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 October 2020/20.20.10 release that were added to our system this month:
1) Brightspace Learning Environment - File types added to restricted upload list
For security reasons, D2L restricts the uploading of certain file types to Brightspace Learning Environment. This feature adds the following file types to the restricted list:
Quick Eval is now listed in the Course Admin page under the Assessment category.
3) Quiz Builder - Question import improvements
This feature updates question importing options in Quiz Builder. When importing questions from Question Library, users can now use the default end of quiz location for the questions, or choose to import the questions into a section. Previously, all questions imported from the Question Library were placed at the end of the Quiz by default, with no ability to select a specific quiz section.
The Import drop-down menu now shows the Import to Section option on the Browse Question Library screen
4) Quizzes - Editing quizzes with previous attempts
Points for all past quiz attempts are no longer modified when edits are made that affect the overall points and/or the grading calculations for a quiz. In the previous release, this update extended only to quizzes with attempts started after the June 2020/20.20.6 release. Now, all previous quizzes with attempts started before Brightspace Learning Environment version 20.20.6 will display the quiz and grading calculations that appeared to the learner at the exact time they made the attempt.
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.
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 2020/20.20.9 release that were added to our system this month:
1) Assignments – Additional functionality in the new assignment creation experience
Building on the functionality added to the new create and edit assignment experience in the August 2020/20.20.8 release, you can now do the following:
Add special access conditions to assignments
The new assignment creation experience with the Special Access functionality
Receive a notification email when assignments are submitted
The new assignment creation experience with the Notification Email functionality
2) Brightspace Pulse for iOS – View Activity Feed posts and comments
To keep up to date on course activity, learners can now read Activity Feed posts and comments in Brightspace Pulse for iOS. Learners can also receive Activity Feed notifications. For example, in courses with Activity Feed enabled, instructors can use Activity Feed to post reminders about upcoming assignments and links to course materials. Learners then receive notifications about those posts in Brightspace Pulse, allowing them to view post details from the course homepages. Future releases will allow learners to post or reply to posts, if they have the appropriate permissions.
From the Courses tab, tapping a course displays the course homepage. The latest post and any associated comments display in the Activity Feed.
From the Notifications tab, tapping an Activity Feed notification displays the associated post or comment in the Activity Feed.
An Activity Feed post and comment for a course in Brightspace Pulse for iOS
3) Class/User Progress – Include Pulse activity in usage data
Learner activity data is now captured more accurately through the addition of a new system usage metric. Previously, Pulse usage was not tracked, and learners who accessed their courses through the app were misrepresented as having low engagement and could not access conditionally released content.
These changes affect the following areas of Brightspace:
Class Progress has a new System Access performance indicator, which displays the number of times each course participant has accessed the system through the Learning Environment or Pulse in the last 30 days. Instructors can add System Access to the Class Progress dashboard by clicking Settings.
User Progress has a new System Access History section, which displays the number of times the user has accessed the system through the Learning Environment or Pulse in the last 30 days. Instructors can select System Access History to display in the User Progress report by clicking Settings.
Class Progress dashboard showing System Access indicator
4) Discussions - Visual word count for discussion posts
A visual word count is now visible in the HTML Editor for discussion posts. All words in a discussion post are counted and include filler words such as “the,” “if,” and “to.”
The word count is dynamically displayed to learners while they type in the HTML Editor and it also appears next to posts they have created in the Discussions Reading View and Grid View. Learners can view the word count for their posts only.
For instructors, the word count appears on the Assessment page during the discussions assessment process and it also appears inline with the post details in the Discussions Reading View and Grid View. Instructors can view the word count for all user posts.
New word count indicator in a discussion topicA discussion post with the dynamically displayed word count
5) Question Library – Attach files in arithmetic and significant figures questions
Building on the attach files in written response questions functionality released in the August 2020/20.20.8 release, when creating arithmetic and significant figures questions, instructors can now allow learners to include external files with their responses and record audio or video responses when answering these question types. This feature is only available in the new Quiz Builder Experience.
When grading a quiz, similar to the behavior in the Discussions tool, instructors can view a list of attachments, download them, or open them in another tab. When reviewing their submission in Submission View, the learner can see their uploaded attachment if allowed to see their responses.
To support attachment responses, Quizzes data sets and quiz reporting enhancements will be released in the November 2020/20.20.11 release.
