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Brightspace Learning Environment

Assignments – New assignment creation experience universally enabled | Updated

This feature sets the new assignment creation experience to ON by default. This will mean that the classic assignment experience will no longer be available. The d2l.Tools.Dropbox.CreateExperienceOptIn (OrgUnit) configuration variable is deprecated and is no longer available to site administrators.

Details of the New assignment creation experience can be found here; the differences between classic to new assignment creation experiences can be found here.

Impact of Change Technical Details
Large impact to administrators due to the removal of the ability to use classic assignment creation. Availability: This feature is available to all clients

To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.

The d2l.Tools.Dropbox.CreateExperienceOptIn (OrgUnit) configuration variable is deprecated.
Large impact to Instructors due to the removal of the ability to use classic assignment creation. N/A


Brightspace Editor – Hotkey shortcut to Brightspace Editor source editor | New

This feature adds a new hotkey shortcut in the Brightspace Editor to access the source editor. Previously, the source editor was unavailable by a hotkey shortcut.

The hotkey shortcut is:

  • Windows: Ctrl+Shift+E
  • Mac: Command+Shift+E

This feature addresses the following accessibility criteria:

  • WCAG 2.1 Success criterion 2.1.4 Character Key Shortcuts

Impact of Change Technical Details
Slight impact to users due to the ability to access the Brightspace Editor’s source editor via hotkey shortcut. Availability: This feature is available to all clients

To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for Brightspace Editor users.

Brightspace Learning Environment – Alerts in the minibar persist for 90 days | Updated

With this release, when you click on the Message alerts, Subscription alerts, or Update alerts icons in the minibar, you can retrieve alerts from the last 90 days. Previously, all alerts disappeared after 7 days.

The way these alerts display to users has not changed: when you click one of the icons, the 5 most recent alerts appear in the dropdown. When you click Load More, 5 more alerts appear.

Impact of Change Technical Details
Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to see minibar alerts for 90 days. Availability: This feature is available to all clients.

To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for all users. It takes 90 days after the CD update for a full 90 days of alerts to accumulate.
Slight impact to learners due to the ability to see minibar alerts for 90 days. N/A


Brightspace Learning Environment – Support for surname prefixes during sort function | Updated

In some countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium and Sri Lanka, surnames have one or more prefixes (known in Dutch as Tussenvoegsel) that are part of the formal last name. For example, van der Speigle or Van Gogh. In some cases, the sortable last name should not include those prefixes.

It is now possible to indicate if a user's Legal Last Name differs from the Sortable Last Name. If clients include a Sortable Last Name, the Brightspace Learning Environment uses the Sortable Last Name in when alphabetizing user lists.

The following tools currently support the Sortable Last Name:

  • Classlist
  • Grades
  • Quizzes
  • Assignments
  • Discussions
  • Manage Exemptions
  • New Content - Completion Summary

Additional tools will be added to this list in future releases.

To add a sortable last name to a user's information, do one of the following:
In the Users tool, in User Information, add a Sortable Last Name.
In the Brightspace API, add a sortable last name for the appropriate user.


Figure: The Sortable Last Name field on the User Information screen

Impact of Change Technical Details
Slight impact to any user who can add or edit user information due to the new Sortable Last Name field. Availability: This feature is available to all clients

To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for users in the supported tools: Classlist, Grades, Quizzes, Assignments, Discussions, Manage Exemptions, and New Content - Completion Summary.

Brightspace Pulse – Display Pulse banner in Grades | New

To promote Brightspace Pulse usage in organizations, administrators can choose to display a banner in the learner view of the Grades tool. The banner includes links to the Brightspace Pulse app from the Google Play and Apple App Store. Previously, the banner was only visible from the Notifications Settings page.


Figure: The Brightspace Pulse banner visible from Grades and the Notifications Settings page

Impact of Change Technical Details

Slight impact to administrators due to a configuration variable that must be set to display a Brightspace Pulse banner.

Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Core clients in all regions.

To enable: Ensure the d2l.System.Mobile.ImproveAppDiscoverability configuration variable is turned on at the org level. The default value is ON. When set to ON, this banner appears the learner view of the Grades tool and in the Notifications Settings page in Brightspace Learning Environment.

Slight impact to learners due to a banner that may appear in Grades. This banner displays to all learners, regardless of whether they have Brightspace Pulse installed or not, until the banner is explicitly dismissed.


Content – Language changes for back buttons in New Learner Experience | Updated

When a user accesses the new learner experience immersive viewer from a location other than the course content area, the Back to Content button has been updated to display Back. Clicking Back returns the user to their previous location in Brightspace. The language has been updated to remove confusion over where the button directs the user. There are two places this text changes: the immersive navigation page, and the end-of-unit page.

Impact of Change Technical Details

Slight impact to learners due to minor changes in the language used on the Back button in the new learner experience immersive viewer.

Availability: This feature is available to all clients.

To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.


