Tag: updates

1) Brightspace Community – Increased usability with Community enhancements

The Brightspace Community now provides increased usability with the following enhancements:

• Suggested Results in question workflows (English only): Quickly get answers with automatic searches across the Community as you type your questions.



• Community announcement banners (English only): Keep up to date with essential news via announcements on specific category pages and within knowledge bases.
• ASC Homepage Known Issues automated search (English only): Search directly from the ASC homepage using the new ASC global search bar. Immediately find Known and Fixed Issues that may provide a workaround or a new workflow, speeding up your return to teaching and learning. Note that Known Issues and Fixed Issues can not currently link to cases.
• Learning Center course filters in Community search using course tags (English only): Use simple tag filters to find the course that meets your needs.
• Quicker search loading times: Search results now load faster with this update.
• Event tags for Group or Community-wide Events (English only): Identify group-specific or community-wide events with ease using the new tags in your search experience.
• Quicker access to the Best Answers (English only): Look for the Accepted tag on question results to quickly find the most reliable answers to your Brightspace inquiries. Comments on questions also appear in search results.
• Persistent saved filters: Maintain your selected search filters on the Search Results page even when switching content sources (for example, from articles to discussions), ensuring your filters stay intact.
• Specific documentation article feedback (English only): Use the new feedback feature to vote and provide detailed feedback on Community articles.

2) Groups – Restore groups and categories

A new Recycle Bin option is available in the Groups tool, enabling you to restore individual group units or entire categories within a course offering. When you restore groups, existing enrollments and lockers are also reinstated (if present). Any activities linked to the restored groups, such as discussions or assignments, can then be individually restored through their respective restore pages.

Note: Groups and categories deleted before this feature was introduced in this November 2024/20.24.11 CD update do not appear in the Groups Recycle Bin. To restore these previously deleted items, contact D2L Support for assistance.

This feature implements the following PIE item:

• D5136 ( Restore groups and group categories)

1) Assignments – Retract button removed for users without the Give Feedback permission

With this release, the Retract button is removed from submission evaluation pages for users who have the Assignments > Delete Feedback permission but not the Assignments > Give Feedback permission.

Previously, all users with the Delete Feedback permission could click the Retract button on submission evaluation pages. However, when they clicked the button, nothing happened unless they also had the Give Feedback permission.

2) Brightspace Editor – Path detection warning and configuration variable

A warning now appears when a user attempts to add an object (such as a link or image) in Brightspace Editor that has a path outside of the current course offering. The warning tooltip explains that if the item is copied to another course, the incorrect path would also be copied, potentially preventing learners from accessing the object.

This new warning alerts the content creator to ensure a consistent experience for learners.

Note: Files shared from Public Files or external URLs are not affected and will not trigger the warning.

1) Assignments – Update to assignment annotations PSPDFKit

With this release, the software that powers annotations (PSPDFKit) in the Assignments tool is updated from version 20.24.03 to 20.24.04. As part of this update, the unsupported PSPDFKit Bookmarks tool is disabled and the Bookmarks option in annotations is removed to avoid confusion. This update also fixes defects and prevents further defects related to PSPDFKit being out of date.

Previously, instructors could click Bookmarks and add bookmarks to the document. However, added bookmarks were not saved after refreshing the page.

2) Quizzes – Attach rubrics to written response questions

For Brightspace implementations that use the new quiz evaluation experience, it is now possible for instructors to attach a rubric to written response (long answer) questions on a quiz.

Subsequently, within the quiz, instructors can use the rubric to grade the written response quiz questions. The rubric appears below the learner's answer or the instructor can click Pop Out to open the learner response in a separate dialog, enabling the instructor to view the rubric and the written response in separate windows.

Learners can now see the rubric for written response quiz questions while they are taking the quiz. After the quiz is complete and graded, the learner can review the rubric in the graded quiz for any feedback the instructor provides during the evaluation.

NOTE: The rubric is visible to learners provided the rubric visibility option is set to make visible to students.

3) Quizzes – Optimize productivity with an improved quiz evaluation experience

Grading workflows are now optimized in the quiz evaluation experience to improve instructor productivity. The new quiz evaluation experience can now be turned on in the quiz page you are grading.

After instructors have opted into the new experience, they can scroll between users and select the quiz attempt they want to evaluate for the user.

In the main assessment area there are now two panels, which is consistent with other updated experiences in Brightspace. The following question types are supported in the new quiz evaluation experience:

• Multiple choice
• Written response
• True or false
• Short answer
• Fill in the blank
• Multi-select
• Question pools

All other types of questions (matching, arithmetic, significant figures, and multi-short answer) are not currently supported.

If users attempt to use an unsupported question type, an alert message appears:

On the left panel, evaluators can filter by Pending evaluation or Retaken questions only, and can view attempt details, quiz questions, and answers. From this area, evaluators can leave feedback for specific quiz sections.

