D2L rolled out a new modern, upgraded, responsive, accessible, and pretty Brightspace Editor! The new Brightspace Editor became the default editor with our August Continuous Delivery Updates. The Brightspace Editor replaces the old HTML Editor and is the primary method of creating content in Brightspace. The Brightspace Editor allows users to enter text, pictures, or embed audio/video. Advanced users can even embed HTML code.
Brightspace Editor
You can create course content using the Brightspace Editor. For example, the Brightspace Editor is available when you edit discussion topics, create custom instructions for assignment submission folders, create quizzes, create announcements, and create content topics.
The Brightspace Editor has many icons that match those of common word processing software: bold, left justify, bullets, tables, and so on. It’s important to remember the Brightspace Editor is not a word processor. When you add pictures, links or embed videos, you are creating references to items that are stored internally (in Brightspace) or externally (another web site). If those items are changed or deleted, the reference will not display properly.
Redesigning the editor provided opportunities for D2L to provide a better experience. Some new features were added to the Editor, but there was also a focus on improvements in accessibility, responsiveness, and ease of use:
Improved accessibility – D2L ensured that toolbars met the new WCAG 3.0 standards for button spacing and that the keyboard navigation makes sense to users, especially those using screen reader technology. They also recreated their great color picker that highlights WCAG AA compliance to end users.
Enhanced responsiveness – The toolbar collapses intelligently based on the size of your screen, with different breakpoints. This means that formatting options collapse together, alignment options, and 'insert' options - creating a great experience on any device.
Ease of use – The editor now looks more like a standard web text editor - with all formatting options at the top. Contextual menus are inside the editing experience for quick access while typing. They included the advanced code editor that makes editing html code easier. They upgraded the tables feature and added: format painter, word count, and @mentions in Discussions. All areas clients suggested for improvement in the Product Idea Exchange (PIE).
Brightspace Editor: A Breakdown of New Features
Enhancements to the Editor
More and different formatting options.
An improved color picker with WCAG compliance checking.
A full set of emojis and special symbols
The move of footer options like 'preview' ' source' 'accessibility checking' and 'expand' to the main toolbar.
Updates to the font size menu
Removal of Spellchecker*
Removal of Cut/Copy buttons (which no longer worked on most browsers anymore in any case)
A refreshed Accessibility checker
The Brightspace Editor now remembers the open or closed state of the More Actions button, per user, in order to reduce clicks for users that frequently use options in the expanded editor.
*NOTE: The Brightspace Editor does not have a built in spell checker. Your web browser’s built-in spell check functionality is available in the new Brightspace Editor and D2L recommends using it.
Additions to the Editor
Format painter that enables you to copy and apply text formatting.
New Advanced Tables that includes sorting options.
Contextual menus for editing text, links, and images (image editing is not available in all areas)
Word Count including character and selection word count
Advanced Source Code Editor that includes code suggestions and color coding for tags.
Lato font
@mentions support in Discussions
An 'Other Insert Options' menu for overflow items to improve responsiveness.
Limited text pattern support: * * for italics, ** ** for bold, ## for H2, ### for H3, etc until H6.
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.
Our VoiceThread integration was updated to move away from LTI 1.1 and move to LTI 1.3 with Deep Linking. What does this mean for us? We have some new features with the update to LTI 1.3 that should make using VoiceThread easier. The new features include:
No longer need to manually enter a URL to create a VoiceThread assignment.
Automatic copying of VoiceThread assignments and content between courses.
Complete roster sync, which supports adds and drops seamlessly.
Increased security and support for future VoiceThread features.
There was no VoiceThread down time at all for this update. All existing activities continue to work as they always have without any interruption or loss of content. Here are some things that resulted from the update:
Changes in workflow: The process for adding VoiceThread activities to a course is very similar. The only difference is that now you will select “VoiceThread” from your “Existing Activities” menu without needing to enter a URL manually.
Content retention: No work or assignment links were lost as part of this transition. Old links will continue to work even as you build new links going forward using the updated integration.
VoiceThread’s plan is that LTI 1.1 will be deprecated in the next year or two. You should begin to use the updated process of creating VoiceThreads by selecting “VoiceThread” from the “Existing Activities” menu.
Follow these steps to do it.
To create a VoiceThread:
Get into the course you want to create the VoiceThread.
In the NavBar, Click on Content.
Go to the Module where you want to add VoiceThread, click on Existing Activities and then select VoiceThread from the shortcut menu.
