August 2022
July 2022
Details
Brightspace Platform July 2022/20.22.7 Release Notes
The functionality, screens, and configuration of the following features are subject to change before release.
Features included in this information are available and hosted in all geographic regions D2L supports unless otherwise noted in the feature’s Technical Details section. If the feature is not available and hosted in all geographic regions, D2L will provide the location(s) of the supported regions and any applicable restrictions.
Brightspace apps are available for download from any Google Play™ store or Apple App Store®. The apps are generally released at the beginning of the month, and then sometimes mid-month, if issues are found. Depending on how your device is configured, the apps may update automatically or you may have to manually check for new versions.
D2L recommends reviewing the final release notes to determine if there are any changes that impact your organization. To receive notifications about updates, click Follow.
Downloadable release notes are no longer available as an attachment. To create a printable version of these release notes, please follow the steps below:
-
Highlight the release notes.
-
Right-click and select Copy.
-
Paste the content into a text editing document. This process copies over all text, images, tables, and links.
For more information, refer to Changes to Release Note Deliverables.
Links to Additional Information
Links to external sites and non-release notes articles on Brightspace Community:
Announcements and Feature Information
Note the following important updates:
- Upcoming deprecation of TLS 1.1 encryption protocols and migration to TLS 1.2
- Added 7-July-2022 Removed the Groups/Section Management – View Section Descriptions | New release note. The user interface changes will be released at a future date. In this release, the Sections API has been updated to include a new
mysections API route. This route displays the calling user's sections within a specific orgunitid and also displays the data for that section including its name, code, and description.
- Added 7-July-2022 Updated the Learning Groups – Target personalized learning with the ability to add restrictions during locked learning group setup | Updated feature with additional information about availability and how to enable for existing customers.
- Added 7-July-2022 Removed the Google File Picker - Upload files from both personal and Workspace Google accounts with a single file picker | Updated feature. This feature will be released at a later date.
- Added 7-July-2022 Updated the Microsoft OneDrive – Use Microsoft's OneDrive LTI application to link and embed files from OneDrive | Updated feature to include information about the future availability of the config variable that enables the file picker.
- Added 7-July-2022 Updated the Data Hub – Access meaningful content file information with the Content Files Properties Log data set | New feature to include a link to a related product blog post.
- Added 7-July-2022 Removed the Audio/Video – Obsolete configuration variables related to the Download button have been removed | Removed feature. This feature will appear soon in a future release.
- Added 7-July-2022 Brightspace Capture Legacy (9.5 or earlier) reaches the End-of-Life stage of it's product cycle in Fall/Winter 2023, and is being replaced with Capture X as part of the Creator + product offering .For more information, see Intent to End-of-Life Legacy Capture technology and Capture X upgrade path for Legacy Capture clients.
- Added 7-July-2022 The Brightspace Release Notes now contain links to Novidades (Português do Brasil) and Novedades (Español de Latinoamérica), in addition to the existing French, Dutch, and Arabic links.
- Added 7-July-2022 The Brightspace Pulse – Discovery better supports text-to-speech assistive technology | Updated feature is updated with an improved screenshot of the new visual prompt.
Brightspace Insights – Harness powerful data with a new version of the Adoption Dashboard | Updated
This release introduces a new version of the Adoption Dashboard with an updated look and feel that aligns with the other Insights Portal dashboards. The Adoption Dashboard provides data visualizations to help administrators gain a deeper understanding of how users in their organization adopt Brightspace. It was originally released in Brightspace Platform version 10.8.5.
The new Adoption Dashboard adds the following features:
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Ability to filter the data shown on the dashboard by Org Unit, Role, Tool, Start Date, and End Date.
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Switching from Login data to System Access data to more accurately capture app usage.
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Accessibility features: visual cues like filter tags and toast messages, support for screen readers, and keyboard navigation.
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Exporting data to CSV.
To enable the new Adoption Dashboard, administrators must set the new d2l.Tools.Insights.Adoption.EnableNewExperience configuration variable to ON at the organization level. Currently, the new experience is turned off by default.
This feature has accessibility impacts, including:
- WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.4.13 Content on Hover or Focus
- WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard
- WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order
Figure: Top half of the old Adoption Dashboard, with no filters or ability to export to CSV.
Figure: Top half of the new Adoption Dashboard, with “Export to CSV” button, filters for Org Unit, Role, Tool, Start Date, and End Date, and a line graph for System Access instead of Login Trend.
Figure: Bottom half of the old Adoption Dashboard, showing the old color palette and graphs.
Figure: Bottom half of the new Adoption Dashboard showing the updated color palette and new graphs.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to enable a new version of the Adoption Dashboard.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients who have the Performance Plus package or who have purchased Brightspace Insights in the previous packaging model.
To enable:
- Administrators must set the new d2l.Tools.Insights.Adoption.EnableNewExperience configuration variable to ON. Users must also have the existing Can See Adoption Dashboard and Query Data Platform permissions enabled for their role.
Brightspace Learning Environment – Easily filter items across the platform with improved multi-contextual filter dialog | Updated
Building upon the improvements introduced by the Brightspace Learning Environment – Improved and consistent multi-contextual filter dialog | Updated feature released in June 2022/20.22.6, this feature extends the changes to the following locations:
Previously, the changes to the multi-contextual filter in Brightspace Learning Environment were only found in My Courses Widget: Department/Semester Filters and in Insights: Filters on various dashboards.
Technical Details
Impact:
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients who use Consistent Eval or Quick Eval.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
Brightspace Platform Requirements - Receive browser update alerts | Updated
The supported browser list is updated to reflect browsers that need to be updated. Users will receive the message “Your browser is looking a little retro” that prompts users to update their browser. Legacy Browsers are also updated. All users of Legacy Browsers receive the message “Unsupported Browser” either before or after logging in. There are no changes to the ability to access Brightspace.
Figure: Browser update prompt in Brightspace Learning Environment.
Technical Details
Impact:
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
Brightspace Pulse – Discovery better supports text-to-speech assistive technology | Updated
This release contains several accessibility improvements to Brightspace Pulse's Discovery feature, allowing it to better support users who employ text-to-speech assistive technology. These improvements consist of:
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The Who provides your learning autocomplete field is renamed to Find your school or institution. This is to make the label more intuitive and gives a non-visual learner a better idea that the field is autocomplete. The Find your school or institution autocomplete field is additionally marked up as an edit field, indicating to the user where to tap to activate it and what to enter in the field. If no results are returned, the following prompt is shown: "We're sorry! We were not able to find a match. Please try a different institution. Or, if you know the school or institution's web address, you can enter it down below." Previously this prompt read "This may not be a compatible learning management system".
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When a user types a letter, the displayed results are announced via an ARIA audio alert. When a user enters a search without any results, they are notified of such without requiring them to press the Enter key. Upon pressing the Enter key, the ARIA audio alert indicates that "<N> results found. This indicates to non-visual users if there are results. Previously, this change of results was not announced by an ARIA audio alert despite changing visually.
This feature has accessibility impacts, including:
• WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions
• WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
• WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 4.1.3 Status Messages
Figure: The improved message displayed when a search in the Find your school or institution autocomplete field returns no results.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Moderate impact to learners using assistive technology due to the improved experience using Discovery.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all Brightspace Pulse clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
Data Hub – Access meaningful content file information with the Content Files Properties Log data set | New
This release adds the new Content Files Properties Log Brightspace Data Set (BDS) to help administrators understand what files are associated to content objects within courses. Each row in the data set represents a change (created, edited, or deleted) to a file that is linked to a content object within an org unit, and provides information about the file such as its name, extension, and size in bytes. The Content Files Properties Log BDS only captures changes to content files from July 2022 onwards.
For more information, refer to New Brightspace Data Set: Content Files Properties Log on Brightspace Community.
This feature implements the following PIE items:
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D7051 (Copyright Reporting from Brightspace)
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D6126 (Data Hub >> Please add manage file information to Data Hub)
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D5820 (Report of Course Offering with their disc storage size)
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D5968 (Add column 'file size' to Content Objects data set)
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D3927 (partial) (Make available a list of all documents stored on one instance)
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D7379 (Data Set which gives me a list of all the courses that have an asset)
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators due to the addition of a new data set.
Availability:
- This feature is available to Brightspace Insights and Brightspace Core clients in all regions.
To enable:
Grades – Copy grade items only copies unique or in-use grade schemes | Updated
This feature updates the Copy Course Components functionality in regard to copying grade schemes to prevent unnecessary duplicates.
When a grade item is copied, any grade scheme associated with the item is also copied. If a grade scheme is not associated to a grade item within the course offering, the scheme is only copied if the grade scheme is unique (i.e., there are no duplicates which match on name, and ranges).
Previously, unassociated grade schemes were always copied over with the grade items, causing numerous unnecessary duplicates.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators and instructors due to the ability to copy grade items without accidentally creating duplicate grade schemes.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
Import/Export - Importing and Exporting Quiz Questions now includes alignment to outcomes for ASN standards | Updated
D2L course ZIP packages can now be exported and imported with ASN outcome alignment for questions.
Previously, the quiz import process retained the alignments of ASN standards only for Content topics and those directly aligned to Assignments. However, importing and exporting Rubric and Quiz question alignments is not supported.
Technical Details
Impact:
Availability:
- Available to all clients.
To enable:
Learning Groups – Target personalized learning with the ability to add restrictions during locked learning group setup | Updated
The new Locked Learning Groups setup introduces the ability for new clients to add restrictions to their Learning Groups. Restrictions allow you to section off Learning Group activities to users who have a predefined set of User Attributes while denying access to others. For example, different sub-companies within a larger organization could add restrictions to their users and content so that Learning Group administrators are only able to assign users and courses from their respective sub-company. These restrictions are set up by D2L Implementations at client request when implementing the Learning Groups tool.
Previously, there was no ability to restrict access of Learning Group material to users in the same organization. This feature does not impact the setup of existing clients. For additional details on this feature, refer to the Locked Learning Groups product blog post in Brightspace Community.
Technical Details
Impact:
- No impact to existing users.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all new clients.
- Existing customers are encouraged to refer to the Locked Learning Groups product blog post in Brightspace Community for additional information on availability.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all new users.
- Existing customers are encouraged to refer to the Locked Learning Groups product blog post in Brightspace Community for additional information on availability.
LTI – Additional supported claim values for LTI 1.3 | Updated
To help with migrating from LTI 1.1 to LTI 1.3, this release adds support for the following fields in the LTI 1.3 spec:
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role_scope_mentor: LTI resource link launch request messages now include the role-scope mentor claim when the user clicking on the LTI link has the Mentor role. Previously, we supported the role-scope mentor claim in LTI 1.1 but not in LTI 1.3.
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course_section_sourcedid: LTI resource link launch request messages now provide the user's section code value for course_section_sourcedid under the LIS claim. The user must be enrolled in a section and the "Org Unit Info" security setting must be enabled; if either of these conditions are not met, the course offering code is provided instead of the section code. Previously, this logic was supported in LTI 1.1 but not in LTI 1.3.
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content_topic_id: Every LTI launch from content now includes content_topic_id in the Brightspace vendor claim when there is a content topic value to send. Previously, the launch only supported sending org_unit_id and user_id in the vendor claim.
This feature implements PIE item D9093 (Name & Role Provisioning Services API: Share Section enrollment from classlist user information).
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators due to the new information available in LTI 1.3 launches.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
LTI – Changes to the LTI Advantage administrative interfaces | Updated
This release introduces several improvements to the LTI Advantage administrative interfaces intended to make the workflows more intuitive and safeguard against errors. These changes include:
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We now allow the same domain to be registered multiple times, provided only one of those registrations is enabled. On the Register a Tool page (Manage Extensibility > LTI Advantage > Register Tool), if you attempt to register a tool with a domain that is already in use, you will see this error message when you click Register: "Domain is already in use for another enabled registration".
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You can no longer change the registered tool for a deployment after the deployment has been created. On the Deploy Tool page (External Learning Tools > LTI Advantage > New Deployment), after you fill out all the required fields and click Create Deployment, the Tool dropdown becomes a static field and can't be changed.
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This release also prevents users from changing the registered tool for a created deployment using the API. The Valence API now throws a 400 error if a user attempts to change the ClientID for a deployment.
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Previously, you could edit the registered tool after creating a deployment, which would break the deployment and cause negative downstream effects.
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The deployment sharing options have been expanded. On the Deploy Tool page (External Learning Tools > LTI Advantage > New Deployment), when you click Add Org Units, under Options there is a new radio button called This org unit and all descendants.
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Previously, to share a deployment with an org unit and all its descendants, you had to go through the share process twice. Also, if you had a template with no courses, you had no option to share with its descendants.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators due to new error messages and slight changes to workflow when creating and deploying LTI tools.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
Microsoft OneDrive – Use Microsoft's OneDrive LTI application to link and embed files from OneDrive | Updated
The new Microsoft OneDrive LTI is similar to the existing application and will replace the existing OneDrive App in the future. The new OneDrive application supports file browsing, navigating and sorting directories, selecting files, and switching between Microsoft accounts. Depending on institutional Microsoft OneDrive settings, users are able to access both their personal and institutional accounts. The update introduces an LTI file picker for OneDrive users that acts as an alternative to the current OneDrive file picker used by instructors. The changes to support the new OneDrive LTI include:
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Supporting the OneDrive LTI app Cancel button.
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Adding a config variable to display the OneDrive LTI App in the Quicklink option, which is found in Edit Assignments.
Note: This integration is available on or around July 29, 2022 when Brightspace configuration information is added to this page: An overview of Microsoft LTI apps | Microsoft Docs.
Figure: OneDrive deep link LTI 1.3 File Picker.
The current OneDrive Link/Embed tool will end-of-life in the near future. However, this update does not change any existing learner OneDrive file pickers.
The updated file picker supports PIE items related to providing a Document Viewer (D4975).
Technical Details
Impact:
Availability:
- This feature can be added by an Administrator with an Office 365 account as a regular LTI 1.3 tool.
To enable:
- Administrators must first disable the former OneDrive app. Administrators can add the new OneDrive LTI applications to the Quicklink bar. The config variable is available on or around July 29, 2022 when Brightspace configuration information is added to this page: An overview of Microsoft LTI apps | Microsoft Docs.
Outcomes Management – Eliminate duplication of effort with improved import rules around aligned ASN standards in the Standards (Learning Outcomes) tool | Updated
When you import a Brightspace course export package that contains aligned ASN standards, the outcomes are automatically added to the course intent list of the destination course.
Previously, the aligned standards were imported from a Brightspace course export package; however, you were required to manually re-add them from the ASN browser to the course intent list in the Learning Outcomes tool for the alignments to be displayed and available in the Content tool or the assessment tools.
Note: Non-Aligned outcomes are not imported; import rules only apply to aligned activities. This feature only applies to ASN outcomes; it does not support the import and export of course outcomes.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to instructors as they are no longer required to complete redundant steps in the workflow to import course packages.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all clients using the Learning Outcomes tool. Ensure that you have turned on the Learning Outcomes tool at the main organization and course levels.
Turnitin – Rearrangement of options for the Turnitin integration | Updated
The Turnitin integration options layout and feature names are changed with this release. The option changes can be viewed on the Turnitin Integrations options page.
GradeMark is now Online Grading and Originality Check is now Similarity Report. Instructors can enable features for Online Grading and Similarity Report separately within the Turnitin Integration options page.
Figure: Turnitin integration with updated options for Similarity Report and Online Grading.
Technical Details
Impact:
Availability:
To enable:
Turnitin - Restrict files to file types supported by Turnitin with the updated panel | Updated
Previously, Turnitin similarity check only supported specific file types while Turnitin grading check accepted any file type.
Instructors can now restrict file types to those supported by Turnitin. If an invalid type is submitted, an error is reported with no other side effect.
Figure: File type options for Turnitin submissions.
The updated side panel now indicates which Turnitin services are enabled. The text on these indications reflects the new Turnitin feature names for Similarity Report and Online Grading.
Technical Details
Impact:
Availability:
To enable:
Turnitin - Turnitin feature names are now reflected in Brightspace Learning Environment’s user interface | Updated
In Brightspace Learning Environment, the submission view now reflects the new Turnitin feature names that match Brightspace’s user interface styling and text. The column titled Turnitin Similarity is now Turnitin® Similarity Report. The column titled Turnitin® GradeMark® is changed to Turnitin Online Grading.
There is no change in the functionality of submission views.
Figure: The original Turnitin submission view in Brightspace Learning Environment.
Figure: The new Turnitin submission view in Brightspace Learning Environment.
Technical Details
Impact:
Availability:
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
Title
Brightspace Platform July 2022/20.22.7 Release Notes
URL Name
Brightspace-Platform-July-2022-20-22-7-Release-Notes-77212948
June 2022
Brightspace Platform June 2022/20.22.6 Release Notes
The following release notes are for clients installing Brightspace Learning Environment 20.22.6 (June 2022). The functionality, screens, and configuration of features are subject to change before release.
Features included in this information are available and hosted in all geographic regions D2L supports unless otherwise noted in the feature’s Technical Details section. If the feature is not available and hosted in all geographic regions, D2L will provide the location(s) of the supported regions and any applicable restrictions.
Brightspace apps are available for download from any global Google Play™ store or Apple App Store®. The apps are generally released at the beginning of the month, and then sometimes mid-month, if issues are found. Depending on how your device is configured, the apps may update automatically or you may have to manually check for new versions.
D2L recommends reviewing the final release notes to determine if there are any changes that impact your organization. To receive notifications about updates, click Follow.
Downloadable release notes are no longer available as an attachment. To create a printable version of these release notes, please follow the steps below:
- Highlight the release notes.
- Right-click and select Copy.
- Paste the content into a text editing document. This process copies over all text, images, tables, and links.
For more information, refer to Changes to Release Note Deliverables.
Links To Additional Information
Links to external sites and non-release notes articles on Brightspace Community:
Announcements and Feature Information
Note the following important updates:
- *Added on 2-June-2022 Updated the Assignments – Save time by copying assignments to other courses you teach | New feature to indicate that Copy to Other Courses permission only needs to be granted at the course level.
- *Added on 2-Jun-2022 The name of the Outcomes Program Details Brightspace Data Set has been corrected in the Data Hub interface and API. Previously, it was incorrectly named "Outcomes Program Details Definition". There has been no change in the documentation.
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- *Added on 2-June-2022 A further investigation of the Rubrics in Brightspace Portfolio now use Brightspace Editor | Updated feature released in May 2022/20.22.5 has revealed several technical constraints which are currently preventing this feature from functioning properly. As a result, the Brightspace Editor functionality is not currently available in Brightspace Portfolio. For more information, see Portfolio – Brightspace Editor User Interface Is Not Available In Rubrics
Brightspace Learning Environment
Assignments – Save time by copying assignments to other courses you teach | New
Instructors who teach several courses and have the new Assignments > Copy to Other Courses permissions are now able to copy assignments between their courses. The copied assignment includes the following key assignment properties:
- Assignment folder and properties, including instructions, assignment category, and visibility
- Assignment properties including description, attachments (direct file attachments, uploaded from Google Workspace or OneDrive, and audio and video files), and category
- Grade item and grade category
- Availability dates
- Submission and completion information, including the Optional Grade item and the course scheme if used.
- Rubric(s) associated with the assignment. When copying an assignment that uses a shared rubric, instead of linking a copied assignment to a shared rubric, the rubric is also copied. The copied assignment links to the copied rubric. If an assignment uses a rubric that is archived, the rubric is copied and retains the archived state in the destination courses.
The following attributes are not copied:
- Instruction quicklinks and attachment resources created with the Attach link to existing activity action.
- Instruction images added using Insert Image that were saved to course files.
- Availability Release conditions and special access settings
- submission and completion information including group assignment designation.
- Evaluation and Feedback information including Turnitin associations, competency, and outcome associations.
- Content topic associations (for example, if the assignment is linked from content)
NOTE: In some cases, references to links and images that are not copied may result in broken links.
The Copy to Other Courses option appears in the context menu of assignments.
Figure: The Copy Assignments dialog enables you to select the associated rubrics and grade items and choose destinations.
In the Copy Assignment dialog, you can select any rubrics and grade items associated with the selected assignment to include them in the copy package. The Choose Destinations area enables you to search by keyword or semester to find the destination courses for the assignment. Only course offerings for which a user has the Copy to Other Courses permission appear in the Choose Destinations list. By default, the maximum number of courses you can select is 10.
Figure: The Copy Assignments dialog enables you to select the associated rubrics and grade items and choose destinations.
After you have completed the Copy Assignment dialog, the progress page indicates the status of each destination course and any issues. If you navigate away from the progress page, a minibar notification in Brightspace Learning Environment indicates when the assignment has been copied to all the destination courses. You can click the notification to open the progress page to review the status and logged issues.
This feature partially implements PIE item D6762 - Post the same assignment to multiple courses, and D5754 - Export assessments to multiple courses
Technical Details
Impact:
Availability:
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for Assignments users.
- All roles that should be able to copy assignments to other courses must have the new Assignments > Copy to Other Courses permission enabled at the course offering level. Instructors must have the permission in both the originating and destination courses.
- Language terms for this new workflow are found in the WebComponents tool package under the d2l-copy-assignment-to-other-courses\copy-assignment-to-other-courses collection.
Brightspace Learning Environment – Improved and consistent multi-contextual filter dialog | Updated
With this release, Brightspace Learning Environment is refreshing the multi-contextual filter dialog user inferface component to ensure consistent filtering functionality across the platform. Changes to the filter dialog include:
- Multi-dimensional filters now represent dimensions in a nested list instead of tabs
- Ensuring that most filter dimensions have a search field
- Changes in padding and styling for applying filters across each dimension
- Improved mobile responsive behavior
Previously, only certain filter dimensions had a search field.
The areas of Brightspace Learning Environment being updated by this feature are:
- My Courses Widget: Department/Semester Filters
- Insights: Filters on various dashboards
Figure: A comparison of the new and previous My Courses Widget filters.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to all users due to the updated user interface of the multi-contextual filter.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This feature is automatically enabled.
Brightspace Pulse – Pulse App now only supported on Android 6 / iOS13 and above | Updated
With this release, the Brightspace Pulse App is now only supported on the following mobile operating systems:
- Android 6 and above
- iOS13 and above
This ensures that mobile level support is consistent across all D2L Apps, rather than being on a per-app basis; and consistent with Android and Apple policies concerning operating system support.
Previously, Brightspace Pulse was supported on Android 6 and iOS12 and above.
Technical Details
Impact:
Availability:
To enable:
Manage Files – New/Edit File workflow change | Updated
Currently, when choosing the New File or Edit File option from Manage Files, users see a dialog open that must be moved or expanded to become properly visible. If users attempt to use the advanced code editor (source code editor), they open a second dialog that is not sized correctly and cannot be resized due to constraints from the first dialog.
Now, the New File and Edit File options in Manage Files open in a new tab in the user's browser in order to support more efficient editing. By allowing the editor to open in a new tab, the advanced code editor dialog now opens fully.
Technical Details
Impact:
Availability:
To enable:
Quizzes – Create engaging assessments quickly with the new quiz creation experience | Updated
The new quiz creation experience brings create and edit consistency changes from Assignments to Quizzes.
Figure: Quizzes tool in Brightspace Learning Environment.
The primary panel on the left contains common, frequently used fields that are always displayed. These fields are most relevant to learners and are core to quiz creation. The add/edit question workflow has been brought into the primary panel, giving users the ability to easily modify quiz questions without the need to navigate to a separate interface.
The right-hand panel organizes additional, more advanced options such as start and end dates, release conditions, and special access. These options follow the same logical groupings as found in Assignments. Other quiz-specific settings can be found in the right-hand panel including creating a password protected quiz, applying IP restrictions, adjusting quiz timing, setting display options, managing attempts, and altering evaluation and feedback settings.
See the Welcome to the New Quiz Creation Experience knowledge article for an in-depth look at all the feature and capability changes with this update.
Technical Details
Impact:
Availability:
To enable:
Note: The configuration variable default is OFF.
Rubrics - Quickly determine a Rubrics state with archived tags and selection list descriptions | Updated
To provide consistency with other Rubrics experiences and build on the value of the Rubrics tool, there are several improvements in this release.
Archived Rubrics now appear with an archived tag
The Archived tag enables users to update rubric versions while keeping the existing evaluation records available for instructors and learners to review. Previously, when you changed a rubric, previous evaluations were removed. Now, if you change the status of a rubric to Archived, there are no effects on the alignment of rubrics to any assessment activities or previous evaluations that were completed using the rubric. Rubrics that are changed to an Archived status after the initial alignment to the activity continue to display and can be used for evaluation. There is a new Archived tag that appears on rubric tiles in activity creation and activity evaluation workflows to provide information to instructors and course developers that a rubric previously aligned to an activity is now archived. The Archived tag appears in both full-screen and pop-out views of the rubric in Grades, Competencies, and in the Consistent Eval experience. In addition, it appears in rubrics results pages and during evaluation for instructors in collapsed, expanded, and full-screen view. You cannot add archived rubrics to assessment activities ad new rubric alignments - this behavior has not changed.
Note: The archived state tag is not visible to learners. If you have been evaluated using an archived status rubric, the learner can see those evaluations and feedback.
Rubric descriptions now appear in the Rubric picker list
The Rubric selection dialog window now includes the first two rows of the rubric description to enable instructors and course designers to better identify the version of a rubric when its name is being reused for a current rubric.
The help description for Status in the Rubrics tool now more clearly explains the interaction of archived status rubrics
The help text icon now appears next to the Status column heading, and the Archived Status text now more accurately reflects the available interactions with archived status rubrics. Specifically, it expands the description to indicate that archived rubrics do not appear in default search results and cannot be added to activities; however they can be evaluated. Further, archiving a rubric does not remove it from activities or published feedback.
Figure: The Archived tag appears under the Rubric title.
Figure: The Archived tag in the Rubrics list of Consistent Evaluation.
Figure: The Archived tag in the Rubrics detail view of Consistent Evaluation
Figure: The new location of the help icon in the Rubric Status column.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to the additional Rubric information provided by the Archived tag and rubric description.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients who use Rubrics with any assessment tool across the Brightspace Learning Environment.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for Rubrics users.
Note: Administrators may see a new Edit Assessed Rubrics permission in the Roles and Permissions tool. This new permission has no bearing on this feature and will be included as part of a future release.
Surveys – Use signed comments feature no longer supported | Removed
The d2l.Tools.Surveys.UseSignedComments configuration variable will be set to zero for all clients and the ability for clients to set the configuration variable will be removed.
This configuration variable controlled the availability of the Signed Comments feature for instructors. This feature allowed instructors to control the visibility of Signed Comments and enabled instructors to add an option to written response questions in anonymous surveys.
This option was not available to instructors since the New Question Creation workflows were set to On for all users in December 2018. However, previously created surveys and questions with this option continued to present the option to learners.
Technical Details
Impact:
Availability:
To enable:
May 2022
Brightspace Learning Environment – Updated default font and color stylings for improved accessibility | New
This feature introduces a color change to fonts and icons in Brightspace Learning Environment to meet WCAG guidelines.
Previously the dark grey font #494c4e did not meet the 3:1 contrast ratio with the color of our links. The new font #202122 (still grey!) is darker and meets the WCAG link contrast criteria for accessibility. This change is visible in most locations in Brightspace Learning Environment.
Figure: Before and after showing the updated font color visible in the My Courses widget.
Figure: Before and after showing the updated font color visible in text and inline links.
This feature has accessibility impacts, including:
- WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.4.1 Use of Color
- WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to all users due to updated font and color stylings across Brightspace Learning Environment to meet accessibility guidelines.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
Brightspace Pulse – Added @mention push notifications | New
Brightspace Instructors (depending on their role definition within their institution) can now use @mention push notifications to direct a message to Learners using Pulse. Originally, @mentions came through Brightspace Learning Environment but were only visible if the user opened Pulse and viewed their Subscriptions tab under Notifications. Now, the new functionality sends a push notification to the user when they are @mentioned.
Note: These notifications are available in the Pulse Notifications > Subscriptions area and are still available in Discussions. @Mentions are currently not supported in Activity Feed.
Technical Details
Impact:
-
Slight impact to instructors who can now receive push notifications when they are tagged in a Discussion topic.
-
Slight impact to learners who can now receive push notifications when they are tagged in a Discussion topic.
Availability
To Enable:
Brightspace Pulse – Updates and subscriptions now align with all update subscription Alerts in Brightspace | Updated
In Brightspace Pulse, the Updates and Subscriptions tab is now aligned to show the same items as the Alert Bell and Discussions in Brightspace Learning Environment.
All Brightspace alerts now display within the Pulse Updates and Subscriptions tab. Improved logic in how alerts are sent to Pulse ensures that alerts are no longer sent from courses that are inaccessible (courses that are inactive or past their end date).
