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.

 

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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).

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.

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Figure: Select a letter grade when assessing an assignment submission

 

Impact of Change Technical Details

Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to create centralized grade schemes for use with Selectbox grading.

Availability: This feature is available to all clients.

To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Assignments users. No further action is required.

Moderate impact to instructors due to the ability to use Selectbox grading when evaluating assignments. N/A

 

Authentication - Local Whitelist Login | New

A custom authentication method for allowing a whitelist of usernames is now available. When the authentication method is enabled, only users defined within the whitelist can log in using the D2L Local Login. Users that cannot be authenticated using the client LDAP settings are blocked from logging in. This whitelist can also be configured for clients using other authentication methods (such as SSO, SAML, and CAS) to block unauthorized users.

In addition, D2L Local Login has been added as a third authentication method, allowing users to define two LDAP configurations (if desired) or LDAP and the new custom whitelist.

 

Impact of Change Technical Details

Slight impact to administrators due to the implementation of a new custom authentication method and expansion of user authentication methods.

Availability: This feature is available to all clients.

To enable: To enable, contact your TAM/CSM or D2L Support.

 

Data Hub – New data sets available | New

To increase the value of the Data Hub offering, this release includes four new data sets:

  • New Release Condition Objects: details all the release conditions (pre-requisites and results) that have been created in the organization.
  • New Release Condition Results: details all the release condition results and whether they have been met for applicable users in the organization. These are the resulting actions that occur when pre-requisites are met.
  • New Pre-Requisite Conditions Met: logs all the pre-requisite conditions that have been met for applicable users in the organization.
  • New Grade Objects Log: a log of all changes to grades for each applicable user in the organization.

 

Impact of Change Technical Details

Slight impact to administrators due to the addition of four new data sets in Brightspace Data Hub.

Availability: This feature is available to AWS-hosted and co-located Brightspace Insights and Brightspace Core clients in the following regions: North America, EMEA, and APAC.

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 version update. You must also ensure the d2l.Tools.BrightspaceDataSets.Version configuration variable is set to version 3 or version 4.

 

Data Purge - New Data Purge status and improvements | New

Data Purge now includes new status and functionality improvements. The new Complete with Errors status enables Data Purge to run all tasks (meaning setup, purging, and zipping) regardless of whether a single object fails to purge. Currently, if a single object fails the entire purge set is set to Failed, causing archive files to not be zipped and creating infrastructure bloat that prevents proper retrieval and cleanup of the files. The Complete with Errors state indicates when Data Purge ran successfully but individual objects within the Purge Set did not fully purge.

 

Impact of Change Technical Details

Slight impact to administrators due to the introduction of the new Complete with Errors status.

Availability: This feature is available to all clients.

To enable: This feature is automatically enabled for Data Purge users. No additional changes are required.

  

Intelligent Agents - Email images and enrollment permission checks | New

This feature includes two changes to Intelligent Agents (IA):

  • Users can now insert images directly into the body of intelligent agent emails using the Add Image button in the HTML editor. The images are attached to the email and shown in place when viewed in the recipient's external mail client.
  • New permission checks are now in place that limit assigning new enrollments using intelligent agents. Intelligent agent creators can no longer enroll users into a course they do not have enrollment permissions in or to a role they do not have permission to enroll. Previously, it was possible to assign a greater set of permissions than the intelligent agent creators themselves had the permissions to do. Now, when the user accesses the Change User Enrollments area, the New Role drop-down menu limits the Enroll options available to the IA creator. On save, the intelligent agent displays an error if the combination of course and enrollment selected are not permitted.
  • A new Intelligent Agents permission called Use Agent Unenrollment Actions that controls whether the unenrollment option is available to the user. This permission is ON by default to replicate the current experience.

 

Impact of Change Technical Details

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.

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.

 

Learning Groups - Group tiles | New

The Learning Groups interface now displays group tiles that provide at-a-glance information about the members and course assignments of the group. Group tiles include the following details:

  • Learning Group name
  • Total number of group members, plus up to 3 profile images of individual group members
  • Images of courses assigned to the learning group, if available. A maximum of 3 course images appear for groups with 3 or more courses assigned.

 

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Figure: Learning Groups tiles display the group name, up to 3 available course images, and member profile images.

 

Impact of Change Technical Details

Slight impact to administrators due to interface changes.

Availability: This feature is available to all clients.

To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Learning Groups users. No further action is required.

 

Learning Outcomes – Ability to create custom outcomes not in the ASN | New

To increase the value and the efficiency of Learning Outcomes, program administrators can create outcomes at the org level that are available to all courses. This removes the dependency on the Achievement Standards Network (ASN), and enables clients to have more stringent control over the wording of outcomes used within their institution. The ability to create outcomes not listed in the ASN includes the following changes:

  • On the Administrator menu, when the administrator accesses Learning Outcomes (or, depending on your implementation of the d2l.Languages.Terminology.LearningOutcomes configuration variable, the Standards, Expectations, Objectives, or Competencies) at the organization level, there is a new Programs tab in the area where you create achievement scales. On that tab, there is a list of program outcome categories and the ability to create new program outcomes.
  • From the Course Administration Learning Outcomes management page, an option is available to import program outcomes created by administrators at the Organization level. When the instructor selects the program, a list of outcomes for that program appears.
  • Instructors can create child outcomes for a program outcome.

This feature implements PIE item D5117.

 

Impact of Change Technical Details

Large impact to administrators and instructors due to the ability to create learning outcomes at an organizational level which can then be imported by instructors to all courses across the organization.

Availability: This feature is available to all clients who use Learning Outcomes.

To enable: Ensure that any user who should be able to create Learning Outcomes at has the Manage Program permission at the Org level.

