Brightspace Learning Environment

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.
 

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
 

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.

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

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

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.
 

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.
 

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.
 

Local Authentication Security – Improvements | Updated

This feature builds on the Brightspace Learning Environment – Local Account Security and Two Factor Authentication | New feature that was released in May 2021/20.21.05. 
 
The Local Authentication Security page is now available and is controlled through the Organization Tools page. This page is turned ON by default. 

My Courses Widget - Updated Sort Logic configuration variable | Removed

The d2l.Tools.MyCoursesWidget.UpdatedSortLogic configuration variable has now reached end-of-life status and no longer appears in the Config Variable Browser. With this change, the My Courses Widget now uses only the Updated Sort Logic setting by default.

Previously, the My Courses Widget sorting logic was set by the d2l.Tools.MyCoursesWidget.UpdatedSortLogic configuration variable. By default, this configuration variable has been set to ON since 2018, with the option to revert to the old sorting logic. The option to revert to the previous sorting logic in the My Courses Widget is no longer available with the removal of this configuration variable. 

For additional details, refer to the Community blog post: Retirement Of The Old My Courses Widget Sort Logic. 

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

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
 

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.

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

 

Roles and Permissions – Improvements | Updated

This feature builds on the Roles and Permissions - Org Unit filtering | New feature that was released in June 2020/20.20.6.

This feature releases the following improvements:

• The Can Edit Config Variable Values permission under Roles and Permissions > Config Variable Browser now reads as Can See and Edit Config Variable Values.
• A select all check box on the Edit Permissions page to enable you to select or de-select the permissions in an entire row.
  
  
  Figure: The Permissions page with the new select All check box

• To drive consistency across Brightspace Learning Environment, a Save and Close button is now available on the Roles and Permissions > Reorder page.
• The permission Manage Files > Access Course Files When Enrollment Security is Enabled is removed as it is no longer used. Roles that already have the See file listing permission can continue accessing course files using Manage Files with no impact.

This feature implements PIE items D6258, D253, and D2080.
 

Rubrics – Change to configuration variable | Updated

The d2l.Tools.Rubrics.CreateExperienceOptIn configuration variable is now set to ON for all clients, but it is still possible to opt out. This change prepares for the end of life for the Legacy Rubric experience. 

This change is an update from January 2019/10.8.9, when the d2l.Tools.Rubrics.CreateExperienceOptIn configuration variable was first available with the default setting of Off. The default was changed again in January 2020/20.20.1 to On (Opt-In). Finally, in September 2020/20.20.9, the configuration variable was set to ON by default, but could still be manually turned off. 
 

Integrations

Top Hat Classroom – Partnership with D2L | New

Top Hat Classroom is now available to integrate directly into Brightspace Learning Environment, offering powerful learning tools and interactive content to enhance courses and engage learners at any scale.  

Top Hat Classroom is available as an LTI 1.1 integration as an add-on product to Brightspace Core. Two tiers are available: Top Hat Classroom Basic which has no cost, and Top Hat Classroom Pro, which is available as part of an annual subscription. Your institution can request this integration by contacting your D2L account representative. Note that Top Hat Classroom is currently available in English only and hosted in the regions of US and Canada.