The updated New Arithmetic Question screenThe updated New Significant Figures screen
6) Question Library – Search for and select questions in Question Library sections
This feature enables instructors to search for sections in Question Library by section title, as well as the ability to select and import the section in its entirety from the search results list. Previously, you could only search for questions by question text and you could not select sections in the search results.
The updated search and select capability in Question LibraryThe previous search and select questions capability in Question Library
7) Quiz Builder - Enhanced question reordering
To simplify the movement and reordering of questions in Quiz Builder, a new Move To option is visible when a question is selected. The Move To option allows questions to be moved to the Top of the Quiz, Bottom of the Quiz, or to a specific section within the quiz.
Previously, to move multiple questions into a section, instructors had to individually drag the questions into the desired section. Now, instructors can select multiple questions and move them all at once using the Move To menu. The drag and drop reordering of questions has not been affected by this feature and remains available.
The Move To option is visible once quiz questions are selected
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.
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 August 2020/20.20.8 release that were added to our system this month:
1) Assignments – Additional functionality in the new assignment creation experience
Building on the functionality added to the new create and edit assignment experience in the June 2020/20.20.6 release, you can now do the following:
Attach release conditions to an assignment
The create and edit Assignments page with the Release Conditions functionality
When multiple rubrics are attached to an assignment, select a default scoring rubric to be used when scoring an assignment / evaluating a learner
List of available rubrics and the option to select the rubric to be used by default when scoring
2) Assignments - Copy assignment option
This feature adds the ability to copy existing assignments. Instructors with the existing permission Add/Edit Assignment Submission Folders can select the Copy Assignment option in the drop-down menu for an existing assignment to quickly create new assignments. This feature copies all settings of an existing assignment except the associated grade item and Turnitin settings.
The Copy Assignment option appears in the drop-down menu for existing assignments
3) Checklists – Copy a checklist
Instructors can now perform copy actions for checklists. You can copy a whole checklist, a checklist category (including all items within it), or individual items in a checklist.
The copy option appears in the drop-down menu for a checklist
4) Email - Interface improvements
The Compose Email screen now includes a second Send button for enhanced usability.
5) Grades - Unrelease all final grades
Grades features a new workflow to quickly undo the release of final grades for a course. Instructors can easily select Unrelease All from the Final Grades drop-down menu.
The Unrelease All option appears in the drop-down menu for Final Grades
6) Question Library – Attach files in written response questions
When creating a written response question, instructors can now allow learners to upload files in their answers and include embedded images. Learners can also record audio or video responses when answering written response question types. Written response questions are available in surveys.
When grading a quiz, similar to the behavior in the Discussions tool, instructors can download and open these attachments in another tab.
When learners are reviewing their quiz submissions, if they are allowed to view their quiz responses, they can view their uploaded attachments.
The maximum file size for a single file or embedded image attached to a quiz response is set to 102400 KB (100MB). The maximum file size for all files attached or embedded in a single quiz question response is set to 102400 KB (100MB).
The updated Written Response question creation screen
7) Quizzes - User experience updates for editing quizzes with attempts
To improve the user experience for instructors who edit quizzes with previous attempts by learners, the following updates have been made:
Points for past quiz attempts are no longer modified when edits are made that affect the overall points and/or the grading calculations for a quiz. A learner's grade on previous quiz attempts must now be changed directly by the instructor using the Update All Attempts workflow. Previously, the points for all past quiz attempts were modified automatically, which could alter a learner's grade unexpectedly.
Warning messages now appear when editing a quiz question with previous attempts to clearly communicate to instructors that editing quiz questions does not affect the content or automatically change the score of learners' past attempts.
Important notes:
The changes in this feature only affect quiz attempts started after the June 2020/20.20.6 release. Quiz attempts started prior to 20.20.6 will retain previous functionality until September 2020/20.20.9.
Starting September 2020/20.20.9, this feature will extend to all quiz attempts started before June 2020/20.20.6.
Until November 2020/20.20.11, Data Sets will not accurately report the new quizzes attempts behavior introduced in this feature. Users may note a discrepancy between quiz attempts scores in the Quizzes interface (for quiz attempts started after June 2020/20.20.6) and quiz attempts scores in the Data Sets, which reflect previous functionality only for all previous quiz attempts.
A warning message appears when accessing the Add/Edit Questions workflow
8) Brightspace Assignment Grader – End-of-life
Effective August 15, 2020, the Assignment Grader mobile app is no longer available to new users. Existing users may continue to use the app if they have it installed, but no further updates or support will be made available by D2L and the app will be removed from app stores.
