Blog – Comments on Blog entries limited to reduce page load times
This release introduces a limit to the number of comments that can be added to a Blog entry to improve performance and reduce page load times. This limits public comments to 100 public comments from unauthenticated users and up to 500 total comments (including public comments) on a single Blog entry.
If an existing blog entry already has more than 500 comments, only the first 500 comments will be visible.
Previously, there was no limit to the number of comments that could be added to a Blog entry, which occasionally resulted in performance issues.
Instructors Only
Awards – Add criteria to awards in compliance with the latest Open Badges standard
Instructors can now specify what a learner must do to achieve a particular award.
This feature complements the use of evidence for awards by adding the new required Criteria field to the Awards tool.
Figure: The new required Criteria field on the New Award page.
Availability of Criteria and Evidence fields meets the latest Open Badges 2.0 standard from 1EdTech (formerly known as IMS Global):
When instructors manually grant awards, they can now check the award’s criteria and enter evidence describing what the learner did to meet the criteria and earn the award.
When the award is automatically issued, the release conditions determine if learners meet the criteria.
If learners share their award via a public link, both the Criteria and Evidence fields now appear on the Public Award page.
Brightspace Help – Help link now points to Brightspace Community
In CourseLink, it is possible to have a link to Brightspace Help on your navbar. The link on the navbar previously pointed to the hosted Brightspace Help. The destination of that link now points to the new Brightspace Community, which contains all information previously available in hosted Brightspace Help site as well as the legacy Brightspace Community.
Figure: The Brightspace Help link appears on the More menu.
Learning Outcomes – Select the appropriate achievement scales for a course
To evaluate learners’ achievements related to learning outcomes, this new feature introduces the selection of the appropriate achievement scales within a course offering.
Instructors can check the currently selected achievement scale information on the Outcomes in this Course page and use the Edit Settings button to choose an alternative achievement scale for the course if desired.
Figure: The new Edit Settings button on the Outcomes in this Course page.
Instructors can select an alternative achievement scale for a course until assessment evaluation begins. The selected achievement scale applies to all outcome evaluations completed in the course. It is used to determine the suggested level of achievement for both individual activity evaluations and the overall suggested level of achievement in the Mastery View tab of Grades.
Figure: The Edit Settings page showing the achievement scales that can be selected.
Note: Please contact CourseLink Support if you would like additional achievement scales added to the list.
Learning Outcomes – The Mastery View table loads faster and includes the activity counter
With this release, the Mastery View tab in Grades is improved to provide better load times for courses with large numbers of learners and aligned learning outcomes. Now instructors can use an activity counter that provides a summary of the outcome information.
The aligned activity counter shows the number of evaluated assessments for each learner over the total number of assessments aligned to that outcome in the corner of each table cell.
Figure: The updated Mastery View page showing the activity counter.
Contact
If you have any questions about the updates, please contact CourseLink Support at:
Quizzes – Confirmation dialog for learners exiting a quiz
This feature introduces a confirmation dialog to learners closing in-progress quizzes. The dialog is context-based, providing additional information about the impact of exiting the quiz (such as whether a learner will be able to return to their quiz after exiting).
Figure: The Exit Quiz confirmation dialog for quizzes with a time limit and no end date.Figure: The Exit Quiz confirmation dialog for quizzes with an end date, no time limit, or an end date that will arrive before the time limit expires.Figure: The Exit Quiz confirmation dialog for quizzes that have an end date in the past.
Respondus LockDown Browser – End of Support for Windows 7
As of June 28, 2023, support for Respondus LockDown Browser on Windows 7 will end. Several technologies relied on are ending their support for Windows 7 on that date, which means LockDown Browser will also cease working on Windows 7 computers at that time.
Students using Windows 7 will need to upgrade to Windows 10/11 or find another device that is supported. LockDown Browser can be used with Windows 10+, Mac 10.13+, and iPads running iOS 11+ (if enabled by the instructor).
We remind students that OpenEd offers a laptop loan service on the Guelph campus. Please contact cts@uoguelph.ca for booking or more information.
Instructors Only
Discussions – Introducing the new creation and editing experience
The new discussion creation experience brings create and edit consistency changes from Dropbox and Quizzes to Discussions, making it familiar and easy to learn. This first release is at full parity with classic discussions and brings refreshed workflows and improvements to restricting group topics and threads, associating topics to forums, and wording changes to a few settings that you may be familiar with.
