Brightspace Learning Environment

Assignments - Assignments page column name | Updated

This feature updates the New column name on the Assignments page to read as New Submissions.

Figure: The Assignments page with the New Submissions column

Brightspace Learning Environment - Improvements to Security using a WAF | Updated

To improve cloud environment security, D2L is proactively blocking suspicious requests using a Web App Firewall (WAF).

The WAF checks all traffic coming in to the Brightspace cloud environment to match rules. Traffic that matches its rules, which indicate that the traffic is a potential security concern, will not be allowed into the servers. This change helps ensure that suspicious traffic does not reach your environment, further reducing the likelihood of an infrastructure-affecting security incident.

The WAF checks if the traffic is coming from a site that may be a potential security concern and if the traffic is coming from outside of a client’s region.

The second check is in place to avoid the possibility of blocking all traffic from a client in the unlikely event that a customer is negatively impacted by the WAF.

Administrators may receive inquiries from users blocked by the WAF. D2L recommends troubleshooting the user’s issue to determine if they are using a proxy or a virtual private network (VPN). If this is not the case, reach out to D2L to determine if the WAF is blocking legitimate traffic.

Brightspace Pulse - Pin and unpin courses | New

To help learners more easily find their current courses in Brightspace Pulse for iOS, learners can now pin and unpin courses from the Courses screens. Pinning a course ensures it remains at the top of the screen for easy access. Previously, learners could only pin and unpin their courses in Brightspace Learning Environment.

To pin or unpin a course in Brightspace Pulse, do one of the following:

• From the Courses screen, tap the ellipses (...) icon in a course tile.
• From the Course Homepage screen, tap the ellipses (...) icon at the top of the screen.

From the list of actions, tap Pin or Unpin. A pinned course is denoted by a  pin icon. Unpinning a course removes the pin icon.
 

Figure: The Courses screen displaying an unpinned course tile with the ellipses (...) icon

Figure: The Courses screen displaying a pinned course tile with the ellipses (...) icon and pin icon

Figure: The Course Homepage screen displaying the ellipses (...) icon

Bulk User Management - User Profile and User Account Columns | Updated

The following User Profile and User Account columns have been added to the CREATE, IMPORT, and UPDATE comma separated value (CSV) files in Bulk User Management. Columns marked with the (†) symbol will update both the User Profile and User Information Contact Information. Contact Information is only displayed in the User Management tool when the d2l.Tools.UserManagement.OrgHasContactInfo configuration variable is enabled.

User Profile:

• Address 1†
• Address 2†
• City†
• State/Province†
• ZIP/Postal Code†
• Country†
• Birth †
• Hometown
• Homepage
• Home Phone†
• Business Phone†
• Mobile Phone†
• Fax Number†
• Employer†
• Position†
• High School
• University

User Account:

• Preferred Firstname
• Preferred Lastname

These new columns are not displayed by default in the CREATE, IMPORT, and UPDATE CSV files and do not impact existing Bulk User Management users. Hence, all existing Bulk User Management CREATE, IMPORT, and UPDATE CSV files will continue to work as expected.

Once you have set the columns you want to appear in the CREATE, IMPORT, and UPDATE CSV files, you can specify if they are Required columns, and you can re-order them, as desired.

Config Variable Browser - Pagination defaults for Classlist and Grades | New

This feature adds the new d2l.Settings.PaginationNumbering configuration variable, which you can use to set pagination defaults for your organization in Classlist and Grades. As a result, you have the option to display a larger list of learners by default on the Classlist and Enter Grades pages. The range of options in the d2l.Settings.PaginationNumbering configuration variable is as follows:

• [10, 20, 50, 100, 200]
• [25, 50, 75, 100, 200]
• [35, 75, 100, 150, 200]
• [50, 100, 150,200, 250]

The d2l.Settings.PaginationNumbering configuration variable defaults to the [10, 20, 50, 100, 200] range, and the pagination view is set to 20.

This feature implements PIE item D368.

Data Hub - Brightspace Data Sets for Announcements | New

To increase the value of the Data Hub offering, this release adds new columns to the existing Announcements data set which allows administrators to display who authored and last edited an announcement.

• CreatedBy
• LastModifiedBy
• IsAuthorInfoShown
   

Data Hub - Brightspace Data Sets for LTI | New

To increase the value of the Data Hub offering, this release adds new data to expose which org unit(s) LTI links have been shared with.

• New LTI Links Shared data set, which lists the parent OrgUnit(s) that a link is shared with and can be used within the organization.

• New column OuAvailabilitySetId for LTI Links data set, which joins LTI Links to LTI Links Shared.

Daylight Design System - Minor changes to Brightspace color palate | Updated

In order to improve the color contrast and increase the accessibility of the Brightspace Learning Environment user interface, there have been several changes made:

• The color used for warnings in the Brightspace Daylight Design System has changed to a deeper “carnelian” (#E87511) to ensure an appropriate color contrast with white text.
• The color “topaz” no longer appears in the Daylight color palette.

Note: Clients who have replicated the Daylight Design System and Brightspace patterns or controls in custom applications may wish to update their applications to reflect these changes.

