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Published on Leave a comment on A Climate Action Plan for Xavier

Friends, as we all know, New Orleans is on the front lines of the climate crisis. And you may have noted that Xavier University is located in New Orleans. Therefore, it's essential for Xavier to formulate a Climate Action Plan, building on the current vision.

Dr. Asem Abdulahad of the Chemistry Department was recently authorized to form a committee with this goal in mind. However, as Dr. Abdulahad notes, "Ultimately, climate action is everyone's problem, and I would like for own plan to reflect that!"

In other words, this work must not be siloed. It requires broad participation in order to succeed — faculty, staff, and students. Given CAT+FD's role in faculty development, it's our goal to have every academic department represented. Beyond that, we need help getting the word out to every unit and office on campus.

The inaugural meeting was held on Monday, but the work is just getting started. If you are willing and able, please reach out to Dr. Abdulahad, or Dr. Billie Castle of Public Health Sciences, or Ms. Helena Robinson of XULA Green (Facility Planning & Management). Let them know you're on board. Our future might just depend on it.

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #577: April Continuous Delivery Updates

the word update written on a chalk board

D2L (the company that owns Brightspace) uses Continuous Delivery to update our Brightspace system. The Continuous Delivery model gives us regular monthly updates allowing for incremental and easily integrated changes with no downtime required for our Brightspace system.

Our Continuous Delivery update occurs on the 4th Thursday of each month. D2L provides release notes to help users stay up-to-date with the changes.

This update from the April 2026/20.26.04 release was added to our system:

1) Quizzes – Improvements to the Quizzes evaluation

The quiz evaluation experience now includes an Incorrect filter that lets instructors quickly view quickly view answers marked incorrect. In addition, feedback fields automatically expand as needed, providing more space to review and enter feedback.

Instructors can now filter the quiz questions to review only the questions a learner answered incorrectly. This enhancement helps instructors identify trends and determine whether updates to questions or instructional materials are needed.

Previously, the available filters were Pending Evaluation and Retaken questions only. With this update, the new Incorrect filter displays only questions marked incorrect.

The Pending Evaluation, Incorrect, and Retaken filters for quiz answers.
Filtering options for quiz answers after the update.

Additionally, feedback fields for questions are now displayed as a single line and automatically expand when instructors enter additional comments. Previously, the Feedback field for each question displayed several lines even when no feedback was entered, requiring users to scroll unnecessarily.

A quiz answer with the Feedback field highlighted.
When evaluating a quiz question, enter additional comments to your Feedback in an automatically expanding field.

This feature implements the following PIE items:

  • D1865 (Filter for Viewing only Questions Missed)
  • D9123 (Quiz Filter to list only questions that were answered incorrectly)
  • D12922 (Quizzes: Filter when marking to only see questions answered incorrectly)

If you are interested in getting more information about this and all the April Continuous Delivery updates, refer to the Brightspace Platform April 2026/20.26.04 Release Notes.

Additionally, refer to the Brightspace Release Notes for Continuous Delivery Releases, for details about current, past, and to preview upcoming continuous delivery updates.

Want more information?

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: image by geralt from Pixabay

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #576: Grade Book – Adjust Final Grades

Brightspace calculates final grades for each student based on the grading system and the students' grades that are entered into the Grade Book. If the instructor wants more control over the final grades, perhaps to adjust the final grade for a student that is on the cusp of a higher grade, then adjusted final grades can be used and released to students instead of the calculated final grade.

wrench

If the instructor decides to use adjusted final grades for one student in the course, adjusted final grades must be used for all students in the course. This does not imply, however, that final grades must be manually adjusted for all students.

Adjusting final grades are implemented by the instructor for only the student or students that are deemed to need an adjusted grade. The remaining students final grades would be the final grade as calculated in the Grade Book.

Note: The Grade Book must be configured to use adjusted final grades. If you plan to use adjusted final grades, you should make the adjustments before you release final grades.

Follow these steps to do it.

To adjust final grades for all students:

  1. Get into the course where you want to adjust final grades and click Grades in the NavBar.
  2. Click on the Enter Grades link.
  3. Scroll over to the Final Calculated Grade column and click on the arrow on the right of the column name and select Enter Grades.
  4. In the Final Adjusted Grade section for each student, enter the adjusted grades and then click Save.
  5. Once you have ensured that students' grades are accurate, you can release the final grades.