Technical Details
Impact:
-
Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to consistently view alerts across the Learning Environment.
-
Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to consistently view alerts across the Learning Environment.
-
Slight impact to learners due to the ability to consistently view alerts across the Learning Environment.
Availability
To Enable:
HTML Editor – Improved context link menu supports previewing of quicklinks in Brightspace Editor | Updated
This feature implements a new and improved context link menu in Brightspace Editor. The new menu has the same functionality as before – enabling users to highlight text and create a link, edit the link, remove the link, and preview the link – but now also enables support for the previewing of quicklinks that contain replace strings while editing their HTML. The new formatting context menu continues to allow users to highlight text within the editor and apply formatting or create links.
Previously, when a user created a new quicklink within the editor that contains a replace string, this proved not replaceable by the context menu. Clicking to preview the link resulted in a 404 Error.
Figure: The layout of the new Content link menu.
Figure: The layout of the old Content link menu.
Figure: The layout of the new formatting context menu.
Figure: The layout of the old formatting context menu.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators due to user interface updates and the ability to preview quicklinks in HTML Editor.
- Slight impact to instructors due to user interface updates and the ability to preview quicklinks in HTML Editor.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This feature is automatically enabled.
Manage Files – Improved error message when invalid files are uploaded | Updated
Building on the Manage Files – Users receive warning message when uploading a file blocked due to security | New feature added in the November 2021/20.21.11 release, this feature adds an improved error message to the File Upload dialogue. When a user attempts to upload a file containing one or more illegal characters in the file name, this message explains to the user the reason why the upload failed.
Previously, users received a generic "Oops! Your file could not be uploaded" message, which did not explain the reason the file upload failed.
Figure: The File Upload dialogue with the new error message displayed.
This feature implements PIE Items D4412 (Improve error message for assignment submissions with bad file names); D4401 (DCS invalid file notification prior to upload); and D8757 (Clearer error message when file uploads are rejected due to illegal characters in file name).
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to instructors due to the improved clarity provided by the new error message.
- Slight impact to learners due to the improved clarity provided by the new error message.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This feature is automatically enabled.
Manage Files – Shared Files renamed to Public Files | Updated
To better secure files by making users aware of the availability of files in the Shared Files area, this feature renames Shared Files to Public Files. In addition, when files are uploaded to the Public Files area, a warning message is displayed indicating that the files are publicly available.
To avoid breaking any links referencing already-existing files with this change, the file path within Shared Files has not been renamed with this feature update. Permission language terms are updated but the internal permission name is not. The effect of this will be that Roles and Permissions exports will remain functional if they were exported prior to the name change.
Figure: The renamed Public Files area with the warning message indicating the public status of uploaded files displayed.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators due to the renaming of the tool area and the addition of a warning message.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This feature is automatically enabled.
New Content Experience – New Edit pages for Lessons are now default | Updated
In this release, the new edit pages with date management are now default for New Content Experience (Lessons). The new create and edit experience was first released for Lessons in August 2021/20.21.8, and makes the experience of creating and editing activities more consistent across all of Brightspace.
The new experience is controlled by two configuration variables:
- d2l.Tools.Content.LessonsCreateExperienceOptIn default value is now On (Opt-In). Previously, the default value was Off.
- This setting displays the new edit pages to instructors, but allows them to choose to revert to the old experience.
- d2l.Tools.Content.NewExperienceDisplayDates default value is now On. Previously, the default value was Off.
For clients who previously overrode the default value for these configuration variables, there is no change to their selected values.
For more details about what has changed with this new experience, refer to Updates to the New Content Experience in Brightspace Community.
This feature implements PIE items D5773 (Lessons: add release condition), D6000 (Update Release Conditions in New Content Experience), D7323 (Release dates & times in Content), and D5896 (New Content Experience pacing dates don't push to the calendar).
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators due to a new default value for two configuration variables.
- Slight impact to instructors due to new options available on the content editing pages.
- Slight impact to learners due to visibility of availability and due dates.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients who have Lessons enabled.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
April 2022
Brightspace Learning Environment
Brightspace Editor – Advanced code editor visual update and accessibility improvements | Updated
Minor visual updates made to the advanced code editor in Brightspace increase the readability of tags and text in the advanced code editor and place the Save and Cancel buttons in consistent locations. Improved compatibility with screen reader technology is also included in this feature.
Previously, certain screen readers in specific form settings were unable to access or read from the advanced code editor.
This feature makes no changes to the functionality or workflows associated with the advanced code editor.
Figure: The updated location of the Save and Cancel buttons for the advanced code editor.
This feature has accessibility impacts, including:
• WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to users due to minor changes in the location of the Save and Cancel buttons in the advanced code editor and additional support for screen reader users.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients
To enable:
- This feature is automatically enabled for Brightspace Editor users.
Brightspace Insights – Quiz filter and contextual help added to Assessment Quality Dashboard | Updated
This feature builds on the Assessment Quality Dashboard updates released in Brightspace Platform 20.22.3/March 2022 with two more usability improvements:
- A new search input in the Quiz Details area where users can enter the name of a quiz to filter the dashboard results. Filtering the dashboard to quizzes with the same name allows users to compare multiple occurrences of the same quiz to see how the statistics vary.
- Hover text added to the "!" icons to provide context to users about when to act on flagged quizzes and questions.
Administrators can still return to the legacy Assessment Quality Dashboard experience by disabling the d2l.Tools.Insights.AssessmentQuality.EnableNewExperience configuration variable.
Figure: The updated Assessment Quality Dashboard with the Search by Quiz Name box highlighted.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Moderate impact to administrators due to additional features on the Assessment Quality Dashboard.
- Moderate impact to instructors due to additional features on the Assessment Quality Dashboard.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients who have the Performance Plus package or who have purchased Brightspace Insights in the previous packaging model.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
Data Hub – Course Access Log Brightspace Data Set | New
This release adds the new Course Access Log Brightspace Data Set (BDS), which returns information on users accessing their course offerings using the Pulse app. The data set creates a row with a timestamp when a user initially accesses a course, and creates additional rows for every 30 minutes that the user spends in the course.
The new Course Access Log BDS complements the existing Course Access BDS, which only reports on course access from the LMS via a browser.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators due to the addition of a new data set.
Availability:
- This feature is available to Brightspace Insights and Brightspace Core clients in all regions.
To enable:
- Ensure the Can Access Brightspace Data Sets permission is granted to administrators at the org level and the d2l.Tools.BrightspaceDataSets.Version configuration variable is set to version 7. New and changed data sets appear the first time the data set runs after the version update.
- Ensure that Brightspace Pulse is enabled in your organization. For more information, see Deploying Brightspace Pulse.
Data Hub – End of Adoption Period for Brightspace Data Sets Version 7 | New
Brightspace Data Sets Version 7 was first announced in the October 2021/20.21.10 release notes. With this release, the adoption period for Version 7 has ended and it is the only supported version.
Version 7 includes major changes that remove columns in existing Brightspace Data Sets:
- Removed VisibleStartDate, VisibleEndDate, PostingStartDate, and PostingEndDate columns from Discussion Forums BDS.
- Removed VisibleStartDate, VisibleEndDate, PostingStartDate, and PostingEndDate columns from Discussion Topics BDS.
- Removed ChecklistItemCount column from Checklist Objects BDS.
- Removed NumberOfItems column from Checklist Category Details BDS.
For more information about this version update, refer to Motivations behind the changes in Data Hub Brightspace Data Set Major Version 7.0 October 2021 Release in Brightspace Community.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Large impact to administrators who have not already opted in to Brightspace Data Sets Version 7.
Availability:
- This feature is available Brightspace Insights and Brightspace Core clients in all regions.
To enable:
- Ensure the Can Access Brightspace Data Sets permission is enabled for administrators at the org level and the d2l.Tools.BrightspaceDataSets.Version configuration variable is set to version 7. New and changed data sets appear the first time the data set runs after the version update.
Group/Section Management – Asynchronous Group Creation | New
This feature moves group creation and enrollment to background task, minimizing risk of timeouts when creating large numbers of groups requiring enrollments.
When instructors create and save a new group category, the Groups tool displays the category and prompts instructors that their group or groups are being created in the background; further, it indicates that the instructor will be notified once the groups are created. The instructor who created the group receives a subscription alert in the minibar that indicates that the groups for their courses have been created.
While this is in process, the Brightspace UI indicates that "Group creation is in progress". While processing, users are unable to make changes to groups or enrollments.
To facilitate these changes, and the potential for allowing clients to make much larger numbers of groups in a category, this feature introduces pagination to the Groups tool, that limits each page to a maximum of 200 groups. In addition, the header row for the category has been moved to above the grid and the Delete and Email options are added to the Category dropdown menu.
Figure: The updated Groups page with the 'Group Creation in Progress' message highlighted.
Figure: The updated Groups page with the Category dropdown menu and the Delete and Email options highlighted.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to instructors due to ability to create groups as a background task, and due to changes to the Groups tool layout.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This feature is automatically enabled.
Intelligent Agents – Create Agent page facilitates more flexible scheduling and frequency options | Updated
Building on the Intelligent Agents – Agent List page changes | Updated feature released in February 2022/20.22.2, this feature changes the Intelligent Agents Create Agent page to facilitate additional scheduling options and frequency options to allow for improved flexibility.
The changes to the Create Agent page include:
- A modernized user interface. This is a visual upgrade and does not impact functionality.
- Scheduling options have been moved to the top of the page.
- The ability to expand/collapse each section on the agent creation page (Scheduling, Criteria, Actions) to improve usability.
- Two new agent frequency options:
- One-Time Run allows instructors to choose a single date and time to run.
- Hourly allows instructors to choose a date and time to run between. If no dates are chosen, the Hourly agent runs every hour with the first time being "now" (that is once the agent is saved and enabled).
- The existing Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Annually options all now have a Scheduled Time option that users complete to determine what time that the agent will run on the dates scheduled for the agent to run.
- The Subject line of the agents' emails now supports up to 128 characters. This brings it inline with the Email tool. Previously, the character limit was 100 characters.
Figure: The Intelligent Agent scheduling page with the Hourly option selected.
This feature implements PIE items D7457 (increase Intelligent Agent email character limit to 128); D5830 (Allow easier 'once off' intelligent agent scheduling); D5208 (Add "Time' Option to Restriction to Schedule of Intelligent Agent); and D7726 (Ability to Run Intelligent Agents Multiple Times Per Day).
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to instructors due to the new options when scheduling an Intelligent Agent.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This feature is automatically enabled.
My Courses Widget – Language now managed in language pack | New
This feature adds language pack support for the My Courses Widget, allowing customers to customize language terms within the widget. Administrators can make these changes with the Language Management tool. Language terms are found under the Tool Package WebComponents in Collections d2l-my-courses\d2l-my-courses, d2l-enrollments\Enrollment, and d2l-image-selector\ImageSelector.
This feature implements PIE items D6255 (Language Management variables allowing custom terms) and D4457 (Ability to update the message in the language management tool).
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to customize language tools in the My Courses Widget.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This feature is automatically enabled.
New Content Experience – Add and edit dates for Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive link topics | Updated
When the new create and edit experience is enabled, instructors can use a new edit page for Google Drive and OneDrive links where dates can be added and edited or associated files can be replaced. This more closely aligns to how links to other web items can be edited and increases the consistency of create and edit workflows across Brightspace Learning Environment.
Previously, only the topic title could be edited for Google Drive and Microsoft One Drive link topics in the new content experience.
Administrators must ensure that the d2l.3rdParty.GoogleDrive.EnableGooglePicker configuration variable is enabled for the Replace button to appear for Google Drive topics and the d2l.3rdParty.OneDrive.EnableOneDrivePicker configuration variable is enabled for the Replace button to appear for OneDrive topics.
Note: Microsoft OneDrive files cannot be embedded in Brightspace, as a result the Display Options portion of the page does not display for OneDrive files. The Replace button only displays if the File Picker configuration variables are enabled.
Figure: The updated editing page for Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive link topics.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Moderate impact to administrators due to the need to enable the necessary configuration variables.
- Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to edit dates and replace associated files for Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive link topics if they are opted in to the new create and edit experience.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients who have enabled the New Content Experience and the new create/edit workflow experience.
To enable:
- Ensure that the d2l.Tools.Content.LessonsCreateExperienceOptIn configuration variable is enabled, along with the d2l.3rdParty.GoogleDrive.EnableGooglePicker, and d2l.3rdParty.OneDrive.EnableOneDrivePicker variables, depending on which integrations are in use.
Rubrics – Customize language terms in Rubrics | Updated
It is now possible to update the language package for the Rubrics tool with client-specific terminology. Using Language Management, administrators can apply the d2l-rubric lang term collection to apply language translations and create custom overrides to rubric web components. This enables instructors, learners, and other users to see language in Rubrics that more closely resembles the institutional policies for assessment language.
Figure: The tool package and language term collection for the Rubrics update.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators who now have the ability to apply translations and custom overrides to Rubric web components using the Language Management tool.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for Rubrics users through the Language Management tool.
Rubrics – Rubric Overall Score is available in Brightspace Portfolio and Brightspace Parent & Guardian | Updated
With this update, the Overall Score now appears below the rubric criterion evaluations in Brightspace Portfolio and Brightspace Parent & Guardian, providing a consistent Rubrics experience with all Brightspace Learning Environment tools. Previously, Brightspace Portfolio and Brightspace Parent & Guardian tools did not recognize rubric functionality improvements available in other tools. Now, instructors and other evaluators can add or remove a manual override of the Overall Score level in all assessment tools.
In the Overall Score, screen readers are informed that the overall score levels are selectable items. When the user navigates between levels, the screen reader reads the level order, level name, point level, level content, and selection status.
Figure: The Overall Score in Brightspace Portfolio and Brightspace Parent and Guardian, consistent with other Rubrics tool experiences.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to instructors and other evaluators due to the availability of the Overall Score in Brightspace Portfolio and Brightspace Parent & Guardian.
- Slight impact to administrators, learners, parents, and other users who now see the rubric Overall Score in Brightspace Portfolio and Brightspace Parent & Guardian.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients using Rubrics with Brightspace Portfolio or Brightspace Parent & Guardian.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for Rubrics users.
SCORM – Edit dates and associated grade items for LOR based SCORM packages | New
SCORM packages added from the LOR using the New Content Experience now have an improved editing experience. When the new create and edit experience is enabled, instructors see a new edit page for LOR sourced SCORM packages. The editing page allows instructors to edit dates and associated grade items (like Imported SCORM topics) and edit LOR details and version information (like other LOR topics). This brings greater consistency to the create and edit workflows for all activities in Brightspace.
Previously, in the New Content Experience, only topic titles were editable for LOR based SCORM.
Figure: The new edit page for LOR based SCORM packages in the New Content Experience
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to Administrators due to the need to set the value of the d2l.Tools.Content.LessonsCreateExperienceOptIn configuration variable.
- Slight impact to Instructors as there are new editing options for LOR based SCORM packages in the New Content Experience
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- Ensure that the d2l.Tools.Content.LessonsCreateExperienceOptIn configuration variable is enabled so instructors can opt-in to the new create/edit experience.
Ouriginal – Language updates for improved clarity and removal of opt out option | Updated
The Ouriginal interface has updated its language terms to display similarity in all places that previously referenced plagiarism. For example, Assignments Analyzed for Similarity now displays in place of Assignments Analyzed for Plagiarism.
The opt out option has also been removed from the submission menu as its function has changed. This change is due to General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), as the submitter and receiver are never shown when there is a match outside of a user's organization. Opting out in this scenario would prevent instructors from viewing information on matches from within their own organization.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to instructors due to language changes in the Ouriginal interface.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all Ouriginal clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for Ouriginal users.
Title
Brightspace Platform April 2022/20.22.4 Release Notes
URL Name
Brightspace-Platform-April-2022-20-22-4-Release-Notes
March 2022
Announcements and Feature Information
Note the following important updates:
- After removing the Downloadable Release Note document from our Release Note deliverable, we determined that there are unpredictable results when copying and pasting table text. To mitigate the impact of tables reformatting to a size larger than the text editor page, starting with the March 2022 Preview Release Notes, we are now presenting Technical Details without a table.
- A new User Attributes API is available, and it enables users to Read (GET) and Write (PUT) user attribute value data. This feature implements PIE item D5941 - Import User Attributes via API.
- As of the March 2022/20.22.3 Release, all instances of URKUND in the Brightspace Learning Environment will appear as Ouriginal.
- *Added on 3-March-2022 Updated the title of Brightspace Insights – Additional features added to the new Assessment Quality Dashboard (previously called Brightspace Insights – Metrics for Flagged Questions added to the new Assessment Quality Dashboard), added Link Out to Quiz Edit Page component, and removed Quiz Reliability Metric component.
- *Added on 3-March-2022 Added the Content - Workflow improvements to creating media topics feature.
- *Added on 3-March-2022 Renamed the Profiles Widget — Displays a list of users and their roles in a course to learners feature to Multi-Profile Widget — Displays a list of users and their roles in a course to learners.
- *Added on 3-March-2022 Updated the Brightspace Parent & Guardian - Improved experience viewing grades on a mobile device feature to reflect the final design.
- *Added on 3-March-2022 Removed the SCORM — Edit dates and associated grade items for LOR based SCORM packages feature. This feature will be added in a future release.
Brightspace Learning Environment — Improved layout of show/hide interface
To improve consistency across the platform, this release features a stylistic upgrade to the layout of the show/hide interface. This does not affect usability or change interactions; in addition, all accessibility interactions remain unchanged.
Figure: The updated show/hide interface.
Figure: The show/hide interface before this release.
Technical Details
Impact:
No impact to users.
Availability:
This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
This feature is automatically enabled for all users.
Content — Media Library added to Classic Content Experience
This feature adds the Media Library to the Classic Content Experience, which is accessible by navigating to Existing Activities > Media Library.
Figure: The Media Library option in the Existing Activities dropdown menu of the Classic Content Experience.
For more information about the Media Library functionality, refer to Evolving The Audio-Video Experience in Brightspace Community.
Technical Details
Impact:
Slight impact to Instructors due to the ability to access Media Library.
Availability:
This feature is available to all clients using Classic Content Experience.
To enable:
Ensure the Content Service > Can Manage Objects permission is enabled at the Org level.
February 2022
Content – Print and Download in fullscreen | Updated
The Print and Download buttons are now available when viewing a topic in fullscreen, using the classic Content experience.
Previously, the options to print and download a topic only appeared on the main Content view, and when users opened a topic in fullscreen by clicking View content in new window, those options were not available.
Figure: Top of a fullscreen topic page, with the new Print and Download buttons in the top right.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to learners due to the availability of print and download options in a new location. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: Ensure the Compile and Print Content and Download Content Topics permissions are enabled for learners at the org level. |
Brightspace Editor – Additional Page Attributes (Language and Title) | Updated
This feature adds a new tab to the existing Attributes menu of Brightspace Editor, allowing users to enter page attributes for language and/or title when viewed. This new menu only appears in legacy Content, Lessons, and Custom Widgets.
Figure: The new Page Attributes tab in the Attributes menu.
This feature also adds two new configuration variables, that provide users the option to have the language attribute and/or title element on HTML pages applied on render, without having to manually enter in the attributes for each page. These attributes are:
- d2l.Tools.Content.ApplyPageTitleElement (Default is OFF); and
- d2l.Tools.Content.ApplyPageLangAttribute (Default is OFF)
If enabled, the title is set to the content topic title, and/or the language is set to the locale for the orgunit the content originates from. With this change, users of assistive technology are provided descriptive information about the document they are viewing.
Note: The new configuration variables apply only to legacy Content.
Previously, users had to manually add code into the source editor to add language and/or title page attributes.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to enable Language and/or Title attributes appear on HTML pages. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: Ensure that the d2l.Tools.Content.ApplyPageTitleElement configuration attribute is set to ON for Titles to display. Ensure that the d2l.Tools.Content.ApplyPageLangAttribute configuration attribute is set to ON for Language to display. |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to add Language and/or Title attributes to pages. |
N/A |
Intelligent Agents – Agent List page changes | Updated
This feature adds the following new functionality to the Agent List page, where users manage the Intelligent Agents they have created:
- The ability to create, assign, and manage categories; and
- A new Bulk Edit for some agent details: title, category, and active/inactive state.
This feature also updates the icons denoting the active/inactive state of each agent.
Figure: The new Intelligent Agent List page, with the bulk edit and category management functionality.
This feature implements PIE Item D7196.
This feature addresses the following accessibility criteria:
- WCAG 2.1 Success criterion 1.3.6 Identify Purpose
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to assign and managed agent categories and Bulk Edit agent details. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Intelligent Agent users. |
January 2022
Brightspace Platform January 2022/20.22.1 Release Notes
The following release notes are for clients installing Brightspace Learning Environment 20.22.1 (January 2022). The functionality, screens, and configuration of features are subject to change before release.
Features included in this information are available and hosted in all geographic regions D2L supports unless otherwise noted in the feature’s Technical Details section. If the feature is not available and hosted in all geographic regions, D2L will provide the location(s) of the supported regions and any applicable restrictions.
Brightspace apps are available for download from any global Google Play™ store or Apple App Store®. The apps are generally released at the beginning of the month, and then sometimes mid-month, if issues are found. Depending on how your device is configured, the apps may update automatically or you may have to manually check for new versions.
D2L recommends reviewing the final release notes to determine if there are any changes that impact your organization. To receive notifications about updates, click Follow.
Links To Additional Information
Links to external sites and non-release notes articles on Brightspace Community:
Downloadable Release Notes
To download the Platform Release Notes for January 2022/20.22.1, click the attached document.
Announcements and Feature Information
Note the following important updates:
- Clients may notice an update to their Ouriginal integration in the form of a new Ouriginal Similarity score on submission folders. This was released in November in a hotfix. For more information see the fixed issue article: LE - Urkund - Ouriginal Significance May Not Be Shown.
- At this time, Video Tutorials and Video Course Packages are no longer updated. As such, video tutorials no longer appear in Brightspace Help and Downloadable Help Packages. Instead, refer to Brightspace Guided Training for instructional videos.
- Updated the Brightspace Pulse – Subscription notifications for Discussions | Updated feature to include PIE item D8654.
- Updated the Content - Date management and display for LOR Links in Lessons | New feature to remove the component where a preview of the LOR object is embedded in the edit page. This component will be added in a future release.
- Updated the Discussions - Scoring Rubric drop-down for evaluations | New feature to correct the rubric type that does not populate the overall grade.
Brightspace Learning Environment
Brightspace LeaP – Available in the Singapore region | New
As of this release, Brightspace LeaP is now available to clients who require Singapore hosting for regional or data residency requirements.
The regional LeaP LTI Launch Point URL for Singapore is https://leaplti-ap.brightspace.com/D2LLink.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to users due to the ability to access Brightspace LeaP LTI in Singapore AWS region. |
Availability: This feature is available to all Brightspace Performance Plus clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for all Brightspace LeaP users. |
Brightspace Learning Environment – Improved editing features in Audio-Video Editor | New
This feature introduces new capabilities to the Audio-Video editor for files uploaded to the Content Service. Users can now edit video timelines, create chapters, and add captions to their videos. D2L recommends using the desktop experience when editing audio-video files.
Editing timelines allows users to skip unwanted sections of a video recording.
Chapter titles can be used to create a Table of Contents for videos to allow quick navigation to specific sections.
Captions can be uploaded from a .vtt or .srt file or automatically generated to make videos accessible to all users.
Videos can be edited from course content or by using the Edit > Advanced Editing option in the Admin Tools menu.
No permission changes are required for this feature.
In Content/Lessons, the editor features are only available for newly uploaded audio-video files and do not apply to files that were uploaded prior to this feature being introduced.
This feature addresses the following accessibility criteria:
• WCAG 2.1 Success criterion WCAG 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded)
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to users due to new abilities in the Audio-Video editor. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled.
Administrators with the Media Platform > Can Insert All Video Notes and Can Administer Video Notes and the Content Service > Can Manage All Objects permissions can see the Edit options for all Video Notes.
Users with the Media Platform > Can Upload Video Notes and Can Administer Video Notes permissions, along with the Content Service > Can Manage Objects permissions can see the Edit options for Video Notes they uploaded.
For additional information, including screenshots, of the updated Audio-video player and editor visit the Evolving the Audio-Video Experience blog post. |
Brightspace Learning Environment – Improved viewing features in Audio-Video player | New
To improve the functionality of the Audio-Video player in Brightspace Learning Environment, multi-bitrate streaming, and search functionality are now available.
Multi-bitrate streaming allows high-definition videos to be played at standard definition to reduce the bandwidth necessary for users to watch videos.
The new search functionality allows users to locate key words in video captions and quickly navigate to those sections.
This feature addresses the following accessibility criteria:
• WCAG 2.1 Success criterion WCAG 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded)
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to users due to new abilities in the Audio-Video player. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled.
For additional information, including screenshots, of the updated Audio-video player and editor visit the Evolving the Audio-Video Experience blog post.. |
Brightspace Learning Environment – Supported browsers | Updated
With this release, Brightspace Learning Environment's browser version check now displays warnings for browsers earlier than the following versions:
- Chrome 93 (released in August 2021)
- Safari 13 (released in September 2019)
- Firefox 91 (released in August 2021)
- Edge 93 (released in August 2021)
You can access Brightspace Learning Environment with older versions of our supported browsers; however, D2L does not test Brightspace Learning Environment against these older versions. This means you may encounter unexpected user interface behavior and appearance or broken and unsupported functionality. In most cases, D2L does not fix software defects experienced in unsupported browser versions. For an optimal experience that offers better performance, accessibility, and security, D2L strongly recommends that all users access Brightspace Learning Environment with the latest version of a supported browser.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Moderate impact to users depending on the browser they choose to use with Brightspace Learning Environment.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Brightspace Learning Environment users. No further action is required.
For more information, see Browser support.
|
Brightspace Pulse – Subscription notifications for Discussions | Updated
With this release, subscription notifications in Brightspace Pulse are now consistent with subscription notifications in Brightspace Learning Environment. From the Notifications > Subscriptions tab in Brightspace Pulse, learners now receive all replies to discussions they are subscribed to and @-mentions in discussion threads. Previously, the subscription notifications that learners received in Brightspace Pulse were inconsistent with the subscription notifications that they received in Brightspace Learning Environment.
This feature implements PIE item D8654.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
No impact to administrators.
|
Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Pulse clients in all regions.
To enable: Download the latest version of Brightspace Pulse, available from any global Google Play™ store or Apple App Store®. The app is generally released at the beginning of the month, and then sometimes mid-month, if issues are found. Depending on how your device is configured, the app may update automatically, or you may have to manually check for new versions.
|
| Slight impact to learners due to receiving all subscription notifications in Brightspace Pulse. |
For more information, see View notifications in Brightspace Pulse. |
Calendar – Improvements to Date and Time Selection Web Components | Updated
Building upon the Calendar – Improvements To Date And Time Selection Web Components | Updated feature released in Brightspace Platform March 2021/20.21.3 Release Notes, this release updates the date and time picker in Brightspace Learning Environment to include the following usability changes:
- The Set to Today button is renamed to Today. The Today button continues to set the date and the time based on the context. For example, choosing Today for an End Date sets the current date and sets the time to 11:59 PM.
- Added a Now button that sets the current date and time. The Today and Now buttons only appear when a date and time are required. When only a date is required, only the Today button appears and functions the same as the Now button.
- The Today, Now, and Clear buttons are center-aligned in the date and time picker.
This feature implements PIE item D7627.
This feature addresses the following accessibility criteria:
- WCAG 2.1 Success criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard
Figure: The new date and time picker in Brightspace Learning Environment
Figure: The previous date and time picker in Brightspace Learning Environment
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to users due to usability updates of the date and time selector web components. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for all tools that use the date and time selector. |
Content - Completion tracking for New Learner Experience | Updated
With this release, the activity completion tracking in New Learner Experience (LX) no longer includes optional activities. This removes redundant information and provides clarity for learners to distinguish between optional and required course content. Updates include the following:
- Removed completion count 0/0 from Table of Contents, navigation menu, and End of Unit page for modules with no required activities.
- Note: This applies when there are no topics in a module, or all the topics in a module are either optional or the learner is exempt.
- Removed empty progress meter from navigation menu and End of Unit page for modules with no required activities.
- Removed completion checkmark from navigation tile for optional or exempt activities that the learner has completed.
- Total Activities component added to End of Unit page, only for modules with one or more optional activities. This component provides a count of all required activities in the module, a count of all optional activities in the module, and the note "Optional activities are not required for the completion of this Unit".
- Note: the count of optional activities includes both optional and exempt activities.
- Header on End of Unit page is now "Optional Activities Unit" for modules with no required activities. Previously, the header was "Nice work so far!" if any activities in the module were incomplete, or "Congratulations!" if all the activities in the module were complete.
