Why should we change to the new course player?

Following because I have similar questions.

I will say that I saw there’s another significant update coming to the course player on the Roadmap that is supposedly in the Sandbox this month and coming to production in September.  My CSM said that since so many changes are still happening, not to transition until at least after this next release so that users don’t get a change directly followed by more changes in the next month or so.

We made the switch last year when Docebo was originally going to force the change October 2023 and we took them seriously, lol. It honestly has had minimal impact on our learner population, we’ve rolled with what bugs there were and have enjoyed the many fixes they’ve issued since then. The biggest problem we encountered was with Playlists, but that has now been fixed. It honestly just might depend on what kind of learners you have, ours are fairly hands-off (for better or worse) and issuing a memo in the company newsletter explaining the change with screenshots was enough. I think @trose23 ‘s advice to wait just a little longer until the next update is sound; since you’ve already waited this long a few more months hopefully won’t matter that much.

Hi @Lucy.blake !

I am the new product manager for this area and I can confirm that the sandbox release at the end of July will include a significant number of improvements to the user experience of the new course player. You can find all the details in the specific card related to the course player improvements on the public roadmap.

These improvements are the result of collecting and prioritizing feedback from the community, direct interviews, and demos. This effort covers over 500 votes across various ideas related to this functionality.

By listening to the problems and needs, we have also designed a new content consumption mode that is simpler and much more focused on the content, aiming to remove all the unnecessary elements from the interface to keep the learner concentrated and “focused". This new mode will be called Focus Mode and will be available for all types of courses, including e-learning, ILT, and learning plans. Additionally, we will use this initiative to simplify the ILT course experience when Focus Mode is active for these types of courses. More details on the Focus Mode can be found here. We are planning to make this feature available in the last quarter of the year.

Besides these new improvements, the team has been working intensively to fix a lot of graphical and functional glitches that have been released over time since the first beta release.

We are very confident that the upcoming releases will greatly enhance the overall experience, bringing significant evolution compared to the past, both from a UI and UX perspective. This will also ensure the interface's responsiveness on small devices and compliance with accessibility requirements, making the player WCAG 2.1 AA compliant.

Have you done any testing yourself?

Yes@pat.ev, we've done testing on the preview version. I can see the advantages in the ILT sessions as you don't have two things to do to enrol on a session. But last time it was turned on we didn't see the bugs until our learners kept on asking questions about how they could view their playlists. Sometimes it's good to learn from others what bugs are still there and if we're want to have the advantages of the ILT sessions if the bugs are going to cause issues elsewhere.

Do we have a date in September when everyone is going to be forced to use the new course player?

I don’t think it’s going to be mandatory in September. It says it will be released in September. It’s going to have lots of changes so there is no way they will make the same mistake as before and make it mandatory immediately.

@Lucy.blake @laurenvanc 

The last update in April of this year states that it will be mandatory by end of 2024. 

[Update] New Layout for Courses and Learning Plan Player | Community (docebo.com)

@Lucy.blake @pat.ev  Thank you! I had seen “end of 2024” also, your replies give me comfort that it won’t be mandatory in September.

How will Focus Mode work for courses that use the Standalone Viewer option?

We have a content supplier whose content only plays if we use Standalone. But when someone exits a course module, they have no controls and have to log back into Docebo’s home page. Not ideal.