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.

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.

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.

• Now, the Save button in the new assignment creation experience enables an instructor to save their progress while creating or editing an assignment. Previously, Save and Close was the only option.

 
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
 

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
 

Config Variable Browser - Configuration variable for SVG image security | New

A new configuration variable controls the ability of users to add and SVG image to their User Profile. The d2l.Tools.Profile.AllowSvgImages configuration variable is ON by default, which allows users to use SVG images in the User Profile.

Important: D2L recommends considering turning OFF the d2l.Tools.Profile.AllowSvgImages configuration variable for your organization as an enhanced security measure to prevent users from uploading malicious SVG image files as Billion Laughs attacks (DoS attacks).

Data Hub - Attendance Advanced Data Set | New

To increase the value of the Data Hub offering, this release adds a new Advanced Data Set:

• Attendance returns attendance results from the Attendance tool for each user in a selection of org units.

This Advanced Data Set is intended to replace the corresponding standard data exports so that all analytics reside in a single tool.

Data Hub - Quiz Attempts and Quiz Objects Data Sets | Updated

This feature compliments the Quizzes functionality that was released recently: Quizzes - Retake incorrect questions in subsequent attempts | New (20.20.11).

This release adds a new column to existing Brightspace Data Sets (BDS) to identify which quiz attempts have the Retake Incorrect Questions Only option enabled:

• IsRetakeIncorrectOnly added to Quiz Attempts
• IsRetakeIncorrectOnly added to Quiz Objects

Grades – Additional features for Mastery view of the grade book | Updated

To increase the value of the Mastery view of the grade book, originally released in Brightspace Platform 20.20.12/December 2020, and updated in 20.21.1/January 2021, this release updates and adds the following new features:

The first time you use the Mastery View table page, a message appears under the page title indicating the default calculation method for the data in the view and provides a link to the Settings page, where you can change the calculation method.

If you change the calculation method after evaluation data has been collected, a warning message appears to indicate that the evaluations must be recalculated according to the newly selected method.  Any prior evaluations with manual overrides or feedback are not affected by changing calculation methods. If outcome overall achievements are already published, recalculations for the newly selected method are also immediately visible to learners.

When viewing the Outcomes Progress Evidence page from a mobile device, the evidence appears in a responsive display format for the smaller screen. 
 

Learning Paths - Explicit Save and Cancel buttons | New

In order to align with standard functionality across tools, Learning Paths is introducing Save and Cancel buttons to all workflows. Previously, all changes were auto-saved when editing a learning path. Now, users are prompted to specifically save or cancel all actions when editing a learning path, including updating the Title and Description fields, plus dragging and dropping actions. 

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. 

Rubrics - Warning dialog for partial evaluations | Updated

Previously, if an instructor attempted to publish a partially completed rubric evaluation, the partial evaluation dialog appeared. If the instructor tapped Enter on their keyboard, the partial evaluation was published. 
Now, the default button behavior has changed so that tapping Enter on the page returns the user to the rubric to complete the evaluation. This change adds a verification layer to reconsider their action and ensure that instructors are not mistakenly publishing incomplete evaluations. 


Figure: The partial evaluation warning dialog appears the same, but has updated default behavior.
 

SCORM - Improvements to reports | New

For improved usability, SCORM Report pages feature the following new functionality: 

• Sorting (toggling by ascending/descending order) by each column:
  • In the Content Tab, the default sorting is by the first column Title
  • In the Users Tab, the default sorting is by the first column Name
• Clear Search option is now available in the Users Tab in SCORM Reports. Previously, the user was required to refresh the page, or navigate away and back to clear search terms. 

Note: SCORM reporting applies to the New SCORM solution only. 

This feature implements PIE items D6914 and D6915.

Integrations

Brightspace Course Connector for Microsoft Teams® | Updated

An updated version of Brightspace Course Connector is now available and builds on the Brightspace Course Connector for Microsoft Teams® - Classlist synchronization | Updated functionality that was released in the December 2020/20.21.12 release. 

• A Microsoft 365 service user is no longer required when installing Brightspace Course Connector. Previous user delegated permissions are now fully incorporated into the application.
• Brightspace Course Connector now leverages newer Microsoft Teams APIs to perform its operations, which improves the time it takes to create a team.

Existing implementations continue to function. However, D2L recommends upgrading to the latest version of Brightspace Course Connector as soon as possible.