Figure: The new Discussions creation and editing experience.
The primary panel on the left contains the same frequently-used fields as Dropbox and Quizzes. These fields are most relevant to learners and are core to discussion topic creation. The right-hand panel provides advanced options such as start and end dates and release conditions. These options follow the same logical groupings as found in Dropbox and Quizzes. Other topic-specific settings can be found in the right-hand panel.
Learners can now share achievements from the Awards tool directly to their LinkedIn profiles.
This feature simplifies showcasing awards in LinkedIn profiles. Awards can now be shared directly from CourseLink without using a third-party tool or creating a link to the award first.
To share an award to their LinkedIn profiles, learners can navigate to the My Awards page, select the desired award, click Share, and then click the new Share to LinkedIn button.
Shared awards appear in the Licenses & Certifications section of learners’ LinkedIn profiles.
Figure: The new Share to LinkedIn option in Awards.
Media Library – Adapt the player to match available space or video resolution
When using Insert Stuff in the CourseLink Editor to insert a video, the video preview screen is updated to show a responsive player and will now scale to the available maximum width. Height and aspect ratio are still respected. Previously, the player was too small, especially for users with smaller devices. In addition, users had to specify a size to embed the player.
The layout slider will be removed as the responsive nature of this update makes it redundant. Existing videos that were added to Editor before the March release will remain statically sized.
User Management and Settings – Easily change language preferences using the User Menu
A new language selector is available in the user menu to easily change the language setting to the user’s preferred language. Previously, a user had to navigate to Account Settings or use a custom installed widget with a complex workflow. Users can continue to access language and locale within the Account Settings page; this update provides an option that you can more easily access.
Figure: The User Settings menu with the current language highlighted.
Instructors Only
Calendar – Prevent duplicate calendar events on copy/import to reduce performance issues
With this release, calendar events are checked to see if they are duplicates when performing a course copy or import. When either action is performed, CourseLink only copies the following:
Calendar events that have an association, such as to an activity that is being copied into the course offering.
A single unique Calendar event that is manually created.
When a user manually creates multiple calendar items, CourseLink compares the following fields when checking for duplicates:
Title
Description
Start Date (or Start Day for All Day Events)
End Date (or End Day for All Day Events)
If its an All Day Event
Repeat Every (e.g.: every day, every second month)
Repeat On (day of week, only valid for Weekly events)
Repeat Until Date
Repeat Type (None, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Annually)
Event Visibility
Location
Group associations
This feature only applies when performing a copy into a course offering and when importing course packages. It does not check if existing events are duplicates.
Previously, manually created or imported calendar events were not checked for duplication, creating duplicate calendar items.
Rubrics – Easily assess merits for evaluated rubrics using institutional logos
Printed rubrics now include the logo from the organization that issued the rubric; specifically, the logo image that appears on the printed rubrics is the image displayed in the course navigation bar. The logo image provides clear organizational recognition for rubrics that were evaluated in courses in your organization and distinguishes rubrics within a learner’s Portfolio if they have taken classes from multiple institutions. Registrars can use the brand recognition of the logos to assess the merits for credit from other institutions.
Figure: The institutional logo (highlighted) appears at the top of the printed rubric.
Contact
If you have any questions about the updates, please contact CourseLink Support at:
Groups – Leave Group option enabled for Self Enrolment groups
In response to instructor questions about self enrolment groups, CourseLink will enable the Leave group option for the Self Enrolment group type.
If a learner wants to leave a group that they self-enrolled in before the date and time specified by the Set Self Enrollment Expiry Date option (if selected), on the My Groups page, learners can click Leave Group.
Note: If no expiry date is set, students can click the Leave Group button at any time and transfer to another group. It is recommended to set the expiry date to lock the group memberships.
Figure: The leave group option on the student My Groups page.
Instructors Only
Intelligent Agents – Support for copying One-Time Run agents
This feature allows users to copy, export, and import One-Time Run agents and their schedules. This allows users who utilize course shells which are copied to multiple courses to schedule One-Time Run agents to run as needed in all destination courses.
Note: This functionality only applies to agents that have yet to be run. If the agent has been run, no schedule exists to copy.
Previously, agents that were configured with scheduling frequency One-Time Run would copy without a scheduling frequency.
Media Library – Support added for Bulk Actions
To improve the audio-video content management experience, this release adds the ability to perform bulk actions in Media Library.