The link that opens the Course Administration Learning Outcomes management page continues to respect the d2l.Languages.Terminology.LearningOutcomes configuration variable settings.

Note: If you set the Learning Outcomes term to Competencies, you will see both a link to the old Competencies tool and a link for the new Learning Outcomes called Competencies.

Moderate impact to instructors who can use the learning outcomes created for a program and create new child learning outcomes for their courses. N/A

 

Learning Outcomes – View assessment details on the Outcomes Progress Details page | New

To increase the value of the Outcomes Progress Details page, instructors and other instructor-type roles can now view feedback and submissions for assignments and discussion topics for individual learners. Previously, only some information about individual assessments appeared on the Outcomes Progress page, but not the full context of the assessment; with this change, a more complete view of the assessments is available on the Outcomes Progress page.

The page now links to a summary of the activity, the learner’s submission or demonstration of the activity, the assessment that an instructor has provided. The feedback page displays the following information (if it is available in Brightspace Learning Environment):

  • Activity description
  • Learner submission
  • Rubric assessment
  • Score achieved by the learner
  • Start, due, and end dates
  • Outcomes and levels achieved
  • General feedback provided by the instructor or evaluator

 

Impact of Change Technical Details

Slight impact to instructors due to the new ability to click on individual assessments on the Outcomes Progress details page to see more information about the specific assessment.

Availability: This feature is available to all clients who use Learning Outcomes.

To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Learning Outcome users. No further action is required.

 

Lessons – Users can no longer add or remove outcomes in Lessons | Removed

To provide a consistent experience when using learning outcomes in the Brightspace Learning Environment, the Add or Remove Outcomes button in Lessons is no longer available. However, the area where the button previously existed now has a link that takes the user to the Course Administration Learning Outcomes management page. Because of this change, there is a single consolidated spot for instructors to import outcomes. Other outcome functionality in Lessons, such as the coverage gauge and alignment capabilities, are not changing.

 

Impact of Change Technical Details

Moderate impact to Instructors who can no longer import learning outcomes directly into Lessons.

Availability: This feature is available to all clients who use Lessons and Learning Outcomes.

To enable: The link that opens the Course Administration Learning Outcomes management page continues to respect the d2l.Languages.Terminology.LearningOutcomes configuration variable settings.

Note: If you set the Learning Outcomes term to Competencies, you will see both a link to the old Competencies tool and a link for the new Learning Outcomes called Competencies.

 

Quick Eval – Improve consistency across supported tools | Updated

To improve consistency across tools in Quick Eval, the following updates are being released:

  • When feedback on a quiz submission is saved as draft, a draft icon displays next to the quiz submissions in Quick Eval.
  • In Activities view, the Publish All option is available for Quizzes.

 

Impact of Change Technical Details

Slight impact to Instructors due to the Quick Eval displaying the draft icon for quiz submissions.

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.

 

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

No impact to administrators.

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.

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.

 

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Figure: The Publish and Save Draft buttons allow instructors to quickly save drafts of feedback left on quiz submissions

 

Impact of Change Technical Details

Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to save feedback as draft 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.

 

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

Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to set additional quiz options when creating their quizzes using the new Quiz Builder experience.

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.

 

SCORM - Improved usability options for SCORM objects | New

Content administrators can now define the default viewing experiences for SCORM objects when uploading to the content platform inline or in a new browser window. Course providers can select the launch experience based on personal choice (the content administrator selection is defined as the default option). The inline view works in Content, New Content Experience, Lessons, and the New Learner Experience.

 

Impact of Change Technical Details

Slight impact to administrators due to the content administrator's launch experience selection set as the default for a course.

Availability: This feature is available to all clients.

To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for SCORM users. No further action is required.

Slight impact to instructors due to an improved experience for SCORM objects. N/A

 

User Management - Permission and API to end all active sessions for a user | New

There is a new permission and API route to enable administrators to easily end all active sessions of a user. Enabling the new Can End Active Sessions permission provides administrators access to a new workflow in Manage Users to immediately log a user out of all open sessions.

Additionally, this functionality can be accessed using an API route for administrators that want to create a single logout function from a central system.

 

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Figure: Access End All Active Sessions from the context menu of a user.

 

Impact of Change Technical Details

Slight impact to administrators due to new functionality that is controlled by setting the new permission or using the API.

Availability: This feature is available to all clients.

To enable: To enable the functionality for Administrators, ensure the Administrator role has the new Can End Active Sessions permission set at the Org level.

 

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.

Availability: This feature is available to all clients.

To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Video Note users. No further action is required.

 

Integrations

LTI Advantage - Specify IMS role data when registering a tool | New

When registering an external learning tool with Brightspace Learning Environment, LTI administrators can now choose to send IMS role data for the Institution and Context roles, or only the Context role. This is useful because not all tools properly parse the Institution and Context roles, which may cause issues when a user with multiple roles launches an external learning tool. For example, a user may have the Instructor (org level) and Student (course level) roles, but they may also have Instructor permissions, allowing them to access Classlist and Grades in the tool.

On the Register a Tool page, a new Roles section displays a Send Institution Role check box that is checked by default. If the Send Institution Role check box is checked, Context and Institution roles are included in the Institution Role mapping from the IMS configuration. The user's Context Role is also included, unless the security setting at the Deployment is set to Anonymous. If the Send Institution Role check box is unchecked, only Context roles are included.

 

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Figure: The new Send Institution Role check box on the Register a Tool page

 

Impact of Change Technical Details

Slight impact to administrators due to a new configuration option for specifying what IMS role configuration data is sent when registering an external learning tool.

Availability: This feature is available to all clients using LTI Advantage tools.

To enable: To enable the functionality for administrators, ensure the Manage LTI Advantage Tool Registrations and Manage LTI Advantage Tool Deployments permissions are set at the organization level.

 

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