On the right panel, evaluators can enter or review the grade and feedback for the quiz attempt, or use other quiz management options, such as Edit Quiz, Preview Quiz, Reset Evaluation, and Quizzes Event Log, in the Evaluation Options menu.

This feature implements the following PIE item:

• D10157 (Add the ability to attach a rubric to Written Response Questions for grading)

1) Assignments – Assessment workflows enhanced and available in all environments

Advanced Assessments help instructors and administrators to better manage courses with large class sizes and multiple evaluators, delegate and manage evaluator workflows, and reduce bias in marking.

Advanced Assessments allows instructors to:

• Assign multiple evaluators to evaluate a single assignment submission when creating or editing assignments.
• Choose which evaluators can publish grades for the assignment from the Assignment tool by setting them as publishers.
• Match evaluators to learners.
• Choose from two multi-evaluator workflows: One Shared Evaluation (Co-Marking) or Multiple Individual Evaluations.

For more information, refer to the Create an assignment topic and watch the Assign Evaluators and Publishers in Assignments | Instructor video.

Prior to the release of Advanced Assessments, there was no ability to create and evaluate delegated co-mark or multi-evaluate assignments.

In the May 2024/20.24.5 release, Advanced Assessment features were released to test, development, and staging (non-production) environments.

With this release, Advanced Assessment workflows for Assignments are available in all production environments of Brightspace. New features that are added to Advanced Assessments with the August release include:

• Turnitin integrations
• Accessibility improvements, including assistive technologies for keyboard-only users

Refer to the Advanced Assessment for Assignments in test, development, and staging environments of Brightspace blog post for details.

This feature implements the following PIE items:

• D6901 (Restrict Teaching Assistant to Publish The Assignment Grade)
• D142 (Multiple Graders in Dropbox)
• D6977 (Assignments Role Permissions: Separate See/View from Submit)
• D6654 (Auditor to view submissions of Assignments)

2) Assignments – Email status message no longer displayed after an assignment submission

With this release, the Confirmation Email Sent Successfully message is no longer displayed for learners in the Email Status field after they submit an assignment. However, when a learner submits an assignment, an email as a receipt of the submission is still sent to them.

Previously, even if a confirmation email was not sent to a learner, they also received the Confirmation Email Sent Successfully message in the Email Status field on their Submission History page.

3) Discussions – Reading View improvements

To improve the user experience for learners, this release introduces several updates to the learner Reading View in Discussions. These improvements include the following:

• The Start New Thread button is duplicated at the bottom of the page when viewing a topic, eliminating the need to scroll back to the top of the page.
• The Add Attachments section is opened by default when creating a new post or new topic. Previously learners had to open the section manually to add attachments.
• The Add Attachments section is wider on screen when learners create a new thread.

This feature implements the following PIE item:

• D8141 (Add a second Start a New Thread button to the bottom all threads)

1) Grades – Automatic Zero for Missing Submissions

The Automatic Zero feature allows a score of zero (0) to be automatically applied to unsubmitted learner activities after the due date passes. Applying the Automatic Zero feature eliminates the need for instructors to manually set missing submissions to zero. Additionally, learners receive a more accurate view of their grade calculations for individual activities and for the overall course.

Supported submissions include file and text-based assignments, quizzes, and LTI tools. All activities must have grade associations.

Instructors can select between system-added and manually-entered zero scores. Automatic Zero applies to both individual and group assignments and respects any exemptions and release conditions set for an activity. Automatic Zero is triggered within one minute of the due date and is based on local time zones for both instructors and learners. The feature follows the same rules as existing due dates.

NOTE: There are no changes to Grades data sets, as methods for identifying system-entered grades already exist.

This feature implements the following PIE item:

• D3202 (Automatically assign zero after a due date has passed).

NOTE: The automatic zero for missing submissions is unchecked by default. Changes to the setting only take effect on assessments with future due dates.

2) SMS Notifications – End of Life

As of this release, SMS Notifications are permanently removed from Brightspace. Short Message Service (SMS) Notifications allowed users to subscribe to select notifications to be forwarded to their mobile phone number. Stored phone numbers are deleted following this release and are no longer needed to send notifications. The Mobile Carrier Management page is removed from Admin Tools; and the Notification Number seen when viewing a user in the Users tool is also removed.

Email-based notifications remain, and users can still receive email notifications if they subscribe. Alternatively, users can use the Brightspace Pulse app to receive the same mobile push notifications that were available with SMS Notifications.

For more information, refer to the Intent to EOL SMS Notifications blog post and the High Impact Changes Timeline.