These color changes will be reflected in the public Brightspace GitHub repo.

Discover - Navbar icon | Update

To display a more intuitive icon for Discover when navbar icons are enabled, the Discover icon is now a book and magnifying glass. Previously, the icon was a suitcase.

Figure: Previously, the Discover icon was represented by a suitcase in the navbar

Figure: Now, the Discover icon is represented by a book and magnifying glass in the navbar

Learning Outcomes - Ability to copy imported and authored Outcomes as reference | New

To provide a consistent copy experience, all learning outcomes that are in a course can now be copied to another course. There are two types of learning outcomes that could exist. Those learning outcomes could exist in two possible locations. The first type of outcomes available are imported from ASN (the Achievement Standards Network) and could be imported into a program at the organization level or into a course offering. The second type of outcomes available are custom authored outcomes created at the program level or at the course level. Previously, when a course containing learning outcomes was copied, only imported ASN standards were included in the course copy process.

Now, you can copy both authored and imported learning outcomes from a source course to a target course. When selecting to copy outcomes with other course components, all other object references, such as alignment to rubric criteria or achievement scale mapping in the source course, and so on, are copied from the source to the target course as expected.

The changes also provide consistency in the editing experience. You can only edit outcomes at the location they originated. For example, if the outcome was authored in a program, it can only be edited in that program; it cannot be edited in the target course. To assist in knowing which learning outcomes can be edited from a user’s current location, there are icons to indicate if an outcome is locked (cannot be edited) or open (can be edited).

Note: ASN outcomes cannot be edited, regardless of where they reside

Copied outcomes will be copied as a reference (or link) back to the original source course. Any change made to the source outcome is automatically inherited in all target courses. If an outcome is copied to a target course, you cannot delete the outcome at the source without first deleting the outcome from all target courses

Learning Outcomes - Display of Outcome Hierarchy in Alignment picker and Outcomes Progress | New

To increase the value of the Learning Outcomes features, the learning outcomes hierarchy tree is now displayed. It can be collapsed  to facilitate finding and using specific outcomes in any assessment activity or rubric where outcomes can be aligned.
From the Learning Outcomes list, the user can click on the highest-level outcomes to expand and reveal the child nodes within that outcome. Within the child nodes, administrators and instructors can select one or more leaf-node outcomes to align to their course activity or content page. Selecting any parent level of the hierarchy collapses all child objects under that parent.
This nested outcome hierarchy also appears in the Outcomes progress. Each child node displays the typical mini-trend for the progress of outcomes within the node. When a user clicks a specific outcome, the outcomes progress evidence page appears.

Figure: The expanded hierarchy of the Learning Outcomes picker (also appears on the Outcomes Progress page). The number of hierarchy levels displayed will depend on the outcome structure included in the course intent list.

Learning Outcomes - Search Outcomes in the Alignment picker and Outcomes Progress | New

To increase the value of the Learning Outcomes features, users can now search outcomes list to find the best outcome to align with activities in their courses and programs. To better facilitate the ability to align outcomes to activities, instructors can search and filter to more easily find  and use specific groups of related outcomes in any assessment activity or rubric where outcomes can be aligned. If there is a large list of outcomes available for a program or course, the ability to search can save time and provide a better customer experience. 
When aligning an activity to an outcome in Brightspace Portfolio or in Rubrics, users can enter text or an outcome code in the search bar. The search results include outcome descriptions and codes and highlight the search query words in the results.
This search for outcomes also appears in the Outcomes progress. Each child node listed in the search results displays the typical mini-trend for the progress of outcomes within the node. When a user clicks a specific outcome, the outcomes progress evidence page appears.

Figure: The Search bar appears in any assessment activity or rubric where outcomes can be aligned.

Locale Management - Number and date format changes | Updated

To align with accepted standards, the following number and date formats are updated in the Swedish, German, and Danish locales and the es-MX and pt-BR language packs:

• In the Swedish locale, the percent number format now appears as [number] % and the number group separator now uses spaces in place of periods (1 000 000).
• In the German locale, to align with other European countries, the first day of the week is now set to Monday. To follow with traditional date formats, dates now appear as dd.MM.yyyy. Previously, dates appeared in the format dd-MM-yyyy.
• In the Danish locale, to align with traditional date formats, dates now appear as dd.MM.yyyy. Previously, dates appeared in the format dd/MM/yyyy.
• In the pt-BR (Portuguese) locale, the short date format now includes leading zeroes to better align with standards, appearing in the format: dd/MM/yyyy. Previously, the short date format appeared as d/M/yyyy.
• In the es-MX or pt-BR locales, dates rendered in the standard format previously had an extra space before the month i.e. 4 de junio de 2019. Dates now render without the extra space.

Quiz Builder - Export questions to Brightspace Learning Repository | New

As part of the new Quiz Builder experience, users can export questions as a quiz package from Quizzes to Brightspace Learning Repository (LOR). This change enables direct access to quiz questions to LOR from within the Export workflow. Previously, exporting questions as a quiz package from Quizzes to LOR was only available in the legacy screens.