The roadmap below outlines current and upcoming work for the COMMS (Course Outline Mapping and Management System) platform. Each item is categorized by its development stage:
Projected delivery dates are always provided for Committed and Done work and may be provided for for Accepted work. Delivery dates are estimates only and may be adjusted based on development progress and resource availability.
Items are only accepted for future development after meeting all applicable acceptance criteria.
| ID | Name | Description | Status | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37152 | Administrative Locking of CLOs in Course Outlines | Allow administrators to prevent Course Learning Outcomes from being modified on outlines, while keeping Elements of Performance editable. This helps maintain curriculum integrity during outline development and review. Organization administrators may enable or disable the CLO locking feature. If enabled, they may optionally enable automatic re-locking of CLOs each time an outline transitions out of Draft state. Administrators can lock/unlock CLOs from two locations:
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Committed | Apr-02-2026 | |
| 37799 | Remove EES mapping requirement (Algonquin only) | Starting in the 2026–2027 academic year, course outlines at Algonquin College will require mapping of Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) only, removing Essential Employability Skills (EESs) from the Pre-defined Evaluation / Earning Credit section. This enhancement introduces an outline-level control that determines whether Essential Employability Skills are shown or required for evaluation mapping. The selected behavior is preserved during the annual roll-over process, and as part of the 2026 roll-over all new Algonquin outlines will default to CLO-only mapping. |
Committed | Apr-02-2026 | |
| 37824 | New outline section - Course Learning Outcome Mapping | Algonquin College has requested the ability to manage Course Learning Outcome (CLO) mapping to Program-level VLOs and Essential Employability Skills (EESs) directly within COMMS, rather than maintaining this information externally. This initiative introduces a new course outline section that allows institutions to create, manage, and display CLO-to-VLO/EES mappings on course outlines. The feature is controlled by a program-level setting and is optional by default, ensuring it can be enabled only where required. Value to stakeholders
This enhancement is designed as a reusable capability that can be adopted by any college that chooses to enable it. |
Accepted | Apr-02-2026 | |
| 34714 | Introduce Evaluation Earning Credit Report | Introduce a new “Evaluation Earning Credit” report in COMMS that allows colleges to view and export detailed evaluation data for a specific program and academic year. The report presents course-level evaluations alongside their associated learning outcomes (Course Learning Outcomes, Essential Employability Skills, and Program Vocational Learning Outcomes), giving institutions consistent, self-serve access to data that is currently not available through existing reports. |
Accepted | Apr-16-2026 | |
| 34997 | Dashboard Term Filter | Introduce a term-based filter on dashboard widgets to help department and program reviewers focus on course outlines that require attention in a specific term. |
Accepted | ||
| 36861 | Guide Users to Enter One Element of Performance per Field | This enhancement improves clarity when editing Course Learning Outcomes / Elements of Performance by adding clear instructional guidance above each input field. The guidance reminds users to enter only one Element of Performance per field, reducing data entry errors and improving the consistency and quality of course outline information. |
Accepted | ||
| 34889 | Improve readability in Course Learning Outcomes / Elements of Performance outline section | This update improves the visual spacing in the Course Learning Outcomes / Elements of Performance section by adding clearer separation between each CLO and its associated EOPs. The goal is to make the outline easier to scan and understand for end users, without changing any underlying content or behavior. |
Accepted | ||
| 22594 | Introduce COMMS Entity API | We are introducing a new COMMS Entity API that will give institutions secure, direct access to their COMMS data. This API is designed to reduce reliance on custom reporting and provide clients with greater flexibility, speed, and control over how they retrieve and use their information. What this means for you:
As we roll out the COMMS Entity API, we will provide detailed documentation, sample use cases, and guidance to help teams transition from custom reports to API-based integrations. |
Accepted | ||
| 34836 | Eliminate COMMS Roll-over | Summary COMMS currently relies on manual term and academic year roll-over processes to copy data forward between terms and academic years. These roll-overs are performed by COMMS Support on behalf of institutions and on a recurring basis, creating inefficiencies, delays, and operational risk. This initiative aims to eliminate the need for both term and academic year roll-overs by rethinking how COMMS manages time-based data. Achieving this will require changes to both the underlying platform and select end-user features to support a more continuous experience. What This Enables