To adjust final grades for one or more specific students:

  1. Get into the course where you want to adjust final grades and click Grades in the NavBar.
  2. Click on the Enter Grades link.
  3. Scroll over to the Final Calculated Grade column and click on the arrow on the right of the column name and select Enter Grades.
  4. Click on the arrow on the right of the Final Grades and click Transfer All, then click Yes.
  5. In the Final Adjusted Grade section, enter adjusted scores where necessary and click Save.
  6. Once you have ensured that students' grades are accurate, you can release the final grades.

Want more information?

Understanding the Grades Tool (video)
Troubleshoot Final Grades (video)
Adjusted Final Grades
Release Final Grades
Brightspace Tip #542: Grade Book

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: Image by webandi from Pixabay

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #575: Grade Book – Release Final Grades

Unlike other grade items and categories in the Grade Book, final grades are not available to students by default. Final grades must be released. When setting up the Grade Book, the instructor can choose to automatically release final grades so that the students can see their final grade throughout the semester. If you did not choose to enable the automatic release of final grades when setting up your Grade Book, you will have to manually release final grades in order for students to see their final grade.

Additionally, you can selectively release final grades for some students now and release the final grades for other students later. For example, you can release the final grades for graduating seniors on one date and release the final grades for everyone else on a later date.

Follow these steps to do it.

To manually release final grades:

  1. On the NavBar, click Grades.
  2. On the Enter Grades page, from the Final Calculated Grade or Final Adjusted Grade context menu, click Enter Grades.
  3. To release grades for all users, on the Final Grades page, from the Final Grades context menu, click Release All. To release final grades for a specific user, do one of the following:
    • Select the check box by the user name and click the Release/Unrelease link.
    • Select the check box in the Release Final Calculated Grade or Release Adjusted Final Grade column.
  4. Click Save.

OR watch this video for instructions on how to release final grades:

Want more information?

Troubleshoot Final Grades (video)
Adjust Final Grades
Release Final Grades
Brightspace Tip #542: Grade Book

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: "final grades" by jflorent is dedicated to public domain under CC0 and is a derivative of grade by OpenClipart-Vectors on Pixabay

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #574: Demystifying Bonus Items in a Weighted Grade Book

extra bonus icon

I am writing this blog post as a follow up to my Brightspace Tip #573: Grade Book - Bonus Points blog post. I've received a few questions about bonus items in a weighted grading system. This blog post addresses how bonus items work in a weighted Grade Book.

Bonus refers to optional activities. Students are NOT penalized for skipping the activity. Points earned for Bonus activities will improve the student’s grade. Checking the Bonus option means that any points earned will be added onto the Final Calculated Grade. Bonus items appear in the Grade Book with a Star next to them.

Bonus grade items are not included in the maximum points for a category or final grade. They are added on top of the calculated grade. The Can Exceed option must be selected in order for users' grades to exceed the maximum points specified.

The Can Exceed and Bonus options can both be selected for a grade item.

bonus grade item

If you allow an item to exceed 100% or include Bonus items, but do not check the box "Can Exceed" in the category and/or “Final Calculated Grade” settings, then extra credit will count but it will be limited to no more than 100% for the category or “Final Calculated Grade.”

If you create a “Bonus” item with no category, limit its weight to the most you wish to add to the final course percentage. For example, if you do not want to add more than 3% to any given final grade, limit the Bonus item’s weight to 3%. The bonus points can be any number of points because the weight makes the difference in the overall calculation.

Refer to this Demystifying Bonus Items in a Weighted Grade Book document for example of weighted grading system with bonus item and an explanation of the final grade calculation.

Want more information?

Demystifying Bonus Items in a Weighted Grade Book
Brightspace Tip #573: Grade Book - Bonus Points
About Bonus Grade Items
Extra Credit
Create a Grade Item (video)
Brightspace Tip #542: Grade Book
Brightspace Tip #548: Grade Book – Enter Grades and Feedback
Brightspace Tip #549: Grade Book – Bulk Enter Grades

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credits: extra png from pngtree.com by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #573: Grade Book – Bonus Points

red tag with the word bonus written on it

There are two ways to give extra credit in Brightspace. The first is to allow the grade item to exceed the maximum number of points for the assignment. The other option is to indicate the grade item is a “Bonus” item.