- Button on End of Unit page is now I'm Done! for modules with no required activities. Previously, the button was Back to Content if any activities in the module were incomplete.
- These are the pieces left to complete this unit list on End of Unit page only includes incomplete required activities. Previously, the list included all incomplete activities, both required and optional.
Figure: Old navigation and End of Unit page for a module with no required activities, showing 0/0 progress meters.
Figure: New navigation and End of Unit page for a module with no required activities, showing where the progress meter has been removed and the Total Activities component has been added.
Figure: New End of Unit page for a partially complete module, with a combination of required and optional activities.
This feature implements PIE items D7824 and D8581.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to learners because optional and exempt activities display differently and are no longer included in completion tracking. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for New Learner Experience users. |
Content - Date management and display for LOR Links in Lessons | New
This release introduces a new layout and date management experience for editing linked LOR objects in the new Content experience (Lessons). The experience is consistent with the Content - Date management and display in Lessons | New feature released in August 2021/20.21.8.
Previously, the edit page for LOR link content topics in Lessons only allowed users to edit the title and provided no additional information about the object.
Figure: Old LOR edit page, where Edit Title is the only property that can be changed.
With this release, the edit page for LOR link content topics in Lessons includes:
- Ability to change topic name.
- Ability to add or change Due Date, Start Date, and End Date.
- Ability to change display option.
- Information about the LOR object, including:
- Document name
- Version number
- Last edit date
- File type
- Repository name
- Settings button, which opens the Learning Object Properties dialog.
- Previously, users accessed this dialog by navigating to the Options menu and clicking Use a different version. This release removes that option from the menu.
Figure: New LOR edit page, including date management, display options, document information, and settings button.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to allow users to opt-in to the new LOR object edit experience.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: Ensure the d2l.Tools.Content.LessonsCreateExperienceOptIn configuration variable is set to On(Opt-In). |
| Moderate impact to instructors due to the new edit experience for LOR link content topics. |
N/A |
Content - Link to Content Report in Lessons | New
This release adds a link to the Content Reports page for courses using the new Content experience (Lessons). To access, open the settings menu by clicking the gear symbol next to +New Unit, and click View Reports.
Previously, the only way to access content reports from Lessons was creating a custom link on the navbar.
Figure: View Reports link as it appears in the settings menu in Lessons.
This feature implements PIE item D7643.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators and instructors due to the ability to access content reports without a custom quicklink. |
Availability: This feature is available to all roles with See Content Statistics permission.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Lessons users. |
Content Service – Uploaded media files use Content Service | New
To improve the functionality of audio-video files in Brightspace this feature ensures most audio-video files are handled by the Content Service. The new capabilities are documented in the Brightspace Learning Environment – Improved viewing features in Audio-Video player | New, and the Brightspace Learning Environment – Improved editing features in Audio-Video Editor | New features from this release. Newly uploaded audio-video files can now take advantage of all the features of the Content Service, and similar behavior is experienced in all locations where media files can be uploaded or edited. Audio-video files that were uploaded prior to this release do not have access to the features available to files hosted by the Content Service. All audio-video files uploaded to Content service are now automatically converted to mp4 files (or mp3 for audio) to ensure they are playable on all supported devices.
Note: Videos uploaded as Assignment submissions or uploaded to a course’s Manage Files area continue to use the legacy method for handling files.
To manage media files used by the Content Service, this feature introduces the following new permissions:
• Content Service > Can Manage Objects
• Content Service > Can Manage All Video Notes
The Content Service > Can Manage Objects permission allows users to upload video and audio files to Course Content using the Content Service, and edit their own content using the Advanced Editing options. This permission requires the Content > Manage Content (at the Course offering level) permission. Roles that currently have the Content > Manage Content permission are automatically assigned the new Content Service > Can Manage Objects permission.
The Content Service > Can Manage All Video Notes permission allows users to manage and edit video notes uploaded by any user at their Organization in the Audio/Video Notes Editor. This permission requires the Media Platform > Can Insert Any Video Notes, and the Media Platform > Can Administer Video Notes permissions. This permission is intended for administrators as it grants access to all Video Notes uploaded by your organization.
The existing Content Service > Can Manage All Objects permission (reserved for administrators) is updated to allow users to edit all Video/Audio notes in the Audio/Video Notes Editor. Users with this permission can also modify Video or Audio Notes with the built-in editing tools. This permission requires the Content > Manage Content, Media Platform > Can Insert Any Video Notes, Media Platform > Can Upload Video Notes, and the Media Platform > Can Administer Video Notes permissions. The Can Manage All Objects permission grants full access to Content Service objects, including the ability to permanently delete files, and should only be granted to roles that require unlimited access to files uploaded by your organization.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to new permissions and permission requirements introduced by this feature. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: Ensure that the new and existing permissions that control media file uploads are set appropriately for all necessary roles at your Organization.
For additional information, including screenshots, of the updated Audio-video player and editor visit the Evolving the Audio-Video Experience blog post.
For additional information on the Content Service, visit Brightspace Help. |
| Slight impact to instructors and learners due to new options available to edit uploaded audio-video files hosted by the Content Service. |
N/A |
Course Import/Export – Logging improvements | New
To simplify user access to import/export logs, the Course Import/Export tool now includes import/export logs as part of the Course Import/Export History, which include navigation breadcrumbs. In addition, the logs display the results in the order of import/export operations. Previously, import/export logs opened in a new tab and displayed the results out of order, without navigation breadcrumbs.
Figure: The new import log in the Course Import/Export tool
Figure: The previous import log in the Course Import/Export tool
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators and instructors due to workflow changes for viewing import/export logs. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for all users. |
Discussions – Scoring Rubric drop-down for evaluations | New
To make the Discussion evaluation consistent with the Assignments evaluation, this feature adds the Grading Rubric drop-down to the sidebar menu. This allows the instructor to choose a grading rubric when evaluating a discussion.
If a normal topic assessment with Points/Custom Points-based rubric is selected, this rubric is the one whose score transfers to the Overall Grade field. The score transfer does not occur if Allow assessment of individual posts or a Text rubric is selected.
Figure: The new Discussions evaluation with the Grading Rubric drop-down.
Figure: The previous Discussions evaluation without the Grading Rubric drop-down.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to choose a grading rubric when evaluating a discussion. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Discussions users. |
November 2021
Brightspace Learning Environment
Brightspace Editor – Additional support for drag/drop and copy/paste images | Updated
Expanding further on the Brightspace Editor – Drag/drop and copy/paste images | Updated feature released in October 2021 / 20.21.10 and Brightspace Editor – Improvements | Updated feature released in May 2021 / 20.21.5, additional tools and editors now support the drag/drop and copy/paste functionality, including:
- Quizzes > Feedback
- Grades > Feedback
- Grades > Comments
- Discussions > Feedback
This functionality is now available in user-specific areas that may contain images with learner-sensitive information. As a result, these images are stored in the database rather than the Manage Files area of a course offering. In addition, the Course Copy function does not include these images.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to users due to the copy/paste and drag/drop functionality being available across more areas in Brightspace Learning Environment. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for all users. |
Email – Increased Limits for To and CC Fields | Updated
This feature increases the number of email addresses that can be added to the To and CC fields in a single email to 200. This is a result of increased limits on the size of headers in Brightspace SMTP servers.
Previously, the limit was 50 email addresses.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to users due to the ability to send and/or CC emails to additional email addresses. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: Ensure that the user has the Access Email permission enabled at the Org Unit level for their role. |
Manage Files – Users receive warning message when uploading a file blocked due to security | New
This feature provides the user with a warning message if they attempt to upload a file with an extension that is either not allowed by the Assignment or is on the security restricted list. This message appears as "This file extension is not allowed." for Assignments; and as "This file extension is not allowed for security reasons. Please see our Restricted File Extensions article in the D2L Community for more detailed information." for security restricted file extensions.
Users can restrict Assignment extension types by enabling the d2l.Tools.Dropbox.RestrictFileExtensions configuration variable, as described here.
The security restricted file extensions list is found here.
Figure: The warning message displayed when attempting to upload a security-restricted file extension.
Figure: The warning message displayed when attempting to upload an assignment with a restricted file extension.
This feature implements PIE item D3945.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to users due to the ability to see warning messages. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: The functionality for security restricted file extensions is automatically enabled for Brightspace Learning Environment users. To enable this functionality for assignment file extensions, set the d2l.Tools.Dropbox.RestrictFileExtensions configuration variable to ON. |
Work To Do Widget – Date range configuration variables | Updated
To increase the value of the Widgets - Work To Do widget | New feature released in May 2021/20.21.5, there are now two configuration variables available to customize date ranges used by the widget.
- The d2l.Tools.WorkToDo.OverdueWeekLimit (Org) configuration variable sets the date range that determines how far into the past overdue items appear in the Work To Do widget. By default, the widget displays items with due dates for the previous 12 weeks, which administrators can increase up to 52 weeks.
- The d2l.Tools.WorkToDo.UpcomingWeekLimit (Org) configuration variable sets the date range that determines how far into the future upcoming items appear in the Work To Do widget. By default, the widget displays items with due or end dates within the upcoming 2 weeks, which administrators can increase up to 52 weeks.
To set these two configuration variables, administrators require the Can See/Edit Config Variable Values permission.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the new ability to set the date range for when overdue and upcoming items appear on the widget. |
Availability: This feature is available to all Brightspace Core clients using the Work To Do widget
To enable: To set these configuration variables, administrators require the Can See/Edit Config Variable Values permission. |
| Slight impact to learners who will see the overdue and upcoming items according to the configured date ranges. |
N/A |
October 2021
Assignments - Preview Activity in Evaluation mode | Updated
Previously, users who did not have edit permissions for assignments could not preview assignments. As a result, not all evaluator types could see assignment information such as assignment instructions, start date, or due dates.
Now, in Evaluation mode, there is a Preview Activity option in the Assignment context menu to see a preview of the assignment. Evaluators with the See and Manage Assignment Submission Folders permission can use the Preview Activity option to view the assignment information, but cannot edit the assignment properties or dates.
Figure: The Preview Activity option appears on the context menu for the assignment.
Figure: The Assignment Preview enables users to view the assignment information, but they cannot edit it.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to evaluators that do not have edit permissions for assignments due to the new ability to preview assignments. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: Ensure that evaluator roles without edit permissions have the See and Manage Assignment Submission Folders permission in order to use the preview. |
Brightspace Editor – Drag/drop and copy/paste images | Updated
This feature complements the Brightspace Editor functionality as released in the Brightspace Editor – Improvements | Updated feature released in May 2021 / 20.21.5.
The drag/drop and copy/paste functionality of images is now available in the following areas that contain no user-specific data.
- Content Module/Topic Descriptions
- Quiz/Survey/Self-Assessment - Description, Header. Footer
- Grades - Description
- Content Course Overview descriptions
- Discussion Forum/Topic descriptions
Note: Similar to current functionality, image files added to these areas are saved in the root of the Manage Files area of the organization unit the user is currently in.
This feature partially implements PIE items D7884, D2190, and D7968.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to users due to the copy/paste and drag/drop functionality being available across more areas in Brightspace Learning Environment. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for all users. |
Brightspace Editor – Email notifications for users tagged in discussion posts and threads | Updated
This feature updates the Brightspace Editor – Additional functionality | Updated feature released in June 2021 / 20.21.6 and now adds the ability for users tagged in discussion posts and threads to receive email notifications.
The new Discussions - mentioned in a discussion post or thread option appears in the Notification Administration page (Admin Tools menu > User Related > Notifications > Notification Defaults) when the following configuration variables are turned on:
- d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.Mentions
- d2l.Tools.Discuss.Notifications
The d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.Mentions configuration variable is turned off by default.
When the above configuration variables are turned on by your administrator, the Discussions - mentioned in a discussion post or thread option is displayed to all users under the Instant Notifications area (on the minibar, click on your username > Notifications > Instant Notifications).
If your administrator has enabled the Discussions - mentioned in a discussion post or thread option under Notification Defaults (Admin Tools menu > User Related > Notifications > Notification Defaults) the new Discussions - mentioned in a discussion post or thread option under the Instant Notifications area (your username > Notifications > Instant Notifications) is enabled by default for all newly created users. Users can disable this option if required.
The ability to tag users is controlled by multiple permissions. A role must have the following permissions to use the @mention functionality when it is enabled for their organization unit:
- User Information Privacy > See First Names*
- User Information Privacy > See Last Names*
- Users > Search for {role}
When a user is tagged, their profile is linked to their tagged name. To view the profile of another user, the following permission is required:
- User Profile > View Other Users’ Profiles
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to enable the email notification defaults for new users. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: Ensure that the d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.Mentions configuration variable is turned ON for the organization units that want to use @mentions. It is set to OFF by default.
The d2l.Tools.Discuss.Notifications configuration variable is turned ON by default.
To set email notification as a default option for newly created users, in the Admin Tools menu > User Related > Notifications > Notification Defaults area, select the Discussions - mentioned in a discussion post or thread option.
Ensure that the following permissions are turned on for the required roles:
- User Information Privacy > See First Names*
- User Information Privacy > See Last Names*
- Users > Search for {role}
- User Profile > View Other Users’ Profiles
|
Brightspace Pulse – Operating system support | Updated
The latest version of Brightspace Pulse is supported on devices with iOS® 12+ or AndroidTM 6.0+ (2015 release). Older versions of Brightspace Pulse will continue to work on devices with iOS 11 or Android 5.0, but will not receive any app updates. For an optimal experience, D2L recommends installing the latest version of Brightspace Pulse on devices with iOS 12+ or Android 6.0+.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
No impact to administrators.
|
Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Pulse clients in all regions.
To enable: Download the latest version of Brightspace Pulse, available from any global Google Play™ store or Apple App Store®. The app is generally released at the beginning of the month, and then sometimes mid-month, if issues are found. Depending on how your device is configured, the app may update automatically, or you may have to manually check for new versions.
|
| Slight impact to learners due to updated operating system support. |
N/A |
Content - Add Print Button to PDF file types | Updated
This feature adds the option to print PDF file types to Classic Content.
The Print button is visible when viewing a PDF topic or the Course Overview as a PDF. This button will also only appear for users with Compile and Print Content permission.
No option to print PDFs was previously available.
Figure: PDF view in Brightspace Classic Learning Environment - Content prior to this release, highlighting the absence of a print functionality.
Figure: PDF view in Brightspace Classic Learning Environment - Content highlighting the location of the Print button.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to users due to the ability to print PDF files. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Content users, regardless of whether the d2l.Tools.DocumentViewers.CustomPdfRendererEnabled is on or off. |
Course Import - View Course Import history | New
Users can now view the history of course import attempts for courses in a specific org unit. From the Import/Export/Copy tool on Course Admin, users can view the Course Import History page, which includes the following information for each course import attempt:
- the original package name
- status of the import
- user who created the import job
- the timestamp for the import attempt
The content is sorted by Start Time (Descending) by default. After users have viewed the page, they can return to the Import/Export/Copy Components landing page in the Course Administration or click View Import Log to see a more detailed log. The log opens at the last line for the conversion you are viewing.
Figure: The View Import History link is available from the Import/Export/Copy Components tool in the Course Administration area of their course.
Figure: On the Course Import History page, you can view the import log for more information about the import attempt.
This feature implements PIE items D2336 and D5473.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to course designers and instructors who can check the import history for a course. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: Ensure that the user has the Import/Export/Copy Components > Import Content Packages permission for their role. |
Integrations
LTI® 1.3 - Additional substitution parameters available | New
Previously in LTI Advantage, substitution parameters that were duplicated in the Security Settings were not available in the LTI Select Substitution Parameter dropdown in Brightspace Learning Environment. Now, administrators and instructors can use additional substitution parameters when setting up new links.
The ability to send time zone parameter substitutions in LTI Advantage is also added in this update.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to use substitution when setting up a new link, and the ability to set a time zone in LTI Advantage. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for LTI Advantage users.
|
| Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to use substitution parameters when setting up a new link. |
N/A |
September 2021
Assignments – Create select box grade items in the New Assignment Creation Experience | New
This feature builds on the Add categories capability in the Assignment Creation Experience | New feature released in July 2021/20.21.7.
With this release, the new assignment creation experience supports creating new select box grade items. Previously, only numeric grade items could be created from the new assignment creation experience.
In addition, this feature provides support for choosing a grade scheme when creating numeric or select box grade items. Grade categories now progressively display when creating a grade item. Previously, grade categories always displayed when available.
Also, to make interface text more clear, the following labels have been renamed in the new assignment creation experience:
- Score out of is now Grade out of
- In Grades is now In Gradebook
- Choose in Grades is now Edit or Link to Existing
- Remove from Grades is now Not in Gradebook
When creating a new assignment as an instructor, under Grade Out Of, click Ungraded.
Click In Gradebook, and then select Edit or Link to Existing.
From the Edit or Link to Existing dialog, the following options may display under Create a new grade item:
- If the Grades tool has available grade categories, the Choose Grade Category option displays. Clicking this button displays available grade categories for association.
- If the Grades tool has multiple grades schemes, the Change Grade Type & Scheme option displays. Clicking this button displays available grade types and schemes for association.
Click OK, and then Save.
Figure: In Gradebook options when creating a new assignment
Figure: Edit or Link to Existing options when creating a new assignment
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| No impact to administrators. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This feature is automatically enabled for Assignments users. |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to create new select box grade items. |
N/A |
Assignments - Delete Submitted Files permission | New
This feature releases the new Delete Submitted Files permission, which determines whether or not you can delete an assignment submission file.
This new permission is turned on by default for existing roles with the See and Manage Assignment Submission Folders and View Submitted Files permissions and it is turned off for all other roles.
When the Delete Submitted Files permission is turned off, the Delete functionality for bulk actions on the Assignments > Submissions tab and the context menu of each submitted file no longer appears. On the Assignments > Users tab, the Delete functionality for bulk actions and the icon to delete individual submission files no longer appears.
Figure: The Assignments > Submissions tab and the assignment submission context menu with the Delete functionality before this update
Figure: The Assignments > Users tab with the Delete functionality for bulk actions and the icon to delete individual submission files before this update
This feature implements PIE item D1620.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to enable the permission to delete assignment submission files. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: The new Delete Submitted Files permission is turned on by default for existing roles with the See and Manage Assignment Submission Folders and View Submitted Files permissions and it is turned off for all other roles.
No further action is required. |
Assignments - Restricting file extensions for submissions | Updated
Instructors can now specify the extensions of files that learners can upload as assignment submissions. When an instructor is creating a file submission assignment, if the d2l.Tools.Dropbox.RestrictFileExtensions configuration variable is set to ON, there is a drop down in the Submission and Completion section of the New Assignment Creation Experience. In this drop-down list, instructors can choose the restrictions they want. Choices include:
Note: When a .GIF file is converted to PDF, only the first frame of the .GIF displays.
- .PDF only
- Files that can be previewed without any conversion, such as .HTM, .HTML, .MHT, .MHTML, and .BMP
- Images and videos
- Custom filetypes
If an instructor choses Custom File Extensions, they can then enter file extensions that are allowed for file submissions. When this restriction is set, learners are presented with a list of acceptable file extensions for their assignments. When a learner attempts to upload a file submission for an assignment of an file extension type that the instructor has restricted, an error message appears.
This feature implements PIE items D138, D4412, D8087, D3945, and D6154
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors who can now restrict the file types for assignment submissions. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is enabled for clients who have the d2l.Tools.Dropbox.RestrictFileExtensions configuration variable is set to ON. |
| Slight impact to learners who are made aware if their assignment submission has a restricted file type. |
N/A |
Brightspace Learning Environment - Set and view user pronouns | New
This feature releases the following permissions:
- User Information Privacy > See Pronouns – enables a user to see pronouns in the profile card and enables administrators to use the Users API.
- Account Settings > Set My Pronoun – allows a user to set their own custom pronouns. A user can choose to hide their pronouns if pronouns are enabled, regardless of permissions.
Once the org level d2l.Settings.EnablePronouns configuration variable is set to ON and the new Set My Pronoun permission is granted to a user role, users can set their pronouns through Account Settings. If a user role also has the User Information Privacy > See Pronouns permissions, they can see pronouns set by the users they interact with in the respective user’s profile card. If user pronouns are set and then the option to set pronouns is disabled, a user’s pronouns are no longer displayed.
If user's pronouns exist in a different system of record, and if you have the User Information Privacy > See Pronouns permission turned on for your role, you can systematically add these pronouns through the Users API. Users can choose to show or hide their pronouns in Brightspace Learning Environment and you can grant them permission to set their own pronouns or not.
Note: The d2l.Settings.EnablePronouns configuration variable was released in the August 2021 / 20.21.8 release to enable development work on this feature.
Figure: The area under Account Settings, where you can set your pronouns
Figure: A user profile card with the pronouns displayed
This feature implements PIE items D5207 and D7231.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to ability to enable users to set pronouns. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: Ensure that the org level d2l.Settings.EnablePronouns configuration variable is set to ON and that the Set My Pronoun permission (Roles and Permissions > Account Settings) is turned on for the appropriate user role.
Ensure that the User Information Privacy > See Pronouns permission is enabled for the administrator role in order to use the Users API. |
| Slight impact to users due to the ability to set their own pronouns and to view pronouns set by the users they interact with. |
Availability: N/A
To enable: Ensure that the User Information Privacy > See Pronouns permission is enabled for the appropriate user role. |
Brightspace for Parents – Mobile app | New
To make it easier for parents and guardians to see what their children are working on, what’s on the schedule, and the latest news from the classroom, Brightspace for Parents is now available as a mobile app for iOS® and Android™.
From the Home tab, a parent or guardian can view the following:
- The Work to Do widget displays a summary of assigned learning activities from all courses that are overdue or have an upcoming due date or end date. Counters for each section indicate how many learning activities remain to be completed, along with information about each learning activity's name, due date, and course name.
- The Recent Grades widget displays released grade items for all the courses their child is enrolled in.
- The Portfolio Items widget displays the two latest shared Portfolio items belonging to their child that have been shared by the instructor. They can also view all previously shared Portfolio items from their child's portfolio.
- The Latest Posts widget displays an aggregate Activity Feed from all the courses their child is enrolled in. For example, the instructor might post reminders about upcoming assignments and links to course materials.
From the Notifications tab, a parent or guardian can view notifications for upcoming assignments or quizzes for their child.
Figure: The Home tab in the Brightspace for Parents app displaying the Work To Do and Recent Grades widgets
Figure: The Notifications tab in the Brightspace for Parents app displaying notifications for upcoming assignments and quizzes
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to administrators due to the availability of a new mobile app for parents.
|
Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Core clients in all regions.
To enable: The Brightspace for Parents web application must be currently enabled in your school's Brightspace Learning Environment.
To specify the login type for the Brightspace for Parents app, contact D2L Support. The app supports the following login configurations:
- Local login, for example, the Login landing page created by the Login Page Management tool - This is the default login configuration, even if not using the Login Page Management tool for students. Modify your login landing page to use the existing login section for parents and add a login link for teachers and students.
- External login, for example, an external Single Sign-On (SSO) landing page - Modify your SSO landing page to add a login link for parents. As a best practice, add a link that allows new parents to create a parent account.
Note the following:
- Custom hosted login pages are supported if they are the default student login method (and parents or guardians use it).
- As a best practice, add a link that allows new parents to create a parent account.
- As an administrator, you can test logging in to the mobile app by creating a mock parent account and adding some mock children into a course. Logging in as an administrator does not display any relevant information in the mobile app.
To view the Portfolio Items widget, enable Brightspace Portfolio in your school's Brightspace Learning Environment.
To view the Latest Posts widget, enable Activity Feed in courses that children are enrolled in.
Notify parents and guardians that they can download the Brightspace for Parents app from any global Google Play™ store or Apple App Store®. The app is generally released at the beginning of the month, and then sometimes mid-month, if issues are found. Depending on how your device is configured, the app may update automatically, or you may have to manually check for new versions.
The Brightspace for Parents app is supported in the following geographic regions:
- U.S.
- Canada
- Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA)
- Asia Pacific (Singapore and Australia)
You can download the Brightspace for Parents app in the following languages:
- Arabic (Saudi Arabia)
- Chinese (Simplified)
- Chinese (Traditional)
- Danish
- Dutch
- English (U.S.)
- French (Canada)
- French (France)
- German (Germany)
- Japanese
- Korean
- Portuguese (Brazil)
- Spanish (Latin America)
- Swedish
- Turkish
The Brightspace for Parents app is supported on the following operating systems:
Note: For an optimal experience, D2L recommends using the Brightspace for Parents app on a mobile device with the latest version of a supported operating system.
- AndroidTM 5.0 or later on tablets or phones
- iOS® 11.0 or later on iPhone®, iPad®, and iPod® touch
|
| Moderate impact to parents due to a new mobile app for Brightspace for Parents. |
To log in to the Brightspace for Parents app, obtain the following from your school's Brightspace administrator: the URL or name of your school's Brightspace Learning Environment, and a Brightspace username and password.
Learning activities only appear in the Work To Do widget when the activity has a defined due date or end date. By default, the widget displays activities due or ending in the upcoming 2 weeks, and overdue work from the previous 12 weeks.
In the Work To Do widget, you can tap the following items to display more information:
You cannot tap the following items:
-
Content
-
Quizzes
-
Surveys
-
Checklists
Surveys and checklist items do not display in the Recent Grades widget, since they are not gradable.
To view the Portfolio Items widget, Brightspace Portfolio must be enabled in your school's Brightspace Learning Environment.
To view the Latest Posts widget, Activity Feed must be enabled in courses that your child is enrolled in. If enabled, you can read posts and access shared links from Brightspace for Parents; however, you cannot access content files.
|
Brightspace Portfolio – Visual indicators for new evidence | New
To allow instructors to more easily identify new evidence for review, this release adds the following visual indicators:
- When viewing evidence from the main Portfolio page, a New icon appears on newly submitted pieces of evidence.
- When viewing learner portfolios from the main Portfolio page, a numeric value and New Evidence appear on applicable learner portfolios, indicating the number of new pieces of evidence.
- When viewing evidence from the Approval page, a New icon appears on newly submitted pieces of evidence.
These new visual indicators and filtering are ideal for higher learning organizations where the share evidence with instructors workflow is enabled. In this workflow, submitted evidence immediately appears in learner portfolios, and instructors do not see the evidence until learners explicitly share it with them. Previously, the share evidence with instructors workflow did not have any visual indicators or filtering to easily identify new evidence for review.
Figure: From the main Portfolio page, the New icon on a piece of evidence in tile format
Figure: From the main Portfolio page, a numeric value and New Evidence appear on a learner's portfolio in list format, indicating the number of new pieces of evidence
Figure: From the Approval page, the New icon on a piece of evidence and a numeric value on a learner name, indicating the number of unapproved pieces of evidence
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
No impact to administrators.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Brightspace Portfolio users. No further action is required.
|
| Slight impact to instructors due to new visual indicators for evidence. |
The visual indicators for new evidence display in the share with instructor workflow and approve evidence workflow.
The visual indicators are unique to each instructor. Specifically, each instructor sees the visual indicators for new evidence based on their activity or review of the evidence. To mark evidence as viewed (no longer new), do one of the following:
- Click the evidence to view it.
- From the evidence tile, click the (...) Options menu and select an action.
- From the Approval page, next to the evidence tile you want to approve, click Approve to Portfolio.
|
Data Hub - Retain time limits and due dates for Quiz Attempts | Updated
To increase the value of the Data Hub offering, this release adds the following new columns to the Quiz Attempts Brightspace Data Set (BDS):
- DueDate: the due date of the quiz attempt.
- TimeLimit: the amount of time, in minutes, that a learner has to complete the quiz attempt.
- GracePeriod: the amount of time, in minutes, that a learner has to complete the quiz attempt in addition to the time limit.
- TimeLimitEnforced: indicates whether the time limit on this quiz attempt is enforced.
- GracePeriodExceededBehaviour: if the time limit is enforced for this attempt, indicates the desired behavior when the grace period is exceeded.
- ExtendedDeadline: the extended deadline learners are allowed beyond the grace period for this attempt, in minutes.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Moderate impact to administrators due to the addition of new columns to an existing Brightspace Data Set. |
Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Insights and Brightspace Core clients in all regions.
To enable: Ensure the Can Access Brightspace Data Sets permission is granted to administrators at the org level. New data sets appear the first time the data set runs after the CD update. |
Discussions - Configuration Variable, Data Set, and Custom Data Export changes | New
The following changes to Discussions are included in this release:
- The default value of the d2l.Tools.Discuss.ConsolidatedDatesEnabled configuration variable is now set to ON for all clients. Administrators who want to turn off the feature can do so using the Config Variable Browser after the update is complete. Existing overrides to this variable are not changed by this update.
- The Learner Usage Advanced Data Set now accounts for discussion topics that are marked as Hidden before start date, or Hidden after end date in the Content Completed and Content Required columns.