Instructors can perform the following bulk actions:
Delete files
Restore files in Media Library > Recycle Bin
Figure: The bulk Delete action in Media Library.
Quizzes – Add quiz availability dates to your Calendar
Instructors can now add quiz availability dates to the Calendar tool in the Availability Dates & Conditions menu in the new quiz creation experience. Instructors can select the Add availability dates to Calendar checkbox when creating a quiz to add quiz availability dates to their Calendar. This feature provides instructors with more control over where Start Dates and End Dates appear to learners. Previously, only the Due Date was automatically added in the new quiz creation experience; and control over adding availability dates was limited to the Manage Dates tool. Instructors previously had to revert back to the legacy quiz creation experience to add quiz availability dates to their Calendar.
The following is a reminder of how Calendar events are generated when using either the legacy or new quiz creation experience:
If the Start Date and End Date are set, an End Date event is created.
If the Start Date is set, a Start Date event is created.
If the End Date is set, an End Date event is created.
Figure: The Availability Dates & Conditions menu displaying the Add availability dates to Calendar checkbox.
Quizzes – Additional paging options
Two new paging options are available in the Timing & Display menu in the new quiz creation experience. Instructors can choose to display 5 questions per page or 10 questions per page. The change optimizes instructors’ options when building quizzes with page breaks.
Figure: The new paging options in the Timing & Display menu in the new quiz creation experience.
Rubrics – Keep track of changes to assessed rubrics with enhanced visual cues
To maintain the integrity of assessments, any rubric that has been used to assess a grade item is locked. However, there may be incidences where it is necessary to add or update the text on a rubric without changing any points, or without adding or deleting any criteria or criteria levels. The text on the rubric, including criteria names and descriptions, level names, and default feedback, can continue to be updated after the rubric has been locked. To increase the value of the Rubrics – Clarify grading criteria by editing text fields in assessed rubrics feature released in November 2022, you can now use enhanced visual cues to keep track of the changes you have made.
Note: It is not possible to edit the name of the rubric using this feature.
When an instructor makes a change to a previously assessed rubric, it is updated with a blue highlight and the text Edited in the lower right corner. When the user saves and closes the rubric, the edit indications no longer appear.
Note: It is only possible to make changes to assessed rubrics that are created in the current course or are copied from another course. Shared rubrics remain locked.
This feature addresses the following accessibility criteria:
This release updates the list of retro or legacy browsers (specific older versions of supported browsers). If you are using a browser below the latest updates, the “Your browser is looking a little retro” warning message appears. The browsers include:
Chrome 107+ (released October 2022)
Android Chrome 107+ (released October 2022)
macOS Safari 16+ (released September 2022)
iOS Safari 16+ (released September 2022)
Firefox 106+ (released October 2022)
Previously this message would only show for browsers under Chrome/Edge 100, Safari 15, and Firefox 99. There are no changes to legacy browser requirements that remain at versions below Chrome/Edge 74, Safari 13, and Firefox 67.
HTML Editor – Equations render consistently for all users
To improve consistency in the HTML Editor, this release updates the Editor so that it renders all equations during editing or creation in the same MathJax format as when published. This helps with correct formatting and spacing of equations, which makes it easier to review work prior to publishing.
Previously there were layout and styling differences during creation and editing; the former used WIRIS format rendering and the latter MathJax.
Note: There are no changes to the Equation Editor used to create an equation to insert into the editor.
Figure: The Equation Editor showing the rendering of an equation during creation after the January Release.
Pulse – View topic descriptions
Building upon the Brightspace Pulse – Access links and images in module descriptions when you’re on-the-go feature originally released in October 2022. This feature improves the experience of learners using Pulse to review course topics by making full HTML topic descriptions available.
Previously, learners could access Content in Pulse, but could not see information included in topic descriptions that were visible in the CourseLink web application.
Figure: The View Description option for a topic in Pulse.
Instructors Only
Learning Outcomes – Clear aligned learning outcomes from assessment activities
A Clear All button is now available to remove all Learning Outcomes aligned to an assessment activity. When you click the Clear All button, a verification message appears to ensure that you do not mistakenly remove all aligned outcomes from an activity.
This feature addresses the following accessibility criteria:
Figure: The new Clear All button. The Clear All Alignments dialog requires you to verify that you intend to clear all alignments.
