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 a few updates in the September 2018/10.8.5 release that were added to our system this month:
1) Content – Print/Download Function added to Overview
Users can now download and print an uploaded syllabus from the Course Overview area of Content.
2) Discussions – Create groups and section threads in existing topics
Instructors can now associate existing discussion topics to a new group or section during the group or section creation process. In addition, users can associate existing discussion topics to groups or sections not associated with any other discussion topic.
3) Groups and Sections – Differentiate between similar learner names in groups and sections
Instructors can now differentiate between duplicate learner names by displaying the username or Org Defined Id beside a learner's name.
4) HTML Editor - Add quicklinks to content modules, submodules and course overview
Users can now link directly to content modules, submodules, and course overviews directly from the Insert Quicklink option in the HTML editor. This change allows users to insert quicklinks directly to specific portions of course content within any tool with the HTML Editor. Previously, only a link to the Content tool was available from the Insert Quicklink option in the HTML editor.
5) HTML Editor - Chemistry equation writing function available in the equation editor
A chemistry equation writing function is now available in the HTML Editor. Users can select this feature directly within the equation editor.
6) Import/Export/Copy Components - Copy awards between courses
When copying components between courses, instructors can now choose to include awards and their release conditions. This allows instructors to reuse awards across different courses and sections in Brightspace.
7) Release Conditions - Released final grade score condition type
The "Released final grade score" is a new release condition type. Instructors can now release items such as content and awards to learners either based on the learner’s final grade being marked as released or based on their final grade being marked as released and the grade meeting a set threshold. For example, a course survey could be released to a learner once their final grade is released or an award could be released to a learner once their final grade is released and they have received a certain grade. This can be completed everywhere a user can create and attach release conditions.
Intelligent agents allow instructors to delegate some of the course communication and notification tasks to the system, based on specific triggering activities in the course. Instructors can now use intelligent agents to complete certain tasks based on a learner’s final grade. For example, with the released final grade score condition type, an intelligent agent can now identify students whose final grade did not meet a set threshold and automatically send a notification to interested parties.
If you are interested in getting more information about these and all the September Continuous Delivery updates, refer to the Brightspace Platform September 2018/10.8.5 Release Notes.
Additonally, refer to the Brightspace Release Notes for Continuous Delivery Releases, for details about current, past, and to preview upcoming continuous delivery updates.
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“Import/Export/Copy Components – Copy awards between courses
When copying components between courses, instructors can now choose to include awards and their release conditions. This allows instructors to reuse awards across different courses and sections in Brightspace.”