The outcome will be a more scalable and modern COMMS experience that reduces administrative overhead while giving institutions greater control and flexibility in managing their academic data. |
Accepted | ||
| 35008 | Map Revision Comments | When consultants review map revisions, they often need to return them to the course owner for changes. Without a way to include comments, the process can lack clarity and lead to delays—especially since interactions may be spaced out over long periods. With this update, consultants can add comments that would help explain the requested changes, improve communication, and provide a record for tracking the revision process. |
Accepted | ||
| 32709 | Support for Program Level Types | This enhancement adds support for defining different Program Level Types within COMMS, such as Academic Achievement Level or Co-op Level. |
Accepted | ||
| 36801 | Support Automatic Program Information Display on Course Outlines | This enhancement improves how Program Information is displayed on course outlines by introducing a new organization-level setting, Program Visibility per Outline. Today, course owners must manually enable Program Information on each outline, even when program details already exist. With this update, institutions can choose between two behaviours: continue using the existing per-outline checkbox to explicitly control Program Information visibility, or disable the checkbox and have Program Information automatically appear on course outlines whenever program data is available. This provides greater flexibility, reduces manual effort for course owners, and ensures consistent presentation of program details across outlines based on institutional preference. |
Accepted | ||
| 26933 | Manage General Education Theme Areas | Currently, managing the list of available General Education Theme Areas for use on course outlines requires submitting a request to COMMS Support, resulting in delays and added overhead. To reduce support reliance and improve self-service, we are introducing the ability for authorized users to manage their institution’s General Education Theme Areas directly. This change will improve turnaround time, reduce support load, and support greater institutional autonomy. |
Accepted | ||
| 25550 | Move Academic Year Content from Sidebar to Academic Year Details | To improve usability and align content management with the Academic Year organizational structure, the College Information and Custom Text Outline Section options will be relocated from the Outline Management sidebar to the Content area within the Academic Year Details page. This change ensures a more intuitive and consistent user experience by grouping all Academic Year–specific data in one place. Key Outcomes:
This update reflects a broader effort to streamline navigation and improve contextual access to Academic Year–related content. |
Accepted | ||
| 24703 | Improve LTI failure messaging | Return more descriptive messaging through the LTI Tool when course outlines are not available. |
Accepted | ||
| 12586 | LTI 1.3 Support | To enhance compatibility with modern learning systems, the COMMS application will be updated to support LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) version 1.3, while continuing to support the existing LTI 1.2 integration. This ensures that new clients adopting LTI 1.3 can integrate seamlessly, and current clients using LTI 1.2 will experience no disruption or change to their existing configurations. Key Points:
This update aligns COMMS with current interoperability standards and prepares the platform for broader LMS integration opportunities. |
Accepted | ||
| 25339 | Support Remaining User Authorization Files in FTPETL Job | This work extends the user authorization data integration by supporting the remaining authorization file types — Program Owner Authorization and Department Delegate Authorization — within the FTPETL job. These were not part of the initial MVP, which included only the minimum files required for migration to COMMS 3. For more information regarding user authorization data integration, see https://docs.ecoursemap.com/docs/integrations/userauth. |
Accepted | ||
| 27788 | Make More System Settings User-Configurable | Reduce reliance on support requests by exposing additional configurable settings directly in the COMMS interface under Organization → Settings. |
Accepted | ||
| 24511 | Ministry Terminology Standardization | Update COMMS to use standard terms and headings as defined by the Ontario Ministry. See https://www.ontario.ca/page/college-program-standards for more information. |
Done | Apr-30-2025 | |
| 25219 | Optional Unit Title and Description | Change Unit Title and Unit Description fields to optional when editing the Course Content outline section. This change re-aligns COMMS 3 with pre-existing behavior in COMMS 2, where the user is not required to enter a Unit Title, nor a Unit Description. |
Done | May-19-2025 | |
| 25287 | Manage Report Visibility | Organizations can control which reports are visible to their users in COMMS. A settings card on the Organization -- Settings page allows administrators to choose which reports to show or hide, helping ensure that only relevant reports are displayed to the user community. |
Done | Jun-23-2025 | |