Choose the type of VoiceThread you want to create in the VoiceThread Setup window.
Follow the prompts to select/setup the VoiceThread for your assignment.
NOTE: Follow this link to the instructor support page for your next steps in setting up your VoiceThread.
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.
Twitter has proven itself to be a valuable tool for educators. ICYMI, read my Teaching with Twitter blog post for more information about the creative ways educators are using Twitter.
Twitter for education? It's actually a good idea.
Instructors have the option to customize the look of their Brightspace Course Homepages to suit their needs. Some instructors who use Twitter in conjunction with their courses find it useful to embed Twitter feeds into their Brightspace Course Homepage.
Twitter made a change to the way you generate an embed code for a Twitter feed. To generate a Twitter embed code you should use publish.twitter.com. Additionally, with this change you can no longer get an embed code for a Twitter hashtag timeline. You can only generate a button for the Twitter hashtag.
Once you generate your Twitter embed code you would place it in a custom widget and then put the custom widget on your course homepage.
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.
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.
The disruption due to hurricane Ida may be forcing you to rethink how you will collect and grade assignments in your courses during the disruption. When classes resume this week, many faculty will move to meeting with their classes remotely at the regularly assigned class time or perhaps move to asynchronous class meetings.
One question we have been asked is about collecting and grading assignments in Brightspace. You can use the Assignments tool to help you set and manage deadlines, unclutter your inbox, and save trees!
The Assignments tool is an efficient way to manage and collect your student's individual and group assignments digitally. Brightspace's Assignments Tool allows instructors to create a secure location for students to submit class assignments.
The Assignments tool allows instructors to set up a place for students to submit their assignments digitally, with the ability to:
Control the window for submission
Facilitate individual submissions or group submissions (provided the groups have been set up using the Groups tool first)
Collect and assess submissions (with a connection to the Grades tool, if needed)
Enable plagiarism detection through Turnitin
Additionally, you can use Brightspace's Interactive Rubrics to increase efficiency. The interactive rubrics allow instructors to establish set criteria for grading assignments. Instructors can attach rubrics to assignment submission folders so that the criteria are visible to students at any time, only after grading has been completed, or not shown to the students at all. The rubrics click-and-score simplicity saves time when grading because rubrics are built into the grading workflow. For more information about rubrics refer to Brightspace Tip #204: Interactive Rubrics.
Follow these steps to do it.
To create an assignment submission folder using the old assignment creation experience:
On the NavBar (of the course you want to create a submission folder), click Activities and then choose Assignments from the drop-down menu.
Click New Submission Folder.
Enter a Name for your submission folder.
Select a Folder Type.
Do any of the following:
Select a Category or click New Category to organize your assignment submission folders.
Select a Grade Item, or click New Grade Item.
To assign a score, enter a value in the Out Of field.
To associate a rubric to the folder, click Add Rubric, or Create Rubric in New Window.
Enter instructions in the Instructions field.
Add attachments in the Attached Files area.
Expand Show Submission Options and select the appropriate settings.
Enter your email address in the Notification Email field to receive an email message when a new submission is uploaded to this folder.
Choose the option to hide student names during assessment, if appropriate.
Note: You can add the Turnitin plagiarism detection feature to the assignment submission folder using the options in the Turnitin tab. Follow these instructions to enable Turnitin for the assignment submission folder.
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.
The disruption due to hurricane Ida may be forcing you to rethink how you will administer tests and quizzes in your courses during the disruption. When classes resume this week, many faculty will move to meeting with their classes remotely at the regularly assigned class time or perhaps move to asynchronous class meetings.
One question we have been asked is about administering quizzes, tests, and exams in Brightspace. The Quizzes Tool in Brightspace enables you to create and manage points-measured assessments in your courses. We held two workshops on using the Quizzes Tool. ICYMI, you can watch a recording of the workshops:
For recommendations to improve the use of assessments in virtual environments and decrease concerns regarding cheating read my Assessments in a Virtual Environment blog post.
There are many ways you can leverage the inherent features within Brightspace to encourage independent work during online exams. In a Faculty Focus article, Dr. Stephanie Smith Budhai suggests 14 simple strategies to use when setting up online exams that you may find helpful.