The differences between the two options are explained here:

  • Can Exceed means in grading an item you are able to add extra credit to the assignment, quiz, or any item in the Grade Book. You indicate this by checking the Can Exceed box.
    • The Can Exceed option can boost student’s score on activity making it feasible to earn more than 100%. For example, on a grade item where the maximum points is 10 and the Can Exceed option is selected, a grade of 12/10 is a perfect score with 2 extra credit points added.
    • When you choose Can Exceed for a grade item in the Grade Book, you should also select Can Exceed for the Category in which the grade item resides.
  • Bonus refers to optional activities. Students are NOT penalized for skipping the activity. Points earned for Bonus activities will improve the student’s grade. Checking the Bonus option means that any points earned will be added onto the Final Calculated Grade.
    • Bonus items appear in the Grade Book with a Star next to them.
    • Bonus grade items are not included in the maximum points for a category or final grade. They are added on top of the calculated grade. Bonus grade items cannot make users' grades exceed the maximum points specified, unless the Can Exceed option is selected.

The Can Exceed and Bonus options can both be selected for a grade item.

bonus grade item

NOTE: When you place bonus items in a category in your Grade Book, you should make sure to edit the category and select "Can Exceed" for the category because you want the category to exceed 100%. This way the student’s bonus points will count toward their final grade, and not just the category.

Want more information?

About Bonus Grade Items
Extra Credit
Create a Grade Item (video)
Brightspace Tip #542: Grade Book
Brightspace Tip #548: Grade Book – Enter Grades and Feedback
Brightspace Tip #549: Grade Book – Bulk Enter Grades

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: “bonus” by jflorent is licensed under CC0 and is a derivative of image by ElisaRiva from Pixabay

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #572: March Continuous Delivery Updates

the word update written on a chalk board

D2L (the company that owns Brightspace) uses Continuous Delivery to update our Brightspace system. The Continuous Delivery model gives us regular monthly updates allowing for incremental and easily integrated changes with no downtime required for our Brightspace system.

Our Continuous Delivery update occurs on the 4th Thursday of each month. D2L provides release notes to help users stay up-to-date with the changes.

Here are some of the updates in the March 2026/20.26.03 release that were added to our system this month:

1) Awards – Longer text fields and preserved formatting for Badges and Certificates

To provide greater flexibility when creating Awards, instructors can now enter more detailed information in award text fields. This update increases character limits and preserves formatting, allowing clearer criteria, descriptions, and evidence to display consistently across Award views.

The following fields now support increased character limits:

  • Name (256 characters)
  • Description (512 characters)
  • Criteria (1000 characters)
  • Evidence (on issued award) (1000 characters)

Previously, text fields had lower character limits, which restricted context and detailed instructions. In addition, line breaks entered in these fields were not consistently preserved when Awards were displayed.

This feature implements the following PIE item:

  • D13138 – Awards description field

2) Classlist – export Classlist details to CSV and improved Print output

Instructors can now export Classlist details to CSV. The Export button enables full or partial user exports, mirroring Classlist view content for offline or administrative use.

Printed Classlists now include pronouns (if visible) and course identifiers, providing more complete context for in-person workflows and record keeping.

The new Export Classlist option on the Classlist page.
A new Export button appears on the Classlist page

This feature implements the following PIE items:

  • D9855 (Printing Classlist with pronouns)
  • D9391 (Classlist – allow export of pronouns)
  • D2124 (Export of Classlist)
  • D6948 (Classlist to Excel or CSV)
  • D2658 (Include course title with Classlist printout)
  • D9215 (Show course offering code on exported or printed Classlist)
  • D6667 (Classlist export)

3) Pulse – Engagement tracking improvements

This release improves the reliability, timeliness, and consistency of engagement tracking from Pulse. This enhancement ensures that engagement data more accurately reflects how learners are interacting with their courses across platforms.

Engagement related events in Pulse are now logged immediately. For example, when a learner taps on a course to open it, the Course Access details are sent to the database, the Last Accessed date in Classlist updates, and an Intelligent Agent that checks for course engagement knows not to notify the instructor. Downstream tools that report on learner engagement now represent both Web and Pulse activity equally.

Previously, Pulse events were sent asynchronously in batches, resulting in missing or late engagement tracking data and discrepancies between different tools.

Key improvements:

  • System Access Start events are sent immediately when the app is launched.
  • System Access Start events are decoupled from System Access End events.
  • When the app is in the background or idle, System Access End events are sent after 30 minutes of inactivity.
  • Course Access events are sent immediately when a user clicks into a course.

For more detailed definitions of engagement metrics, refer to About engagement and session length data.

This feature implements the following PIE item:

  • D13317 (Use both Web and Pulse login for Course Activity)

If you are interested in getting more information about these and all the March Continuous Delivery updates, refer to the Brightspace Platform March 2026/20.26.03 Release Notes.

Additionally, refer to the Brightspace Release Notes for Continuous Delivery Releases, for details about current, past, and to preview upcoming continuous delivery updates.