As an alternative mobile grading option, D2L recommends using the Quick Eval tool in Brightspace.
9) Brightspace ePortfolio mobile app – End-of-life
Effective August 30, 2020, the Brightspace ePortfolio mobile app is no longer available to new users. Existing users may continue to use the app if they have it installed, but no further updates or support will be made available by D2L and the app will be removed from the iOS App Store and the Google Play Apps store.
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.
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 July 2020/20.20.7 release that were added to our system this month:
1) Brightspace - Supported browsers
This release introduces the following updates to browser support for Brightspace:
Brightspace supports HTML5 Video Player and does not rely on Adobe Flash and Adobe Flash Player. However, you can still create Flash-dependent video content in Brightspace Learning Environment.
The concept of a Maintenance browser is removed from the Brightspace Platform Requirements documentation, as this previously related to the now unsupported Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. All supported browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari) deploy using a continuous delivery model and Brightspace supports the latest versions of these browsers.
As of the July 2020/20.20.07 release, Firefox ESR is no longer a supported browser, due to extremely low usage. To support clients through this transition, D2L will fix high-priority issues for Firefox 68 ESR (until the end of September 2020) and Firefox 78 ESR (until the January 2021 release).
Brightspace's browser version check now displays warnings for browsers earlier than the following versions:
Chrome 81 (released in April 2020)
Chromium-based Edge 81 (released in April 2020)
Edge Legacy 44 (not receiving any further updates)
Safari 13 (released in September 2019)
Firefox 76 (releases May 5th, 2020)
You can access Brightspace with older versions of the supported browsers; however, D2L does not test Brightspace against these older versions. This means you may encounter unexpected user interface behavior and appearance, or broken and unsupported functionality. In most cases, D2L does not fix software defects experienced in unsupported browser versions. For an optimal experience that offers better performance, accessibility, and security, D2L strongly recommends that all users access Brightspace with a supported browser.
2) Rubrics – Accessibility improvements in Rubric creation workflow
This feature was originally released for the Rubrics tool in the June 2020/20.20.6 Continuous Delivery Update. The July 2020/20.20.7 update includes the following accessibility improvements in the rubric creation workflow:
When you change the names of levels in the rubric create or edit experience, screen readers now read the updated name rather than the original default level names.
Screen readers now indicate when new levels, criterion, groups, and overall score levels are added to a rubric. Previously, there was no loading progress indicator.
Screen readers now state that there is a new level, criterion, group, or overall score level.
The keyboard navigation tab sequence is improved when navigating to the Add and Cancel buttons in the Outcomes Picker window.
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.
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 June 2020/20.20.6 release that were added to our system this month:
1) Assignments - Create and edit experience
The create and edit Assignments page has an updated look and feel. The classic tabbed view has been transformed into a new, fully immersive page layout.
The updated look and feel of the new Assignment creation screen
The primary panel on the left contains frequently used fields that are always displayed. These fields are most relevant to learners and are the core details instructors want to add; a due date, instructions, and attachments.
The panel on the right organizes additional, more advanced options such as start and end dates, rubrics, annotation tools, and Turnitin. When these options are collapsed, summary text provides details about which settings are active and subtle hints that aid in the discovery of additional settings. As a result, you can see everything at a glance with little to no scrolling, and without having to navigate through any tabs.
The new experience streamlines the process of linking assignments to your gradebook and builds on a pattern first introduced in Activity Feed. When you enter a score, your assignment is added to Grades, and the name and score are automatically synced for you. If you traditionally create grade items in advance, support for selecting existing grades and categories is also available.
The new add to grades workflow
2) Rubrics – Accessibility improvements in Rubric creation workflow
The following updates have been made to improve the accessibility of the rubric creation workflow:
The button next to the page title is now labeled so a screen reader reads “Actions for [title]” when the button has the focus.
The Overall Score now has the proper heading level so screen reader users can navigate directly to it from the heading list. Previously, users were required to tab through all previous headings in the list first.
There is no longer a skipped heading level between Rubric Levels and Criterion (both level 3) and Standards (previously level 5).
In the rubric preview window, Criterion Score has been added as a column header. Previously, the column did not have any header text.
3) Widgets - My Courses and Updates widgets display unevaluated assignment submissions
The My Courses Widget and the Updates widget now display new, unevaluated assignment submissions instead of unread assignment submission files to instructors. This change aligns the widgets with the Assignments page and the Quick Eval tool to consistently notify users of unevaluated submissions and help them to track their work.