Respondus LockDown Browser (RLDB) and Respondus Monitor are integrated into our Brightspace system. If you are looking to use RLDB/Respondus Monitor to secure the testing environment, you will find information in the following tips that may help:
Important: Don't assume your students know how to take an online test. If you plan to have your students take an online test, you should require your students take a practice quiz before they take the first online test that will count towards their final grade. Your practice quiz should have a few questions in it to simulate what the student would experience when taking an actual exam. Include the types of questions you will ask on an actual test or quiz (e.g., multiple choice, true/false, short answer, written response, etc.) Use settings similar to those you will use on an actual test or quiz (e.g., questions per page, no backtracking, etc.)
By taking the practice quiz students can ensure that their computers, webcam (if required), and internet are working properly. Allow unlimited attempts on the practice quiz, so students can take it whenever their device or networking environment changes.
Students should be given the opportunity to take the practice quiz well in advance of the first online test that will count towards their final grade so that they will have ample opportunity to correct any technical issues.
Require students to review thisGuide to Taking Tests in Brightspacebefore they take the first online test that will count towards their final grade.
Offering a practice quiz with question types and settings like you plan to use in online tests that will count towards the final grade can help ensure students will be familiar with taking an online test in your course. Remember the purpose of the practice quiz is to simulate taking an online test so the questions you include in your practice quiz should be questions your students can easily answer.
Additionally, Release Conditions is an advanced feature you can consider using if you want Brightspace to automatically release the test the students will be graded on when the student has completed one attempt at the practice quiz. Your availability dates will restrict when your tests are available to the students. You can find more information about Release Conditions in Brightspace Tip #237: Release Conditions.
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.
As all of you know, the disruption due to hurricane Ida is forcing you to rethink how you will continue with teaching and learning during this disruption. When classes resume next week, many faculty will move to meeting with their classes remotely at the regularly assigned class time.
One question related to teaching remotely that we have been asked is about using Zoom for class meetings. In particular, some faculty want to know if they can use their personal Zoom accounts for class meetings. While there is no university policy that says you cannot, we suggest you use your XULA Zoom account for several reasons.
If you create a meeting in your personal Zoom account and provide your students with the Zoom link they will be able to attend the class meeting. However, an advantage to setting up the Zoom class meetings inside your course is that this can force your students to login to the course for each class meeting. This is helpful in recording their attendance. To have attendance automatically recorded in Brightspace, students need to access course content from your course for that day. Any activity inside the course is acceptable for recording attendance. It could be a link they click on, submit an assignment, take a quiz, participate in a discussion, etc. Even just clicking on the "Content" menu link in your course will count for attendance.
You must activate your XULA Zoom account in order to use Zoom in Brightspace. Activation is a one-time action on your part.
We have a number of Zoom resources that you may find helpful:
Did you know you can view Zoom usage reports to see the participants who attended the meeting and the amount of time they spent in the meeting? Here’s a link to how-to that explains how to view your Zoom usage reports.
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.
Brightspace Pulse is a mobile app that can help learners stay connected and on track with their Brightspace courses. It provides one easy view of course calendars, readings, assignments, evaluations, grades, and announcement items. The app can help learners make better decisions about how to handle their workload, when to submit assignments, and when to prepare for tests. Real-time alerts can let learners know when classes are canceled, class is meeting in an alternate location, or new grades are available. The schedule view and weekly visualization enables learners to quickly at a glance view what is due today, this week, and upcoming across all their courses.
While the Brightspace Pulse app is designed for the learner, instructors can benefit too.
While the Brightspace Pulse app is designed for the learner, instructors can benefit too. When instructors enter due dates or end dates for assignments and activities the information is populated in the Pulse app enabling learners to stay connected and on track. Thus, instructors can spend less time reminding and more time teaching.
Instructors can make their courses Pulse friendly by including due dates or end dates for assignments and activities. When instructors do not enter due dates or end dates, no associated information is available in the Pulse app.
The Pulse app is great for helping students stay on track in face-to-face classes as well. Instructors can set up their face-to-face assignments and activities as events in the Brightspace course calendar. Students will get those date feeds in the Brightspace Pulse app.
Help keep students on track for success in all their courses by including a due date or end date for assignments and activities.
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.
Instructors can use the Manage Dates tool to view, edit in bulk, and bulk offset date availability from one central location. You can also set the calendar status of all content topics and modules, discussion topics and forums, assignment submissions folders, grades categories and items, announcement items, quizzes, checklists, and surveys in their course in the Manage Dates tool.
Course objects display in a grid that you can sort by any of the column headings. You can also use the Type column to sort the Manage Dates page based on the tool-specific order and use advanced filter options to work with smaller sets of objects. If you filter your course objects, any bulk changes you make apply only to the filtered results. This enables you to update multiple availability dates based on specific criteria.