- The GradeItemsWithCommentsExport Customer Data Export now accounts for discussion topics and forums that are marked as Hidden before start date, or Hidden after end date.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Moderate impact to administrators due to changes to the default value of the d2l.Tools.Discuss.ConsolidatedDatesEnabled configuration variable, and how hidden discussions are handled by data sets and custom data export. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: This feature is automatically enabled. If you want to change the value of the d2l.Tools.Discuss.ConsolidatedDatesEnabled configuration variable it can be done through the Config Variable Browser after the update is complete. |
| Moderate impact to instructors due to possible changes to their Discussions experience. |
N/A |
Discussions - New Discussion Evaluation Experience | Updated
This feature is a continuation of the Discussions - Consistent evaluation experience feature introduced in August 2021/20.21.8.
With this release, the d2l.Tools.Activities.CEDiscussionOptIn configuration variable is set to On(Opt-In) for all Orgs.
With this setting, the new evaluation experience for Discussions appears first for all users, but they have the ability to opt-out until the December 2021/20.21.12 release, at which time the new evaluation experience for Discussions will become the only option available.
For more detail about the improvements in this new experience, visit the Welcome to Our New Discussion Evaluation Experience post on Brightspace Community.
For additional information on the consistent evaluation experience across all Brightspace tools, visit the What is Coming in Evaluation: 20.21.12 post on Brightspace Community.
This feature implements PIE items D5609, D6911, D5148, D4920, D4859, D4685, D4728, D3673, D3539, D3430, D3116, D2348, D2211, D2178, D4393, D7253, D2514, and D512.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Moderate impact to administrators due to the change in default setting for an existing configuration variable. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Discussions users. |
Discussions – Org Defined Id field in the legacy User Profile card | New
When an instructor hovers over a learner's profile in the Discussions tool, the legacy User Profile card now displays the value of the Org Defined Id field, if enabled in the Profile Cards tool. By default, the new Org Defined Id field in the Profile Cards tool is enabled.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
No impact to administrators.
|
Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Core clients in all regions.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Discussions users. To hide the Org Defined Id field, navigate to Admin Tools > Profile Cards.
D2L recommends displaying the Org Defined Id field only if existing business rules are satisfied, such as User Information Privacy permissions and the d2l.Settings.OrgHasOrgDefinedId configuration variable.
The legacy User Profile card also respects the settings in User Information Privacy, Admin Configuration, Preferred Names, and Online Status Preference.
Display of the Org Defined Id field is not affected by the d2l.Tools.Discuss.User.ShowOrgDefinedId configuration variable.
|
| Slight impact to instructors and learners due to the new Org Defined Id field that displays in User Profile cards. |
N/A |
Import / Export / Copy Components – Export release conditions in course packages | New
Now when you export Brightspace Learning Environment course packages, you can export release conditions and any associations. As a result, you no longer need to re-create these release conditions when you import the course package.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to export and import release conditions in course packages. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: Ensure that the existing Import Content Packages and Export Content Packages permissions are turned on for Import/Export/Copy Course Component users. |
Learning Groups – People And learning restrictions for use in the same org | Updated
This feature is an update to the Learning Groups – People and learning restrictions for use in the same org | New feature introduced in October 2020/20.20.10.
Access to the Restrictions page (via the Learning Group Management page) is now limited to a development-partnership release. As Learning Group Restrictions functionality continues to evolve, the settings previously found on the Restrictions page are now managed by D2L Learning Group Implementation. Clients with restrictions in use as of August 31 will be added to the development-partnership. Other interested clients may contact their D2L representative for consideration.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators who can no longer set restrictions for learning groups users and courses. |
Availability: This feature is restricted for Corporate clients running Brightspace Core and Education clients running Brightspace Core that have purchased Pd for Edu.
To enable: This functionality is automatically restricted for Learning Groups users. No further action is required. |
Local Authentication Security - Icon to indicate accounts with 2FA set up | Updated
This feature builds on the Local Authentication Security – User Interface Improvements | Updated feature that was released in August 2021/20.21.08.
The Local Authentication Security page > Authorized Users list now includes a lock icon alongside a username if two factor authentication (2FA) has been set up for that user account.
Figure: The Local Authentication Security page > Authorized Users list with the lock icon next to user accounts with 2FA set up
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the above update. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: The Local Authentication Security page is set to ON by default on the Organization Tools page for all clients. |
Org Unit Editor – Read only view and API updates | New
This feature releases the new View Org Unit Editor permission that enables users with this permission to view the Org Unit Editor in read only mode. As a result, you can now grant certain roles the ability to make org structure API calls without the ability to edit the org structure.
This permission also updates the following API routes. As a result, roles with this new permission can only use the following API routes to run GET functions; POST and DELETE functions will not be possible.
GET /d2l/api/lp/(version)/orgstructure/
GET /d2l/api/lp/(version)/orgstructure/(orgUnitId)
GET /d2l/api/lp/(version)/orgstructure/childless/
GET /d2l/api/lp/(version)/orgstructure/orphans/
GET /d2l/api/lp/(version)/orgstructure/(orgUnitId)/ancestors/
GET /d2l/api/lp/(version)/orgstructure/(orgUnitId)/children/
GET /d2l/api/lp/(version)/orgstructure/(orgUnitId)/children/paged/
GET /d2l/api/lp/(version)/orgstructure/(orgUnitId)/descendants/
GET /d2l/api/lp/(version)/orgstructure/(orgUnitId)/descendants/paged/
GET /d2l/api/lp/(version)/orgstructure/(orgUnitId)/parents/
GET /d2l/api/lp/(version)/orgstructure/(orgUnitId)/colours
GET /d2l/api/lp/(version)/orgstructure/recyclebin/
This feature implements PIE items D2079 and D5383.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the above update. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: Ensure that the View Org Unit Editor permission is turned on for the appropriate role. |
Rubrics - Additional information on Grade tiles | Updated
When a rubric is collapsed, instructors can now see if the rubric is complete. If the rubric is complete, the collapsed rubric shows the overall level of the rubric, and if the rubric is not complete, the number of unscored criteria appears on the tile.
Previously, it was only possible to see the overall score of the rubric when the rubric was expanded.
Figure: Previous Experience collapsed tile for unscored rubrics (points-based and text-only rubrics)
Figure: New Experience collapsed tile for partially scored points-based rubric
Figure: Previous experience collapsed tile for partially scored text-only rubrics
Figure: New Experience collapsed tile for completed rubrics (points-based and text-only rubrics)
In addition, customers using rubrics with the New Evaluation Experiences can see Rubrics Statistics from within the evaluation panel.
This feature implements PIE item D7716
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors who have more visibility about the status of collapsed rubrics |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Rubrics users |
Rubrics – Brightspace Editor Additional Functionality | Updated
This feature updates the Brightspace Editor – Additional Functionality | Updated released in June 2021/20.21.6 and updated in Brightspace Editor – Available in ePortfolio External Comments and Quiz Builder | Updated released in July 2021/20.21.7. This update includes the following:
- The Brightspace Editor toolbar now appears in the following locations:
- Rubrics Creation and Edit experiences in the Description field
- Rubrics Creation and Edit experiences in the Feedback field
- Evaluation mode in the Feedback field.
- The Insert Stuff and Insert Quicklink buttons now appear in the different views with additional formatting options.
Figure: The Brightspace Editor in the Rubrics Description field
Figure: The Brightspace Editor in the Rubrics Feedback field
This feature implements PIE items D5342 ,D5143 and D8026.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the availability of the new Brightspace Editor in Rubrics |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients using the New Rubrics Evaluation experience.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for users of the New Rubrics Evaluation experience. Ensure that the d2l.Tools.Rubrics.CreateExperienceOptIn (Org) configuration variable is set to On. |
Rubrics - Copy and delete criteria groups | Updated
In response to client feedback about the New Assignment Evaluation Experience, it is now possible to copy or delete a criteria group on a rubric. The delete option is only available if there is more than one criteria group.
Note: When a rubric with attached assessment items has submissions evaluated against it, the rubric is locked and can no longer be edited or deleted.
After you click Copy Criteria Group, a new criteria group appears below the original criteria group.
If you are using keyboard-only navigation, these options are available in the tab order after the criteria group name. Once the criteria group is copied using keyboard navigation, the keyboard focus moves to the new group's name.
Note: Aligned learning outcomes are not copied when you copy a criteria group. Specific details of the evaluation criterion should be updated and re-aligned with specific learning outcomes which apply to the new criterion elements in the criteria group.
Figure: The Copy and Delete options are available in the action menu on the Criteria Group header.
This feature implements PIE item D4752.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors who can now copy and delete rubric criteria groups. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Rubrics users. |
August 2021
Activity Feed – Date picker change | New
This feature updates the date picker component in Activity Feed. The new date picker has a more streamlined design and requires slight workflow changes: to clear a date/time, use the Clear option and to set the calendar to the current day, use the Set to Today option.
Figure: The date picker component in Activity Feed prior to the update
Figure: Updated date picker component in Activity Feed for due dates
Figure: The Post Later dialog box in Activity Feed
Note: The Date field in the Post Later dialog box is a mandatory field. There remains to be no option to clear this field. You must set this date to a future date or click Cancel to exit this dialog box.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the updated date picker. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: This functionality is automatically turned on for all Activity Feed users. |
Assignments - Consistent evaluation experience | Updated
This feature is a continuation of the Assignments - Consistent evaluation experience feature introduced in December 2020/20.20.12, becoming the default Assignments experience in May 2021/20.21.5.
With this release, the new d2l.tools.Activities.CEAssignmentsOptIn configuration variable is now permanently turned on by default and hidden from administrators, and the legacy assignment evaluation experience is retired.
For additional information on the consistent evaluation experience, visit the What is Coming in Evaluation: 20.20.12 post on Brightspace Community.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to an existing configuration variable that is now permanently turned on by default and hidden. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This feature is automatically enabled for Assignments users. |
| Large impact to instructors due to a new evaluation experience appearing by default in Assignments. |
N/A |
Assignments - Icons in attachments toolbar | Updated
This release updates the attachments toolbar which appears in the evaluation panel on the right side of the new Assignment Evaluation Experience.
Users can now add attachments to their feedback from QuickLinks, web links, Google Drive, and OneDrive using the new icons in the toolbar. Previously, users could only add attachments by uploading a file from their computer, recording an audio note, or recording a video note.
This change aligns the attachments toolbar in the new Assignment Evaluation Experience with the attachments toolbar in the new Create and Edit Assignment Experience.
Figure: Previous attachments toolbar containing icons for Upload File, Record Audio, and Record Video.
Figure: New attachments toolbar containing icons for Upload File, QuickLink, Web Link, Google Drive, OneDrive, Record Audio, and Record Video.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to enable Google Drive Picker and OneDrive Picker. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: Ensure the d2l.3rdParty.GoogleDrive.EnableGooglePicker configuration variable is enabled for the Google Drive icon to appear, and the d2l.3rdParty.OneDrive.EnableOneDrivePicker configuration variable is enabled for the OneDrive icon to appear. |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to add feedback attachments from new sources. |
N/A |
Assignments - Release Conditions sync with Grades | New
Assignment release conditions can now be automatically shared with associated grade items in the new assignment creation experience. This ensures that both items follow the same set of rules and become visible/accessible to learners at the same time. This removes the need for instructors to manually recreate the release conditions in two locations and makes all aspects of the assessment experience consistent for the learner. Administrators can determine the behavior of assignment release conditions with the new d2l.Tools.Grades.ReleaseConditionSync configuration variable. This is an organization level configuration variable; it can’t be set on a course or department level. If the variable is turned on, it is on for all courses.
Only changes made to the release conditions associated to the assignment are transferred to grade items. If changes are made to the release conditions associated to the grade item, those changes are not sent to Assignments. Once an assignment and grade item have their release conditions linked, there is an information message on the Restrictions tab of the grade item, which informs you that release conditions are managed by the associated assignment, with a link to the relevant assignment.
This feature only affects new assignments and edited assignments after the configuration variable is turned on. Existing assignments are not retroactively updated. To update existing assignments, instructors can edit and save individual assignments.
Refer to the Grade Release Conditions Are Removed When The Grade Is Associated To An Assignment article for more information.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the need to update the new configuration variable if they want assignment release conditions to automatically sync with associated grade items. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: Set the new d2l.Tools.Grades.ReleaseConditionSync configuration variable to On.
For more information, refer to the Partner Support page. |
| Moderate impact to instructors due to no longer needing to create identical release conditions in multiple locations to ensure a consistent assessment experience. |
N/A |
Brightspace Editor – Available as the default editor | Updated
This feature updates the Brightspace Editor – Available in ePortfolio External Comments and Quiz Builder | Updated feature released in July 2021/20.21.7.
This release sets the new Brightspace Editor as the default editor across Brightspace Learning Environment. Administrators can no longer edit the d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.NewEditor (Org) configuration variable, which will be archived in the September 2021/20.21.9 release.
As mentioned in the Brightspace Editor – Replaces The HTML Editor | New release note in April 2021, the Brightspace Editor does not have a built in spell checker. Your web browser’s built-in spell check functionality is available in the new Brightspace Editor and D2L recommends using it. However, the d2l.Tools.Quizzing.ShowSpellCheckInAttempts org unit configuration variable is still respected and marks text in Quizzes to be ignored by the browser spell checker. It can be turned off for all quizzes at the org unit level.
The inline limited version of Brightspace Editor is now available in Activity Feed as the default editor.
Figure: The editor in Activity Feed before the update
Figure: The updated inline limited version of Brightspace Editor in Activity Feed
Brightspace Editor HTML options in Activity Feed include: Bold, Italic, Underline, Strike-through, Superscript, Subscript, Font Color, Bulleted Lists, Numbered Lists, Increase/Decrease Indentation, Insert Stuff, Insert Quicklink, and Emoji. Insert Stuff now includes various capabilities, including Video Note functionality.
The Account Settings > HTML Editor Settings option is no longer available as it is not applicable with the new Brightspace Editor. This setting was previously used to make the HTML Editor more accessible to screen readers by removing the RichText presentation layer. Improved accessibility workflows in the new Brightspace Editor make this setting redundant.
Additionally, the Brightspace Editor now remembers the open or closed state of the More Actions button, per user, in order to reduce clicks for users that frequently use options in the expanded editor.
The Brightspace Editor now uses pixels (px) in the font size menu in order to match the Content Settings menu for an org unit’s default font size.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Moderate impact to users due to the new Brightspace Editor being the default editor across Brightspace Learning Environment. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: This feature is automatically turned on for all users. |
Brightspace Learning Environment – Supported Browsers | Updated
As an update to Brightspace Learning Environment – Supported browsers | Updated released in January 2021/20.21.1 and Brightspace Platform – Support alert banner for older browsers | New released in March 2021/20.21.3, the warning banner for legacy Edge has been removed on Aug 1st and replaced with a “your browser is unsupported” page with a Your browser is looking a little retro… pop-up message.
D2L recommends using Brightspace Learning Environment with an up-to-date browser that provides robust support for all features. If you are using Brightspace Learning Environment with a legacy browser, a pop-up message appears directing you to update your browser, change to a supported browser, or dismiss the message.
Currently, the browser version check displays a warning for versions previous to:
- Chrome 90
- Chrome OS Chrome 90
- Mobile Chrome 90
- Safari 14
- Mobile Safari 14
- Firefox 88
- Chromium-based Microsoft Edge 90
Figure: The Your browser is looking a little retro… pop-up message.
The following message appears if you are using one of the following browsers (or older):
- Chrome 67 (released March 2018)
- macOS Safari 12 (released September 2018)
- Firefox 67 (released May 2019)
- Chrome OS Chrome 67 (released Mar 2018)
- iOS Safari 11 (released September 2017)
- Android Chrome 67 (released Mar 2018)
Figure: Legacy support tier/really prominent warning.
If you are using Legacy Edge (older than version 79) or Microsoft Internet Explorer 11, the following message appears:
Legacy Edge (Microsoft Edge versions <79) is now blocked from accessing Brightspace. Cannot proceed at all.
Figure: Blocked support tier warning.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Moderate impact to clients using legacy browsers. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Brightspace Learning Environment users. No further action is required. |
Brightspace Learning Environment – End of Life for Secondary Window Pop-Ups | New
This update brings End of Life status to the Show dialogs as pop-ups setting under Username > Account Settings. All secondary windows now open in Dialogs. Historically, this setting was used as an Accessibility accommodation as not all Screen Readers were able to handle dialogs. Modern screen readers provide better support for dialogs. The associated configuration variable d2l.Preferences.NonModalDialogs(User) is also removed.
Figure: The Show secondary window as setting which has been removed.
Figure: Example of a secondary window opening in a pop up.
Figure: Example of a secondary window opening in a dialog.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to all users. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Brightspace Learning Environment users. No further action is required. |
Brightspace for Parents – Notifications for upcoming due dates | New
To notify parents about their child's upcoming work, administrators can enable the visibility of the 
Update alerts icon in Brightspace for Parents. When visible, this icon indicates there are notifications for upcoming assignments and quizzes that are due in the next 2 days.
To enable visibility of the icon in Brightspace for Parents, administrators turn on the d2l.Tools.ParentPortal.Nav.ShowNotifications configuration variable. The default value is off.
Next, administrators ensure that parents are enrolled in the org as a Parent role; enrollment in the child’s courses are not required.
When parents log in to Brightspace for Parents, the learner selector page displays the Update alerts icon, indicating there are upcoming assignments or quizzes for one or more learners.
Parents click the Update alerts icon, and then one of the notifications from the list. This navigates to that learner's dashboard, where the upcoming assignment or quiz is visible in the Work To Do widget.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to administrators due to enabling a configuration variable.
|
Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Core clients in all regions.
To enable: Turn on the d2l.Tools.ParentPortal.Nav.ShowNotifications configuration variable.
Previously, if the d2l.Tools.ParentPortal.Nav.ShowNotifications variable was turned on, only parents enrolled in courses as Learner role would see the alert notification icon. With this change, parents enrolled in courses as an org-level Parent role now see the alert notification icon.
|
| Moderate impact to parents due to the display of notifications in Brightspace for Parents. |
N/A |
Brightspace for Parents - Responsive design improvements | New
To provide the best experience on mobile devices, Brightspace for Parents web view has been improved to support viewing on smaller screens. There are no workflows changes in the web view, only changes to display and navigation, including improved wrapping, margins, and alignment of images.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| No impact to administrators. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients using Brightspace for Parents.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Brightspace for Parents users. |
| Slight impact to parents due to improved viewing on mobile devices. |
N/A |
Brightspace for Parents – Work To Do widget | New
To provide parents with a clear and consolidated view of their child's work in Brightspace for Parents, the new Work to Do widget displays a summary of assigned learning activities from all their courses that are overdue or have an upcoming due date or end date. Counters for each section indicate how many learning activities remain to be completed, along with information about each learning activity's name, due date, and course name. This widget replaces the previous Overdue banner and Upcoming widget that displayed as separate objects in Brightspace for Parents.
Figure: The new Work To Do widget in Brightspace for Parents
Figure: The previous Overdue banner and Upcoming widget in Brightspace for Parents
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
No impact to administrators.
|
Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Core clients in all regions.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Brightspace for Parents users.
|
| Moderate impact to parents due to a new widget for viewing upcoming and overdue work. |
Learning activities only appear in the Work To Do widget when the activity has a defined due date or end date. By default, the widget displays activities due or ending in the upcoming 2 weeks, and overdue work from the previous 12 weeks. |
Brightspace Portfolio – Improved navigation experience for learners | New
To simplify navigation in the Portfolio tool and allow learners to more easily manage their course portfolios, this release introduces the following usability enhancements:
- A toggle to view all courses or evidence.
- A toggle to view all courses or evidence in tile or list format.
- A list to view active evidence or archived portfolios.
- Evidence filters.
This feature builds upon the ongoing initiative to provide a centralized navigation experience in Brightspace Portfolio.
Previously, the Portfolio tool only displayed all courses in tile format, without any evidence filtering options.
In Brightspace Learning Environment, navigate to your portfolio, and then click View By: Courses or Evidence. By default, Courses is enabled.
Next, click 
Tile View or 
List View. By default, Tile View is enabled.
By default, your portfolio displays Active Evidence in active courses. From the list, you can also choose to display Archived Portfolios from inactive courses.
From the Evidence view, click Filter > Evidence or School Categories, and then select one or more categories. For example, Filter > Evidence > With Feedback. By default, filters are not enabled.
Figure: The new Portfolio landing page, displaying all courses in tile format
Figure: The new Portfolio landing page, displaying all evidence in list format
Figure: The previous Portfolio landing page, displaying all courses in tile format
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to administrators due to a new configuration variable that must be set to enable the new workflow.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients using Brightspace Portfolio.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Brightspace Portfolio users. No further action is required.
|
| Moderate impact to learners due to a streamlined interface that allows them to more easily switch between views and formats for displaying all courses and evidence. |
To access your portfolio in Brightspace Learning Environment, do one of the following:
- On the navbar, click your user profile, and then select My Portfolio.
- On the navbar, click Portfolio.
|
Brightspace Pulse – Comment on Activity Feed posts | New
To encourage class engagement, learners can now comment on Activity Feed posts in Brightspace Pulse. Previously, learners could only read Activity Feed posts and comments in Brightspace Pulse.
In Brightspace Pulse, tap the Courses tab, and then tap a course with Activity Feed enabled.
From the Activity Feed tab, tap the post you want to comment on, and then tap Add Comment. A browser opens, displaying the Activity Feed for the course in Brightspace Learning Environment.
Tap the post you want to comment on, add your comment, and then tap Post. Your comment displays.
To close the browser and return to Brightspace Pulse, tap Done.
In Brightspace Pulse, refresh the page to display your comment.
Figure: The new Add Comment button in Brightspace Pulse's Activity Feed
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
No impact to administrators.
|
Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Pulse clients in all regions.
To enable: Download the latest version of Brightspace Pulse, available from any global Google Play™ store or Apple App Store®. The app is generally released at the beginning of the month, and then sometimes mid-month, if issues are found. Depending on how your device is configured, the app may update automatically, or you may have to manually check for new versions.
This functionality is automatically enabled for Brightspace Pulse users, if Activity Feed and commenting are enabled by instructors in their courses. No further action is required.
|
| Slight impact to learners due to the ability to comment on Activity Feed posts in Brightspace Pulse. |
This feature does not support pinning posts or configuring the Activity Feed.
If Activity Feed is disabled in the course, the Activity Feed tab does not display.
If comments are disabled in Activity Feed, the Add Comment button does not display. |
Brightspace Pulse – View all grades for a course | New
Learners can now view all grades for a course from a new Grades tab in the course. Previously, learners could only view course grades from notifications in Brightspace Pulse or by opening a browser and navigating to the Grades tool in Brightspace Learning Environment.
To view all grades for a course, tap the Courses tab. Next, tap a course, and then the Grades tab. All received grades for the course display, indicating if feedback is available. To open the Grades tool in a browser and view full grade breakdowns and calculations, tap View Grades in Browser.
To view feedback, tap a grade. The grade and text feedback display. To view details about the associated activity in Brightspace Learning Environment, tap View Activity.
This implements Product Idea Exchange item D6422.
Figure: The new Grades tab for a course in Brightspace Pulse
Figure: A graded activity with feedback in Brightspace Pulse
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
No impact to administrators.
|
Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Pulse clients in all regions.
To enable: Download the latest version of Brightspace Pulse, available from any global Google Play™ store or Apple App Store®. The app is generally released at the beginning of the month, and then sometimes mid-month, if issues are found. Depending on how your device is configured, the app may update automatically, or you may have to manually check for new versions.
Important: Course grades must be enabled and visible to learners. If course grades are not enabled or visible to learners for a specific course, the Grades tab does not display for that course in Brightspace Pulse.
|
| Slight impact to learners due to the ability to view all grades for a course in Brightspace Pulse. |
This update does not include:
- A consolidated view of all grades for all courses. You can only view all grades for a specific course.
- Rubrics associated with a grade. To view associated rubrics, navigate to the Grades tool in Brightspace Learning Environment.
- Unreceived grades. Only received grades display in the Grades tab.
- Final grades or notification of final grades. To view final grades, navigate to the Grades tool in Brightspace Learning Environment.
|
Brightspace Pulse – View content module descriptions | New
Learners can now view content module descriptions in Brightspace Pulse. Instructors use module descriptions to communicate vital information to learners about specific course content. Previously, module descriptions were only visible from Brightspace Learning Environment, which may have caused learners to miss important information when accessing courses from Brightspace Pulse.
This feature implements PIE items D4547 and D6460.
Figure: A content module description in Brightspace Pulse
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
No impact to administrators.
|
Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Pulse clients in all regions.
To enable: Download the latest version of Brightspace Pulse, available from any global Google Play™ store or Apple App Store®. The app is generally released at the beginning of the month, and then sometimes mid-month, if issues are found. Depending on how your device is configured, the app may update automatically, or you may have to manually check for new versions.
The d2l.Tools.Content.LearnerExperience.HideModuleDesc configuration variable does not impact the display of module descriptions in Brightspace Pulse. This configuration variable is exclusive to the display of module descriptions in the new Content experience.
|
| Slight impact to instructors and learners due to the display of module descriptions in Brightspace Pulse. |
A content module is a stand-alone instructional unit that is designed to satisfy one or more learning objectives in a course. A module consists of one or more lessons.
Learners cannot view or click links in module descriptions.
Leaners cannot view images in module descriptions.
Content module descriptions can be saved for offline viewing. |
Discussions - Consistent evaluation experience | New
This feature updates the user evaluation experience when assessing a topic or an individual learner, allowing instructors to better review and evaluate discussion contributions. The evaluation interface for Discussions has a similar layout as the Assignments - Consistent evaluation experience.
The d2l.Tools.Activities.CEDiscussionOptIn configuration variable allows administrators to provide an opt-in ability so users can try out the consistent evaluation experience with this tool. The default value for this configuration variable is Off. Setting the value to On(Opt-In) enables all users to opt-in to the experience on an individual basis. Setting the value to On turns on the new experience for all users and removes the ability to use the previous evaluation experience.
This new experience involves a new page layout, with evaluation tools and the post being evaluated displaying side-by-side. Assessment workflows have not changed.
Figure: New evaluation experience for Discussions, with posts and evaluation tools displayed side-by-side.
For more detail about the improvements in this new experience, visit the Welcome to Our New Discussion Evaluation Experience post on Brightspace Community.
For additional information on the consistent evaluation experience across all Brightspace tools, visit the What is Coming in Evaluation: 20.20.12 post on Brightspace Community.
This feature implements PIE items D2211, D2348, D2514, D3430, D3673, D4859, D4920, D5148, D4393, D6911, and D7253.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to allow users to opt-in to the new evaluation experience in Discussions, or permanently enable the new experience. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: Ensure the d2l.Tools.Activities.CEDiscussionOptIn configuration variable is set to On(Opt-In) or On. |
| Moderate impact to instructors due to a new evaluation experience available in Discussions. Depending on the settings of the new configuration variable, instructors have the option to opt-in to the new experience. |
N/A |
Discussions – Improvements to visibility and posting restrictions | New
For the August 2021/20.21.8 release, administrators can choose to opt-in to a new workflow that makes it easier for instructors to set visibility and posting restrictions for discussion forums and topics. More specifically, this change simplifies date management for discussion activities, offering a more consistent, simplified, and consolidated experience for instructors. For the September 2021/20.21.9 release, this workflow will be on by default. For the December 2021/20.21.12 release, this workflow will be the only workflow for setting visibility and posting restrictions. For more information on these changes, see the Changes To Availability And Locking Dates For A Consolidated Dates Workflow blog post.
To allow instructors to try the new workflow, administrators set the new d2l.Tools.Discuss.ConsolidatedDatesEnabled configuration variable to ON. Once set, all existing settings for visibility and posting restrictions are migrated to the new locations in the Discussions tool. Instructors do not need to make any changes to their new or existing courses.
Once the new workflow is enabled, the following changes are visible to instructors when creating or editing discussion forums and topics:
Note: These changes also affect the Classic Content and Manage Dates tools.
- From the Restrictions tab, the previous Locking Options are now consolidated with the Availability Start Date and End Date options and display as the following new options:
- Visible with access restricted before/after start/end. The topic/forum is visible to learners before/after the start/end date, but they cannot access it. Previously, Classic Content was the only tool to make discussions visible without access.
- Visible with submission restricted before/after start/end. The topic/forum is visible to learners before/after the start/end date and they can access it, but they cannot post new threads or replies. This effectively makes a discussion read-only. Previously, this was accomplished with the lock option or unlock dates.
- Hidden before/after start/end. The topic/forum is hidden from learners until the start/end date. This is a new feature. Calendar events for Availability Starts and Availability Ends are hidden until the start/end date. Notifications are also not sent until the start/end date. Previously, the hidden status of a discussion topic was decided by the tool displaying the topic.