The My Courses widget displays unevaluated Assignments submissions
The Updates widget displays unevaluated Assignments submissions
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.
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 May 2020/20.20.5 release that were added to our system this month:
1) Brightspace Pulse - Pin and unpin courses
To help learners more easily find their current courses in Brightspace Pulse for Android, learners can now pin and unpin courses from the Courses screens. Pinning a course ensures it remains at the top of the screen for easy access. Previously, learners could only pin and unpin their courses in Brightspace Learning Environment and Brightspace Pulse for iOS.
To pin or unpin a course in Brightspace Pulse, do one of the following:
From the Courses screen, tap the ellipses (...) icon in a course tile.
From the Course Homepage screen, tap the ellipses (...) icon at the top of the screen.
From the list of actions, tap Pin or Unpin. A pinned course is denoted by a Brightspace Pulse pin icon. Unpinning a course removes the pin icon.
The Courses screen displaying an unpinned course tile with the ellipses (...) iconThe Courses screen displaying a pinned course tile with the ellipses (...) icon and pin icon
The Course Homepage screen displaying the ellipses (...) icon
2) Calendar - Bulk delete items
To create parity with other tools and improve workflow, the Calendar tool now offers a Delete interface. Previously, it was impossible to bulk delete calendar items. This change enables users to multi-select and delete calendar items using the More Actions menu.
The Delete option appears in the More Actions drop-down menu.
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.
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 April 2020/20.20.4 release that were added to our system this month:
1) Assignments - Assignments page column name
This feature updates the New column name on the Assignments page to read as New Submissions.
The Assignments page with the New Submissions column
2) Brightspace Pulse - Pin and unpin courses
To help learners more easily find their current courses in Brightspace Pulse for iOS, learners can now pin and unpin courses from the Courses screens. Pinning a course ensures it remains at the top of the screen for easy access. Previously, learners could only pin and unpin their courses in Brightspace Learning Environment.
To pin or unpin a course in Brightspace Pulse, do one of the following:
From the Courses screen, tap the ellipses (...) icon in a course tile.
From the Course Homepage screen, tap the ellipses (...) icon at the top of the screen.
From the list of actions, tap Pin or Unpin. A pinned course is denoted by a Brightspace Pulse pin icon. Unpinning a course removes the pin icon.
The Courses screen displaying an unpinned course tile with the ellipses (...) iconThe Courses screen displaying a pinned course tile with the ellipses (...) icon and pin icon
The Course Homepage screen displaying the ellipses (...) icon
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.
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 March 2020/20.20.3 release that were added to our system this month:
1) Announcements – Display author information
To provide more information to users, Announcements now supports displaying author information (name and timestamp) on new and edited announcements.
If a user has the new permission, when the user creates or edits an announcement, a new Show Author Information check box displays in the New/Edit Announcement page, allowing them to choose if they want author information to display.
Users reading the announcement may see some or all of the following author information:
the original author
the original date and time of the announcement
the author who edited the announcement
the date and time of the edit
The new Show Author Information option on the New/Edit Announcement page
Author information in an announcement
2) Groups – Set exact time learners can self-enroll
When setting up groups that allow learners to self-enroll, instructors can now add an exact time when enrollment opens, and an exact time when self-enrollment expires. Previously, instructors could only set the date when enrollment opened or expired.
Set exact time when enrollment opens and expires
3) Quick Eval – Support for anonymous marking
Assignments created with the Hide student names during assessment option selected now display in Quick Eval’s Submission view with learner names and profile images hidden. Instructors using anonymous marking can access Quick Eval with confidence that it supports their anonymous marking needs.
Anonymous Marking check box visible when creating assignment submission folders
Learner names and profile images are hidden in Quick Eval Submissions view
4) Rubrics – Confirmation message for partially unevaluated rubrics
To prevent publishing partially unevaluated rubrics, the publishing workflow in the new Rubrics grading experience now includes a confirmation message that warns users when the rubric is not fully evaluated. Instructors have the option to continue publishing, or cancel. Warning messages appear when publishing a rubric for an individual student and when bulk publishing rubrics. Users attempting to publish an incomplete rubric evaluation must now click Publish to complete the workflow.
The confirmation message asks users if they want to publish anyway, when attempting to publish an incomplete evaluation for an individual learner.