1) Assignments – Annotations update from Version 2023.4.0 to 2024.3.0

This release updates the Assignment Annotations tool from PSPDFKit Version 2023.4.0 to Version 2024.3.0 This update fixes several defects; in addition, the icons used in the following areas have received minor updates:

• Main toolbar
• Line tools
• Ink tools
• Page Layout tools
• Sidebar tools
• Drawing sub-toolbar
• Highlighter sub-toolbar
• Text Highlighter sub-toolbar
• Eraser sub-toolbar
• Note sub-toolbar
• Textbox sub-toolbar
• Line and Arrow sub-toolbar
• Rectangle sub-toolbar

NOTE: Safari browsers using versions older than version 15.4 are legacy browsers and are no longer supported for the Annotations software. For more information, refer to Browser support.

2) Assignments – Google and Microsoft 365 options available in File Upload

The option to directly upload a file from Google Drive™ and Microsoft OneDrive® is now available when editing and evaluating an assignment. Users can upload a file by clicking File Upload, and then clicking Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive in the Add a File window.

Previously, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive files could only be added as link attachments. These links connected users to the file within its location, but the file was not uploaded to the assignment. Now, files stored in Google and Microsoft storage accounts are directly added to the assignment, eliminating the need for instructors to provide sharing permissions to users.

3) Brightspace – In-Product Feedback

This release introduces in-product feedback into Brightspace as a new way to allow users to provide their feedback. Administrators, instructors, and learners in higher education or corporate organizations may receive a small survey prompt in Brightspace. The in-product feedback asks users for ratings on one to two questions; these questions ask about users’ experience with Brightspace as a whole, their experience meeting goals in Brightspace, or their experience in a particular workflow.

4) Brightspace Editor – Updated storage location for feedback attachments in Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes

With this release, when instructors access Assignments, Discussions, or Quizzes, and use the Insert Stuff file picker to attach feedback, those files are now stored in the Feedback Files location. This location is designated for the learner feedback area.

Learners can review their feedback files from the Grades page, just like files attached from Feedback Files.

Note: Only feedback added from the Overall Feedback field and the Completion Summary page in Quizzes appears in Grades for learners.

Similar to the feedback files, once feedback is deleted, it cannot be restored.

Previously, when an instructor attached feedback files through the Insert Stuff file picker, the files were stored in Manage Files.

This feature implements the following PIE item:

• D2629 (Student view of Grades tool - easy access to ALL Grades and feedback regardless of assessment tool)

5) Manage Dates – Bulk edit and offset dates for recurring Intelligent Agents

With this release, users can edit and offset multiple intelligent agents that have already been set up with a recurring schedule (for example, daily or weekly). In addition to editing an intelligent agent in the Intelligent Agents tool, users can now use Bulk Edit Dates to add or remove a new start date or end date, or use Bulk Offset Dates to offset the start date or end date from the Manage Dates tool.

Previously, intelligent agents had to be manually edited or offset in the Intelligent Agents tool.

As of this release, intelligent agents with a one-time run schedule do not appear in Manage Dates and must be updated in the Intelligent Agents tool. Editing intelligent agents with a one-time run schedule in Manage Dates is under consideration for a future enhancement.

This feature implements the following PIE items:

• D3475 (Intelligent Agents start dates and end dates visible on the list page)
• D4843 (Edit dates on multiple Intelligent Agents at once)
• D6643 and D7321 (Include Intelligent Agents in Manage Dates)
• D9154 and D9899 (Bulk Offset Intelligent Agent run dates with Manage Dates)

1) Awards – Certificate ID for an issued award

To improve security when issuing certificates, instructors can now use a new replacement string field when creating their certificate templates to add an automatically-generated numeric ID. This ID uniquely identifies the issued award, which can be verified using the new Brightspace API.

The feature introduces a new replacement string {CertificateID} that instructors can add to their PDF templates. A unique ID is generated and populated into the replacement string {CertificateID} on an ongoing basis when released.

The unique generated ID is 12 numeric characters long and is stored in the Brightspace database as CertificateID, along with other data for the issued award.

Note: The {CertificateID} replacement string follows existing rules of other current replacement strings and is marked read-only.

To support this change, the new Awards Brightspace API has been introduced, which allows the verification of issued certificates:

• /d2l/api/bas/(version)/issued/certificates/(certificateId)

The feature is only available on certificates issued with this release when the Certificate ID replacement string is added to the certificate template. The Certificate ID does not have to be added to a certificate template to be auto-generated, but the ID has to be added to be visible to the learner.

Previously, the {CertificateID} replacement string was not available.

2) Grades – Feedback files are now available in Grades for Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions

This feature allows instructors to ensure that learners can easily review feedback from the Grades tool.

Instructor feedback added in Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions is now visible to learners under Grades.

Previously, feedback files were only available to the learner by accessing the activity.