Content – New Content Edit Experience supports media file captions | New

The New Content Edit Experience now supports the ability to upload captions to a media file. This functionality was previously only available in the previous Lessons view and the Classic Content Experience.

To add captions, users select Advanced Editing and select a language along with their SRT file with the subtitles.

This feature addresses the following accessibility criteria:

  • WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded)

Impact of Change Technical Details
Slight impact to administrators due to Configuration Variable requirements for instructors to use the New Content Edit Experience. Availability: This feature is available to all clients.

To enable: Ensure the new content experience is enabled, and allow instructors to opt-in to the new create/edit experience using the d2l.Tools.Content.LessonsCreateExperienceOptIn configuration variable. To add captions, users select Advanced Editing and select a language along with their SRT file with the subtitles.

Slight impact to instructors due to ability to add captions to media files from the New Content Edit Experience.


N/A

Content – Updated count and overdue badges | New

In the Classic Content tool for instructors and learners, the count and overdue badges in the Table of Contents now reflect an updated appearance that is consistent with the New Content Experience and other Brightspace tools. The new count badge is circular (for single digits) or a capsule (for double-digits), with a grey background, and with higher contrast text. In addition, the overdue badge is now circular (for single digits) or a capsule (for double-digits). Previously, the count badge was rectangular, with a white background, and grey text/outline. The overdue badge was rectangular and red.

This feature addresses the following accessibility criteria:

  • WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)


Figure: The new count and overdue badges in the Classic Content tool


Figure: The old count and overdue badges in the Classic Content tool

Impact of Change Technical Details

No impact to administrators

Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Core clients in all regions.

To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.

Slight impact to instructors and learners due to an updated appearance to the count and overdue badges in the Classic Content tool. The numbers in all count badges are now localized, meaning that numbers greater than 1,000 use the appropriate thousands separator for their locale (i.e., 12.103 = 12,103 in French), and when numbers are truncated, they use a localized indicator (i.e., 99+ = "Plus de 99" in French).


Course Import/Export – Import and export intelligent agents | New

With this release, administrators and instructors can now include intelligent agents when importing or exporting courses. This allows administrators and instructors to share the dynamic notification interactions in imported/exported courses with other Brightspace instances. Previously, intelligent agents were not included when importing or exporting courses.

Impact of Change Technical Details

Slight impact to administrators and instructors due to the ability to include intelligent agents during the course import/export process.

Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Core clients in all regions.

To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.

Discussions – Consistent evaluation experience | Updated

This feature is a continuation of the Discussions - New Discussion Evaluation Experience | Updated feature introduced in September 2021/20.21.9.

With this release, the d2l.Tools.Activities.CEDiscussionOptIn configuration variable is set to ON. This removes the ability to opt-out of the new Discussions evaluation experience.

To give customers flexibility in implementing this feature, administrators can still override the configuration variable. However, the configuration variable will be removed in the January 2022 (20.22.01) release.

For more detail about the improvements in this new experience, visit the Welcome to Our New Discussion Evaluation Experience post on Brightspace Community.

For additional information on the consistent evaluation experience across all Brightspace tools, visit the What is Coming in Evaluation: 20.21.12 post on Brightspace Community.

Impact of Change Technical Details
Moderate impact to administrators due to the change in default setting for an existing configuration variable. Availability: This feature is available to all clients

To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
Large impact to Instructors due to the removal of the ability to use classic evaluation experience for Discussions. N/A


Discussions – Consolidated dates ON by default | Updated

This feature builds on the default setting progression for visibility and posting restrictions in discussion forums and topics. In August 2021 / 20.21.8, it was possible for administrators to opt-in to the workflow. This was updated again in September 2021 / 20.21.9, when the default was updated to be on by default, but administrators could change the setting. With the final change to the workflow in December 2021 / 20.21.12, the discussion date consolidation is now ON by default for all clients, and cannot be turned off.
Note: All date overrides are cleared when the default changes to ON.
For more information, see the Changes To Availability And Locking Dates For A Consolidated Dates Workflow blog post.
Once the new workflow is enabled, the following changes are visible to instructors when creating or editing discussion forums and topics:

Note: These changes also affect the Classic Content and Manage Dates tools.

  • From the Restrictions tab, the previous Locking Options are now consolidated with the Availability Start Date and End Date options and display as the following new options:
    • Visible with access restricted before/after start/end. The topic/forum is visible to learners before/after the start/end date, but they cannot access it. Previously, Classic Content was the only tool to make discussions visible without access.
    • Visible with submission restricted before/after start/end. The topic/forum is visible to learners before/after the start/end date and they can access it, but they cannot post new threads or replies. This effectively makes a discussion read-only. Previously, this was accomplished with the lock option or unlock dates.
    • Hidden before/after start/end. The topic/forum is hidden from learners until the start/end date. This is a new feature. Calendar events for Availability Starts and Availability Ends are hidden until the start/end date. Notifications are also not sent until the start/end date. Previously, the hidden status of a discussion topic was decided by the tool displaying the topic.
  • From the Restrictions tab, the Display in Calendar option is now consolidated with the Availability Start Date and End Date options, which adds the start date and end dates to the calendar. Previously, the tool decided which calendar event should be added to the calendar. With this change, calendar events for availability dates may change and additional events for Availability Start Dates may be added.
  • Calendar events for unlocked dates are now hidden from learners.
  • Where Discussions and User Progress may have previously hidden a topic or forum when outside of availability dates, those tools now may show them as visible, but inaccessible.
  • From Discussion Settings, instructors can now set the default visibility and access behavior for new discussion forums and topics. The defaults can be set at an organization level.



