Brightspace Learning Environment

Data Hub – Data type changed for TurnItIn Submissions BDS | Updated

In the TurnItIn Submissions Brightspace Data Set, the data type of the FileId field is now BigInt. Previously, the data type for FileId was Int.

This change allows a larger value with up to eight bytes to be saved, as the previous four-byte limit is too small for some larger organizations.

Technical Details

Impact:

Moderate impact to administrators due to the change in data type. Administrators may need to update their data warehouse to use BigInt for the FileId field if they have concerns that the number of files will exceed the limit of Int.

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 and the d2l.Tools.BrightspaceDataSets.Version configuration variable is set to version 7 or 8. New and changed data sets appear the first time the data set runs after the version update.

Data Hub – PagingTypeId column value added to Quiz Objects in BDS | Updated

The Brightspace Data Set for Quiz Objects now includes a new value for the PagingTypeID column to support two new paging options of 5 questions per page and 10 questions per page.

The possible values for PagingTypeID are as follows:

Uses classic quiz creation paging = NULL
All questions on one page = 0
1 question per page = 1
Page breaks after each section = 2
5 questions per page = 3
10 questions per page = 4

Technical Details

Impact:

Moderate impact to administrators due to the addition of new data to an existing column.

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 and the d2l.Tools.BrightspaceDataSets.Version configuration variable is set to version 7 or 8. New and changed data sets appear for the first time when the data set runs after the version update.

Intelligent Agents – Support for copying One-Time Run agents | New

This feature allows users to copy, export, and import One-Time Run agents and their schedules. This allows users who utilize course shells which are copied to multiple courses to schedule One-Time Run agents to run as needed in all destination courses.

Note: This functionality only applies to agents that have yet to be run. If the agent has been run, no schedule exists to copy.

Previously, agents that were configured with scheduling frequency One-Time Run would copy without a scheduling frequency.

This feature implements the following PIE item:

D9467 (Copy One-Time Run agents with their schedules)

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to administrators and instructors due to the ability to copy, export, and import One-Time Run agents.

Availability:

This feature is available to all Brightspace Core clients.

To enable:

This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.

IPSIS – Improved D2L standard CSV Delete function | Updated

With this release, the IPSIS D2L standard CSV Delete function is improved in IPSIS Admin UI to resolve an error being thrown when deleting an action sent by IPSIS, which is Inactivate course offering.

In this release, this is being turned ON for all clients, and the IPSIS D2L standard CSV Delete function, when configured to set Org Units as Inactive, successfully sets course offerings to Inactive after all section children are deleted. With this change, course offerings will be inactivated successfully without any error message once course sections are deleted.

The logic for reporting errors was not changed in the following cases:

There are any sections not previously deleted.
An administrator does not allow course offerings to be set as inactive even if they have sections.

Previously, when the IPSIS D2L standard CSV Delete function was configured to set Org Units as Inactive, errors would be reported for the course section, which removed it from IPSIS but did not change it in Brightspace. This action led to the error message: ‘Delete failed: Offering co_name has at least one dependent org unit.’

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to administrators due to the behavior change when the Delete action is set to Inactivate Courses in the IPSIS Admin UI.

Availability:

This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.

Learner Experience – Mark a topic as complete | New

With this release, learners working with the New Learner Experience (LX) can now mark certain types of topics as completed by clicking the Mark as Complete button at the bottom of the topic page if the topics are set to be manually completed. This feature simplifies interactions around the setup of completion requirements and criteria and simplifies the interaction for learners completing activities.

Figure: The Mark as Complete button on the topic page. When the Mark as Complete button on the topic page is disabled, the topic is marked as completed.

This feature supports the following topic types:

LTI links
Web links
Course files
LOR links, etc.

The new Mark as Complete button is not available to learners for assessable activities (Assignments, Quizzes, Discussion Topics) and other topics representing Brightspace tools, including, but not limited to: Checklists, Surveys, news items, calendar events, content topics that link to other content topics, and topics that have a special link to course files.

Previously learners could not set their completion, and any content that was created with Content Classic and required manual completion tracking would never have been completed.

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to learners due to the ability to use a new option allowing them to complete a topic manually.

Availability:

This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

Instructors must navigate to Classic Content and set the completion method on a content topic to Required: Manual.

LTI – Improved Grades Associations for LTI 1.3 | Updated

In this release, there is a new option to automatically create grade items. This aligns our LTI 1.3 grades experience with LTI 1.1.

This feature includes the new Auto Create Grade Items LTI Advantage Deployment configuration setting that is disabled by default. This setting is available on the LTI Advantage tab (Admin Tools menu > External Learning Tools > LTI Advantage tab) and is applicable to LTI Advantage 1.3 users.

Figure: The Auto Create Grade Items configuration setting is enabled.

This new functionality matches LTI 1.1 behavior and allows users to automate the management of grade objects. Legacy LTI 1.1 requires you to enable the existing d2l.Tools.Content.AllowAutoLtiGradeItem configuration variable.

When you select the Auto Create Grade Items checkbox:

LTI tools are always given a place to write a score even if a grade does not exist in the Gradebook. When the LTI 1.3 tool sends a grade value to the Gradebook for the first time, it creates the Gradebook column in the Gradebook and associates this column with the LTI link.
If the LTI Advantage 1.3 tool is launched and an LTI link already has a grade association (a Gradebook column already exists), this existing Gradebook column is used.

