Dagster 1.5 introduces several major enhancements to the platform, including Embed data quality steps in your data pipeline with Dagster Asset Checks, Expand Dagster's span-of-control with Dagster Pipes, and Monitor Cloud costs with Dagster Insights. Additionally, Dagster University has been created to help beginners build a solid foundation for Dagster, while the UI performance improvements provide a smoother experience for users. The 1.5 release also includes contributions from the community, such as improved handling of failed jobs and bug fixes.