| 26224 | Show current Academic Year on Dashboard | To improve clarity and reduce confusion during the course outline approval process, the COMMS Dashboard will be updated to display the current Academic Year prominently at the top of the page. This enhancement ensures users are always aware of which Academic Year their work pertains to when interacting with workflow-related content. |
Done | Jul-07-2025 | |
| 25697 | Re-introduce Course Description Summary Report | The Course Description Summary report was available in COMMS 2 but was not initially ported to COMMS 3 due to low usage during the migration period. A need for this report has since been identified. |
Done | Jul-07-2025 | |
| 25847 | Add Department-Level Access to Enhanced Learning Resource Module Summary Report | To better support operational and reporting needs, this work enables the Enhanced Learning Resource Module Summary report to be run at the department level in addition to the program level. |
Done | Jul-08-2025 | |
| 9073 | Standardize Action Icon Layout in Outline Section Lists | Improve the clarity and consistency of action icons (edit, delete, move) that appear when editing lists in various outline sections. The icons will be aligned to the right and ordered uniformly to create a cleaner, more user-friendly interface. This change enhances usability for users when managing course outline content in COMMS. |
Done | Jul-16-2025 | |
| 25661 | Introduce Evaluation Type Usage Report | The Evaluation Type Usage report helps users track how frequently each Evaluation Type is used across course outlines within a selected academic year. This feature supports better management of the reusable Evaluation Types list. Key Features:
This report provides insight into usage trends, enabling informed decisions about maintaining or updating evaluation types. |
Done | Jul-23-2025 | |
| 25549 | CLO/EoP Numbering Style | A new setting named CLO/EoP List Style allows colleges to choose how Elements of Performance are displayed under each Course Learning Outcome—either as bullet points (default) or as a numbered list (e.g., 1.1, 1.2, 2.1) for improved structure and clarity. |
Done | Jul-28-2025 | |
| 10173 | Improved Visibility of Outline Approval and Feedback | Previously, outline comments and approval progress were only shared through email notifications, making it difficult to track feedback or collaborate effectively within COMMS. There was no central place to view the outline’s progress or see what others had contributed during the review process. With this update, comments and approval history are now stored and visible directly in COMMS. Authorized users can view, add, and edit comments throughout the approval workflow, ensuring that feedback is accessible, organized, and easier to follow for everyone involved. |
Done | Aug-04-2025 | |
| 27676 | Clickable Academic Year on Dashboard | To improve usability, the academic year displayed at the top of the COMMS Dashboard will become a clickable link. This will allow users to quickly navigate to the Academic Year Details page, providing faster access to related information. |
Done | Aug-28-2025 | |
| 26102 | Differentiate Course Types in Mapping Table | Summary Update the outcome mapping table to visually distinguish Elective, General Education, and Core courses. Currently, when users toggle options to display electives or Gen Ed courses, those courses appear in the same list as core courses without any clear identification. This makes it difficult for users to interpret the mapping, especially when reviewing or editing program structure. Reason for the Update This enhancement improves clarity and usability for academic staff and curriculum developers by allowing them to quickly understand the course composition of a program, reducing the risk of misinterpretation and errors during mapping reviews. |
Done | Sep-01-2025 | |
| 27771 | Re-introduce Program Competencies Report | The Program Competencies report was available in COMMS 2 but was not initially ported to COMMS 3 due to low usage during the migration period. A need for this report has since been identified. |
Done | Sep-08-2025 | |
| 25726 | Add Filtering Options to Map Revisions Page | Users can already filter for Electives and General Education Courses when editing outcome maps directly, but these filters are missing when using the Map Revisions (submit/review) workflow. This enhancement will add the same filtering options to the Map Revisions interface, ensuring consistency and improving usability across both mapping workflows. |
Done | Sep-09-2025 | |
| 30183 | Add Program Competency Outcomes Mapping type | Users can currently map VLO, EES, and ILO types for all courses in a program via the Mapping feature. This work adds a new Program Competency Outcomes type to the list of mappings available under the Mapping feature. |
Done | Oct-22-2025 | |
| 9886 | Introduce Email Digest | Users currently receive separate emails for each action or notification in the system, which can result in excessive and overwhelming communication. Multiple colleges have flagged this as a significant usability issue. This work item aims to improve the user experience by consolidating notifications into a configurable email digest. Instead of immediate, individual messages, users will receive a summary email containing multiple notifications. Key features:
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Done | Nov-19-2025 |