July 2023

Brightspace Learning Environment

Assignments – Download a file with an empty filename using a new configuration variable | New

The new d2l.Tools.Dropbox.DownloadFileDefaultName (Org) configuration variable allows instructors to download a submitted file from a user who uploaded it with no filename.

This configuration variable determines the filename if an assignment submission was downloaded with an empty filename. The default value is - (hyphen), which administrators can modify if needed.

This update resolves the Instructor can't open assignment submission with no characters before the extension issue. For more information about which defects have been resolved by this update, refer to our Known issues and Fixed issues lists on Brightspace Community.

Previously instructors could only check files with filenames in the evaluation screen and download them.

Technical Details

Impact:

• Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to download a submitted file from a user who uploaded it with an empty filename.
• Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to modify the default value of the d2l.Tools.Dropbox.DownloadFileDefaultName (Org) configuration variable.

Availability:

• This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

• This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
• This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing permissions.
• This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing configuration variables.

Brightspace Editor – Edited images are saved with their original names to improve ease of location |New

With this release, images edited within Brightspace Editor are saved with their original names followed by a date-time string, which helps instructors find changed images easily in Manage Files. Changes to an image using Edit image in the floating toolbar are saved as a copy of the image with the name format 'OriginalFileName_yyyyMMddHHmmss.jpg. '

Figure: Click the Edit image option in HTML Editor to make changes to the image.

This update resolves the Brightspace Editor - Crop function for images does not function as expected issue. For more information about which defects have been resolved by this update, refer to our Known issues and Fixed issues lists on Brightspace Community.

Previously images that were edited were given a different, random filename on saving.

Technical Details

Impact:

• Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to find changed images easily when browsing files in Manage Files.

Availability:

• This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

• This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
• This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing permissions.
• This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing configuration variables.

Data Hub – Added column tracks when parent relationship between org units is deleted | Updated

This release adds the new DateDeleted column to the end of the Organizational Unit Parents Brightspace Data Set (BDS). The Organizational Unit Parents BDS lists the direct parent of each org unit within your organization and the DateDeleted column captures the date when the parent-child relationship was deleted. The field is null if the relationship hasn't been deleted.

Technical Details

Impact:

• Moderate impact to administrators due to the addition of a new column to an existing Brightspace Data Set.

Availability:

• This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

• Ensure the Can Access Brightspace Data Sets permission is granted to administrators at the org level. Ensure the d2l.Tools.BrightspaceDataSets.Version configuration variable is set to version 8. New and changed data sets appear the first time the data set runs after the version update.

Data Hub – End of Adoption Period for Brightspace Data Sets Version 8 | Updated

The adoption period for Brightspace Data Sets Major Version 8, which was announced in January 2023/20.23.1, has ended. Version 8 is now the only supported version and any clients who are still using Version 7 will be automatically migrated as part of this release. For more information about this version update, refer to Motivations behind the changes in Data Hub Brightspace Data Set (BDS) Major Version 8 in Brightspace Community.

Clients using Insights Report Builder must update their DataFlows, reports, and dashboards that use the data sets impacted by the version update. Anything mapped to BDS Version 7 will continue to function but will have outdated data. For more information about keeping your data up-to-date, refer to Updating Insights Report Builder for Brightspace Data Set Major Version 8 in Brightspace Community.

Technical Details

Impact:

• Large impact to administrators who have not already opted in to Brightspace Data Sets Version 8.

Availability:

• Data Hub is available to all clients.
• Insights Report Builder is available to clients who have the Performance+ package or who have purchased Brightspace Insights in the previous packaging model.

To enable:

• For Data Hub, ensure that the Can Access Brightspace Data Sets permission is enabled for administrators at the org level and the d2l.Tools.BrightspaceDataSets.Version configuration variable is set to version 8. New and changed data sets appear the first time the data set runs after the version update.
• For Insights Report Builder, ensure that the Can Manage Insights Report Builder permission is enabled for administrators at the org level.

Data Hub – SIS Course Merge Log Brightspace Data Set | New

This release adds the new SIS Course Merge Log Brightspace Data Set (BDS) to provide administrators with an audit log of all actions taken in the new SIS Course Merge tool.

Each row in the data set represents an attempt to merge or unmerge course offerings and includes the status of the job, the courses involved, and the user who created the job. This data allows administrators to monitor user actions in the new SIS Course Merge tool and helps with troubleshooting issues by providing a complete history of events.

Previously, there was no way to audit the course offerings that were merged in your organization.