Want more information?

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: image by geralt from Pixabay

Published on Leave a comment on ICYMI: Automate Communications Using Intelligent Agents in Brightspace

Automate Communications Using Intelligent Agents [45:01]

Thanks to those of you who attended our "Automate Communications Using Intelligent Agents" workshop. This workshop, the 3rd in our #LEX Advanced series, helps you to build on the skills you learned in the #LearnEverywhereXULA course and shows how you can use Intelligent Agents to automate communications and set your students up for success in your classes.

NOTE: This is a repeat of a workshop from 2021; however, as you know, Brightspace is a constantly evolving system, and this workshop is a refresher for those who previously attended and brings users up to date with changes/improvements to Intelligent Agents.

In case you missed the training session or if you attended the training session and want to recap what was covered, a copy of the workshop recording and resources referenced in the workshop are available. You can find the workshop recording and other resources in support of the workshop on the CAT+FD wiki.

Additionally, if you did not get the opportunity to earn a digital badge for participating in the workshop, it's not too late to earn that badge. We have a corresponding “Intelligent Agents” module in the #LearnEverywhereXULA (#LEX) course that you can complete to earn a digital badge for this topic. The badge will count towards your #LEX Advanced certification.

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #571: Product Idea Exchange (PIE)

An apple pie featuring the pi symbol on top, perfect for celebrating Pi Day.

Pi (π) Day is celebrated on March 14th (3.14). Did you know the Brightspace Community has a PIE? Yes, there is a PIE (Product Idea Exchange) in the Brightspace Community. The PIE is a system that allows Brightspace users to share their suggestions on how to make Brightspace better. I invite you to take a few minutes to explore the Brightspace Product Idea Exchange (PIE).

We’ve put together this collection of PIE ideas you can consider upvoting so that we can add our voice to the community to make the Brightspace experience better. To get you started, here are links to articles on baking a better PIE and what makes an idea great. You can also search the PIE for ideas to upvote or submit your own idea to the PIE. Let us know if you submit your own idea to the PIE so that we can upvote it.

Want more information?

How can I access the PIE?

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image Credit: "Happy Pi Day!!" by Koka Sexton is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Accessibility Tip: When “Alt Text” is not Enough

Brightspace, our Learning Management System (LMS), is designed with accessibility in mind. However, it is the responsibility of the instructor and/or course designer to ensure their course content is formatted using best practices for accessibility; including the use of good heading structure, text formatting, contrast and color, descriptive links, alternative text, tables, lists, etc.

I am writing a series of accessibility related blog posts that will provide suggestions on how you can make small changes when creating course content to make it accessible. This is the fifth tip in my series of accessibility related blog posts and it focuses on when alt text (alternative text) is not enough.

Computers can read text on a screen but images, graphs, and charts are meaningless to visually impaired users. Alternative text (alt text) is an alternate method for supplying information about images, graphs, and charts to users who are visually impaired.

example of a infographic

Example of an infographic

Alt text should describe the important contents of an image that a user who cannot see an image would need to know, such as text, numbers, and other data. Describing colors, location of objects, and other visuals is only needed when necessary to understanding the image.

complex images, graphs, and charts require more detailed description than the limited one or two brief sentences that are used in the alt text

Adding alt text to images, graphs, and charts is an important part of making them accessible. Most images, graphs, and charts can be made accessible using alt text descriptions. However, complex images, graphs, and charts require more detailed description than the limited one or two brief sentences that are used in the alt text.

example of a complex data visualization

Example of a complex data visualization

What should you do when you have a complex image, graph, or chart whose meaning cannot be conveyed with alt text alone? There are several ways to handle complex images where a short description is not possible. The best solution is to include a thorough description of the complex image in the content of the page, immediately before or after the image. If you don’t want to add more content to your page, another preferred alternative is to create another web page with the thorough description of the complex image and link to it near the image.

You may be wondering what exactly should you include in the thorough description. The Diagram Center (Digital Image And Graphic Resources for Accessible Materials) is an excellent resource that provides comprehensive guidelines to make it easier for you to make complex images accessible to all learners.

Here are a few additional resources to help you with describing complex images:

It is extremely important for students with disabilities to have access to accessible course content. Describing complex images utilizing these tips is good course design. Even though you may not have a student with a disability currently enrolled in your course, you will find students without disabilities will take advantage of accessible content as well.

Image Credits:
"False Food Myths Infographic 2012" by USDAgov is licensed under CC BY 2.0
"Complex example of data visualization" by Aigner and Yi is licensed under CC BY