Release Conditions – Additional Replies Only release condition for Discussions
This release alters the existing release conditions for Discussions by adding a new Replies Only option to the Posts authored in topic and No post authored in topic condition types drop-down menus. This helps instructors release material, or not release material, based solely on replies.
Previously the only options were New Threads Only and Threads and Replies.
Figure: The Create a Release Condition dialog with the new Replies Only option selected from the Type drop-down menu.
Rubrics – Discard incomplete evaluations
The Rubric evaluation workflow provides an autosave feature to streamline the evaluation process; however, if an instructor exited the partial evaluation, the automatically saved parts of the assessment were committed to the rubric and visible to the learner. To provide a better experience in Consistent Evaluation (inline and pop-out views), the instructor has the option to Publish the current evaluation, or to Save as Draft. If the instructor chooses to Save as Draft, the working copy of an evaluation is saved to a temporary file until the instructor clicks Publish, and then commits the assessment to the Rubric. If an instructor clicks the new Cancel button, the working copy is deleted. If an instructor edits a previously published evaluation and then decides to cancel before updating, all the changes in the evaluation, including the rubric evaluation changes, are discarded.
Note: Grade book pop out windows and the Rubric Create and Edit windows currently only support the auto-save functionality.
Figure: The Discard button on an in-process evaluation. The Saving and Saved indicators no longer appear at the top of the evaluation window.
Rubrics – Statistics icon moved to allow more space to grade tasks
The Rubrics Statistics icon is available when the rubric tile is collapsed and expanded. When the rubric tile is collapsed, the icon appears at the bottom of the rubric tile. When the rubric is expanded, the icon now appears inside the grading task. This change provides expanded horizontal space for evaluators to complete the grading tasks.
Previously, when the icon appeared outside the expanded rubric tile, the space available to grade tasks was limited by the space used by the icon.
This change provides parity between the legacy evaluation experience and the new Consistent Evaluation experience.
Figure: Previously, the Rubrics Statistics icon appeared outside the collapsed Rubrics tile.Figure: Now, the Rubrics Statistic icon appears at the bottom of the collapsed Rubrics tile.
Contact
If you have any questions about the updates, please contact CourseLink Support at:
This feature updates the assignment availability dates to be consistent with the new availability date model, which was previously added to Discussions. Instructors can now include availability dates in the Calendar and have greater control over the behavior of availability dates for their learners. As a result, instructors can:
Stop late submissions.
Let learners view assignment information and submissions after it ends.
Schedule the visibility of an assignment.
Allow learners to view an assignment while preventing them from attempting it.
Post the start and end of an assignment to the Calendar.
Instructors can choose the default settings for availability dates for any new assignment. The settings are available on the Availability Date Defaults page, which can be found under Course Admin.
Figure: The New Folder page with activity dates and date settings.
Intelligent Agents – Improved consistency with the removal of legacy scheduling options
Building on the Intelligent Agents – Create Agent page facilitates more flexible scheduling and frequency options feature released in April 2022, this feature cleans up the Intelligent Agent scheduling interface by removing the unused Scheduled Agents Run Time area from the Intelligent Agents Settings page.
If a client has a course export package containing Intelligent Agents that was created prior to the April release, those agents are now imported without a schedule. Previously, these agents’ schedules were supported based on the PreferredRunHour configuration.
Quicklinks – Easily find audio-video content with improved Quicklink filters
To help users more easily find Media Library content, users can now use improved CourseLink Editor Insert Quicklink filters to better locate content available in Media Library. These new filters include:
Content Type: Filter by either audio or video content type.
Source: Filter by where content was added from. Multiple filters can be selected:
Content: Filter by AV content uploaded from the Content tool and Lessons.
Media Library: Filter by AV content uploaded or created in Media Library.
Audio or Video Note: Filter by content created using Audio and Video Note.
Imported: Filter by content added from course imports.
Other: Filter by content added prior to the addition of source tracking.
Date Modified: Filter by date modified. This changes to Date Deleted on the Recycle Bin screen.
Date Created
Previously, the Insert Quicklink feature included in Editor did not provide the ability to filter Medial Library content.
Figure: The new filter options included with the Insert Quicklink feature of CourseLink Editor.
Rubrics – Removal of legacy Rubric assessment type for learning objectives associated with quizzes
When you create a new quiz that has an associated learning objective, the Assessment Type drop-down menu no longer includes the Rubrics assessment type. Using the quiz assessment in this manner previously caused an error because it is not a supported workflow. This change ensures that users creating quiz assessments with learning objectives can no longer mistakenly use that worklflow. The Numeric assessment type continues to function normally.