The SIS Course Merge Log BDS does not contain historical data. It starts recording data when the first actions are taken in the new SIS Course Merge tool after the July 2023/20.23.7 release.

Technical Details

Impact:

• Slight impact to administrators due to the addition of a new Brightspace Data Set.

Availability:

• This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

• Ensure the Can Access Brightspace Data Sets permission is granted to administrators at the org level. Ensure the d2l.Tools.BrightspaceDataSets.Version configuration variable is set to version 8. New and changed data sets appear the first time the data set runs after the version update.

• SIS Course Merge is enabled from the Organization Tool list. IPSIS Section Association must be disabled from the Organization Tool list prior to enabling SIS Course Merge for your organization.

Discover – Filters available for semester and custom org unit type | New

This release adds additional filters to the Browse All Content and View All views in Discover. Learners can filter by Semester and up to one other org unit type (for example: Department).

Administrators can use the new Discover settings to select which filters are available to learners. Previously, only Sort options were available in these views.

This feature implements the following PIE item:

• D5700 (Ability to filter based on Org variables)

Figure: Click Semester to open the drop-down menu. Multiple options can be selected.

Technical Details

Impact:

• Moderate impact to learners due to the ability to filter the Browse All Content and View All views by Semester and customer org unit type.

Availability:

• This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

• Administrators with the Manage Discover permission enabled can select the filters available to Learners in Discover Settings.

Discover – Pending enrollment request alerts included in multiple tools and widgets | Updated

To improve awareness of any new or outstanding enrollment requests, this release adds alerts in multiple tools and widgets in Brightspace that show instructors and administrators pending enrollment requests. This includes new inline alert messages on the Discover homepage and Classlist views, as well as new access to view enrollment requests from Classlist Enrollment Requests.

Figure: Pending enrollment requests in Discover. Click View for additional details about these requests.

Figure: Pending enrollment requests in Classlist. Click View for additional details about these requests.

In addition, a new status icon now appears in the Updates and My Courses widget cards. Instructors and administrators can turn this off in Customize Widget's Updates; by default, this status icon is turned on.

Figure: Pending Discover Enrollment Requests in the Updates widget. Click the link to view additional details about these requests.

Figure: Enrollment requests now appear in the My Courses widget notifications for each course.

Previously, the only notification options were receiving weekly notification summary emails.

This feature implements the following PIE item:

• D9978 (Discover Approval Notification)

Technical Details

Impact:

• Slight impact to administrators and instructors due to the ability to receive enrollment request alerts in Discover, Classlist, and through Widgets.

Availability:

• This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

• The Discover and Classlist notifications functionality is automatically enabled for all users. Widget alerts are set to on by default; Administrators can turn widget notifications off in Customize Widget's Updates by clicking either Show the number of pending Discover enrollment requests (Updates widget) or Pending Enrollment Requests (My Courses widget).

Discussions – Consistent settings and interface of availability dates across Brightspace | Updated

This feature updates the settings and format of availability dates and states in Discussions, to align with other activity tools and create a unified content experience for both instructors and learners. This update is a continuation of the changes introduced to the Assignment list tab in June 2023/20.23.6.

Availability dates in the Discussions list are now displayed as a simple date range below the titles of discussion topics. Hovering over the date range text displays a tooltip that includes the information about start and end dates. Tooltips also include applied settings to explain how the discussion topic appears to learners before and after these dates.

Previously, the availability dates in the Discussions topics did not include a hover tooltip.

The corresponding update for Quizzes is planned for a future release.

Figure: The previous format of the availability dates in a discussion topic. The availability information appears beneath the topic title.

Figure: The updated format of the availability dates in a discussion topic. Availability details now appear in a hover tooltip.

Technical Details

Impact:

• Slight impact to instructors and learners due to the ability to hover and view more information about availability dates for Discussions topics.

Availability:

• This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

• This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
• This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing permissions.

Discussions – New Creation Experience is ON by default | Updated

To encourage user adoption of the new Discussions creation experience, the default state for the experience is now set to ON. The New Creation Experience for Discussions was previously introduced in the April 2023/20.23.4 release as an opt-in feature. This update changes the default state of the d2l.Tools.Discuss.CreateExperienceOptIn configuration variable setting to ON. Administrators can choose to override this change ahead of the July 2023/20.23.7 release by overriding the default setting of this configuration variable to OFF. The ON (Opt-In) value remains available to allow users to choose their experience and let administrators opt in their organization or specific areas.