- From the Restrictions tab, the Display in Calendar option is now consolidated with the Availability Start Date and End Date options, which adds the start date and end dates to the calendar. Previously, the tool decided which calendar event should be added to the calendar. With this change, calendar events for availability dates may change and additional events for Availability Start Dates may be added.
- Calendar events for unlocked dates are now hidden from learners.
- Where Discussions and User Progress may have previously hidden a topic or forum when outside of availability dates, those tools now may show them as visible, but inaccessible.
- From Discussion Settings, instructors can now set the default visibility and access behavior for new discussion forums and topics. The defaults can be set at an organization level.
Figure: The new consolidated options for visibility and posting restrictions in the Restrictions tab
Figure: The previous options for visibility and posting restrictions in the Restrictions tab
Figure: The new default options for visibility and posting restrictions in the Discussions Settings
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
No impact to administrators.
|
Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Core clients in all regions.
To enable: Set the new d2l.Tools.Discuss.ConsolidatedDatesEnabled configuration variable to ON. By default, the value is OFF. Determines if the new discussion dates settings for start and end dates is enabled for an org unit (including all the users inside it). If the value is ON, the new dates settings are used, affecting the default for all orgs sharing this instance; otherwise, the old dates settings are used.
Note: With this new workflow, the Override Locked Topic Restrictions permission is renamed to Override Availability Date Submission Restrictions.
|
| Moderate impact to instructors due to a new workflow for setting visibility and posting restrictions for discussion forums and topics. |
Availability specifies when learners can access (or view) a forum or topic based on a specific date set by an instructor. For example, an instructor sets a date to make a discussion forum available to learners after the end date for finishing a course module.
Posting restrictions (also known as locking and unlocking) specify if learners can post or reply to a forum or topic based on a specific date set by an instructor. For example, an instructor sets a date to lock a discussion topic after making it available, giving learners time to read and understand the discussion topic, but not post replies. The instructor also sets a date to unlock the topic several days later, allowing learners to post their well thought out replies. |
Grades (Mastery View) – Evaluated and Aligned Activity Counter | Removed
To improve page performance for the Grade book Mastery View, the Evaluated and Aligned Activity counter has been removed. We recognize that this is important contextual information for instructors and evaluators when reviewing the overall level of achievement for a learner. D2L is re-evaluating ways in which to present this information while not impacting the performance of this page.
The information from the Evaluated and Aligned Activity data element will be reintroduced in a future release with additional context to help clients better analyze what the numbers represent in their learning environment.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors who no longer have the Evaluated and Aligned Activity data element in the Grade book Mastery view. |
N/A |
Local Authentication Security – User interface improvements | Updated
This feature builds on the Local Authentication Security – Improvements | Updated feature that was released in July 2021/20.21.07.
The Local Authentication Security page now includes updated text and user interface options to increase clarity around the functionality on this page. The Local Authentication Allow List field is renamed to read as Local Authentication Authorized Users and appears as a drop-down menu with the following options:
- Not Enabled
- Restrict Local Login only for Authorized Users
- Enable 2FA for Authorized Users
- Restrict Local Login and enable 2FA for Authorized Users
Note: When you select any option that restricts local logins and then click Save, a confirmation message appears.
The User List is now renamed and reads as Authorized Users.
Figure: The Local Authentication Security page before the update
Figure: The updated Local Authentication Security page
This change means that users on the Authorized Users list can have 2FA enabled for their accounts with or without enabling the restriction of local logins only to the accounts on the list.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the above improvements. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: The Local Authentication Security page is set to ON by default on the Organization Tools page for all clients. |
Rubrics – Increased accessibility with labels on radio buttons | Updated
To provide a better experience to clients using screen readers, criterion levels now indicate the level name and point value of each radio button when it has the focus. Previously, screen readers only indicated “radio button X out of Y” or “radio button, not selected” depending on whether the focus is on a selected criterion.
In addition, the mobile view of Rubrics now has radio buttons implemented to describe the level name and point value of each criterion level, consistent with the view on a larger screen.
Note: Depending on the screen reader you use, the way of listing all the radio buttons on a page differs. For example, In NVDA, press INSERT+F7; in JAWS, press CTRL+INSERT+A. In general, D2L tests compatibility with the following screen readers: NVDA, JAWS, and Voiceover.
Figure: Criterion level rows behave as radio buttons for screen readers.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to improved accessibility on rubric labels. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients using assistive technology with the updated Rubrics experience.
To enable: This functionality is automatically available to updated Rubrics experience users. |
Rubrics – Inline grading improvements | Updated
There have been improvements to the ease of use of the inline grading experience, including changes to ensure grading experience parity for screen reader users. Previously, screen reader users were unable to grade or review tasks due to missing information. In addition, the updates now include the following:
- The interaction of the arrow buttons at either end of the evaluation slider now indicate a hover state compared to a focus state. If there is no level under the hover pointer, the level area is empty.
Figure: If the hover pointer is on a level, the name, description, and score appear in the level information area below the slider.
- Keyboard navigation of the slider evaluation levels identify the focus and indicate the criterion you are viewing. When the keyboard focus is on a level, you can press the arrow keys at the beginning and end of the slider or use the left and right arrow keys on the keyboard to move the focus within a scale. In grading mode, moving the focus to a level directly selects the level. You can also press Enter to select or unselect a level. In preview mode, the selected level does not change when you review other levels’ information.
Figure: The focused level is highlighted inside the slider segment.
- Keyboard navigation of the slider evaluation levels more clearly identify the focus and level you have selected in grading mode. You can use the right or left arrow key at the beginning and end of the slider to move the focus within a scale. Press Enter or use the left and right arrow keys on the keyboard to select and deselect the level.
Figure: When the level is selected, a larger box outlines the slider level, and a checkmark appears in the level
- The level name and description of an evaluation level appear below the evaluation slider in the selected state, and the selection indicator appears on the slider at the chosen level.
Figure: When a level is selected, the level name and description appear, along with the selection indicator
- When the rubric has been graded, the level information area displays the selected level’s information by default, unless other levels are in hover state in grading mode, or in hover or focus state in reviewing mode.
Figure: When a non-selected level is in hover state, the name, description, and score appear in the level information area below the slider.
- When you move the selection block to a different level, there is now an animation to smoothly transition to the new level.
This feature implements PIE item D7666.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors who use the inline grading experience. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Rubrics users. |
Rubrics - Overall Score now appears in Mobile View and the New Assignment and Discussion Evaluation Experiences | Updated
When an instructor using the New Assignment Evaluation Experience opens a rubric in a new window, the Overall Score displays for each rubric, and the instructor can override the level if necessary. Previously, if an instructor did not open a new window, rather, they viewed the rubrics inline in the New Assignment Evaluation Experience tool, the Overall Score did not appear, and the instructor could not override the level. As a result, text-only rubrics could not be assessed because the Overall Score was not available.
Now, instructors using Mobile view can evaluate text-only rubrics for assignments (using the New Assignment Evaluation Experience) and can evaluate text-only rubrics for discussions (using the New Discussions Assignments Evaluation Experience) as expected.
Figure: The Overall Score in Mobile and New Assignment Evaluation Experience views
This feature implements PIE item D7666.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the availability of the Overall Score in the New Assignment Evaluation Experience and Mobile View for text-only rubrics |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients using the New Rubrics Evaluation experience who are also using the New Assignment Evaluation Experience or Mobile View to evaluate Assignments and Discussions.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for all New Rubrics Evaluation experience users. |
July 2021
Brightspace Learning Environment
D2L Quiz Tool and Other Monthly Updates
This month, the D2L Quiz tool will be having a couple of changes that may impact the way instructors set up and interact with their quizzes and exams.
- Introduction Field Removed: To reduce redundancy in the Quizzes tool, the Introduction field is being phased out. In this release, when an instructor creates and/or edits a quiz, the Introduction field is no longer available and the introduction field for any quizzes that are edited will now be merged with the Description field.
- Reports Options Moved: Additionally when creating or editing a quiz, the Reports tab has been moved to the dropdown menu next to the quiz title. This menu will have separate options for setting up and viewing quiz reports.
The details for this and all the other monthly D2L updates can be reviewed on the D2L Updates knowledge base article.
If you have any questions about the D2L system, please reach out to the 24/7 D2L support at https://community.brightspace.com/uco/s/
Assignments – Add categories in the New Assignment Creation Experience | New
This feature builds on the Assignments – Brightspace Editor in the new Assignment Creation Experience | New feature that was released in April 2021/20.21.4.
The new assignment creation experience supports the alignment of assignments to categories. This feature is turned off by default. When it is enabled, instructors can add new or existing assignment categories when creating or editing a new assignment.
Figure: The new assignment creation experience with the ability to align assignments to categories
This feature implements PIE item D6656.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the new configuration variable that needs to be set. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: Ensure that the d2l.Tools.Activities.SetCategoriesOnEdit (OrgUnit) configuration variable is set to On. |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to align assignments to categories when creating or editing an assignment in the new assignment creation experience. |
N/A |
Assignments – Org Defined Id field in the User Profile card | New
When an instructor hovers over a learner's profile in the new Assignment Evaluation Experience, the User Profile card now displays the value of the Org Defined Id field, if enabled in the Profile Cards tool. By default, the new Org Defined Id field in the Profile Cards tool is enabled.
This feature implements PIE item D7836.
Figure: The new Org Defined Id field in the Profile Cards tool
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
No impact to administrators.
|
Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Core clients in all regions.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Assignments users.
D2L recommends displaying the Org Defined Id field only if existing business rules are satisfied, such as User Information Privacy permissions and the d2l.Settings.OrgHasOrgDefinedId configuration variable.
The User Profile card also respects the settings in User Information Privacy, Admin Configuration, Preferred Names, and Online Status Preference.
If enabled, the value of the Org Defined Id field also appears in the old User Profile card and the new web components.
Display of the Org Defined Id field is not affected by the d2l.Tools.Discuss.User.ShowOrgDefinedId configuration variable.
|
| Slight impact to instructors due to the new Org Defined Id field that displays in User Profile cards. |
N/A |
Brightspace Editor – Available in ePortfolio External Comments and Quiz Builder | Updated
This feature updates the Brightspace Editor – Additional functionality | Updated feature released in June 2021/20.21.6 and includes the following items:
- External users adding comments in Brightspace ePortfolio can now use the new inline limited version of Brightspace Editor.
- The Quiz Builder now supports the new inline Editor
Figure: The inline Editor in the Quiz Builder
- The right-click menu is no longer available when creating tables.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the availability of the new Brightspace Editor in ePortfolio and Quiz Builder. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: Ensure that the d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.NewEditor (Org) configuration variable is set to On. |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to use the new Brightspace Editor in ePortfolio and Quiz builder. |
N/A |
| Slight impact to learners due to the ability to use the new Brightspace Editor in ePortfolio external comments |
N/A |
Brightspace Platform – New Brightspace External Resource icon | Updated
To differentiate from the similar generic download icon, the external resource icon is now changing to a building block icon. This new icon better represents the building block approach of external resource functionality.
The new icon now appears in the following locations:
- External Learning Tools under Admin Tools (Administrators)
- External Learning Tools under the Add Existing options of the Classic Content tool and the Lessons tool (Instructors)
- External Learning Tools in the Classic Content Experience and the New Learner Content Experience (Learners) Feature description
Figure: The new external resource functionality icon
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to users due to the new external resources building block icon. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To Enable: N/A |
Data Hub - Additional columns for Learner Usage Advanced Data Set | Updated
To increase the value of the Data Hub offering, this release adds the following new columns to Learner Usage ADS:
- LastQuizAttemptDate
- LastScormCompletionDate
- LastScormVisitDate
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Moderate impact to administrators due to the addition of new columns. |
Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Insights and Brightspace Core clients in all regions.
To enable: Ensure the Can Access Brightspace Data Sets permission is granted to administrators at the org level, and the Can Execute Learner Usage permission is selected at the org level. |
Data Hub - Historic data for Learning Outcomes data sets | Updated
To increase the utility of the Learning Outcomes Brightspace Data Sets, first released in June 2021/20.21.6, this release adds historic data for the following data sets:
- Outcomes Scale Definition
- Outcomes Scale Level Definition
- Outcome Details (for ASN imported outcomes only)
- Outcomes in Registries (for program registries only)
- Outcomes Program Details
The historic data includes all achievement scales, all programs, and all imported ASN outcomes back to the client's start of use of the Learning Outcomes tool. The remaining Learning Outcomes Brightspace Data Sets only contain data from June 2021 onward.
For more information about what these new data sets capture and how to use them, refer to this blog post: Introducing Outcomes Data Sets.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the addition of new data to existing Brightspace Data Sets. |
Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Insights and Brightspace Core clients in all regions.
To enable: Ensure the Can Access Brightspace Data Sets permission is granted to administrators at the org level. |
Data Hub - Outcomes Assessed Checkpoints Brightspace Data Set | New
To increase the value of the Data Hub offering, this release adds the following new Learning Outcomes Brightspace Data Set (BDS), which returns details from the Learning Outcomes tool:
- Outcomes Assessed Checkpoints: provides details about the Overall Level of Achievement calculation settings for a checkpoint.
For more information about what these new data sets capture and how to use them, refer to this blog post: Introducing Outcomes Data Sets.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the addition of new Brightspace Data Sets. |
Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Insights and Brightspace Core clients in all regions.
To enable: Ensure the Can Access Brightspace Data Sets permission is granted to administrators at the org level. |
Grades – Add categories for text, calculated, and formula grade items | New
This feature enables you to better organize your grade book by adding categories to text, calculated, and formula grade items. This improved organization does not impact the calculation of the category these grade items are in. The totals in these categories do not contribute to the final grade.
You can import, export, and copy category values for these grade item types. In addition, you can also access these values using API and view them in data sets (CategoryId). There is no dataset update as the value was previously available but set to Null for these grade item types.
This feature implements PIE item D236.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to add categories to text, calculated, and formula grade items. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: This feature is automatically turned on for Grades users who can create or edit grade items. |
Quizzes – Quiz Introduction field | Removed
To reduce redundancy in the Quizzes tool, the Introduction field is being phased out. In this release, when an instructor creates and/or edits a quiz, the Introduction field is no longer available.
If any quiz previously had text in the Introduction field, on clicking Edit, the text is automatically appended to the Description field. A message appears indicating that these two fields have been merged. Instructors can review the modified quiz description prior to saving the quiz.
Note: In some interfaces, for example Classic content, the Instructions field is displayed. This Instructions field already maps to the quiz Description field. Hence, there is no change to this workflow.
Figure: The Edit Quiz page with the message that appears when you edit a quiz containing an introduction
Note: Check the visibility of the Description field prior to saving the quiz.
When importing a course using Import/Export/Copy Components, text in the quiz Introduction field automatically appends to the quiz Description field. The export and copy workflows remain unchanged.
When viewing a quiz topic in the Classic Content tool, the text in the Introduction field now appears under the Instructions header.
Figure: A view of a quiz in the Classic Content tool - text in the Introduction field will appear under the Instructors header
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Moderate impact to instructors due to the phasing out of the Introduction field. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: This feature is automatically turned on for Quizzes users.
Ensure that the Manage Quiz Reports permission is turned on for the instructor role. |
Quizzes – Relocation of the Reports Setup functionality | New
The Report Setup tab on the Edit Quiz page is now available on the context menu of a quiz and reads as Setup Reports.
The Reports option available on the quiz context menu is also updated and reads as View Reports.
Figure: The New Quiz page with the Reports Setup tab before the update
Figure: The Quiz context menu before the update
Figure: The updated quiz context menu with the Setup Reports and View Reports options
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Moderate impact to instructors due to the Reports tab now appearing as a context menu option. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: This feature is automatically turned on for Quizzes users.
Ensure that the Manage Quiz Reports permission is turned on for the instructor role. |
Quizzes - Set grace period time to 0 minutes | New
When setting an enforced time limit for a quiz, instructors can now set the grace period for a quiz to 0 minutes, in place of the default grace period setting of 5 minutes. Entering a 0 minute grace period flags the quiz attempt as exceeded immediately when the quiz time limit is reached by the learner. Quiz attempt logs display when the learner attempt exceeds the regular time limit, grace period time limit or any extended time limit. Grace period of 0 minutes can be set for quizzes with special access restrictions as well.
Note that setting a grace period can support learner accessibility requirements and other situations, such as slow internet connections when completing quizzes.
Figure: Enter 0 in the Grace Period field that appears with the Enforced Time Limit option for a quiz
This feature implements PIE item D516.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to remove the grace period time for quizzes. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Quizzes users. |
Quizzes - Status and workflow changes for quizzes with ungraded questions | New
To support instructors who need to manually score questions within quizzes, the following quiz status and quiz grading workflow updates are available:
- For quizzes that contain questions that need to be manually scored (such as Written Response questions) AND that have the "Allow attempt to be set as graded immediately upon completion" option disabled, a new Pending Evaluation status appears beside the quiz attempt on the Grade Quiz page.
- While evaluating a quiz attempt with unevaluated questions, the instructor can now select Pending evaluations in the Question View drop-down menu to filter for only the questions that require manual evaluation.
- Instructors can now filter the Users tab by status. The available filters are: Published, Saved as draft, Pending evaluation and an empty status. The empty status denotes a quiz with auto-scored questions, where all questions are evaluated and there is no question evaluation pending.
Figure: The updated quiz status filters appear on the Attempts tab
Figure: The new Pending Evaluation filter appears in the Question View drop-down menu to easily locate questions requiring manual evaluation by the instructor
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to easily locate and filter for quiz questions that require their manual evaluation. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Quizzes users. |
June 2021
Brightspace Learning Environment
Attendance – Delete and restore registers | Updated
This feature complements the Attendance – Manage registers | Updated feature released in the May 2021 / 20.21.5 release.
Instructors can now restore mistakenly deleted attendance registers and associated session data. You can delete registers individually on the Attendance Registers page or in bulk.
Note: Deleted registers do not appear in the Attendance data set.
Figure: The Attendance Registers page with the More Actions drop-down menu > Delete functionality
This feature implements PIE ideas D6051 and D1535.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to restore deleted attendance registers and session data. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Attendance users. The existing See the Attendance tool and Manage Attendance Registers permissions must also be selected for the instructor role at the course level. |
Brightspace Editor – Additional functionality | Updated
This feature updates the Brightspace Editor – Improvements | Updated feature released in the May 2021/20.21.5 release and includes the following functionality:
- Format painter – you can now copy and apply text formatting
- @mentions – @mentions is controlled by the organization unit configuration variable, d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.Mentions, that is deployed in an OFF state. Once enabled by an administrator, in discussion posts, users can now tag other users within the same course using @mentions depending on permissions. Tagged users are notified by alerts in the minibar. External notifications are not yet available.
Privacy is an important consideration of this feature, so the @mentions feature is controlled by multiple permissions. A role must have the following permissions to use the feature when enabled for their organization unit:
- User Information Privacy > See First Names*
- User Information Privacy > See Last Names*
- User Management > Search for {role}
When a user is tagged, their profile is linked to their tagged name – this will eventually be replaced with the Profile Card. To see the profile of another user, the following permission is required:
- User Profile > View Other Users’ Profiles
Without the View Other Users’ Profiles permission, the profile link does not render for that role.
After @mentions are created in a course, if this functionality is turned off, the @mentions links and notifications in the alerts area remain active. However, users cannot add further @mentions.
Note: At this time, a user, when fully permissioned, can @mention any active user (depending on the roles they can search for) in their organization unit regardless of group, section, or conditional release restrictions for that discussion forum/topic. When a user is @mentioned in a topic they do not have access to, they do not receive an alert, to prevent 404 errors. Further work to enhance this workflow is planned.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to enable the @mentions functionality in Brightspace Editor for an organization unit. |
Availability: These features are available to all clients.
To enable: Ensure that the d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.NewEditor (Org) configuration variable is set to On.
The format painter functionality is only available in the new Brightspace Editor and appears automatically in the toolbar in all tools using the full editor.
Ensure that the d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.Mentions configuration is turned ON for the organization units that want to use @mentions. It is set to OFF by default.
Ensure that the following permissions are turned on for the required roles:
- User Information Privacy > See First Names*
- User Information Privacy > See Last Names*
- Users Management > Search for {role}
- User Profile > View Other Users’ Profiles
|
Brightspace Platform – LaTex rendering in quiz questions | New
This feature releases the d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.InlineLaTeX (OrgUnit) configuration variable that renders inline LaTex equations in the HTML Editor and in the new Brightspace Editor. As a result, scientific and mathematical equations are rendered seamlessly without the need to use the LaTeX equation option in the Equation Editor.
This configuration variable is turned ON by default for new clients and is turned OFF by default for existing clients.
When enabled, any existing inline LaTeX equations render as expected. When disabled, these equations no long render. However, the equation remains unaltered.
Figure: A Content topic with some inline LaTex equations and a learner’s view of the equations
This feature implements PIE ideas D1822 and D7732.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the availability of the new d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.InlineLaTeX (OrgUnit) configuration variable. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients using any version of the Editor.
To enable: The d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.InlineLaTeX (OrgUnit) configuration variable is turned ON by default for new clients.
This configuration variable is turned OFF by default for existing clients. |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to add inline LaTex equations using the Editor. |
Availability: N/A
To enable: Ensure that your administrator has turned on the d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.InlineLaTeX (OrgUnit) configuration variable for your organization unit. |
Email – Auto save outgoing messages | New
When users send email messages, these sent messages are automatically saved in the Sent Mail folder. As a result, the User Account > Email Settings > Save a copy of each outgoing message to the Sent Mail folder check box is no longer available.
Figure: The Email Settings page before this email setup improvement
Figure: The Email Settings page after this email setup improvement
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to all users due to the improved email setup. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for all Email users. |
Import/Export/Copy Components – Export course metadata | New
Brightspace Learning Environment course packages now include metadata that identify the Course Name, Course Code, and Language used in the course. This metadata is displayed in the IMSManifest.XML file.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators and instructors due to the added metadata in the IMSManifest.XML file. |
Availability: After first being introduced to a small group of clients, this feature is now available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for all Import/Export/Copy Component users.
Note: This feature is an addition to Brightspace course packages and does not impact import capabilities of older Brightspace course packages. |
Rubrics - Detach rubric warning for feature assignment creation experience | Updated
When an attached rubric is deleted from an evaluated assignment, if evaluations of that rubric have been performed, the user now receives a detach rubric confirmation message for the assignment. This change applies to the New Assignment Creation Experience.
Figure: The Rubric Detachment confirmation dialog.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors using Rubrics with the New Assignment Creation Experience. |
Availability: This feature is available for all clients using the New Assignment Creation Experience.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Rubrics users. To turn on the New Rubrics Evaluation Experience, ensure the d2l.Tools.Dropbox.CreateExperienceOptIn configuration variable is set to On or On (opt in). |
Rubrics – Reorder criterion groups | Updated
In order to increase the value of rubric criterion groups, it is now possible to reorder those criterion groups in the New Rubric Creation Experience. If more than one criterion group appears in your rubric, direction arrows appear to the left of the criterion group header to reorder the criterion groups in the rubric. If only one criterion group appears in your rubric, the direction buttons do not appear.
This implements PIE item D5263.
Figure: Direction arrows located beside the criterion group header
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors using the New Rubric Creation Experience. |
Availability: This feature is available for all clients using the New Rubric Creation Experience.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Rubrics users. To turn on the New Rubrics Creation Experience, the d2l.Tools.Rubrics.CreateExperienceOptIn configuration variable is set to On or On (opt in). |
Rubrics – Replace legacy Rubric grading in Competency Manual Assessment items with New Rubric Experience | Updated
To hasten the end of life of the legacy Rubric experience, manual assessment for competency items now display the New Rubric Experience by default. Now, when evaluating a competency manual assessment item, the New Rubric Experience displays automatically.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors using the legacy Rubric evaluation experience; they are now required to use the New Rubric Evaluation Experience. |
Availability: This feature is available for all clients using the New Rubric Evaluation Experience and clients using the legacy Competency tool for manual assessment.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for users of the New Rubrics Evaluation Experience. |
Rubrics – Replace legacy Rubric grading in ePortfolio with new Rubric experience | Updated
To hasten the end of life of the legacy Rubric Experience, ePortfolio items now display the New Rubric Experience by default. Now, when evaluating an ePortfolio item, the New Rubric Evaluation Experience appears automatically.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors using the legacy Rubric Evaluation Experience; they are now required to use the New Rubric Experience. |
Availability: This feature is available for all clients using the New Rubric Evaluation Experience and ePortfolio.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for users of the New Rubrics Evaluation Experience and ePortfolio. |
Rubrics – Replace legacy Rubric grading in Grade items with new Rubric experience | Updated
To hasten the end of life of the legacy Rubric experience, Grade items now display the New Rubric Evaluation Experience. Now, when you evaluating an indirect rubric on a grade item, the New Rubric Experience appears by default when evaluating a grade item with a direct rubric association. With this change, all grade book workflows now follow the New Rubric Experience.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors using the legacy Rubric Evaluation Experience; they are now required to use the New Rubric Experience. |
Availability: This feature is available for all clients using the New Rubric Evaluation Experience.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for users of the New Rubrics Evaluation Experience. To turn on the updated Rubrics experience, ensure the d2l.Tools.Rubrics.CreateExperienceOptIn configuration variable is set to On or On (opt in). |
SCORM – Export and import course packages across orgs | New
Administrators can now export and import course packages containing SCORM objects across orgs. Previously, course packages containing SCORM objects could be exported from an org; however, attempting to import those course packages into a different org failed.
For example, when an administrator exports a course containing SCORM objects from Org A, copies of the SCORM objects are added to the exported course package. The end result is a course package available for import and SCORM objects with all references to the SCORM objects retained within the original course.
When an administrator imports the course package into Org B, the SCORM objects are added into the org and re-linked to the imported course so references are not broken (the physical copy SCORM objects now exist in Org B, separate from Org A, where the course package was exported from). As a result, any instructor with the Can insert new SCORM objects permission for a course can access the SCORM objects that were copied into the imported course.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
Slight impact to administrators and instructors due to the ability to export or import course packages containing SCORM objects across orgs.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for SCORM users.
If a course contains multiple links to a single SCORM object, the object is exported multiple times, once for each link, and included as a copy in the exported course package. When importing the course package, the package is imported multiple times, once for each link.
Bulk Course Copy, Bulk Course Export, and Bulk Course Create also support this new functionality. |
May 2021
Brightspace Learning Environment
Assignments – Annotations available for TXT file-based assignments | Updated
Previously, annotations enabled instructors to use highlighting, free-hand drawing, shapes, and associated commenting to provide feedback to learner assignments of the following file types: DOC, DOCX, RTF, ODT, PPT, PPTX, PPSX, ODP, XLS, XLSX, JPG, JPEG, PNG, TIF, TIFF, and GIF. Now, instructors can provide feedback for TXT, in addition to the existing types.
Note: The updates to annotations replaces the Edit a Copy workflow, which is no longer supported in the New Evaluation Experience.
This feature implements PIE item D6778.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors who can now provide annotations on new file types. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients using Annotations with Assignments.
To enable: Ensure that the d2l.Tools.Assignments.AnnotationsDefault configuration variable is set to ON. |
Assignments - Configuration variable change for the New Assignment Evaluation Experience | Updated
This feature updates the Assignments - Consistent evaluation experience | New feature released in December 2020/20.20.12.
To clarify the names of existing configuration variables for the New Assignment Evaluation Experience, the following configuration variable will be renamed:
- d2l.Tools.Activities.ConsistentEvaluationOptIn becomes d2l.Tools.Activities.CEAssignmentsOptIn. This configuration variable will be set to On (Opt-In) for all Orgs.
With this setting, the New Assignment Evaluation Experience appears by default for all users, and they will have the option to opt-out until the 20.21.8 release, at which time the New Assignment Evaluation Experience will become the only option available.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
Moderate impact to administrators due to the change to configuration variable name and the new default setting.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Config Variable Browser users. |
Attendance – Manage registers | Updated
This feature adds the ability for instructors to set the visibility of attendance registers in bulk. It also includes updated logic to prevent instructors from changing a scheme in an attendance register once session information has been added to it. This update prevents unintentional deletion of session data.
Figure: The Edit Register page with the Attendance Scheme greyed out
The new More Actions button on the Course Admin > Attendance Registers page enables instructors to modify the visibility of attendance registers in bulk. Previously, you had to modify each register individually.