In addition to managing dates, you can open each course object in a new window by clicking on its name. This launches the object's edit page where you can edit additional properties for that object without leaving the Manage Dates tool.
The Manage Dates tool can be very useful after a course copy. For example, if you copied content from one course into another course, you can use the Manage Dates tool to easily adjust dates after the course copy. Additionally, if you've entered dates on items in your course and later need to adjust dates in bulk, try using the Manage Dates tool.
Follow these steps to do it.
To edit dates in bulk:
Get into the course you want to change the dates of course objects.
On the NavBar (of the course you want to change dates in), click Course Admin.
Click Manage Dates.
Select the check box of the items for which you want to bulk edit dates.
Click Bulk Edit Dates.
In the Bulk Edit Dates dialog box, update the due dates and availability dates.
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 2021/20.21.8 release that were added to our system this month:
1) Activity Feed – Date picker change
This feature updates the date picker component in Activity Feed. The new date picker has a more streamlined design and requires slight workflow changes: to clear a date/time, use the Clear option and to set the calendar to the current day, use the Set to Today option.
The date picker component in Activity Feed prior to the updateUpdated date picker component in Activity Feed for due datesThe Post Later dialog box in Activity Feed
Note: The Date field in the Post Later dialog box is a mandatory field. There remains to be no option to clear this field. You must set this date to a future date or click Cancel to exit this dialog box.
2) Assignments - Icons in attachments toolbar
This release updates the attachments toolbar which appears in the evaluation panel on the right side of the new Assignment Evaluation Experience.
Users can now add attachments to their feedback from QuickLinks, web links, Google Drive, and OneDrive using the new icons in the toolbar. Previously, users could only add attachments by uploading a file from their computer, recording an audio note, or recording a video note.
This change aligns the attachments toolbar in the new Assignment Evaluation Experience with the attachments toolbar in the new Create and Edit Assignment Experience.
Previous attachments toolbar containing icons for Upload File, Record Audio, and Record VideoNew attachments toolbar containing icons for Upload File, QuickLink, Web Link, Google Drive, OneDrive, Record Audio, and Record Video
3) Brightspace Editor – Available as the default editor
This release sets the new Brightspace Editor as the default editor across Brightspace Learning Environment.
As mentioned in the Brightspace Editor – Replaces The HTML Editor | New release note in April 2021, the Brightspace Editor does not have a built in spell checker. Your web browser’s built-in spell check functionality is available in the new Brightspace Editor and D2L recommends using it. However, the d2l.Tools.Quizzing.ShowSpellCheckInAttempts org unit configuration variable is still respected and marks text in Quizzes to be ignored by the browser spell checker. It can be turned off for all quizzes at the org unit level.
The inline limited version of Brightspace Editor is now available in Activity Feed as the default editor.
The editor in Activity Feed before the updateThe updated inline limited version of Brightspace Editor in Activity Feed
Brightspace Editor HTML options in Activity Feed include: Bold, Italic, Underline, Strike-through, Superscript, Subscript, Font Color, Bulleted Lists, Numbered Lists, Increase/Decrease Indentation, Insert Stuff, Insert Quicklink, and Emoji. Insert Stuff now includes various capabilities, including Video Note functionality.
The Account Settings > HTML Editor Settings option is no longer available as it is not applicable with the new Brightspace Editor. This setting was previously used to make the HTML Editor more accessible to screen readers by removing the RichText presentation layer. Improved accessibility workflows in the new Brightspace Editor make this setting redundant.
Additionally, the Brightspace Editor now remembers the open or closed state of the More Actions button, per user, in order to reduce clicks for users that frequently use options in the expanded editor.
The Brightspace Editor now uses pixels (px) in the font size menu in order to match the Content Settings menu for an org unit’s default font size.
4) Brightspace Pulse – Comment on Activity Feed posts
To encourage class engagement, learners can now comment on Activity Feed posts in Brightspace Pulse. Previously, learners could only read Activity Feed posts and comments in Brightspace Pulse.
In Brightspace Pulse, tap the Courses tab, and then tap a course with Activity Feed enabled.
From the Activity Feed tab, tap the post you want to comment on, and then tap Add Comment. A browser opens, displaying the Activity Feed for the course in Brightspace Learning Environment.
Tap the post you want to comment on, add your comment, and then tap Post. Your comment displays.
To close the browser and return to Brightspace Pulse, tap Done.
In Brightspace Pulse, refresh the page to display your comment.