When attempting to bulk publish incomplete rubrics, the confirmation message lists the names of learners whose rubric evaluations are not complete.
5) Rubrics – Improved accessibility in Rubric grading
In Rubrics, when using keyboard navigation to tab to a row of selectable cells, there is now a focus indicator to help orient users on the page.
In the new Rubrics grading experience, the Overall Score level is now only calculated after all the criteria in the rubric have been assessed. This change optimizes rubric performance by eliminating the calculation of incomplete Overall Score levels until the rubric evaluation is completed, and improves the grading experience for instructors and rubric evaluators.
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.
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 February 2020/20.20.2 release that were added to our system this month:
1) Assignments - Streamlined access to inline feedback
To streamline access to assignment feedback, learners can now immediately access inline feedback from User Progress, Grades, and Assignments. From these tools, the View Inline Feedback link takes the learner directly to the annotations view (or Turnitin viewer, if that is the tool used to provide feedback). The inline feedback also includes a link to the file for the assignment, so learners know which document contains the feedback. Previously, the View Inline Feedback link took the learner to the Assignment feedback summary page, where they had to click a second link to view the feedback.
Class Progress view for instructors and learners displaying the View Inline Feedback link, which now opens directly in the annotation viewGrades view for learners displaying the View Inline Feedback link, which now opens directly in the annotation view
Assignments view for learners displaying the View Inline Feedback link, which now opens directly in the annotation view
2) EXIF data warning appears when uploading images
In some instances, when users upload .jpg files in any file upload area across Brightspace Learning Environment, an EXIF (exchangeable image file) data warning appears informing the user that the file may contain geolocation data.
3) Course Administration - Course Reset
Course Reset is a new tool that enables a course administrator to reset a course back to an empty shell. Course Reset permanently deletes course content, activities, associated files, user grades, user progress records, and interaction data from the course in a single bulk process. Users can optionally choose to include course groups, and/or course widgets, navbars, and homepages as part of the course reset process, or leave them in the course.
The Course Reset process does not affect user enrollments, sections and section enrollment, course associations, course paths associated to the course, user progress in linked SCORM objects, LOR objectsin Brightspace Learning Repository, portfolio objects saved to a users' Portfolio or ePortfolio, ePortfolio sharing groups or forms, email/instant messages sent to or from users in the course, LTI tool provider information, and Activity Feed posts.
Course Reset permanently deletes the course data and it will not appear in any reporting or data sets after the course reset process is complete. After performing a course reset, an Audit Log maintains a record of the course reset action, including the date and time of the course reset, the data that was selected for deletion, the user who performed the course reset, and any errors that occur during the course reset process.
4) Grades – Tab delimited import into Gradebook
Users can now import tab separated value (.tsv) files into Gradebook. Previously, users could only import comma delimited files into Gradebook, which created a usability issue in some international regions.
5) Quick Eval - Course level filtering
When opening Quick Eval within a course, only the list of activities and submissions related to that course display. This helps instructors easily view and evaluate submissions on a course-by-course basis. If an instructor wants to view all submissions across all their courses, they can still use the More Options menu to see the Multi-Course Quick Eval, or open Quick Eval from outside of a course.
6) Quick Eval - Dismiss activities until next submission
Instructors can now remove items from their Quick Eval list until a new submission is received for the activity. The removed activity appears on the Dismissed Activities list and can be restored at any time. Once a new submission arrives to the Quick Eval list, the previously dismissed activity reappears there.
Previously, instructors could only select a specific date or forever when dismissing an activity. This new option provides instructors with an additional option to manage the submissions on their Quick Eval list.
7) Video Note – Automatic Closed Captioning
To improve accessibility, video notes now provide automatic closed captioning for newly created videos and the ability to manually add or update closed captioning for all previously recorded videos. After video processing, users can view closed captions using video player controls.
In addition, users can now download a transcript and the closed caption file associated with a video independent of Video Notes.
Localized closed captioning is available for the following languages:
US English (en-US)
British English (en-GB)
Canadian French (fr-CA)
German (de-DE)
Brazilian Portuguese (pt-BR)
Korean (ko-KR)
Italian (it-IT)
Spanish (es-US)
Modern Standard Arabic (ar-SA)
Russian (ru-RU)
Japanese (ja-JP)
Turkish (tr-TR)
Dutch (nl-NL)
Chinese Mandarin (zh-CN)
Notes:
Canadian English is not available for closed captioning and defaults to en-US.