Figure: The Attendance Registers page before the update
Figure: The Attendance Registers page with the new More Actions button
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the introduction of the More Actions button and due to the updated logic to prevent unintentional deletion of session data. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Attendance users. The existing See the Attendance tool and Manage Attendance Registers permissions must also be selected for the instructor role at the course level. |
Brightspace Editor – Improvements | Updated
This feature complements the Brightspace Editor – Replaces the HTML Editor | New and the Assignments – Brightspace Editor in the new Assignment Evaluation Experience | New features released in the April 2021 / 20.21.4 release and includes the following improvements:
- Copy/paste and/or drag and drop images - You can copy/paste and/or drag and drop images when providing feedback in assignments, discussions, and quizzes. Images are saved in the content folder.
- External users adding comments in Brightspace ePortfolio now have the new inline limited version of Brightspace Editor.
Figure: Inline limited version of Brightspace Editor in Brightspace ePortfolio
- Design improvements to enhance use of the Editor on mobile devices and improve general usability.
- Accessibility improvements – Improved keyboard navigation for keyboard users and toolbar icons are spaced out more in accordance with WCAG standards.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to opt into the new Brightspace Editor. |
Availability: These improvements are available to all clients.
To enable: Ensure that the d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.NewEditor (Org) configuration variable is set to On.
These features will be automatically enabled in the New Assignment Creation Experience and in the New Assignment Evaluation Experience as the new Editor is the only editor available in these experiences and is not controlled by the d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.NewEditor (Org) configuration variable. |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to copy/paste images into a widget, in gradebook feedback, and when evaluating assignments. |
N/A |
Config Variable Browser - Configuration variable to set a document conversion message in Assignments | New
The configuration variable d2l.Tools.Dropbox.DisplayConversionWarning (Org Unit) is now available. If enabled, a message appears to users when viewing a file that has been converted to .pdf from a different file type in Assignments. The message states "This file has been converted and may have inaccuracies." The message is configurable via Language Management by searching the term: txtConversionInfoMessage.
The d2l.Tools.Dropbox.DisplayConversionWarning (Org Unit) configuration variable is OFF by default.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to enable this configuration variable to display to Assignments users. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Config Variable Browser users.
Set the configuration variable to ON for the required Org Units. |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to view a message about converted documents, if applicable. |
N/A |
| Slight impact to learners due to the ability to view a message about converted documents, if applicable. |
N/A |
Rubrics – Copy rubric criterion | New
To improve the value of Rubrics and facilitate reusing rubric criteria that have already been created, an action menu next to the criterion name provides Copy and Delete options. When an instructor copies a criterion, the new criterion is added under the original with the criterion name Copy of [name of original criterion].
The Delete function was previously available as a trashcan icon at the end of the criterion row outside the table. The new location in the action menu improves the discoverability of the Delete and Copy options.
Figure: The action menu beside the criterion provides copy and delete options.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight disruption due to the new action menu that contains Copy and Delete options. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients using assistive technology with the updated Rubrics experience.
To enable: This functionality is automatically available to users of the updated Rubrics experience. To turn on the updated Rubrics experience, ensure the d2l.Tools.Rubrics.CreateExperienceOptIn configuration variable is set to On or On (opt in). |
Rubrics – Print or export to PDF | New
To improve the user experience with Rubrics, instructors can now print or download a PDF of a preview or evaluated rubric. Learners can also print or download a PDF of a rubric from the desktop browser implementation of Brightspace Learning Environment. The Print button displays above the top-right corner of the rubric.
This feature implements PIE items D5989, D1360, D2677.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors who can now print rubrics or export rubrics to PDF. |
Availability: This feature is available to all Brightspace clients using the new Rubrics experience on a desktop browser. It is not available on Brightspace on mobile devices.
To enable: This functionality is automatically available to users of the updated Rubrics experience. To turn on the updated Rubrics experience, ensure the d2l.Tools.Rubrics.CreateExperienceOptIn configuration variable is set to On or On (opt in). |
Self-Serve Analytics - Daily differentials | Updated
Daily data set differentials are now available to Self-Serve Analytics (SSA) clients. Previously, SSA data was refreshed weekly, following the generation of full data sets in Data Hub.
Authors can review when the data was refreshed by going to the Data tab and reviewing the timestamp on each data set.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Moderate impact to authors due to more frequent updates. |
Availability: This feature is available to all Performance Plus clients.
To enable: This feature is automatically enabled for Self-Serve Analytics users. Users must have the Can Use Self-Serve Analytics permission to view the feature. |
Widgets - Work To Do widget | New
The new Work To Do widget provides learners a summary of assigned learning activities from all their courses that are overdue or have an upcoming due date. The widget can be added to Brightspace homepages to aggregate data from all courses, and to course homepages to show only due and overdue learning activities from the course.
The Work To Do widget displays the following learning activities:
- Assignments
- Checklists
- Content
- Courses
- Discussions
- Surveys
- Quizzes
Learning activities only appear in the Work To Do widget when the activity has a defined due date or end date. By default, the widget displays activities due in the upcoming 2 weeks, and overdue work from the previous 12 weeks.
Learners require the new View Work To Do Widget permission set at the Organization level and at the Course Offering level to access the widget from their organization homepage or from the homepages of each course.
For additional information and frequently asked questions about the Work To Do widget, see the following post: Introducing the Work To Do Widget.
Figure: The Work To Do widget organizes course activities by overdue and upcoming due dates so learners can easily prioritize their work and stay on top of their tasks.
This feature implements PIE item D7001.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the requirement to enable the Work To Do widget, set the new permission for learners and add the widget to desired homepages. |
Availability: This feature is available to all Brightspace Core clients.
To enable:
- Turn on Work To Do in Organization Tools.
- Set the View Work To Do Widget permission for learner roles at the Organization and/or Course Offering level.
- Add the widget to your organization or course homepages.
|
| Slight impact to instructors due to the requirement to add the Work To Do widget to their course homepages and ensure that course learning activities have set due dates and end dates in order to appear in the widget. |
N/A |
| Slight impact to learners who will observe the new Work To Do widget on their organization and course homepages. |
N/A |
Allows users to: Add or update SCORM objects to Content
When adding SCORM objects to the Content Service:
- Determine if the SCORM object uses the navigation bar in the content viewer.
- Determine if the user can change the title of the package or perform bulk upload of SCORM objects.
When linking SCORM objects to a specific course:
- Can create a grade item, choose the grade option for the item (such as highest, average, most recent, or lowest)
- Can choose to link to either the most recent version, or a specific (static) version of the object.
Users will see: The New SCORM Object option in the Upload/Create button menu in Content.
To add a SCORM or xAPI package to the Content tool
If you are using the new SCORM solution, upload SCORM or xAPI packages directly into the Content tool.
- In Content, either create or select a module to include your SCORM or xAPI package in.
- Within your selected module, from the Upload/Create button, select New SCORM Object/xAPI Object.
- In the Add Course Package - SCORM dialog window, do one of the following:
- If you want to upload a new SCORM or xAPI package, click Upload. Then, either browse one or more files, or drag and drop the files into the designated area. Note: You can upload up to 50 SCORM or xAPI objects at a time.
- If you want to add a previously uploaded SCORM or xAPI package, select it from the list.
- Click Save.
- On the Add Course Package - SCORM screen, do one or more of the following:
- To add the SCORM or xAPI object to the course, select it and click Add.
- If you want to create a grade item for the SCORM or xAPI object, click Yes. Then, select the type of grade calculation method you want to use. Note: To edit the grade item later, select the item in the grade book.
- If you want the SCORM or xAPI package in your course to remain as it was when you uploaded it (to be statically linked), click Display this version even if a new version is added.
- If you want the SCORM or xAPI package in your course to remain updated as new versions are added (to be dynamically linked), click Always display the latest version.
- If you want to update other properties, select the SCORM or xAPI object then select Properties. Then, you can change the title, and add or remove external navigation.
- Click Save.
April 2021
Rubrics – Print or export to PDF | New
To improve the user experience with Rubrics, instructors can now print or download a PDF of a preview or evaluated rubric. Learners can also print or download a PDF of a rubric from the desktop browser implementation of Brightspace Learning Environment. In a pop-up window, the Print button displays at the bottom of the rubric for the graded view, next to the Close button. In other displays where the rubric is embedded in a page, such as the Activity Summary page in Outcomes Progress, the Print button displays above the top-right corner of the rubric.
This feature implements PIE items D5989, D1360, D2677.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors who can now print rubrics or export rubrics to PDF. |
Availability: This feature is available to all Brightspace clients using the new Rubrics experience on a desktop browser. It is not available on Brightspace on mobile devices.
To enable: This functionality is automatically available to users of the updated Rubrics experience. To turn on the updated Rubrics experience, ensure the d2l.Tools.Rubrics.CreateExperienceOptIn configuration variable is set to On or On (opt in). |
Brightspace Learning Environment
Accommodations - Improvements in Classlist, Quizzes, User Purge, and User Progress | New
This feature builds on the Accommodations - Quiz accommodations | New feature that was released in the February 2021/20.21.2 release.
The following improvements have been made in the Classlist, Quizzes, User Purge, and User Progress tools:
Improvements in Classlist for Instructors:
- An icon now appears next to the learner’s name in the Classlist to indicate that the learner has an accommodation.
- Instructors can filter the Classlist by Accommodations.
- If there are no accommodations granted to a learner, the View accommodations menu option from the learner context menu in the Classlist does not appear. If the instructor role has the Add/Edit Accommodations permission, the Edit Accommodations menu option appears instead.
- Instructors can also Print or Email a list of users with accommodations by adding the filter to those pages.
Improvements in Classlist for learners:
- An icon appears next to learners’ own names to indicate they have an accommodation. To view accommodation details, learners can click My Accommodations from their learner context menu.
- When commencing a quiz, the accommodation icon appears next to a learner’s quiz time to indicate that their accommodation has been applied. If a learner’s time accommodation has been overridden by a quiz-specific special access, this icon does not appear.
Improvements in Quizzes for instructors:
- Instructors can now grant learners special access in terms of quiz time multipliers (for example, 1.5x quiz time) or +minutes (for example, an additional 30 minutes). Refer to the Quizzes – Improvements to Special Access functionality | Updated release note for more information.
- Quiz-specific special access can overwrite an accommodation for any user on a quiz-by-quiz basis. When you overwrite an accommodation and then click Save, a warning describing the impact of overwriting the accommodation appears. Previously, this warning appeared at the top of the Quiz special access screen. Now, it appears on clicking Save.
Improvements in User Purge and User Progress:
- User purge now includes user accommodations.
- The accommodations icon now appears in the User Progress tool alongside the Quiz domain if the learner has a quiz accommodation in that course
Figure: The User Progress screen (Classlist>User drop-down menu > User Progress)
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to improvements made in the Classlist, Quizzes, and User Progress tools. |
Availability: These features are available to all clients.
To enable: From Organization Tools, turn on Accommodations.
Ensure that the View Other’s Accommodations and the Add/Edit Accommodations permissions are turned on at the course offering level under the Accommodations tool for the instructor role.
Instructors also require the Has Access to the Classlist permission to access the Add/Edit/View Accommodations workflow.
To ensure a cohesive experience when editing special access, D2L also recommends that users who can add special access in a quiz be given permission to, at least, View Other’s Accommodations. |
| Slight impact to learners due to the accommodations icon appearing when they are in the Classlist and on the quiz start page next to the quiz time if they have an accommodation. |
N/A |
Assignments - Action menu for group assignments in New Assignment Evaluation Experience | New
The New Assignment Evaluation Experience now includes a drop-down menu from the group name. This menu contains links to:
- Email the group (opens in a new window)
- See all group members
- Instant message the group (opens in a new window)
This feature implements PIE item D822.
Figure: The drop-down action menu appears from the Group Name on the File Submission page in Assignments
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Moderate impact to instructors due to the workflow change and the ability to view and communicate with group members from Assignments. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients using the New Assignment Evaluation Experience.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for New Assignment Evaluation Experience users.
To enable the New Assignment Evaluation Experience, set the d2l.Tools.Activities.ConsistentEvaluationOptIn configuration variable to On(Opt-In) or On.
|
Assignments - Anonymous marking in the New Assignment Evaluation Experience | New
This feature makes anonymous marking fully supported in the New Assignment Evaluation Experience. When using Anonymous marking, the Anonymous User number appears in place of the username, just as it appeared in the legacy Assignments experience. In addition, the following features of anonymous marking remain the same:
- No profile card appears for anonymous users
- Usernames become visible once any learner’s evaluation is published
- Group names are always visible even when using anonymous marking
- Rubrics do not include the user’s name
Anonymous marking uses Publish All instead of the Publish button. If no feedback for anonymous users has yet been published, the Publish button is disabled and a message appears to direct users to the Publish All button. If any user feedback has been published, all Publish buttons become automatically enabled.
Figure: Anonymous marking in Assignments displays learners as Anonymous User [#] instead of by username.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Moderate impact to instructors due to new Anonymous marking workflows. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients using the New Assignment Evaluation Experience.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for New Assignment Evaluation Experience users.
To enable the New Assignment Evaluation Experience, set the d2l.Tools.Activities.ConsistentEvaluationOptIn configuration variable to On(Opt-In) or On.
|
Assignments - Brightspace Editor in the new Assignment Creation Experience | New
Review the Brightspace Editor - Replaces the HTML Editor | New release note to learn more about the features of Brightspace Editor.
The new Brightspace Editor replaces the previous HTML Editor as the default HTML Editor in the new Assignment Creation Experience.
Note that the new Editor does NOT require enabling the new d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.NewEditor (Org) configuration variable in the new Assignment Creation Experience. The new Editor is automatically enabled when you turn on the new Assignment Creation Experience.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Moderate impact to all users of Assignments. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients using the New Assignment Creation Experience.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for New Assignment Creation Experience users.
The new assignment creation experience is set to On (Opt-in) by default. Administrators can override this value in the d2l.Tools.Dropbox.CreateExperienceOptIn (OrgUnit) configuration variable.
Instructors may opt into or out of the new assignment creation experience within a specific course at any time. If the new assignment creation experience is set as Off or On, instructors cannot control their use of the feature:
- If Off, the feature is unavailable.
- If On, the feature replaces the old screens in the workflow without the option to switch back.
|
Assignments - Brightspace Editor in the New Assignment Evaluation Experience | New
Review the Brightspace Editor - Replaces the HTML Editor | New release note to learn more about the features of Brightspace Editor.
The new Brightspace Editor replaces the previous HTML Editor as the default HTML Editor in the New Assignment Evaluation Experience.
Note: The new Editor does NOT require enabling the new d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.NewEditor (Org) configuration variable in the New Assignment Evaluation Experience. The new Editor is automatically enabled when you turn on the New Assignment Evaluation Experience.
This feature implements PIE item D7383.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Moderate impact to all users of Assignments. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients using the New Assignment Evaluation Experience.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for New Assignment Evaluation Experience users.
To enable the New Assignment Evaluation Experience, set the d2l.Tools.Activities.ConsistentEvaluationOptIn configuration variable to On(Opt-In) or On.
|
Assignments - Context menu on the Evaluation screen in the New Assignment Evaluation Experience | New
A new context menu appears in the side panel of the updated assignment evaluation screen. This menu links to the following:
- Edit Activity (opens assignment page in new tab). This option appears for users who have the See and Manage Assignment Submission Folders permission.
- Special Access Dates (opens the Edit Activity screen so users can update Special Access rules). This option requires the Set Special Access on Assignment Submission Folders permission.
Note: The context menu will not appear if the user does not have the required permissions to access these links.
Figure: The new context menu appears when grading a submission in the New Assignment Evaluation Experience
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the requirement to set permissions for users who want to access the context menu. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients using the New Assignment Evaluation Experience.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for New Assignment Evaluation Experience users.
- To enable the New Assignment Evaluation Experience, set the d2l.Tools.Activities.ConsistentEvaluationOptIn configuration variable to On(Opt-In) or On.
- Ensure the required roles have the See and Manage Assignment Submission Folders permission and the Set Special Access on Assignment Submission Folders permission.
|
| Slight impact to instructors due to the workflow change in Assignments. |
N/A |
Assignments - Single file submissions open directly in the New Assignment Evaluation Experience | New
In the New Assignment Evaluation Experience, when a learner has submitted only one file, the evaluator no longer has to click into the evaluation and then into the file. The file opens directly for the evaluator, saving a click during the evaluation process. Late submission information continues to display above the file, as it currently does.
This feature implements PIE item D5687.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the workflow change. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients using the New Assignment Evaluation Experience.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for New Assignment Evaluation Experience users.
To enable the New Assignment Evaluation Experience, set the d2l.Tools.Activities.ConsistentEvaluationOptIn configuration variable to On(Opt-In) or On. |
Brightspace Editor – Replaces the HTML Editor | New
This feature releases the new and improved Brightspace Editor.
To enable the new Brightspace Editor across Brightspace Learning Environment, set the new d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.NewEditor configuration variable to On. This configuration variable will be turned On and deprecated in the August 2021/20.21.8 release, making the new Brightspace Editor the only editor experience in Brightspace Learning Environment going forward.
As of the April 2021/20.21.4 release, the new Brightspace Editor permanently replaces the previous editor in the new Assignment Evaluation Experience and the new Assignment Creation Experience. The new Brightspace Editor will be the only editor available in all new experiences released from April 2021 onwards. The new Editor will be released in the following tools at a later date:
- Quiz Builder
- Activity Feed
- New Rubrics
Figure: The previous HTML Editor
Figure: The new Brightspace Editor
The new Brightspace Editor includes the following improvements to existing features:
- Refreshed formatting options
- The Lato font type
- A refreshed color picker
- A refreshed font size menu
- A comprehensive and standard emoticon menu
- A comprehensive and refreshed Symbols menu
- An advanced source code editor
- A refreshed Tables feature, including data sorting
- A refreshed Accessibility Checker
- The Check Accessibility, HTML Source Editor, Preview, and Toggle Full Screen functionalities have now been placed in the top bar
The Editor also includes the following new features:
- Wordcount functionality that includes words, characters, and text selection.
- Context menus while editing to enable quick access to text, link, and image editing options; including advanced image editing options. Note that image editing is not available in all context menus yet.
- A new overflow menu with additional, less frequently used menu options.
The list below outlines what is not included in the Editor:
- Spell check functionality. D2L recommends using your browser spell check functionality.
- Cut/Paste functionality. D2L recommends using your browser hot keys/menus for this functionality.
Refer to the blog post, The new Brightspace Editor, for more information.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Moderate impact to administrators due to the ability to turn on the new Brightspace Editor. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: Ensure that the d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.NewEditor (Org) configuration variable is set to On.
Note: The new Editor is the only editor available in the New Assignment Creation Experience and in the New Assignment Evaluation Experience as of this release and are not controlled by the d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.NewEditor (Org) configuration variable. |
| Moderate impact to instructors and learners due to the ability to use the new Brightspace Editor across most tools in Brightspace Learning Environment. |
N/A |
Classlist – Search filter when adding existing users | Updated
When enrolling users in a course, an administrator or instructor can now deselect the Include users already enrolled in org unit check box to set their search filter to filter out users already enrolled in the course.
Figure: The Add Existing Users page prior to the additional search filter
Figure: The Add Existing Users page with the new Enrollment search filter
This feature implements PIE item D6736.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators and instructors due to the new Enrollment search filter. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This feature is automatically enabled for users with access to the Classlist tool.
Ensure that the Has Access to the Classlist permission is turned on for the administrator and instructor roles.
Note: The Include users already enrolled in org unit check box is selected by default. |
Content - URL topics now Open as External Resource by default | Updated
Previously, when a user created a new URL Content type, the Open as External Resource option was not selected by default. In some cases, this caused a Cross-Origin resource sharing (CORS) error to appear when viewing the content topics. Now, the URL Content type, such as a Google Team Drive Public link, has the Open as External Resource check box selected by default. Users can choose to deliberately remove the Open as External Resource option if necessary. If it is deselected, users are advised that D2L recommends opening links in a new window to prevent issues viewing the resource before saving.
When viewing a content topic that is a URL, the button to open the resource in a new window always appears so that if the content cannot load in an embedded frame, a user can choose to open the content in a new window.
Note: This applies to the classic Content experience only.
This feature partially implements PIE item D4798.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the new default setting during URL topic content creation and prompt when the default is deselected. |
Availability: This feature is available to clients using the classic Content experience with Google Docs integration.
To enable: This feature is automatically enabled for classic Content experience users. |
| Slight impact to learners due to additional options to open in a new window always appearing for content topic URLs. |
N/A |
Quizzes – Improvements to Special Access functionality | Updated
This feature is in line with the improvements made to the Quizzes tool as listed in the Accommodations – Improvements in Classlist, Quizzes, User Purge, and User Progress | New feature. However, it is not dependent on granting any accommodations permissions, and is visible to any user with permission to Add Special Access.
Instructors can now grant learners special access in terms of quiz time multipliers (for example, 1.5x quiz time) or +minutes (for example, an additional 30 minutes). For example, if an instructor has a 30-minute quiz and using the Special Access page, grants three learners 1.5x the quiz time, their updated quiz time of 45 minutes displays. Instructors no longer have to manually calculate the updated quiz time.
Note: After extending the learners quiz time by way of quiz time multipliers or +minutes on the Special Access page, if an instructor updates the duration of the quiz, the learner’s quiz time on the Special Access page does not dynamically update at this time.
Figure: The Add Special Access screen before the updated quiz time functionality
Figure: The Add Special Access screen with the updated Timing area
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to ability to grants users quiz time extensions by way of quiz time multipliers or +minutes. |
Availability: These features are available to all clients.
To enable: Ensure that the existing Add Special Access permission is turned on for the instructor role. Refer to the Quizzes permissions topic for more information. |
Quizzes – Secure and consistent editing experience | New
For a more secure and consistent editing experience in Brightspace, creating any of the following question types now automatically filters out JavaScript and non-standard HTML: Likert, Ordering, Matching, Fill in the Blanks, Short Answer, Multi-Short Answer, Arithmetic, and Significant Figures. For existing questions containing JavaScript and non-standard HTML, the questions continue to display as intended until an instructor edits and saves the questions, which removes the JavaScript and non-standard HTML. Previously, instructors could add JavaScript or non-standard HTML to question types in order to create dynamic content for quizzes.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
No impact to administrators.
|
Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Core clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled when creating new question types. To remove JavaScript and non-standard HTML from existing questions, edit and save the questions.
|
| Moderate impact to instructors due to any JavaScript or non-standard HTML in existing question types |
D2L recommends reviewing all question types containing JavaScript and non-standard HTML and modifying as needed, ensuring that the questions display as intended for learners. For example, to add code to a question type, use the HTML <code> tag. |
Rubrics – Navigation Accessibility Improvements | Updated
This feature was originally released for the Rubrics tool in June 2020/20.20.6 and updated in July 2020/20.20.7 and March 2021/20.21.3. To increase the value of the rubric tool in Brightspace Learning Environment, there have been accessibility improvements to the rubric creation and evaluation workflows:
- Screen readers now inform users of controls for adding feedback to criteria when reading the criteria group table. The table summary now includes the following text: This table lists criteria and criteria group names in the first column. The first-row lists level names and includes scores if the rubric uses a numeric scoring method. You can give feedback on each criterion by tabbing to the add feedback buttons in the table.
- When a score field has the focus, the screen reader now informs the user if it is a criterion score or a total score based on the field label. It also indicates which criterion the score is associated with and what action the user can take. For example: 2/4, score of Criterion 1. Press Enter to override the criterion score.
- Previously, the Total Score and Criterion Score fields did not clearly indicate whether the score is a manual override. The override information appeared in a tooltip that was not visible to assistive technology including screen readers; an asterisk was the only differentiator. Now, the screen reader can read the tooltip content when the Total Score or Criterion Score fields have the focus.
- Previously, when the Total Score was a manual override, the Clear Override button appeared; however, when Criterion Score was a manual override, the Clear Override button only appeared if the focus was on the score. Now, Clear Override appears when either the Total Score or the Criterion Score is a manual override, regardless of where the focus is.
- To improve usability with assistive technology, the Add Feedback button indicates to screen readers the criterion to which the feedback is associated. The Clear Feedback button also indicates the associated criterion.
- When the keyboard focus moves to the default rubric group or new criteria group, the screen reader now tells users the number of rubric levels and criteria in the group.
- Previously, users who used keyboard-only navigation and screen readers were not able to delete aligned outcomes. Now, when a user navigates to the Browse Standards button and focuses on an outcome tag, the screen reader reads the tag content and provides guidance that they can press Delete to remove the aligned outcome
- Previously, the screen reader only read the content of the level name and points fields and indicated that it was a text field. There was no indication of the significance of the field. Now, when the level name text field has the focus, screen readers indicate that the field is for editing the name of a specific level. When the points text field has the focus, the screen reader indicates that the field is for editing the points of a specific level.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight disruption due to improved navigation for clients using assistive technology, including screen readers. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients using assistive technology with the updated Rubrics experience.
To enable: This functionality is automatically available to updated Rubrics experience users. To turn on the updated Rubrics tool, ensure the d2l.Tools.Rubrics.CreateExperienceOptIn configuration variable is set to On or On (opt in). |
March 2021
Assignments - Copying an assignment | Updated
Previously, when you copied an assignment, the copied assignment was set to active and you had to open the newly copied assignment to edit it.
Now when you copy an assignment, the copied assignment is set to inactive and you are directed to the Edit Assignment screen to continue editing it as part of the copy assignments workflow.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the improved copy assignments workflow. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: This feature is automatically enabled for Assignments users. No further action is required. |
Assignments – Learner profile card in New Assignment Evaluation Experience | New
Starting with the March 2021/20.21.3 release, the Consistent Evaluation experience in Assignments is now referred to as New Assignment Evaluation Experience.
This feature updates the Assignments - Consistent evaluation experience | New feature released in December 2020/20.20.12. When hovering over a learner’s name or profile picture in the new evaluation experience, the learner’s user profile card appears. The card displays the user’s online/offline status as well as links to:
- Email
- Instant Message
- User progress
- User profile
Clicking any of the links in the profile card opens a new window.
Figure: Hovering over the name of profile image of a learner opens a profile card with links to Email and Instant Message the learner, plus User Progress and the learner’s User Profile.
This feature implements PIE item D7224.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to allow users to opt-in to the new evaluation experience in Assignments, or permanently enable the new experience. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: Set the d2l.Tools.Activities.ConsistentEvaluationOptIn configuration variable to On(Opt-In) or On. |
| Moderate impact to instructors due to a new evaluation experience available in Assignments. Instructors have the option to opt-in to the new experience depending on the settings of the new configuration variable. |
N/A |
Assignments – Turnitin® support in New Assignment Evaluation Experience | New
Starting with the March 2021/20.21.3 release, the Consistent Evaluation experience in Assignments is now referred to as New Assignment Evaluation Experience.
This feature updates the Assignments - Consistent evaluation experience | New feature released in December 2020/20.20.12. The New Assignment Evaluation experience now supports Turnitin® Similarity and Turnitin® Grademark® in Assignments. The existing Turnitin® workflows and functionality appear on the User Submissions page in the new experience. The Turnitin® workflows are also supported in the mobile experience.
Figure: Turnitin® Similarity and Turnitin® Grademark® feedback appears on the User Submissions page
This feature implements PIE item D7197.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to allow users to opt-in to the new evaluation experience in Assignments, or permanently enable the new experience. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients using the Turnitin® integration and have enabled the New Assignment Evaluation Experience in Assignments.
To enable: Set the d2l.Tools.Activities.ConsistentEvaluationOptIn configuration variable to On(Opt-In) or On.
Ensure you have activated Turnitin® OriginalityCheck for your org unit by configuring the variables in d2l.3rdParty.Turnitin.LTI in the Config Variable Browser and mapped IMS roles for users in IMS Configuration. |
| Moderate impact to instructors due to a new evaluation experience available in Assignments. Instructors have the option to opt-in to the new experience depending on the settings of the new configuration variable. |
N/A |
Calendar – Improvements to date and time selection web components | Updated
To improve the ease of use for clients using the date and time picker in Brightspace Learning Environment, there have been updates to the web components related to date and time selection. These changes are intended to provide better usability for keyboard users and better integration with assistive technology. Changes include:
- Ability to use arrow keys rather than the Tab key to improve keyboard navigation and accessibility.
- Aesthetic changes to hide unused elements until they are active.
- New selectable values of 12:01 AM and 11:59PM in the time picker
- New default values for Start, Due, and End dates.
- The new Set to Today button inside the date picker replaces the Now button outside the date picker.
Note: There may be some instances of the older date picker remaining in Brightspace Learning Environment. These instances will be changed to the new date picker in a future release.
Figure: Before the user selects a date, the picker does not display a default date.
Figure: When the date picker is open, the field to which it applies is highlighted and the picker dialog points to the field.
This feature implements PIE items D3044, D7227, D4286, D4026.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight disruption to users of the date and time selector web components due to improved accessibility. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for all tools that use the date and time selector.
|
Quizzes - Copy quiz workflow | Updated
Previously, to copy and continue editing a quiz, you had to navigate to the Manage Quizzes page, click the More Actions > Copy functionality, and then select the quiz you wanted to copy, rename it, and click Edit quiz after copy completes.