Figure: The new consolidated options for visibility and posting restrictions in the Restrictions tab


Figure: The new default options for visibility and posting restrictions in the Discussions Settings

Impact of Change Technical Details

No impact to administrators.

Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Core clients in all regions.

To enable: This feature is now on by default and can no longer be turned off.

Moderate impact to instructors if they did not already turn on the feature between August and December. Availability specifies when learners can access (or view) a forum or topic based on a specific date set by an instructor. For example, an instructor sets a date to make a discussion forum available to learners after the end date for finishing a course module.

Posting restrictions (also known as locking and unlocking) specify if learners can post or reply to a forum or topic based on a specific date set by an instructor. For example, an instructor sets a date to lock a discussion topic after making it available, giving learners time to read and understand the discussion topic, but not post replies. The instructor also sets a date to unlock the topic several days later, allowing learners to post their well thought out replies.


Quizzes – Improved language terms | New

To offer more intuitive and consistent terminology to instructors and learners when using Quizzes, many interface labels and dialogs now use more descriptive language. For example, Automatic Grade is now Automatically Publish Evaluation. Previously, many interface labels and dialogs used short terms that did not provide clear meaning for some users.

For a detailed list of all language term updates in Quizzes, see the Quiz Language Updates blog post.

Impact of Change Technical Details

No impact to administrators.

Availability: This feature is available to Brightspace Core clients in all regions.

To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.

While you cannot opt-out of the changes to the default language terms, you can override the language terms for your instance using Language Management. However, D2L does not recommend overriding these language terms as they align with language used elsewhere in Brightspace.

Most updated language terms are translated in all supported Brightspace languages. However, some of the updated language terms may not be translated due to difficulties finding a suitable translation in another language. In these cases, the previous language terms are used.

Moderate impact to instructors and learners due to new interface labels that appear in Quizzes. N/A

Widgets – Arabic language support for select hosted widgets | New

To improve the user experience across more international languages, the following widgets now have Arabic (ar-SA) language support:

  • Visual Table of Contents
  • Photo Banner
  • Learner Awards
Impact of Change Technical Details
Slight impact to learners and instructors for the ability to use additional widgets in Arabic. Availability: This feature is available to all clients.

To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for widget users. Languages automatically display based on the defined Locale Management settings.


Integrations

LTI® Advantage – Assignments and Grade Services | Updated

A new LTI Advantage Assignments and Grade Services (AGS) configuration option is available at the Deployment level that allows grades created using LTI Advantage to be included in final grades.

Previously, with the legacy LTI Basic Outcomes integration, grades created by a tool were automatically excluded from the final grade as most instructors pre-configured the gradebook in advance. With LTI Advantage’s AGS including a more robust grade integration, it removes the need to pre-configure the gradebook in Brightspace. Administrators can now choose how grade items created by AGS affect final grades.

Grade items created using LTI Advantage that do not have a score can be deleted if you send an AGS delete command. If the grade item has a score, the AGS line item is deleted, but the grade item in Brightspace Learning Environment remains.

This feature addresses PIE Item D7778.

Impact of Change Technical Details

Moderate impact to administrators due to new deployment level configuration options.

Availability: This feature is available to all clients using LTI Advantage tools.

To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for LTI Advantage users.

Moderate impact to instructors due to how LTI Advantage created grade items contribute to final grades, along with the ability to refine gradebooks multiple times before submitting grades.
N/A


LTI® Advantage – View as role logic change | New

This feature changes Brightspace Learning Environment behavior when using the View as role feature and completing an LTI Launch. Previously, when a user selected View as role and completed an LTI launch, they were sent the IMS role mapped to their current role in the org unit where the launch occurred. Now, when a user selects View as role and completes an LTI launch, they are assigned the IMS role that is mapped to the role they selected from the View as role menu.

This allows instructors to view a course as a learner, preview LTI materials as a learner would see them, and maintain consistency with how role switching is treated in Brightspace Learning Environment.

Impact of Change Technical Details

Moderate impact to administrators due to changes in View as role behavior when launching LTI materials.

Availability: This feature is available to all clients using LTI Advantage tools.

To enable: This functionality is automatically enabled for all LTI Advantage users.

Moderate impact to instructors due to changes in View as role behavior when launching LTI materials. N/A