To learn more about the new Discussions creation experience, refer to the Introducing the New Discussion Creation Experience blog post in Brightspace Community.

Figure: The new Creation experience in Discussions appears in the desktop view.

Technical Details

Impact:

• Slight impact to administrators who can choose to opt in or opt out of the new Discussions creation experience.
• Moderate impact to instructors who may now have the new Discussions creation experience as their default experience.

Availability:

• This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

• This functionality is automatically enabled for all users. Administrators can change the configuration variable d2l.Tools.Discuss.CreateExperienceOptIn to OFF to return to the legacy Discussions experience. The configuration variable can be enabled at all org unit levels or at the individual org unit level.
• This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing permissions.

IPSIS – Set up School Passport connections with new IPSIS Source System for PowerSchool | New

IPSIS Source System is available for PowerSchool using School Passport by Global Grid 4 Learning (GG4L). This source system provides an out-of-the-box rostering integration option for customers using PowerSchool, and includes a service provided by GG4L to set up School Passport connections between Brightspace and PowerSchool student information system.

Note: Rostering includes user management, enrollment, and Org Structure, including School[Dept], Course [Template], and Class [Course Offering+ Section]. Rostering is a prerequisite for the Grade Passback functionality that will be available as a paid add-on in a future release.

For additional information, refer to Introducing a New PowerSchool Integration Powered by Global Grid 4 Learning (GG4L).

Technical Details

Impact:

• Slight impact to administrators who have a new service to help set up School Passport connections.

Availability:

• This feature is available in Canada and the US AWS Hosting regions only.

To enable:

• This functionality requires custom enablement assistance; contact your Brightspace Accounts team for assistance.

IPSIS – Streamline course management with SIS Course Merge| New

The new SIS Course Merge tool enables instructors to simplify course management by merging multiple IPSIS-processed courses into one parent course offering. This tool enables instructors to see their content and tasks for all their courses while maintaining separate classlist information based on the section included in the student information system. The new SIS Course Merge tool also provides an unmerge workflow and an audit log in the form of the new SIS Course Merge data set. In a future release, the logging functionality will be further enhanced with an Administrator Log interface.
Previously, only administrator roles had access to the IPSIS Section Association tool; this change provides administrators with a way grant permissions to instructors to be able to merge and un-merge their own courses.

Note:

• Sections cannot be associated with multiple course offerings. During the transition phase, clients will have both Course Merge and Section Association enabled. For more information, see SIS Course Merge: Review and Transition plan for customers. However, sections merged with one are not represented by the other.
• User Progress is not copied in the course merge.
• It is not recommended that you use both IPSIS Section Association and SIS Course Merge tool; once a course is moved to the SIS Course Merge tool, you cannot go back to the IPSIS Section Association tool. For more information, see SIS Course Merge: Review and Transition plan for customers
• You cannot merge courses between source systems.

Figure: Use the filters or browse to find and select the courses you want to merge.

Figure: The Merge Courses dialog enables you to select the course into which you want to merge the previously selected courses

Figure: Unselect the checkboxes to unmerge courses. If you unselect the parent course into which the other courses are merged, all courses are unmerged.

Technical Details

Impact:

• Moderate impact to administrators who can now provide instructors with the ability to merge their own courses.
• Moderate impact to instructors due to the ability to, with appropriate permissions, merge and unmerge multiple course offerings into and out of one parent course.

Availability:

• This feature is available to all IPSIS clients for courses that are created or processed by IPSIS. Courses not created using IPSIS cannot be merged with the SIS Course Merge tool.

To enable:

• The SIS Course Merge Tool must be turned on in the Org Tool list by an Administrator
  Note: For clients without a test site, or clients who want to try course merge on their Production site for select courses or sections, Administrators can enable and run the SIS Course Merge Tool on those specific courses or sections only.

• Ensure the following permissions are set:

  • Can access the SIS Course Merge tool for roles to be able to access the tool.
  • Can merge my SIS Courses and/or Can merge all SIS courses for roles to be able to merge courses.
  • Can unmerge my SIS Courses and/or Can unmerge all SIS courses for roles to be able to undo the merge action.
  • Can access the audit log for my Courses and/or Can access the audit log for all Courses for roles to be able to audit and review the merging of courses.

LTI – Migration Log information limited to the last 90 days' data to improve user-friendliness | Updated

To present customers with a user-friendly audit history of recent LTI Link migrations in Brightspace, the LTI 1.3 Migration log details information is currently limited to the last 90 days.