When the Auto Create Grade Items checkbox is not selected, you must add Gradebook columns before an LTI tool can send a grade value for a user. LTI tools can create Gradebook columns using LTI APIs or by returning a grade through deep linking. You can also manually add Gradebook columns in the Content tool.

Previously in LTI Advantage 1.3, you or the LTI tool had to add Gradebook columns in the Gradebook tool before you send a grade value for a user.

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to enable or disable the Auto Create Grade Items configuration setting.
Slight impact to instructors when this feature is turned on - an instructor does not have to create a Gradebook column and the grade association with the LTI link is created automatically.

Availability:

This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

Select the Auto Create Grade Items checkbox.

Media Library – Easily find audio-video content with the new filter by owner names | New

To help administrators more easily sort and find content, Media Library was updated to include a filter for sorting by a specific author. The new Ownership filter allows finding and potentially updating the authors for large groups of content.

Administrators can now quickly find users’ videos and audio for transferring ownership or performing bulk actions.

Figure: The filter and sorting options with the new Ownership feature.

Previously, there was no way to filter or search by author.

Technical Details

Impact:

Moderate impact to administrators due to the ability to find, sort, and potentially update the ownership for large groups of content.

Availability:

This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

This functionality is automatically enabled for all admin users with Can Manage All Objects permission.

Media Library – Support added for Bulk Actions | New

To improve the audio-video content management experience, this release adds the ability to perform bulk actions in Media Library.

Instructors can perform the following bulk actions:

Delete files
Restore files in Media Library > Recycle Bin

Figure: The bulk Delete action in Media Library.

Administrators can perform the following additional actions:

Reassign ownership of files

Figure: The bulk Transfer Ownership action in Media Library.

Previously, instructors and administrators could only perform these tasks individually.

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to administrators and instructors due to the ability to perform bulk actions in Media Library.

Availability:

This feature is available to all Brightspace Core clients.

To enable:

This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.

Quizzes – Add quiz availability dates to your Calendar | Updated

Instructors can now add quiz availability dates to the Calendar tool in the Availability Dates & Conditions menu in the new quiz creation experience. Instructors can select the Add availability dates to Calendar checkbox when creating a quiz to add quiz availability dates to their Calendar. This feature provides instructors with more control over where Start Dates and End Dates appear to learners. Previously, only the Due Date was automatically added in the new quiz creation experience; and control over adding availability dates was limited to the Manage Dates tool. Instructors previously had to revert back to the legacy quiz creation experience to add quiz availability dates to their Calendar.

The following is a reminder of how Calendar events are generated when using either the legacy or new quiz creation experience:

If the Start Date and End Date are set, an End Date event is created.
If the Start Date is set, a Start Date event is created.
If the End Date is set, an End Date event is created.

Figure: The Availability Dates & Conditions menu displaying the Add availability dates to Calendar checkbox.

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to instructors who can now add quiz availability dates to the Calendar tool.
Slight impact to learners who can now see quiz availability dates in their course Calendar.

Availability:

This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

This functionality is enabled for all users when the configuration variable d2l.Tools.Quizzes.CreateExperienceOptIn is turned ON, opting them into the new quiz creation experience.

Quizzes – Additional paging options | Updated

Two new paging options are available in the Timing & Display menu in the new quiz creation experience. Instructors can choose to display 5 questions per page or 10 questions per page. The change optimizes instructors' options when building quizzes with page breaks.

This feature partially implements PIE item D9327: Manually add page breaks in the New Quiz design.

Figure: The new paging options in the Timing & Display menu in the new quiz creation experience.

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to instructors who now have more paging options for their quizzes.
Slight impact to learners who may now see more questions per page for a quiz.

Availability:

This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

This functionality is enabled for all users when the configuration variable d2l.Tools.Quizzes.CreateExperienceOptIn is turned ON, opting them into the new quiz creation experience.

Rubrics – Keep track of changes to assessed rubrics with enhanced visual cues | Updated

To maintain the integrity of assessments, any rubric that has been used to assess a grade item is locked. However, there may be incidences where it is necessary to add or update the text on a rubric without changing any points, or without adding or deleting any criteria or criteria levels. The text on the rubric, including criteria names and descriptions, level names, and default feedback, can continue to be updated after the rubric has been locked. To increase the value of the Rubrics – Clarify grading criteria by editing text fields in assessed rubrics | New feature released in November 2022, you can now use enhanced visual cues to keep track of the changes you have made.

Note: It is not possible to edit the name of the rubric using this feature.

When an instructor makes a change to a previously assessed rubric, it is updated with a blue highlight and the text Edited in the lower right corner. When the user saves and closes the rubric, the edit indications no longer appear.

Note: It is only possible to make changes to assessed rubrics that are created in the current course or are copied from another course. Shared rubrics remain locked.

This feature addresses the following accessibility criteria:

WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.3.3 Sensory Characteristics
WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.4.1 Use of Color

Figure: The Edit Rubric window with changes highlighted and indicated with the word Edited.

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to users who can edit rubrics due to the ability to see where there are unsaved changes to the rubric.

Availability:

This feature is available to all clients using Rubrics.

To enable:

This functionality is automatically enabled for all users with the Edit Assessed Rubrics permission, which allows them to see the Edit Text button on the Edit Rubric page.