesSurveys and assessments out of the browse list
Pre- and post-survey and assessment units are filtered out of browse and landing pages, and units carry a display_on_browse setting to control this directly.
CoursesLong names on certificates
Certificates lay out correctly for learners with long names.
CoursesJanuary 2026
Faster, more interactive dashboard metrics
Pathway navigation across modules
Moving through a learning pathway is consistent from module to module, with clearer wording throughout.
CoursesDecember 2025
Workshops, exportable reports, and staff permissions
Workshops, distinct from modules
Filter for workshops specifically, and tell the two apart at a glance with Module and Workshop badges.
CoursesFilters on the instructor view
The instructor view gained filtering options and a clearer layout.
CoursesContributors on the course page
Courses credit their contributors and show when they were created, loaded efficiently enough not to slow the page down.
CoursesJuly – August 2025
Sign in to JupyterHub once, and run a course as a workshop
Workshops
A course can be marked as a workshop, which separates short workshop offerings from full learning modules.
CoursesMore than one instructor per achievement
An achievement can credit several instructors instead of just one.
CoursesJune 2025
Decide who issues an achievement
Set the issuer of an achievement
Choose which organisation or person is named as the issuer on an achievement, rather than accepting a fixed default.
CoursesInstructors required when building a unit
Naming the instructors is a required step of building a unit, enforced at every step of the build rather than only the first.
CoursesMay 2025
Certificates for finishing, and a rebuilt dashboard
Completion certificates
Finish a course and receive a certificate, carrying the NSF grant number that funded the work.
CoursesApril 2025
Badges and achievements you can earn and share
Achievements
Complete a module or a course and earn an achievement that records what you finished.
CoursesA page for every badge you earn
Each earned badge gets its own page, which you can share outside the platform.
CoursesBadges created as you build
A badge is created automatically while a unit is being built, drawing on badge and certificate templates, so it is not a separate job afterwards.
CoursesForm input survives a mistake
What you typed into the course or module creation form is kept when the form comes back with an error, instead of being cleared.
CoursesRoom for longer descriptions
Course and unit descriptions accept substantially more text.
CoursesMarch 2025
Seeing engagement over time
Achievements know their course
An achievement records the course it belongs to, which is what makes course-level achievements possible.
CoursesThis page covers changes you can see and use. Internal refactoring, dependency updates, and documentation-only changes are left out, and a quiet month is a month spent on those. Months with no user-facing changes are not listed.