Administrators migrating from LTI 1.1 to 1.3 can use the External Learning Tool Migration Log during troubleshooting or confirmation of successful migrations.

Customers needing data older than 90 days can use the LTI Link Migration Audit Brightspace Data Set. This update does not change the user interface.

Previously, LTI Migration Log had no time limits.

Technical Details

Impact:

• Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to access recent LTI Link migrations for troubleshooting options or confirmation of successful migrations.

Availability:

• This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

• This functionality is automatically enabled for administrators with the existing Manage LTI Migrations or View LTI Migrations Log permission at the Organization and Org unit (Course Offering) levels.
• This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing configuration variables.

Outcomes Management – Save and Close button added to Settings | New

To improve user experience, the ability to select Save and Close is now available when adjusting Achievement Scale settings. Selecting this option saves the specified settings in Outcomes Management and automatically closes the Settings page, returning the user to the main Outcomes Management page. Additionally, a Saved successfully message appears to users to confirm their settings are saved. Previously, it was unclear to the user that their settings changes were saved and applied after selecting the Save button.

Figure: The new Save and Close button, and the confirmation message Saved successfully are displayed on the Settings page in Outcomes Management.

Technical Details

Impact:

• Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to select Save and Close and view confirmation that their changes are saved.

Availability:

• This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

• This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
• This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing permissions.
• This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing configuration variables.

Quizzes – Quiz Timing Improvements Featuring Auto-Submission | Updated

This release updates the Quiz Creation experience for instructors by simplifying the quiz timing setup workflow, adding useful new features, including the ability to auto-submit, and removing obsolete quiz timing options.
With this release, learners can show or hide the timer, receive time warning messages, and access more information about their quizzes.

Note: All Quiz Timer settings behavior and User Interface changes will immediately be applied to existing and in-progress quizzes with the Continuous Delivery Update.

Instructors Workflow Changes

The following workflow changes and advanced Quiz Timing options are now available for instructors.

• Simplified and redesigned Quiz Timing & Display settings
  • The updated settings allow instructors to choose if they want to set a time limit by selecting the Set time limit checkbox, which is cleared by default. If Set time limit is selected, instructors can add a Time Limit and edit the Timer Settings.
  • The previous Prevent the student from making further changes option has been changed to Automatically submit the quiz attempt. Quiz auto-submission automatically hands in quizzes on enforced time limit quizzes at the end of the set time, improving quiz integrity. This behavior is changed on all existing and in-progress quizzes with the update.
    Note: The Automatically submit the quiz attempt option is now the default setting for all newly created quizzes with a time limit and is used automatically if the instructor does not edit the quiz timing settings. The previous default setting was Allow the student to continue working.
  • The previous Allow the student to continue working option has been changed to Flag the attempt as exceeded time limit and allow the learner to continue working. This behavior is changed on all existing and in-progress quizzes with the update.
  • The Grace Period and Allow student to continue working but automatically score zero options are removed to further streamline the process of quiz creation. With this update, any existing and in-progress quizzes that include these settings are changed to the following new behavior:
    • A quiz that previously had a grace period now uses the time limit set on the quiz.
    • A quiz previously set to Allow student to continue working but automatically score zero now sets the quiz to Automatically submit the quiz attempt.

      

      Figure: The Timing menu before this update.

      

      Figure: The Timing menu after this update.

• The Timing & Display section displays comprehensive summary information in either collapsed or expanded view, helping instructors to find errors and to understand which settings they could change.

  

  Figure: The collapsed view of a quiz with an enforced time limit in the Timing & Display section shows instructors a summary of their settings.

• The Special Access settings are updated to simplify setup and incorporate the updated settings.

  

  Figure: The Timing settings in the Edit Special Access menu before this update.

  

  Figure: The Timing settings in the Edit Special Access menu after this update.

Improvements for learners

The following improved Quiz Timing options are now available for learners:

• Option to show or hide the timer to reduce anxiety during quiz taking.
  Note: Once a learner sets their preference, the setting preserves across all quizzes.

  
  Figure: Click the Hide Timer button beside the quiz timer to hide the timer from the view.

• Warnings displayed at certain times to support awareness of time left. The following warnings are applied:

  • 1 minute remaining on the quiz
  • 5 minutes remaining (only on quizzes with 10 minutes or longer quiz time limit)
  • Half of the elapsed time (only on quizzes with 20 minutes or longer quiz time limit)
    

    
    Figure: The Timer Warning dialog indicates how much longer a learner has in a quiz.

