Brightspace Learning Environment
Assignments – Accessible Rubric Confirmation dialog box in Consistent Evaluation experience | Updated
To improve accessibility and clarity for screen reader devices, the Rubrics Confirmation dialog box that appears when users navigate away from scoring an assignment or discussion post using a rubric now features the following changes:
- Screen reader-legible heading, text and buttons now appear in the dialog box.
- The dialog box heading now says Unscored Rubric Criteria in place of Confirmation, to improve the workflow clarity for all users, including those using screen readers.
Previously, the text in the dialog box was not accessible to screen readers.
Figure: The confirmation dialog box appears with the previous heading Confirmation. This dialog text was not accessible to screen readers.
Figure: The confirmation dialog box now appears with the updated heading Unscored Rubric Criteria. The text in this dialog is fully accessible to screen readers.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to instructors due to the updated heading text of the confirmation dialog box and the legibility of the box for screen readers.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
Assignments – Availability dates are now on by default | Updated
Improvements to the Assignments tool's availability dates were introduced in the 20.22.12 release, which allowed instructors to have greater control over the access and visibility of their assignments before or after the start and end dates.
This release sets the configuration variable d2l.Tools.Dropbox.ConsistentDatesEnabled default to ON. Previously, the configuration variable's default state was OFF. Administrators can opt out of this feature after the release where the configuration variable is set to the default behavior.
The new Assignments availability date experience is scheduled to become the default experience in 20.23.12. This change can be reviewed in the High Impact Changes Timeline.
Figure: The before and after of the Availability Dates & Conditions menu when the d2l.Tools.Dropbox.ConsistentDatesEnabled configuration variable is enabled.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Moderate impact to administrators and instructors who have not already opted to turn on the new feature since launching in December 2022.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- The configuration variable d2l.Tools.Dropbox.ConsistentDatesEnabled is now automatically enabled by default.
Assignments – Consistent settings and interface of availability dates across Brightspace | Updated
To improve consistency in activity tools, this feature updates settings and the format of availability dates and states across Brightspace for both instructors and learners.
With this release, the Assignments List tab displays availability dates and states closely aligned with other activity tools to make a unified content experience. Availability dates are displayed below the titles of assignments and the hover tooltip includes the information about start and end dates with settings to explain how the assignment appears to learners before and after these dates.
Previously, the availability dates in the Assignments List tab did not include a hover tooltip.
Figure: The format of availability dates and states in the Assignments tool before this update.
Figure: The format of availability dates and states in the Assignments tool after this update.
The corresponding updates for Discussions and Quizzes are planned for future releases.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to instructors and learners due to the ability to get more information about availability dates from the Assignments List tab.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users if the configuration variable d2l.Tools.Dropbox.ConsistentDatesEnabled is enabled (the default state is ON).
Course Import – Course Groups added to Course Import and Export packages | New
This release adds the export of the # of Groups – No Auto Enrollments Group enrollment type to the Brightspace Export Package and includes the handling of this Group enrollment type on import. Exporting or importing this Group type includes workspace associations to Discussions, Assignments and Lockers, if those items are also present in the Brightspace Export Package. Exporting or importing a Group does not include user information or membership in the Group.
Note that Groups with automatic enrollments cannot be imported or exported at this time.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to export or import Course Groups as part of Brightspace Export Package.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
Course Import – Improve Import and Export of Gradebook settings | Updated
This feature adds consistency and addresses information gaps when exporting and importing a Brightspace Gradebook using a Brightspace Package. The following items can now be imported and exported:
- Calculation options (Grade System, Final Grade Released and Grade Calculations). Calculation options are only imported and overwritten if the gradebook is empty.
- Grade scheme associated to a grade item if the grade scheme is shared from the org level. Grade schemes are set to match an existing org level scheme if the Name and ShortName match. If no match is found, or if duplicate matches are found, the course's default scheme is selected instead.
- Grade categories maintain their display settings, as well as the display in calendar setting and whether they are excluded from final grade calculation. This is already possible for grade items.