3) Manage Files – Receive notification when zipping and unzipping files

As of this release, whenever users add (zip) or extract (unzip) one or more files to a ZIP archive in Manage Files, a new dialog confirms that files are being zipped or unzipped in the background. Once the process is complete, a notification appears in Update alerts (the bell icon).

Previously, adding files to a ZIP archive was not a background process and thus there was no notification after zipping. In addition, the notification for unzipping files appeared in the Subscription alerts area.

1) Brightspace Community – Navigation and content improvements

To enhance the user experience in Brightspace Community, D2L is making the following improvements:

• New and improved search functionality (available late Q1).
• Relaunch of the Approved Support Contact (ASC) homepage (available early Q2).
• New Brightspace tool navigation structure for Instructor Documentation (Higher Ed) (available early April 2024).

New and improved search functionality

An improved search tool is scheduled to be implemented in Brightspace Community.

This improved search uses natural language processing AI to iteratively improve the accuracy of search results and supports the use of search synonyms for terms often used interchangeably (for example, Dropbox and Assignment).

Additionally, this new federated search indexes and surfaces content from external sources such as corporate blogs, the Brightspace Tutorials YouTube channel, Brightspace Learning Center, and Developer (Valence API) documentation.

New Brightspace tool navigation structure for Instructor Documentation (Higher Ed)

Based on higher education instructor feedback gathered during Fusion 2023, we are restructuring the Instructor Documentation (Higher Ed) knowledge base to organize content into alphabetized Brightspace tool categories. This new navigation structure will be available in early April 2024.

2) Discussions – View attached file feedback for discussion evaluations

Instructors' attached files now appear in the Attached Files section for each learner's discussion evaluation. Learners can view attached file feedback when viewing their evaluated discussion topic.

Instructors can view all attached files by clicking on the learner's name and selecting Discussions. Learners can view all attached files by clicking on Discussions in Class Progress. Instructors and learners can view all attached discussion evaluation files in the Class Progress tool.

Additionally, the Discussions tool's evaluation process is now consistent with the Assignments and Quizzes tools' evaluation processes.

1) Brightspace Editor – Consistent link creation with the ability to choose link format

As of this release, inserting a link into Brightspace Editor opens the Add Link dialog which allows users to determine if their links open in a new window (set as the default) or in the current window. The text box in the Add Link dialog also allows users to add text to their link. This provides users with a consistent workflow and control over how links respond in their content.

The Add Link dialog opens when inserting links with the context menu or with keyboard shortcuts (for example, ctrl+K or command+K).

Additionally, the dialog includes a new Insert Quicklink option, allowing users to easily insert a quicklink. When using Insert Stuff > Insert Link or Insert Quicklink > Link, the same Link, Text, and Open In options are displayed ensuring consistent link creation.

Finally, this feature updates the icons shown in Insert Quicklink to ensure all icons use the new style.

Previously, adding links throughout the editor resulted in different workflows, different fields, and different behaviors in the way that links would open. The previous Whole Window option is removed, as it was being treated as the current window and thus cause inconsistent behavior. Several options have been renamed from the previous version to improve consistency:

• The option to have links open in the current window was previously called same frame.
• Link was previously named URL.

This feature implements the following PIE items:

• D9265, D7107, and D10615 (Ability to set links to “open in new window” when inserting a link via the context menu)
• D8186 (Link target is not available except from the Quicklinks menu)
• D8051 and D8279 (Enhancements and better hyperlink options in HTML Editor)
• D10602 (Consistent process for adding URL)
• D10475 (Making Insert Quicklinks smoother and faster)

2) Quizzes - Improved experience for generating quiz reports

This release introduces a better experience for instructors when running and exporting quiz reports with large amounts of data. To avoid time-out failures and screen freezing, the following report types now run asynchronously:

• Attempt Details
• Question Statistics
• Question Details
• User Statistics
• User Attempts

When reports are ready for downloading, Brightspace generates a notification that instructors can access from the bell icon in the navbar.

Previously, quiz reports were generated slowly and would time-out in large classes.

1) Question Library – Removal of the question mark icon

The question mark (?) icon that appears next to questions in Question Library is removed to prevent visual clutter. However, the folder icon that appears in Question Library next to each section remains.

This change only impacts Question Library and the question mark icon remains in other areas of Brightspace.

2) Brightspace – Branded footer on main pages

With this release, a Powered by D2L Brightspace footer now appears on select pages in Brightspace. The footer appears on the following pages:

• D2L’s login pages
• Org and org unit homepages
• Portfolio
• Brightspace for Parents and Guardian
• Discover
• Manager Dashboard
• Insights Portal Dashboard

This replaces the footer that previously appeared at the bottom of the login page and removes the corresponding Do not display D2L branded footer setting from the Login Page Management tool.

To learn more, refer to the Powered by D2L blog post in Brightspace Community.