Figure: The original copy quiz workflow
This feature updates the copy quiz workflow to better align with Assignments. Now, the copy functionality is available on the individual quiz drop-down menu. When you copy a quiz, the copied quiz is set to inactive (as per the original copy quiz workflow) and you are directed to the Edit Quiz screen to continue editing it. Now, the copy quiz workflow also copies over Special Access settings and aligned Learning Objectives.
Figure: Updated copy quiz workflow
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the improved copy quiz workflow. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: This feature is automatically enabled for Quizzes users. No further action is required. |
Quizzes – Improved workflow for creating multi-select questions | Updated
As an update to the Quizzes – Improved workflow for creating multi-select questions | New feature released in December 2020/20.20.12, the new d2l.Tools.Quizzes.NewMultiSelectExperience configuration variable is now permanently turned on by default and hidden from administrators. This configuration variable controls the availability of the new multi-select question experience, making the new multi-select question experience on for all organizations.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to administrators due to an existing configuration variable that is now permanently turned on by default and hidden from administrators.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Quizzes users.
|
| Moderate impact to instructors due to the new workflow for creating multi-select questions in a new multi-select question experience appearing in Quizzes by default. |
N/A |
Rubrics – Navigation Accessibility Improvements | Updated
This feature was originally released for the Rubrics tool in June 2020/20.20.6 and updated in July 2020/20.20/7. To increase the value of Rubrics in Brightspace Learning Environment, there have been accessibility improvements to the rubric creation workflow:
- In the Overall Score, screen reader users are now informed that the overall score levels are selectable items. When the user navigates between levels, the screen reader now reads the level order, level name, point level, level content, and selection status.
- When reading descriptions in rubric table cells, screen readers now read the level name and the point value.
- Radio buttons that are used to grade a criterion are now labelled for screen readers to include the criterion for which this radio button applies, and the corresponding rubric level name and point value for each radio button.
- When an Add Feedback button has the focus, screen reader also reads the name of the associated criterion.
- When the screen reader focus is on the outcomes icon in the criterion column, it indicates the standard associated with the criteria name and reads the tooltip content.
- When a Criterion Score cell has the focus, screen readers now indicate that it is the score of the criterion name, the score, and that the user can press enter to adjust the score using a spin button.
- Screen readers now have access to controls for adding feedback to criteria when reading the criteria group table. The table summary now includes the following text: This table lists criteria and criteria group name in the first column. The first-row lists level names and includes scores if the rubric uses a numeric scoring method. You can give feedback on each criterion by tabbing to the add feedback buttons in the table.
- When a page is loaded, the keyboard focus is now on the first focusable interface component; extra tab stops have been removed.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight disruption due to improved navigation. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients using assistive technology with the updated Rubrics experience.
To enable: This functionality is automatically available to updated Rubrics experience users. To turn on the updated Rubrics experience, ensure the d2l.Tools.Rubrics.CreateExperienceOptIn configuration variable is set to On or On (opt in).
|
February 2021
Brightspace Learning Environment
Accommodations – Quiz accommodations | New
This feature enables instructors to grant learners accommodations through the Classlist tool. Accommodation options currently available include: more time to complete quizzes at the course level and the ability to bypass right-click restrictions in quizzes. The right-click restriction in quizzes is the ability for learners to right-click in the quiz while taking the quiz.
Figure: The new Edit Accommodations dialog box
Once granted, these accommodations apply to all quiz activities in a course for that learner. The additional time can be applied in terms of quiz time multipliers (for example, 1.5x quiz time) or +minutes (for example, an additional 30 minutes) on every quiz in a course.
Quiz-specific special access can overwrite an accommodation for any user on a quiz-by-quiz basis. When you overwrite an accommodation and then click Save, a warning describing the impact of overwriting an accommodation appears. Further accommodation options and enhancements are planned for this year.
To provide administrators with control over who can use this feature, two new permissions are included: View Other Users' Accommodations and Add/Edit Accommodations.
|
Impact of Change
|
Technical Details
|
|
Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to apply a single course-level quiz accommodation from the Classlist tool to all quizzes.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: From Organization Tools, turn on Accommodations.
Ensure that the View Other Users' Accommodations and the Add/Edit Accommodations permissions are turned on at the course offering level under the Accommodations tool for the instructor role.
Instructors also require the Has Access to the Classlist permission to access the Add/Edit/View Accommodations workflow from the Classlist tool.
To ensure a cohesive experience when editing special access, D2L highly recommends that users who can add special access in a quiz be given the View Other Users' Accommodations permission.
|
|
Slight impact to learners as the quiz time accommodation and/or the ability to always allow right-click is now applied to all of their quiz activities in a given course.
|
N/A
|
Assignments - Rubric pop-out window for consistent evaluation | Updated
This feature adds onto the Assignments - Consistent evaluation experience | New feature that was introduced in the December 2020/20.20.12 release, and the Assignments - Multiple rubric support in consistent evaluation experience | Updated feature introduced in the January 2021/20.21.1 release.
When using the new Consistent evaluation experience in Assignments, rubrics can now open to a new pop-out window when assessing assignment submissions. This change provides a larger, detailed view of rubrics in table form and encourages the use of split screens when viewing assignments.
This is an additional functionality in the new Consistent evaluation experience that matches the functionality of rubrics in Assignments when the Consistent evaluation experience is not enabled.
This feature implements PIE item D7232.
|
Impact of Change
|
Technical Details
|
|
Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to view and evaluate rubrics in a pop-out window when grading assignments.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: The new assignment creation experience is set to On (Opt-in) by default. Administrators can override this value in the d2l.Tools.Activities.ConsistentEvaluationOptIn (OrgUnit) configuration variable.
Instructors may opt in or out of the new assignment creation experience within a specific course at any time. If the new assignment creation experience is set as Off or On, instructors cannot control their use of the feature:
-
If Off, the feature is unavailable.
-
If On, the feature replaces the old screens in the workflow without the option to switch back.
|
Assignments - Save progress and visual enhancements | Updated
This feature builds on the Assignments – The new assignment creation experience | Updated feature that was released in the January 2021/20.21.1 release.
Figure: The Save button in the new assignment creation experience
-
The scrollbars on the main and right-hand panels now appear thinner and less noticeable, providing more vertical space when creating or editing an assignment.
-
The name of the assignment appears in the immersive navbar along the top of the page.
Figure: The name of the assignment on the immersive navbar and the less obtrusive scrollbar in the new assignment creation experience
|
Impact of Change
|
Technical Details
|
|
Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to save their progress when creating or editing an assignment and due to the visual improvements.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients
To enable: The new assignment creation experience is set to On (Opt-in) by default. Administrators can override this value in the d2l.Tools.Dropbox.CreateExperienceOptIn (OrgUnit) configuration variable.
Instructors may opt in or out of the new assignment creation experience within a specific course at any time. If the new assignment creation experience is set as Off or On, instructors cannot control their use of the feature:
-
If Off, the feature is unavailable.
-
If On, the feature replaces the old screens in the workflow without the option to switch back.
|
Brightspace Pulse – Course access events added to Brightspace Data Platform | New
To allow administrators and instructors to see when learners access courses from Brightspace Pulse, the app now sends course access events to the Brightspace Data Platform (BDP). The BDP stores these events, and then computes and stores the aggregated data, which can then be accessed through various course reporting tools, such as Classlist, Class Progress, Adoption Dashboard, Engagement Dashboard, and the Course Overview widget. For example, in Classlist, the Last Accessed column now displays a timestamp when a learner accesses a course from Brightspace Pulse. In the September 2020/20.20.9 release, Brightspace Pulse started sending session events to the BDP when learners logged in from the app; however, it did not send course access events when learners accessed courses from the app.
This feature implements PIE item D6543.
Figure: The Last Accessed column in Classlist now updated when a learner accesses a course from Brightspace Pulse
|
Impact of Change
|
Technical Details
|
|
Slight impact to administrators and instructors due to new course access events available from the Brightspace Data Platform, which can be accessed through course reporting tools.
|
Availability: This feature is available to clients using Brightspace Pulse.
To enable: Download the latest version of Brightspace Pulse, available from any global Google Play™ store or Apple App Store®. The app is generally released at the beginning of the month, and then sometimes mid-month, if issues are found. Depending on how your device is configured, the app may update automatically or you may have to manually check for new versions.
For more detailed course reporting, the Course Access data set, used by the Data Hub, will be updated with Pulse-related information in a future release.
|
Quick Eval - Homepage widget | New
Quick Eval can now be added to organization and course homepages as a widget to allow instructors to view and access any submissions awaiting evaluation. The Quick Eval widget displays a list of up to six activities with submissions to evaluate. The activities are sorted by due date, with the earliest date first. The icon indicator in the widget shows the type of activity (assignment, discussion, or quiz), and the number of unevaluated submissions for each activity. The due date and course information are also visible below the title of each activity. Course information is only shown if the widget is accessed from the organization homepage.
Activities dismissed in the Quick Eval tool are not displayed by the Quick Eval widget.
Figure: The Quick Eval widget on the Organization homepage displaying unevaluated activities from multiple courses
This feature implements PIE items D1694, D1682, D203, and D6886.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to add the Quick Eval widget to organization and department homepages in Brightspace Learning Environment.
|
Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Core clients.
To enable: Turn on Quick Eval under Organization Tools.
Add the Quick Eval widget to the Org level homepage or course template homepages.
Add the View Quick Eval permission at the Org level for the required roles. |
Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to add the Quick Eval widget to course homepages in Brightspace Learning Environment.
|
N/A |
January 2021
Assignments – The new assignment creation experience | Updated
The following features build on the announcement related to the new assignment creation experience released in the December 2020/20.20.12 Release Notes, the Assignments – Date picker change | Updated feature that was released in the November 2020/20.20.11 Release Notes, and the Learning Outcomes - Display of Outcome Hierarchy in Alignment picker and Outcomes Progress | New and the Learning Outcomes - Search Outcomes in the Alignment picker and Outcomes Progress | New features released in the April 2020/20.20.4 release:
- The new assignment creation experience defaults to On (Opt-in). Administrators can still override this value in the d2l.Tools.Dropbox.CreateExperienceOptIn (OrgUnit) configuration variable.
- Previously, in the new assignment creation experience, the time for an assignment Start Date defaulted to 11:59pm. Now, the default time for an assignment Start Date is set to 12:00am. Due Date and End Date remain unchanged with default times set to 11:59pm.
- The learning outcomes hierarchy tree now appears in Assignments. You can collapse it to facilitate finding and using specific outcomes in any assessment activity or rubric where outcomes can be aligned. In addition, users can now search the outcomes list to find the best outcome to align with assignment activities in their courses and programs.
Assignments - Multiple rubric support in consistent evaluation experience | Updated
This feature is a continuation of the Assignments - Consistent evaluation experience | New feature that was introduced in the December 2020/20.20.12 release.
If an assignment includes multiple rubrics, they are all visible to instructors using the Consistent evaluation experience. Instructors are also able to choose the default scoring rubric. Previously, the consistent evaluation experience would only display one rubric on the assignment evaluation screen.
For additional information on the Consistent evaluation experience, visit Brightspace Community.
Brightspace Learning Environment – Supported browsers | Updated
Brightspace Learning Environment's browser version check now displays warnings for browsers earlier than the following versions:
- Google® Chrome™ 85 (released Aug 2020)
- Apple® Safari® 13 (released in September 2019)
- Mobile Apple Safari 12 (released in October 2018)
- Mozilla® Firefox® 80 (released August 2020)
- Chromium-based Microsoft® Edge 85 (released August 2020)
- All versions of Microsoft Edge Legacy (in preparation for Microsoft’s end-of-support in March 2021)
You can access Brightspace Learning Environment with older versions of our supported browsers; however, D2L does not test Brightspace Learning Environment against these older versions. This means you may encounter unexpected user interface behavior and appearance or broken and unsupported functionality. In most cases, D2L does not fix software defects experienced in unsupported browser versions. For an optimal experience that offers better performance, accessibility, and security, D2L strongly recommends that all users access Brightspace Learning Environment with a supported browser.
Content - File and widget sandboxing to enhance content security | New
To enhance the security of Content files and Widgets that execute scripts to create extra-rich HTML experiences (such as objects that can execute JavaScript), there is now a sandboxing feature that creates a secure iFrame around the HTML file. This will allow an HTML file to execute scripts (such as JavaScript) within the iFrame only but will prevent them from executing outside the iframe (against the domain). This enables some flexibility in creating rich content, but reassurance for the security- conscious that end user information remains secure in all situations, such as when learners in specific courses have a special role with permission to create content topics.
To implement the ability to create sandboxing in Content Files and Widgets, there are new configuration variables, permissions, and workflows.
There are 3 new configuration variables:
- The Security.WidgetsApplySandbox configuration variable applies the sandbox attribute to any widget where Widget Is Sandboxed is selected in the Edit Widget Properties area. For existing clients, this configuration variable is OFF by default. When the configuration variable is OFF, the permission and workflow to apply sandboxing is visible, but the actual sandbox attribute is not applied; scripts execute as they did previously. All new widgets have the Widget Is Sandboxed attribute set to OFF in the Edit Widget Properties dialog box. When the Security.WidgetsApplySandbox configuration variable is enabled, the sandbox attribute is applied as appropriate, and all new widgets have the Widget Is Sandboxed setting automatically turned on in the Edit Widget Properties area.
Note: When the Security.WidgetsApplySandbox configuration variable is on, users without the Manage Widget Security permission can no longer edit a widget that is not sandboxed.
- The Security.ContentSandboxDefault configuration variable sets the default status of the Enable Content Sandboxing check box for all org units in Course Offering Information area that do not have specific overrides. This configuration variable enables administrators to specify that all courses should have sandboxed content, and specifically opt out certain org units, if applicable.
Widget and Course Content permissions for sandboxing appear in the Security permission category:
- The new Manage Widget Security (organization level) permission enables the associated roles to apply and remove sandboxing to widgets. By default, this permission is OFF for all roles. Without this permission, users with create/edit widget permissions can see whether or not a widget is sandboxed, but cannot edit the setting. If a widget is not sandboxed, and the Security.WidgetsApplySandbox configuration variable is ON, a user without this permission cannot edit the widget, as it is not secure.
- The new Manage Content Security (organization level) permission enables the associated roles to apply and remove sandboxing in any org unit. By default, this permission is OFF for all roles. Without this permission, users who can see the Course Offering Information area for an org unit can see whether the course is sandboxed, but cannot edit the setting.
- The existing Has Access to the Manage Courses Tool permission is also required at the org unit type (such as course or department) for the roles to see the Enable Content Sandboxing setting in the Course Offering information.
Note: If two or more courses share the same exact file path, sandboxing the path for one course automatically sandboxes the other courses as well. This might take several minutes to apply, depending on the number of courses in the path.
Course Export - Export file upload attribute for written response questions | New
Written Response quiz questions that allow for file upload can now be imported and exported from Brightspace Learning Environment. With the ability to import and export these questions users can share them with users from other instances of Brightspace.
Quizzes - Multi-select questions workflow on by default | Updated
As an update to the Quizzes – Improved workflow for creating multi-select questions | New feature released in December 2020/20.20.12, the new d2l.Tools.Quizzes.NewMultiSelectExperience configuration variable is now turned on by default.
This configuration variable controls the availability of the new multi-select question experience only. If you do not want the multi-select question experience to appear by default, you can turn off the configuration variable manually.
Note: The new d2l.Tools.Quizzes.NewMultiSelectExperience configuration variable will be removed in the March 2021/20.21.3 release, making the new multi-select question experience on by default for all organizations at that time.
Quizzes - Retake Incorrect questions only permission setting | Updated
Building on the Quizzes – Improvements to the ability to retake incorrect questions in quizzes | New feature released in December 2020/20.20.12, the role permission Edit Quiz Properties permission now controls the availability of the Retake Incorrect Questions Only setting on the Assessment tab. This change ensures that only instructors with the Edit Quiz Properties permission can set the retake incorrect questions only setting on a quiz.
November 2020
Assignments - Date picker change | Updated
This feature updates the date picker component for the new assignment creation experience. The new date picker has a more streamlined design and requires a slight workflow change: to clear a date/time, the X alongside the time field has been replaced by a Clear option inside the calendar.
Instructors can find the date picker in Due Date, Start Date, and End Date fields on the Create and Edit Assignments page.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
Slight impact to instructors due to the updated date picker.
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Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for all users that have enabled the New Assignment Creation Experience. No further action is required. |
Content – Enhancements to course content statistics | New
To provide instructors with additional insight about their courses, statistics in the classic Content experience now include more information.
To view course content statistics, as an instructor, navigate to Content, and then select Table of Contents > Related Tools > View Reports.
From the Reports page, the Content tab includes the following changes:
- The summary panel uses less vertical space, enabling instructors to view detailed information more quickly.
- A new Available To column that displays the number of users (from the class list) that the content is available to. This value takes into account the following: release conditions, special access (assignments and quizzes), group access (assignments and discussions), availability dates, hidden/visible state, and if the module parent is "available."
- For modules, the following information displays:
- Available To - the number of users that the module is available to.
- Users Visited - the number of unique users who visited one or more topics within the module.
- Average Time Spent - the average time spent in each topic within the module.
From the Content tab on the Reports page, clicking a value under the Available To or Users Visited columns for a module displays a new Module details page, which includes the following information:
- Available - indicates if the module is available to the user.
- Last Visited - the last date the user visited a topic within the module.
- Number of Visits - the total number of visits across all topics in the module.
- Total Time Spent - the total time spent in each topic within the module.
- Average Time Spent - the average time spent in each topic within the module.
From the Reports page, the Users tab displays a new Content Topics Available column, which includes the number of content topics available to each user.
From the Users tab on the Reports page, clicking a user displays the following information on the User Details page:
- Content type and availability icons now display, ensuring consistency with the Content Statistics - By Content view.
- For modules, the following information displays:
- Available - a new column that indicates if modules and topics are available.
- Visits - the total number of visits across all topics in the module.
- Average Time Spent - the average time spent in each topic within the module.
- Last Visited - the last date the user visited a topic within the module.
In addition, the Class Progress tool now displays an icon to indicate if a topic or module has release conditions associated with it for the specified user.
This feature implements PIE item D1741.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| No impact to administrators. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients using the classic Content experience; it is not available in the new Content experience (Lessons).
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Content users. No further action is required. |
| Slight impact to instructors due to more information available from course content statistics and the Class Progress tool. |
To determine if a topic or module is available to a user, the following must be true:
- Current date is within the availability dates of the topic or module
- Users have met all required release conditions
- Content topic or module is published/visible
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Grades - Display total points in Manage Grades | Updated
To improve usability of the Grades tool and reduce calculation errors, Manage Grades now includes total points for grade categories and Final Calculated Grade. Previously, there was no indicator of the total points while users were managing their grade book, and instructors were required to manually add up the points from all grade items to check if the total matched their syllabus.
For weighted grade books, the total weight is displayed in addition to the total points. For formula grade books, the manually-entered max points is displayed instead of the total points. Totals do not include bonus grade items and do support grade item dropping.
This feature implements PIE item D2052.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to see grade calculations for points in Manage Grades.
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Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Grades users.
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Quiz Builder - Quiz preview | New
Instructors can now view a preview of their quiz from Quiz Builder. Clicking the new Preview button on the Add/Edit Questions view of the quiz opens a quiz preview attempt in a new tab for a complete view of how the quiz appears to learners.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors who can view the learner view of the quiz as they add and edit questions. |
Availability: This feature is available all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Quizzes users. No further action is required. |
September 2020
Brightspace Pulse for iOS – View Activity Feed posts and comments | New
To keep up to date on course activity, learners can now read Activity Feed posts and comments in Brightspace Pulse for iOS. Learners can also receive Activity Feed notifications. For example, in courses with Activity Feed enabled, instructors can use Activity Feed to post reminders about upcoming assignments and links to course materials. Learners then receive notifications about those posts in Brightspace Pulse, allowing them to view post details from the course homepages. Future releases will allow learners to post or reply to posts, if they have the appropriate permissions.
From the Courses tab, tapping a course displays the course homepage. The latest post and any associated comments display in the Activity Feed.
From the Notifications tab, tapping an Activity Feed notification displays the associated post or comment in the Activity Feed.
Figure: An Activity Feed post and comment for a course in Brightspace Pulse for iOS
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Moderate impact to learners due to the new ability to view Activity Feed posts and comments in Brightspace Pulse, and receive Activity Feed notifications. |
Availability: This feature is only available to clients using Brightspace Pulse for iOS. This feature will become available to Brightspace Pulse for Android in a later release.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Brightspace Pulse users, if Activity Feed is enabled by instructors in their courses. No further action is required.
Currently, this feature is read-only and does not support adding messages or assignment posts. In addition, it does not support pinning posts or configuring the Activity Feed. |
Class/User Progress – Include Pulse activity in usage data | Update
Learner activity data is now captured more accurately through the addition of a new system usage metric. Previously, Pulse usage was not tracked, and learners who accessed their courses through the app were misrepresented as having low engagement and could not access conditionally released content.
These changes affect the following areas of Brightspace:
- Class Progress has a new System Access performance indicator, which displays the number of times each course participant has accessed the system through the Learning Environment or Pulse in the last 30 days. Instructors can add System Access to the Class Progress dashboard by clicking Settings.
- User Progress has a new System Access History section, which displays the number of times the user has accessed the system through the Learning Environment or Pulse in the last 30 days. Instructors can select System Access History to display in the User Progress report by clicking Settings.
Figure: Class Progress dashboard showing System Access indicator
Figure: User Progress sidebar showing location of System Access History section
Figure: System Access History summary in the User Progress tool
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Impact of Change
|
Technical Details
|
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Slight impact to administrators due to addition of app data and a new system access metric.
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Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Brightspace Learning Environment users. No further action is required.
|
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Slight impact to instructors due to addition of app data and a new system access metric.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Brightspace Learning Environment users. No further action is required.
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Copy Course Components – Select copying of LTI Links | New
This feature changes the permission requirements needed when copying selected External Learning Tool / LTI links using Copy Course Components and choosing to select course components. This enables more flexibility for clients in terms of which permissions can see and copy select External Learning Tool / LTI links.
Previously, in order to copy select components and choose specific External Learning Tool / LTI links, users needed the Manage External Learning Tool Links permission. Now, users can copy select components for External Learning Tool / LTI links when they have either the Create Quicklinks from available External Learning Tools links permission, or the Manage External Learning Tool Links permission.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to copy select External Learning Tool / LTI links if their role did not previously have the Manage External Learning Tool Links permission. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Copy Course Components users. No further action is required. |
Question Library – Attach files in arithmetic and significant figures questions | Updated
Building on the attach files in written response questions functionality released in the August 2020/20.20.8 release, when creating arithmetic and significant figures questions, instructors can now allow learners to include external files with their responses and record audio or video responses when answering these question types. This feature is only available in the new Quiz Builder Experience.
When grading a quiz, similar to the behavior in the Discussions tool, instructors can view a list of attachments, download them, or open them in another tab. When reviewing their submission in Submission View, the learner can see their uploaded attachment if allowed to see their responses.
To support attachment responses, Quizzes data sets and quiz reporting enhancements will be released in the November 2020/20.20.11 release.
Figure: The updated New Arithmetic Question screen
Figure: The updated New Significant Figures screen
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to the existing ability to allow learners to upload Audio or Video attachments in a Quiz response. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: Ensure the existing Can Capture Audio and Can Capture Video permissions are turned on at the course level. |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to set up arithmetic and significant figures questions that accommodate the upload of attachments and record audio/video responses. Instructors can also download and open these attachments when grading a quiz. |
To enable: Ensure the option in the arithmetic and significant figures question types is turned on for Quizzes users during the question creation process in the New Quiz Builder Experience. |
| Slight impact to learners who may now be asked to attach images or files when answering arithmetic and significant figures questions. |
The maximum file size for a single file or embedded image attached to a quiz response is 102400 KB (100MB). The maximum file size for all files attached or embedded in a single quiz question response is 102400 KB (100MB). |
Question Library – Search for and select questions in Question Library sections | Updated
This feature enables instructors to search for sections in Question Library by section title, as well as the ability to select and import the section in its entirety from the search results list. Previously, you could only search for questions by question text and you could not select sections in the search results.
Figure: The updated search and select capability in Question Library
Figure: The previous search and select questions capability in Question Library
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to search for and select questions in Question Library sections |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Question Library users. No further action is required. |
Quiz Builder - Enhanced question reordering | New
To simplify the movement and reordering of questions in Quiz Builder, a new Move To option is visible when a question is selected. The Move To option allows questions to be moved to the Top of the Quiz, Bottom of the Quiz, or to a specific section within the quiz.
Previously, to move multiple questions into a section, instructors had to individually drag the questions into the desired section. Now, instructors can select multiple questions and move them all at once using the Move To menu. The drag and drop reordering of questions has not been affected by this feature and remains available.
This feature implements PIE items D6059 and D5737.
Figure: The Move To option is visible once quiz questions are selected
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to use the new Move To option to move multiple questions into a section in Quiz Builder. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Quiz Builder users. No further action is required. |
Discussions - Visual word count for discussion posts | New
A visual word count is now visible in the HTML Editor for discussion posts. All words in a discussion post are counted and include filler words such as “the,” “if,” and “to.”
The word count is dynamically displayed to learners while they type in the HTML Editor and it also appears next to posts they have created in the Discussions Reading View and Grid View. Learners can view the word count for their posts only.
For instructors, the word count appears on the Assessment page during the discussions assessment process and it also appears inline with the post details in the Discussions Reading View and Grid View. Instructors can view the word count for all user posts.
This feature is controlled by the new d2l.Tools.Discuss.TextStats.DisplayWordCount configuration variable. By default, it is turned off.
This feature implements PIE items D4352, D2057, and D988.
Figure: A discussion post with the dynamically displayed word count
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to administrators due to a new configuration variable that controls the new word count functionality. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: Turn on the new d2l.Tools.Discuss.TextStats.DisplayWordCount configuration variable at the org unit level.
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| Moderate impact to instructors due to the ability to assess learners' discussion posts based on word count. |
N/A |
| Slight impact to learners due to the ability to view discussion post word counts. |
N/A |
Overview
The overview provided below is for informational purposes only. Dates and details are subject to change depending on D2L's timeline and implementation at UCO. Not every monthly release will have major changes to the platform.
February 2020
Assignments - Streamlined access to inline feedback | New
To streamline access to assignment feedback, learners can now immediately access inline feedback from User Progress, Grades, and Assignments. From these tools, the View Inline Feedback link takes the learner directly to the annotations view (or Turnitin viewer, if that is the tool used to provide feedback). The inline feedback also includes a link to the file for the assignment, so learners know which document contains the feedback. Previously, the View Inline Feedback link took the learner to the Assignment feedback summary page, where they had to click a second link to view the feedback.
This feature implements PIE item D5351.
Figure: Class Progress view for instructors and learners displaying the View Inline Feedback link, which now opens directly in the annotation view
Figure: Grades view for learners displaying the View Inline Feedback link, which now opens directly in the annotation view
Figure: Assignments view for learners displaying the View Inline Feedback link, which now opens directly in the annotation view
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to learners due to a streamlined workflow for accessing assignment feedback.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Assignments users. No further action is required.
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Quick Eval - Course level filtering | New
When opening Quick Eval within a course, only the list of activities and submissions related to that course display. This helps instructors easily view and evaluate submissions on a course-by-course basis. If an instructor wants to view all submissions across all their courses, they can still use the More Options menu to see the Multi-Course Quick Eval, or open Quick Eval from outside of a course.
This feature implements PIE item D5474.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to instructors due to the automatic course-level filtering for Quick Eval when opened within courses.
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Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Core clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Quick Eval users. No further action is required.
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Quick Eval - Dismiss activities until next submission | New
Instructors can now remove items from their Quick Eval list until a new submission is received for the activity. The removed activity appears on the Dismissed Activities list and can be restored at any time. Once a new submission arrives to the Quick Eval list, the previously dismissed activity reappears there.
Previously, instructors could only select a specific date or forever when dismissing an activity. This new option provides instructors with an additional option to manage the submissions on their Quick Eval list.
This feature implements PIE item D5505.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to instructors due to additional option to temporarily dismiss activities from the Quick Eval list.
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Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Core clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Quick Eval users. No further action is required.
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December 2019
Assignments – File size information in submission receipt email | New
File size information now displays next to the file name in the submission receipt email sent to learners upon making a submission to an assignment submission folder.
This feature implements PIE item D5253.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to learners due to file size information included in submission receipt emails.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Assignments users. No further action is required.
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Assignments – Submission ID displays for Learners | New
A new column that displays Submission ID information is visible to learners on the View Feedback page in Assignments.