The new Add Comment button in Brightspace Pulse's Activity Feed
5) Brightspace Pulse – View all grades for a course
Learners can now view all grades for a course from a new Grades tab in the course. Previously, learners could only view course grades from notifications in Brightspace Pulse or by opening a browser and navigating to the Grades tool in Brightspace Learning Environment.
To view all grades for a course, tap the Courses tab. Next, tap a course, and then the Grades tab. All received grades for the course display, indicating if feedback is available. To open the Grades tool in a browser and view full grade breakdowns and calculations, tap View Grades in Browser.
To view feedback, tap a grade. The grade and text feedback display. To view details about the associated activity in Brightspace Learning Environment, tap View Activity.
This implements Product Idea Exchange item D6422.
The new Grades tab for a course in Brightspace PulseA graded activity with feedback in Brightspace Pulse
Learners can now view content module descriptions in Brightspace Pulse. Instructors use module descriptions to communicate vital information to learners about specific course content. Previously, module descriptions were only visible from Brightspace Learning Environment, which may have caused learners to miss important information when accessing courses from Brightspace Pulse.
This feature implements PIE items D4547 and D6460.
A content module description in Brightspace Pulse
7) Rubrics – Increased accessibility with labels on radio buttons
To provide a better experience to clients using screen readers, criterion levels now indicate the level name and point value of each radio button when it has the focus. Previously, screen readers only indicated “radio button X out of Y” or “radio button, not selected” depending on whether the focus is on a selected criterion.
In addition, the mobile view of Rubrics now has radio buttons implemented to describe the level name and point value of each criterion level, consistent with the view on a larger screen.
Note: Depending on the screen reader you use, the way of listing all the radio buttons on a page differs. For example, In NVDA, press INSERT+F7; in JAWS, press CTRL+INSERT+A. In general, D2L tests compatibility with the following screen readers: NVDA, JAWS, and Voiceover.
Criterion level rows behave as radio buttons for screen readers
8) Rubrics – Inline grading improvements
There have been improvements to the ease of use of the inline grading experience, including changes to ensure grading experience parity for screen reader users. Previously, screen reader users were unable to grade or review tasks due to missing information. In addition, the updates now include the following:
The interaction of the arrow buttons at either end of the evaluation slider now indicate a hover state compared to a focus state. If there is no level under the hover pointer, the level area is empty.
If the hover pointer is on a level, the name, description, and score appear in the level information area below the slider.
Keyboard navigation of the slider evaluation levels identify the focus and indicate the criterion you are viewing. When the keyboard focus is on a level, you can press the arrow keys at the beginning and end of the slider or use the left and right arrow keys on the keyboard to move the focus within a scale. In grading mode, moving the focus to a level directly selects the level. You can also press Enter to select or unselect a level. In preview mode, the selected level does not change when you review other levels’ information.
The focused level is highlighted inside the slider segment.
Keyboard navigation of the slider evaluation levels more clearly identify the focus and level you have selected in grading mode. You can use the right or left arrow key at the beginning and end of the slider to move the focus within a scale. Press Enter or use the left and right arrow keys on the keyboard to select and deselect the level.
When the level is selected, a larger box outlines the slider level, and a checkmark appears in the level.
The level name and description of an evaluation level appear below the evaluation slider in the selected state, and the selection indicator appears on the slider at the chosen level.
When a level is selected, the level name and description appear, along with the selection indicator.
When the rubric has been graded, the level information area displays the selected level’s information by default, unless other levels are in hover state in grading mode, or in hover or focus state in reviewing mode.
When a non-selected level is in hover state, the name, description, and score appear in the level information area below the slider.
When you move the selection block to a different level, there is now an animation to smoothly transition to the new level.
9) Rubrics - Overall Score now appears in Mobile View and the New Assignment and Discussion Evaluation Experiences
When an instructor using the New Assignment Evaluation Experience opens a rubric in a new window, the Overall Score displays for each rubric, and the instructor can override the level if necessary. Previously, if an instructor did not open a new window, rather, they viewed the rubrics inline in the New Assignment Evaluation Experience tool, the Overall Score did not appear, and the instructor could not override the level. As a result, text-only rubrics could not be assessed because the Overall Score was not available.
Now, instructors using Mobile view can evaluate text-only rubrics for assignments (using the New Assignment Evaluation Experience) and can evaluate text-only rubrics for discussions (using the New Discussions Assignments Evaluation Experience) as expected.
The Overall Score in Mobile and New Assignment Evaluation Experience views
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.