Chinese Traditional (zh-TW) closed captions are not currently available and defaults to zh-CN.
Mexican Spanish (es-MX) closed captions may not be available and defaults to US Spanish (es-US)
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.
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 January 2020/20.20.1 release that were added to our system this month:
1) Support for Internet Explorer | Removed
As of January 1st, Brightspace has ended support for Internet Explorer. All versions of Internet Explorer will no longer be able to access Brightspace.
2) Brightspace Pulse – Additional languages supported
To provide consistent language support with the Brightspace platform, Brightspace Pulse is now available in the following additional languages:
Arabic (Saudi Arabia)
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Danish
French (France)
German (Germany)
Japanese
Korean
Swedish
Turkish
Previously, Brightspace Pulse was only available in: English (U.S.), Spanish (Latin America), French (Canada), Portuguese (Brazil), and Dutch.
3) Classlist – Total number of users field and floating buttons
To improve ease of use, the total number of users for their selection (whole class, section, group) now appears in a field at the bottom of the Classlist page for at-a-glance viewing to help instructors keep track of the total number of learners, which may extend beyond the users visible on the page. On the Print Classlist and Email Classlist pages, the clickable Print and Email buttons now float consistently on screen, to ensure easy access to these actions without excessive scrolling.
4) Copy Course Components - Add validation logic to the copy process
Copy Course Components now contains a validation logic step to the course copy process, which can inform users if they performed a copy from the source previously, avoiding unnecessary duplication of copied course components.
5) Discussions – Assessment consistency changes
When assessing discussions, instructors have new multi-select options to Publish Feedback and Retract Feedback. In the Status column, the Draft / Published checkbox has been replaced by information on the date when feedback was saved as draft or published. These changes are visible on both the Users and Assessments tabs. The Save, Save and Close, and Cancel buttons have also been removed as their functionality has been replaced by the Publish Feedback and Retract Feedback options.
Previous view when assessing a discussion topic
Updated view when assessing a discussion topic
6) Grades – Export sorting options
This feature introduces the ability to sort exported gradebooks based on the following options: OrgDefinedID, Username, Last Name, and First name. The sort options available are based on the User Information Privacy permissions for the role.
7) Groups – Self-enrollment group capacity, start dates and descriptions
This feature includes three improvements to Groups:
Group members can now see the description of their group. For self-enrolled groups, group members will now see the group description at all times, including before and after enrollment. For other group types, instructors can now choose to display the description to members of the group. This visible group description setting is off by default for non-self-enrollment groups. Previously, all group descriptions were hidden from group members.
An instructor can now increase or decrease the capacity for self-enrollment groups after they have been created, and prior to the group sign-up expiry date. Decreasing a group size to an amount smaller than has already signed up for a group will not re-allocate users to other groups. Previously, self-enrollment groups were not editable after they were created.
Instructors can set Start dates for self-enrollment groups. This feature allows them to schedule self-enrollment groups availability, ensuring learners are prepared and have equal opportunity to self-enroll.
8) Quick Eval – Dismiss activities from list
To improve the ability to manage items on their Quick Eval list, instructors can now select items that appear in their Quick Eval list and remove them temporarily or permanently. Instructors can view their dismissed items in the Dismissed Activities List and restore them to the Quick Eval list at any time.
9) Quizzes – Synchronization with Grades
Quiz scores and feedback entered in Grades now synchronize automatically with Quizzes. To further streamline the workflow, the Overall Feedback fields in Grades and Quizzes are now consolidated, and the Grade Item Public Comments field has been removed from Grades. All comments entered in the Overall Feedback field in Grades synchronizes automatically with the Overall Feedback field in Quizzes. This update creates a more direct workflow and aligns Quizzes with the consistent feedback experience implemented in Assignments and Discussions. Refer to the blog post Improving Consistency Of Synchronization Between Grades And Quizzes Tool (20.20.01 – January Release) for more information.
Note: Synchronization only occurs for new grade entries. Existing grade data for quizzes will not be migrated due to the high impact to all past data and reports.
10) Rubrics – Share rubrics with other org units during creation
When creating new rubrics, users can now share the rubric created at the organization level with other org units (courses). The rubric creation process provides the capability to either share or, conversely, block rubrics from being shared with other org units (courses). Previously, this was only possible by using the legacy rubric editor.
The Add Org Units button enables users to make the rubric available to other org units
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.