• The simplified Quiz Results page appears when a learner completes a quiz attempt or returns later to view their quiz results (previously known as Submission View). The page now displays the text ‘Your work has been saved and submitted’ to all learners. This text is no longer editable by instructors. The existing text field allows adding a custom message to be displayed within the Quiz Results page under the new default message.

  
  Figure: The Quiz Results page shows learners the status of their quiz and their score.

• Option to review quiz instructions and details without leaving the quiz.

  
  Figure: Click the Quiz Information option on the quiz page to view instructions and other information. This does not leave the quiz.

If a learner is taking a quiz at the time of the update, they will notice the user interface changes and new quiz timer setting behaviors immediately following the Continuous Delivery update. For more information about the impact to existing and in-progress quizzes, refer to the Quiz Timing Improvements – Pilot Summary blog post.

Data Set Information

There are no changes to data sets.

To interpret values after removing the Grace Period and Allow student to continue working but automatically score zero options in Quiz Objects Brightspace Data Sets:

• TimeLimitExceedBehavior Column – Quizzes created before the update with a value of 1 (Allow the student to continue working but automatically score the attempt as zero after an extended deadline) will continue to return a value of 1. After the update, that value should be interpreted as a 2 (Prevent the student from making further changes).
• TimeLimitGracePeriod Column – Existing quizzes will continue to return the legacy grace period value. New quizzes will be null.

To interpret values after removing the Grace Period and Allow student to continue working but automatically score zero options in Quiz Attempts Brightspace Data Set:

• GracePeriod Column – Previous attempts will continue to include any grace period minutes. New attempts will be null.
• GracePeriodExceededBehaviour Column – Any existing attempts for a quiz that was created before the update with the option to allow students to continue but score 0 will continue to return a value of Allow the student to continue working but automatically score the attempt as zero after an extended deadline. Any new attempts for the same quiz will return a value of Prevent the student from making further changes.

API Information

The following changes should be reviewed for the API:

• PUT – A Value of 1 (UseLateLimit) is allowed but deprecated and will now behave like a value of 2 (AutoSubmitAttempt).
• GET – Quizzes that were created with the option to allow students to continue but score 0 will continue to return a value of 1 (UseLateLimit). After the update, that should be interpreted as a value of 2 (AutoSubmitAttempt).

For more information, please refer to Quiz API.

This feature implements the following PIE items: D461, D452, D516, D576, D583, D779, D1552, D2860, D3514, D3582, D3627, D4106, D4145, D4441, D4450, D4998, D6359, D6516, D6731, D6904, D7473, D7742, D8038, D8816, D9257, D9656, D9798.

Technical Details

Impact:

• Large impact to instructors due to the ability to use the redesigned quiz timing options.
• Moderate impact to learners due to the ability to show or hide the timer, receive time warning messages, and access more information about their quizzes. Learners taking a quiz during the software update will see the new user interface changes applied during their quiz.

Availability:

• This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

• This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
• This functionality is not dependent on any new or configuration variables.
• This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing permissions.

Quizzes – The New Quiz Creation Experience is now universally enabled | Updated

In this release, the New Quiz Creation Experience reaches the end of the adoption phase of feature development and becomes the only editing experience for all customers. The New Quiz Creation Experience is now set to on as the default with no option to opt out.

In the Configuration Variable Browser, the d2l.Tools.Quizzes.CreateExperienceOptIn configuration variable no longer appears and cannot be updated by site administrators.

Technical Details

Impact:

• Moderate impact to instructors who previously used the legacy Quiz Creation experience, which is no longer available.

Availability:

• This functionality is available for all clients. With this update, the New Quiz Creation Experience is now the only Quiz Creation option for all users.

To enable:

• This functionality is automatically enabled for all users with no option to opt out.

Rubrics – Language term change in Fr-CA and Fr-FR language packs | Updated

To incorporate the preferred terminology for Rubrics for French-speaking users, the French language term translation for Rubrics is changing from Rubrique to Grille d’évaluation. This change will update the Rubrics language term in all areas of Brightspace. This change also updates the name of the rubric data sets and zip packages in Data Hub (but does not change CSV file names or columns).

Technical Details

Impact:

• Slight impact to all users who will see the language term change from Rubrique to Grille d’évaluation.

Availability:

• This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

• This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
• This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing permissions.
• This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing configuration variables.