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 > Post feedback
- Discussions > Thread 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. |
Content – Customize language terms in the New Content Experience | Updated
This feature builds on the Content – Customize language terms in the New Content Experience | New feature released in October 2021.
With this release, administrators can use Language Management to override default
language terms in the New Learner Experience. This allows administrators to use terminology
that is consistent with their organization, for example, using custom terms for "unit,"
"lesson," and "folder." Previously, language terms were only customizable in the New
Content Experience.
Language terms for the New Learner Experience are located in:
-
Package: Content; Collection: SequenceView
-
Package: WebComponents; Collection: d2l-sequences\d2l-sequences
| Impact of Change | Technical Details |
|---|---|
| Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to customize language terms in the New Learner Experience. | Availability: This feature is available to all clients. To enable: Use Language Management to customize language terms that appear in the New Learner Experience. |
| Slight impact to instructors and learners due to custom language terms that may display in the New Learner Experience. | N/A |
Content - PDF inline viewer menu improvements | Updated
This feature updates the PDF Inline viewer used when showing all converted documents
(e.g. Word documents) as PDFs within Brightspace Classic Content. As a result the
PDF inline viewer menu has moved to the top of the PDF document, along with PDF navigation
and actions and an overall refreshed button design.
Users who have d2l.Tools.DocumentViewers.CustomPdfRendererEnabled configuration variable set to ON also see the updates for all original PDFs (i.e.
PDF files). d2l.Tools.DocumentViewers.CustomPdfRendererEnabled also forces all original PDFs to also use the same viewer as converted documents.
This has the benefit of consistent PDF viewer within the Content Classic interface
and it is recommended that customers that do need restrictions on printing and/or
downloading enable this variable as this respects printing and/or downloading permissions.
Figure: The new PDF in-line viewer with the menu bar at the top of the PDF viewer when
viewing an original PDF.
| Impact of Change | Technical Details |
|---|---|
| Slight impact to users due to the ability to view changes to PDF viewer. | Availability: This feature is available to all Brightspace Classic users. To enable: This feature is automatically enabled for all users when viewing converted documents. To enable this feature for original PDFs, set the d2l.Tools.DocumentViewers.CustomPdfRendererEnabled configuration variable to ON. |
Data Hub – Auditor Relationships Log Brightspace Data Set | New
To increase the value of the Data Hub offering, this release adds the new Auditor Relationships Log Brightspace Data Set (BDS). In the data set, each row represents an auditor-learner
relationship that was created or deleted.
The new data set is available with the November 2021/20.21.11 release, however it
may appear blank unless new auditor-learner relationships are added. All historical
data is populated within 30-60 days after clients receive the new data set.
This feature implements PIE item D6664.
| 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. The User Auditors tool and the d2l.Tools.UserManagement.OrgHasAuditors configuration variable must both be enabled. New data sets appear the first time the data set runs after the CD update. |
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 |
Integrations
SCORM - Improved editing in New Content Experience | New
An improved editing experience for SCORM topics is available to instructors in the
New Content Experience. With the new create and edit experience enabled, a new edit
page for SCORM topics allows instructors to edit dates and associated grade items.
Previously, users could not set dates or change the associated grade item in the New
Content Experience.
The d2l.Tools.Content.LessonsCreateExperienceOptIn configuration variable must be enabled in order for the new SCORM editing page to
be visible. The new editing experience only applies to SCORM packages added to Brightspace
Learning Environment using the Content Service, other import methods will be supported
in a future release.
Figure: The old edit page for a SCORM topic stored in the Content Service
Figure: The new edit page for SCORM topics stored in the Content Service
| Impact of Change | Technical Details |
|---|---|
| No impact to administrators, unless a change to the d2l.Tools.Content.LessonsCreateExperienceOptIn configuration variable is required. | Availability: This feature is available to all clients. To enable: With the New Content Experience enabled, ensure d2l.Tools.Content.LessonsCreateExperienceOptIn is set to ON or ON (Opt-In). |
| Moderate impact to instructors due to the ability to edit dates and associated grade items for SCORM in the New Content Experience. | N/A |