- Gradebook display settings (Org Unit Display Options). These are only imported and overwritten if the gradebook is empty. This does not include the ePortfolio Artifacts options in Display Options.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators and instructors due to the ability to import and export additional Gradebook settings.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
Course Publisher – Set an enrollment limit | New
With this release, the Course Publisher tool enables course providers to set an enrollment limit. Course providers can set the number of enrollments coming in for a particular course higher or lower depending on their needs. This enrollment limit should be at least the current number of unique course users from that recipient.
An enrollment limit is only applied to enrollments by Course Publisher; manual enrollments are unaffected. If an enrollment is removed from the course and Course Publisher initially did that enrollment, the count is updated to reflect that.
To create or edit an enrollment limit, click the new Package Config option (the Gear icon) on the package lists table.
Figure: An example of setting an enrollment limit.
Previously, enrollment limits were not available in Course Publisher.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to set an enrollment limit for a particular course.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
Course Publisher – Improved enrollment capabilities | New
With this release, course providers no longer need to worry about managing the creation of users with the Instructor role or enrolling those users into the correct course sections. This feature allows users to be enrolled as instructors and into specific sections using data provided from the LTI request received by Brightspace.
When a user navigates from another LMS or Brightspace site through Course Publisher via an LTI link, they will now be placed in the correct role and into the correct section of the course.
To accommodate these changes, the new Link to Course functionality is added, including section information and links to the LTI or AICC download actions.
Figure: An example of section selection.
Previously, manual role and section enrollment management was required to ensure that users were given the proper isolation and visibility for the course they were accessing. The interface had the links directly on the table, which have now been replaced with the Link to Course and Package Config (Gear) icons.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to automatically add users to specific sections using an LTI link.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users. For enrolling instructors, the newd2l.System.Enrollment.InstructorRole ( OrgUnit ) configuration variable must be set to the corresponding role.
Data Hub – Session History Brightspace Data Set | Updated
With this release, the data type for the SessionId column in the Session History Brightspace Data Set has changed to BigInt. Previously, the data type for SessionId 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 recommended database settings. Administrators may need to update their data warehouse to use BigInt for the SessionId 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. Ensure 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.
Discover – Improved course description search | Updated
To provide users with a better search experience, this feature increases the amount of data indexed from a course description when searching for courses in Discover. Discover search will index 4KB of data from each course or activity description, expanding the number of searchable terms and making it easier to find relevant courses in Discover. Existing courses will automatically update.
Previously, Discover search indexed 1KB of data from each course description.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to all users due to improved results in the Search field of Discover.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
Quizzes – Improved workflows for large quizzes | New
This feature updates instructors' workflows for large quizzes in two ways.
Instructors can now use the Load More button on the initial page load if a quiz has more than 200 questions, sections, and question pools.
If the Load More button is shown, list operations such as moving to the bottom or adding new questions continue functioning as expected. However, to see their changes, instructors must click the Load More button to reveal the updated list.
Figure: The Load More button.
Also, instructors can now select multiple items and use drag and drop to rearrange the question list.
Figure: Multiple items selected for movement using drag and drop.
This feature implements PIE item D10368 (New Quiz Experience: Drag & Drop - Moving multiple questions at once).
Previously, quiz questions, sections, and question pools rendered slowly. Creating and editing quizzes with many items could take significant time. Moving multiple items was only possible using the Move To action menu.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to use the Load More button to reduce the load time of large quizzes and use drag and drop to move multiple items in the question list.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
User and Role Management – Improved access and enablement for Auditor Tool and Bulk Auditor functions | Updated
This feature simplifies the enablement of Auditors in Brightspace. Auditors only require the Auditor tool to be enabled. Previously, Auditors had two enablement steps, including tool and configuration. Clients who have both the configuration variable d2l.Tools.UserManagement.OrgHasAuditors and User Auditors tool enabled will continue to see Auditors.
In addition, a new access point to Bulk Auditor Management is visible within the Users tool, making it easier to access bulk functions.
This feature does not affect the Auditor Widget, which is the primary access point for Auditors to access Auditor functionality.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators due to the simplification of access and enablement of the Auditor tool and Bulk Auditor Management.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all Brightspace Core clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.