Figure: Submission ID visible to learners when reviewing Submission Feedback information
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to learners due to Submission ID information available when viewing their Submission Feedback.
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Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Assignments users. No further action is required.
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Widgets – Ability to store custom widget data | New
In order for clients to store data related to Custom Widgets, a new dedicated storage area tied to the widget, org unit, and user is available. This area can store information such as the settings for a widget, including the status of a user dismissing a message or hiding the custom widget, or widget adoption in a specific course. By default, the system does not track custom data; the data can be accessed and manipulated using API calls.
To allow administrators some flexibility in who can view and change the data for custom widgets, there are new permissions in the Brightspace Learning Environment.
The new permissions are:
- Modify Org Unit Custom Widget Data (for data specific to the org unit you are in and the widget you are working with)
- Modify Own Custom Widget Data (for data specific to a user within a particular org unit you are in and the widget you are working with)
- Retrieve Org Unit Custom Widget Data(for data specific to the org unit you are in and the widget you are working with)
- Retrieve Own Custom Widget Data (for data specific to a user within a particular org unit you are in and the widget you are working with)
In addition, a new replacement string {widgetid} is available when retrieving the WidgetID with the APIs.
Note: If you have a custom widget provided by D2L Learning and Creative Services, you will be contacted for assistance migrating data from previous storage locations to the new.
For more information about using APIs to view and manipulate the custom widget data, see Brightspace Developer Docs.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
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Slight impact for users who use custom widgets in their Brightspace Learning Environment due to the ability to store and report on custom widget content.
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Availability: This feature is available to all clients who use custom widgets.
To enable:To use the new custom widget data, clients must use the API calls defined in the developer documentation to get, set, and delete data for both Org Unit/Widget and User/Org Unit/Widget content.
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Release Conditions – Learners are notified when a release condition triggers new content | Updated
In a course that uses release conditions to unlock additional content, learners previously were not informed when new content became available as a result of a release condition that was satisfied. Because there was no automatic notification or refresh of the table of contents, there was the potential for frustration when learners think they are done a module, and are later informed that there are steps left to be completed.
Now, when release conditions are satisfied, the learner is notified using a pop-up ("toast") message that there are new items available in the course.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
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Slight impact to users in courses that use release conditions due to the new notification.
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Availability: This feature is available to all clients who use release conditions in their courses.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for release condition users. No further action is required.
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November 2019
Assignments - Improvements to Assignments | Updated
The Assignments page shows a count of new submissions and resubmissions in the New column, which you can opt-in /opt-out of displaying.
This feature implements PIE item D5396.
Figure: Assignments page with the New column
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
| Slight impact to instructors due to the availability of the New column on the Assignments page. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: Set the d2l.Tools.Dropbox.UseAssignmentListOptIn configuration variable to ON (Opt-In).
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| Slight impact to administrators when they run the AssignmentSubmissionDetails Brightspace data set, as it matches a full report run. |
N/A |
Assignments – Letter grading available | New
Grade Schemes can now be used by instructors to evaluate assignments by associating Selectbox Grade Items to an assignment. When grading an assignment through Assignments, Quick Eval, or Grades, the evaluator is shown a dropdown menu with the associated grade scheme levels. This feature functions identically for rubrics and numeric values as the previously existing Selectbox grade item type in the gradebook.
Any Selectbox grade item can now use an Organization level grade scheme, without having to copy the grade scheme into an individual course. This allows administrators to create centralized grade schemes for Selectbox grade items, and makes it easier for instructors to use those grade schemes in their courses. Grade Schemes have also been reordered so that the highest grade, rather than the lowest, defaults to the top of the list. API routes have been added to enable the creation of assignment Selectbox grade items.
This feature implements PIE items D3152, D805, D3109, D479.
Figure: Select a letter grade when assessing an assignment submission
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
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Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to create centralized grade schemes for use with Selectbox grading.
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Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Assignments users. No further action is required.
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| Moderate impact to instructors due to the ability to use Selectbox grading when evaluating assignments. |
N/A |
Intelligent Agents - Email images and enrollment permission checks | New
This feature includes two changes to Intelligent Agents (IA):
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
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Slight impact to instructors due to user interface changes that enable adding images to intelligent agents, and due to the permission limits now in place when assigning roles using intelligent agents.
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Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Intelligent Agents users.
To enable the Unenrollment permission functionality for roles that can create Intelligent Agents, ensure the role has the new Use Agent Unenrollment Actions permission set at the organization level.
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Quizzes - Restore quiz attempts in the Quiz Attempt log | Update
When an instructor restores a learner's deleted quiz attempt, note the following workflow changes:
- A deleted quiz attempt can only be restored if the learner does not have another quiz attempt in progress.
- The Restore button only appears for the latest deleted quiz attempt.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
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No impact to administrators.
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Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Quizzes users.
The Reset and Restore Attempts permission must be granted to instructors at the course level.
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| Slight impact to instructors due to workflow changes. |
N/A |
Quizzes – Save feedback as draft | New
Instructors can now clearly see when feedback is saved as a draft, or published, while evaluating quiz submissions. On the quiz evaluation page, the Graded (G) checkbox and Save button have been replaced by the Publish and Save Draft buttons.
Note: A new column is being added to the database table - QA. The first differential run now matches the full report run for Quiz Attempts Brightspace Data Set, and takes as long to run as a full report.
For additional information visit the About changes in Quizzing tool (20.19.11 – November release) blog post on Community.
Figure: The Publish and Save Draft buttons allow instructors to quickly save drafts of feedback left on quiz submissions
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
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Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to save feedback as draft when evaluating quizzes.
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Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Quizzes users. No further action is required.
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Quizzes - Set quiz options in Quiz Builder | New
The new Quiz Builder experience now allows instructors to set additional quiz options when creating quizzes. A More Actions button is visible when users select the checkbox for one or more questions; allowing instructors to set questions as mandatory or bonus directly from Quiz Builder, and change the number points assigned to a question or set of questions. There is no change in how the bonus, mandatory, or points features work.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
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Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to set additional quiz options when creating their quizzes using the new Quiz Builder experience.
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Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: Ensure the d2l.Tools.Quizzes.NewQuizBuilderExperience configuration variable is set to ON (OPT IN). This allows users to opt in or out of the new Quiz Builder experience. If the variable is set to ON, it enforces the new Quiz Builder experience for all users.
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Video Note - Migration to content service | New
Video Note now uses the Content Service, and its data is also maintained within Content Service. As a result, Video Note is able to publish videos to the Content Service, and removes both Flash-based recording options and the legacy usage reporting tool.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to administrators due to the removal of usage reports.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Video Note users. No further action is required.
|
| Slight impact to instructors due to the removal of support for Adobe Flash-based recording tools. |
N/A |
Video Note - Record Video workflow | Updated
Instructors are now able to attach pre-existing Video Notes in the Record Video workflow. Previously, when attaching a video in some workflows, users were only given the option to record a new video or upload a video from their computer.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to attach pre-existing Video Notes in the Record Video workflow.
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Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Video Note users. No further action is required.
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October 2019
Accessibility - Compliance with WCAG 2.1 level AA | Updated
As part of D2L's ongoing commitment to design and develop against WC3 accessibility best practices, the Brightspace Learning Environment 20.19.10/October 2019 release now aligns to the updated WCAG 2.1 level AA standards in both compliance reporting and all new development work. It is D2L’s intention to be an industry leader in inclusive design, and these changes improve support for individuals with alternative fine motor, cognition, and low vision needs. There are no major changes to workflows with these improvements; however, we have updated our shared components, such as fonts, buttons, menus, and input fields to better support WCAG 2.1 level AA requirements and recommendations. These changes include:
- Adding input type and auto-complete to appropriate fields to facilitate a user’s ability to complete forms.
- Adding escape key commands where appropriate to components that appear on hover or focus.
- Updating components that activate on down event to ensure that a user can cancel actions.
- Improving color contrast on additional components in Brightspace Learning Environment.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to all users to improve accessibility and align with WCAG 2.1 level AA standards.
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Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for all Brightspace Learning Environment users. No further action is required.
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Assignments – Change to immersive navigation bar | Updated
When evaluating an assignment submission, the user interface has been updated slightly. The Next Student and Previous Student buttons above the submission and learner information have been replaced by forward and back chevrons that display in the immersive navigation bar. Previously, these buttons were displayed across the entire width of the page. The information on which user you are evaluating (e.g. 1 of 12) displays between the back and forward chevrons.
Figure: Evaluating an assignment with the new immersive navigation bar.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to Instructors due to minor UI changes when evaluating assignments.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Assignments users. No further action is required.
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Brightspace Learning Environment – Improvements to consistency | Updated
To provide a more consistent experience, there have been changes to update the language, interface controls, and workflows throughout Brightspace Learning Environment.
The language and methods by which instructors make activities hidden or visible to learners across different tools is now consistent. Changes include:
- The visibility control now uses a checkbox with the consistent terminology Hide from users in all instances. This change affects the Assignments, Discussions, Quizzes, Surveys, and Grades (grade item and grade category) tools.
- In Discussions, the Visibility, Availability Dates, and Locking options move from the Properties tab to the Restrictions tab.
- The Hide from users checkbox appears under the title field of all activity creation pages in the Content tool.
- In Content, on the table of contents, there is now a visibility icon button for use with both content topics and modules. The icon serves as a visibility switch. The visibility status of a topic appears when the topic is not visible, when the table of contents is in bulk edit mode, or when a topic is in edit-in-place mode. The table of contents fly-out no longer provides the ability to switch the visibility of a topic or module.
- In Content, the Hide from users and Make Visible to users options are available in the context menus for topics and modules in the table of contents, and in the context menus of topics on the topics’ detail page.
This feature implements PIE items D3981, D615, D4016, and D1965. It also partially implements PIE items D4055 and D1375.
For additional information about the changes as a result of this feature update, see Activity Visibility Improvements - Part 1 and Activity Visibility Improvements - Part 2
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Medium impact to administrators and instructors due to updated language, interface elements, and workflows.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Brightspace Learning Environment users. No further action is required.
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Intelligent Agents - Email Attachments | New
You can now add attachments to automated email messages when creating and editing intelligent agents. The intelligent agent email template contains an Attachments area that enables you to upload local files, select from available course files, or record audio. Attachment size is based on the email attachment size setting for your organization.
This feature implements PIE item D5283.
Figure: The Attachments area now appears when creating or editing Intelligent Agents emails messages.
This feature was released in Brightspace Learning Environment October 2019/20.19.10.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to instructors due to user interface changes that enable adding attachments in the email template.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Intelligent Agents users. No further action is required.
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Quizzes – Change to immersive navigation bar | Updated
When evaluating a quiz submission, the user interface has been updated slightly. The Next Student and Previous Student buttons above the submission and learner information have been replaced by forward and back chevrons that display in the immersive navigation bar. Previously these buttons were displayed across the entire width of the page. The information on which user you are evaluating (e.g. 1 of 12) now displays between the back and forward chevrons.
Figure: Evaluating a quiz with the new immersive navigation bar.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to Instructors due to minor UI changes when evaluating quizzes.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Quizzes users. No further action is required.
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September 2019
Assignments - Grades entered in Assignments and Grade Book are synchronized | New
When an instructor enters a grade for an assignment submission in the standard or spreadsheet view of Grade Book, the grade also appears with the submission in Assignments. Previously, grades entered in the Assignment tool were passed on to Grade Book; however, grades for assignment submissions entered in Grade Book were not passed to the Assignments tool. This change ensures data consistency between Assignments and Grade Book. Currently Assignment grades are not synchronized when the Assignment tool is updated by the Brightspace API or when Grade Book is exported and imported.
Note: Existing grade data for assignment submissions are not migrated. This synchronization only occurs for new grade entries. To migrate historical assignment submission marks, contact Brightspace Support.
This feature implements PIE items D3610, and D391.
Discussions - Grades entered in Discussions and Grade book are synchronized | New
When an instructor enters a grade for a discussion in the standard or spreadsheet view of Grade Book, the grade also appears with the discussion post in Discussions. Previously, grades entered in the Discussion were passed on to Grade Book; however, grades for discussions entered in Grade Book were not passed to the Discussions tool. This change ensures data consistency between Discussions and Grade Book. Currently Discussion grades are not synchronized when the Discussion tool is updated by the Brightspace API or when Grade Book is exported and imported.
Note: Existing grade data for discussions are not migrated. This synchronization only occurs for new grade entries. To migrate historical discussion evaluations, contact Brightspace Support.
This feature implements PIE items D3610 and D391.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to administrators and instructors who need to be aware of the functional change.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Discussions and Grade book users. No further action is required.
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| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to Administrators and Instructors who need to be aware of the functional change.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Assignments and Grade book users. No further action is required.
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Release Conditions - Release condition for topic completion | New
The Completed content topic is a new release condition that is met when a user completes a content topic. The method of completing the topic depends on the type, such as viewing a file or submitting an assignment. Similar to the currently available Visited content topic release condition, optional topics can also trigger this release condition.
This release condition ignores exemptions, meaning that if the learner completes the activity, the release condition can be met, regardless of the activity being required, optional, or exempt.
Figure: The Completed content topic release condition is now available from the Condition Type drop-down list.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to administrators and instructors who can now use the additional Release Condition.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Brightspace Learning Environment users. No further action is required.
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Brightspace Pulse - Activity Feed notifications | New
To help keep learners up to date on course activity, Brightspace Pulse now displays Activity Feed notifications in the Updates tab, for example, messages and links to course materials and external resources. Tapping an Activity Feed notification displays the post in Brightspace Pulse.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
No impact to administrators.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Brightspace Pulse users, if Activity Feed is enabled in their courses. No further action is required
|
| Slight impact to learners due to a new notification type in Brightspace Pulse. |
Activity Feed notifications generate a push notification on the user's device. Push notification settings are managed by the operating system on the device. |
August 2019
Quizzes - Restore quiz attempts in the Quiz Attempt log | New
Instructors can now restore deleted quiz attempts for learners from within a quiz using the new Quiz Attempt log. The New Quiz Attempt log tracks quiz attempt submissions per user, in both an overview and detailed set of logs.
The following actions are captured in the Overview:
- Attempt Started
- Attempt Submitted
- Attempt Deleted
- Attempt Restored
Figure: The Overview tab on the Attempt Logs page
The Restore button appears when a quiz attempt is deleted for a user. Instructors can access the attempt logs from the Quiz name drop-down menu and in the Grade Quiz area. The ability to see the Restore button beside deleted attempts is now controlled by the renamed Reset and Restore Attempts permission.
The Detailed Quiz Log captures the following actions:
- Quiz Entry and re-entry
- Response Save time
- Page Movement time
- Quiz confirmation screen / completion
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to administrators who must ensure instructors have the required permission to restore quiz attempts for learners.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Quizzes users.
The Reset and Restore Attempts permission must be selected for Instructors at the course level.
|
| Slight impact to instructors who can access Quiz Attempt logs for each quiz and restore quiz attempts for learners. |
N/A |
Email – Add images to messages | Updated
When composing email messages, users can select Insert Image to add pictures from their computer, a URL, or Manage Files. Images are inserted in place, attached to the email, and display in place for the recipient. The Insert Stuff button is no longer shown in Email, as it has several workflows that are incompatible with the external email experience.
This feature implements PIE items D871, D5458, D2163.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Moderate impact to all users due to the ability to insert images into emails sent to external addresses.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Email users. No further action is required. Access to manage files is dependent on a user’s role permissions.
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July 2019
Activity Feed – Pin multiple posts | Updated
Instructors can pin more than one post to the top of their Activity Feed. Previously, only one post could be pinned at a time. This allow instructors to highlight more than one important post at a time to ensure that students do not miss critical posts.
This feature implements PIE item D4635.
Figure: Multiple posts pinned to the top of the feed
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Moderate impact to instructors due to the ability to pin multiple Activity Feed posts to the top of the feed.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Activity Feed users. No further action is required.
|
May 2019
Binder - End-of-life | Removed
As of May 31, 2019, Binder is no longer supported by D2L. Binder will no longer work with Brightspace, and it will be removed from the Apple AppStore and Google Play app store.
Users who have Binder can continue to use it after May 31, however, no further maintenance or update of the app will be available. Be advised that over time, the app will stop working as the operating systems that Binder depends on incur updates.
For users who want to access course materials offline, D2L recommends the Brightspace Pulse app for iOS and Android which is free to download from the Apple AppStore and Google Play store.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Large impact to all users due to the end-of-life status and halted maintenance of Binder.
|
Availability: N/A
To enable: N/A
User Resources: For more details on Binder, refer to the blog post Intent to End of Life Notice for: D2L Binder.
For information on Brightspace Pulse, visit the Brightspace Pulse - Learner Guide (print-based resource) or Brightspace Pulse (online resource).
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Grades - Transfer rubric score to grade item score | Updated
This feature sets the default value of the d2l.Tools.System.Features.GradingExperience configuration variable to Automatic transfer of rubric score to Grade Item. As a result, rubric scores are transferred to the grade item score by default. All organization overrides are removed and this configuration variable is inaccessible to organization administrators.
The Rubric evaluation page is visible to instructors if a rubric is associated to a grade item, and the grade item is not associated with an activity such as an Assignment, Discussion, etc. When an instructor saves changes made on the Rubric evaluation page, the rubric score is transferred to the learner's grade item score automatically and instructors no longer have to manually transfer the rubric score to a learner's grade item score.
Quizzes - Full-screen quiz evaluation | Updated
Now instructors can evaluate quiz attempts in full-screen mode. This update enhances an instructor's quiz evaluation experience.
Figure: Quiz evaluation in full-screen mode
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to instructors when evaluating quiz attempts due to the quiz attempt loading in full-screen mode.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Quizzes users. No further action is required.
User Resources: For more information to share with users, visit the Assess and Grade Learners - Instructor Guide (print-based resources) or Assess and grade learners (online resource).
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Rubrics - Rubrics Grading Experience available for group Assignments and Discussions | New
The Rubrics Grading Experience available for assignments and discussions is now available for group Assignments and group Discussions. When a rubric assessment is in draft state, the assessment is not viewable by members of a given group. Once the assessment is published, all group members can view the rubric assessment. Previously, the new Rubrics Grading Experience was only available for regular Assignments and Discussions.
In addition, when a non-file submission assignment is connected to a grade item in the gradebook, the assessment symbol on the Grade All screen launches the assignment assessment experience.
Figure: The assessment symbol on the Grade All screen now launches the assignment assessment experience
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Moderate impact to instructors due to expansion of the new rubric grading experience to include group Assignments and Discussions.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: Ensure the d2l.tools.Rubrics.UpdatedGradingExperienceconfiguration variable is turned on by an administrator.
User Resources: For more information to share with users, visit the Assess and Grade Learners - Instructor Guide (print-based resources) or Rubrics (online resource).
|
| Moderate impact to administrators due to the expanded functionality of the d2l.tools.Rubrics.UpdatedGradingExperienceconfiguration variable. |
N/A |
February 2019
Assignment Grader – EduDentity login support | Removed
Assignment Grader no longer supports EduDentity log in. Instructors now log in to Assignment Grader using their Brightspace Learning Environment credentials. Assignment submissions are converted using the Document Conversion Service (DoCS) to allow instructors to annotate all document types. On-prem clients do not have access to DoCS service and can no longer annotate non-PDF documents. Instructors already logged in with their Brightspace Learning Environment credentials do not have to log in again.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to instructors due the need to log in to Assignment Grader using their Brightspace Learning Environment credentials.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: No further action is required. The DoCS service is automatically enabled for your organization.
User Resources: For more information to share with users, visit the Brightspace Assignment Grader - Instructor Guide (print-based resources) or the Grade assignments on-the-go andDocument Conversion Service help topics (online resource).
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Assignments - Edit Evaluation Properties permission added | New
To support permissions for the Evaluator role, the Edit Evaluation Properties permission has been added to Assignments. Previously, the See and Manage , and Add/Edit permissions were required to modify most properties of assignments. Now institutions can implement the separation of responsibility to give specific permission to Evaluators to have control over evaluation properties of an assignment, and to restrict facilitators, educators, and content creators from modifying the evaluation properties within assignments.
All roles with the Add/Edit permission are automatically assigned the Edit Evaluation Properties permission. If a user doesn't have the Edit Evaluation Properties permission, Activity Feed still allows the user to modify assignment grading properties from Activity Feed.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Moderate impact to administrators due to the need to update permissions for roles that require access to the evaluation properties of an assignment, and do not currently have theAdd/Edit Assignments permission.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Assignments users. Grant the Edit Evaluation Propertiespermission to any role that requires access to the evaluation properties of an assignment.
User Resources: For more information to share with users, visit the Brightspace Learning Environment - Configuration Variables And Permissions (print-based resources) or the Assignments permissions help topic (online resource).
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Turnitin - Link to e-rater ® Grammar feedback | New
Instructors can now turn on the e-rater Grammar checker, developed by ETS ®, in Brightspace Learning Environment.
Once turned on by an instructor, learners are provided a link to e-rater Grammar feedback upon submission of an assignment. This enables learners to review Grammar feedback immediately on assignment submission, which is important for assignments that allow for multiple submissions. Learners can initially submit an assignment, receive Grammar feedback, and then submit another version of their assignment after incorporating the Grammar feedback.
Figure: Enable e-rater Grammar checker
Figure: View e-rater Grammar feedback link
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to instructors who can turn on the e-rater Grammar checker in Brightspace Learning Environment.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients who have the licensed e-rater Grammar checker from Turnitin.
To enable: To display the e-rater Grammar feedback link to learners, in the Turnitin Integration dialog box > More Options in Turnitin > Optional Settings > Submission Settings , select theEnable grammar checking using ETS e-rater technology check box.
User Resources: For more information to share with users, visit the Turnitin - Administrator Guide (print-based resources) orAssignments and Turnitin (online resource).
|
| Slight impact to learners who can now view theView e-rater® grammar feedback link in theInline Feedback column within their Submission History page. |
Availability: This feature is available to all clients who have the licensed e-rater Grammar checker from Turnitin.
To enable: Ensure that your instructor has turned on the e-rater Grammar checker in Brightspace Learning Environment.
User Resources: For more information to share with users, visit the Turnitin - Administrator Guide (print-based resources) orAssignments and Turnitin (online resource).
|
January 2019
Rubrics - Improved rubric creation experience | Updated
To improve on the new rubric creation experience, rubric creation has been changed to a single-page workflow. Clicking New in the Rubrics tool immediately brings the user to the rubric authoring page. As well, the two previous Rubric Tool options Properties and Levels and Criteria are now condensed into a single Edit option.
Figure: The new rubric creation experience in the single page format.
Figure: The new Edit Rubric Tool option, replacing Properties and Levels and Criteria.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Moderate impact to administrators due to a new configuration variable required for the expanded rubric creation experience.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: The d2l.Tools.Rubrics.CreateExperienceOptInconfiguration variable must be enabled in order to use the new Rubric creation experience.
When the d2l.Tools.Rubrics.CreateExperienceOptInconfiguration variable is set to On, the new Rubric experience is enforced, with no way for users to opt out.
When the d2l.Tools.Rubrics.CreateExperienceOptInconfiguration variable is set to On (Opt-In), the new Rubric experience is available for users to opt-in. Users can opt out and leave feedback at any time.
User Resources: For more information to share with users, visit the Brightspace Learning Environment - Configuration Variables and Permissions (print-based resources) or Rubrics (online resource).
|
|
Moderate impact to instructors due to a change in the Rubric creation user interface.
|
Availability: N/A
To enable: The d2l.Tools.Rubrics.CreateExperienceOptInconfiguration variable must be set to On or On (Opt-In) by an administrator in order to use the new Rubric creation experience.
When the d2l.Tools.Rubrics.CreateExperienceOptInconfiguration variable is set to On, the new Rubric experience is enforced, with no way for instructors to opt out.
When the d2l.Tools.Rubrics.CreateExperienceOptInconfiguration variable is set to On (Opt-In), the new Rubric experience is available for instructors to opt-in. Users can opt out and leave feedback at any time.
User Resources: For more information to share with users, visit the Assess and Grade Learners - Instructor Guide (print-based resources) or Create a rubric (online resource).
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Assignments - Improvements to Assignments List view | Updated
When accessing Assignments, the list view now displays updated information. Previously instructors would see information on the assignment name, Total Submissions, Unread Submissions, Flagged Submissions, and Due Date. Now instructors see information on the assignment name, the number of learners who have completed the assignment, the number of learners who have been evaluated, the number of learners who have had feedback published, and the Due Date. This allows instructors to quickly determine what assignments they need to evaluate, how far along they are with their evaluations, and if they have published the evaluations.
Learners also have an updated view of the assignments list, and are now able to see the assignment name, the Completion Status (Not Submitted, Submitted, Completed), their Score, The Evaluation Status (Not yet evaluated, Feedback: unread, Feedback: read), and the Due Date. This change to the list view allows learners to easily locate unfinished assignments, as well as access their scores and view instructor feedback on their work.
Administrators determine if the new Assignments list experience is available by setting the d2l.Tools.Assignment.UseAssignmentListOptIn configuration variable. If this variable is set to On (Opt in), Instructors and students determine which version of the Assignments list to use in their courses (this is the default value). If this variable is set to On all users see the new Assignment list page, if it is set to Off all users see the old Assignments list page.
This feature implements PIE item D1422.
Figure: Existing Assignments list view for instructors
Figure: New Assignments list view for instructors
Figure: Existing Assignments list view for learners
Figure: New Assignments list view for learners
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to instructors and learners due to updates to the visible fields in the Assignments list view.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Assignments users. Ensure the d2l.Tools.Assignment.UseAssignmentListOptIn configuration variable is turned On (Opt in) so instructors and learners can opt-in to the new Assignments list experience.
User Resources: For more information to share with users, visit the Assess and Grade Learners – Instructor Guide (print-based resources) or visit the Assessing assignments help topic (online resource).
|
Activity Feed - Widget availability defaults to ON | Updated
The existing configuration variable d2l.Tools.ActivityFeed.ShowWidget is now set to On if it is currently in the Off state. The Show Widget configuration determines if Activity Feed appears as an available widget in the homepage widget list during homepage creation. Administrators can still turn the configuration Off if they would prefer their instructors not to use Activity Feed.
| Impact of Change |
Technical Details |
|
Slight impact to instructors due to the increased availability of the Activity Feed widget.
|
Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Activity Feed users. Ensure the d2l.Tools.ActivityFeed.ShowWidgetconfiguration variable is turned on.
User Resources: For more information to share with users, visit the Interact And Engage With Learners – Instructor Guide (print-based resources) or the Post messages and links to course materials help topic (online resource).
|
December 28, 2018
Rubrics - Improved rubric creation experience | New
To offer instructors a more streamlined approach to authoring rubric levels and criteria, this release introduces a new, opt-in rubric creation experience. Specifically, the Rubrics tool includes the following enhancements:
- Quickly create and edit rubric levels and criteria inline using an auto-save experience
- Easily change rubric type and scoring method during rubric creation
- Re-order criterion via drag and drop or keyboard
- Improved logic for point-based rubrics, where new levels automatically follow existing point scoring sequences
- Individual criterion cells in custom point rubrics dynamically scale when editing the criterion out-of value
- Overall Score is visually separated from the rubric, displaying in its own section
Discussions - Rubric Grading Experience | Update
Grading with rubrics in Discussions now offers new functions and an improved workflow. The new design makes for an easier grading experience and is optimized for use on mobile devices.
New rubrics features include:
- All rubric assessments and feedback updates for discussions and grade items now automatically save in draft state while updates are in progress
- Rubrics in draft state are not visible to learners until the instructor selects Save & Publish, at which time learners can immediately view their feedback from Assignments, Content, Discussions, Grades and User Progress
- Instructors can choose to bulk publish feedback to all or select users at once, such as for an entire class or group
- New Retract Feedback option enables instructors to remove published feedback from view of learners for changes to the Total Score. The Overall Score and Overall Feedback portions of the rubric can be edited without retraction
- A grading pop-up window for easier grading that contains all rubrics for the discussion, a place to enter Overall Feedback, and a list of posts that the student has made
- When grading on mobile devices, vertical margins are reduced for easier viewing.
Assignment Folder - Submission Types | Update
- In a previous update, D2L introduced the several new submission types.
- 4 different assignment submission types are available: file, text, on paper, observed in person. Each of these are explained in a KB article which also includes screen shots of what each view looks like in the student view. View the Assignment Submission Types in Learn@UCO KB article for details.
- Previously, these options only applied to new assignments, older assignments could not be changed. However, starting December 28, there will be an option to update the submission type.
Quizzes - Opt-in for New Quiz Experience removed | New
Starting Dec. 28, instructors can no longer “opt-out” of the new quiz creation experience. Details about the new Quiz Creation Experience can be found in the KB article "Quiz Question Creation in Learn@UCO".