Figure: The new Manage Quizzes page, without the Rubric assessment type option.
Removal of Turnitin PeerMark LTI 1.1
With the introduction of the Turnitin PeerMark LTI 1.3 tool added in October 2022, the older version (1.1) will be removed. Instructors should create all PeerMark assignments using the new PeerMark option found under the Content tool Existing Activities dropdown.
Figure: The Turnitin PeerMark integration.
Contact
If you have any questions about the updates, please contact CourseLink Support at:
Awards – Share achievements with Public URL sharing for awards
Learners can now share their awards with a Public URL directly from the Awards tool using the new Awards Sharing option.
The new method simplifies sharing a badge or certificate to showcase achievements. The user can create a public URL for an award, which can then be shared on a digital resume or social media profile, for example, LinkedIn.
To share an award using a public URL, a learner can navigate to the My Awards page, select the desired award, click the Share link, and then click Create Link.
Figure: The Create Link button in Awards.
As a result, the public URL of the award is generated and appears. Learners can copy and share this link or delete it if needed.
Previously, there were no methods of directly sharing learners’ awards with external resources without first sharing them with another tool.
Pulse – Personalize notifications for email and SMS
This feature builds upon the Personalize push notifications feature originally released in October 2022. With the release of this feature, you will be able to choose which email or SMS notifications you receive by accessing settings directly from the Pulse app. Previously, you could only personalize email notifications through CourseLink.
Figure: The Instant Notifications section of the Email/SMS Notifications page in Pulse.
Instructors Only
Announcements – Display Author checkbox
This feature introduces the Display Author checkbox, allowing the instructor or TA to choose whether their name appears along with the announcement. This option may be helpful when multiple instructors or teaching assistants are posting messages in the course.
Figure: The Display Author Information checkbox when creating a new message.
Dropbox – Expand or collapse list of aligned outcomes
When editing or creating an assignment or a discussion, instructors can now expand and collapse the list of aligned Learning Outcomes if the displayed list is too long. This is intended to keep the page clutter-free for instructors who are working with many outcomes.
On the Edit Assignment page, when the outcomes list exceeds two lines, a + # More button (where # is the number of outcomes not currently displayed) appears at the end of the second line. Instructors can click + # More to display the full list of aligned outcomes.
When the outcomes list is expanded, a Show Less button appears at the bottom of the list. Instructors can click Show Less to collapse the list of aligned outcomes back to two rows. This release also moves the + button to the upper right corner of the outcomes list and adds a Clear All button to the bottom of the outcomes list.
Previously, the Edit Assignment page always displayed all aligned outcomes and the + button appeared at the end of the list.
Figure: Collapsed list of outcomes on the Edit Assignment page after this update.
CourseLink – Share homepages, widgets, and navigation bars with multiple org units
With this release, the interface and functionality for sharing homepages, widgets, and navigation bars is changed from only being able to share with child org units to being able to share with multiple org units. This changes the interface from a basic select box to an org selection button. The ability to share to child org units remains unchanged. In additions, widgets are now also shareable to all child org units from Course Templates. Previously, sharing was limited to all child org units and not available at a template level.
Themes do not require additional sharing since they automatically share with all child org units. Link groups’ existing function, Availability > Share with child org units, is unchanged.
Group Management – Descriptions now available for sections and self-enrollment groups
This feature allows learners to view descriptions for self enrollment type groups before they choose a group. Instructors need only add a description once, instead of copying and pasting the description into all child groups. Previously, the description only appeared after users had self enrolled.
Figure: The Available Groups table with the new category description highlighted.
Group Management – Improved clarity when performing deletions of associated activities
This feature implements a change to the message users receive in the Delete Category dialog when deleting associated activities (i.e., Dropbox and Discussions). The dialog now includes a count of how many assignments or discussions the user is deleting. Previously, this information was not clearly indicated to the user.
In addition, when users create a new Group Category and associated activities, then reach the Workspace Summary page, they are automatically returned to the Manage Groups page. Previously, users would have to re-click Save to return to Manage Groups.
Figure: The updated Confirmation dialog showing details of associated activities to be deleted.
Media Library – Quickly access, create, edit, and manage all audiovisual content with Media Library
To improve audiovisual content management options for users of CourseLink, we are excited to announce that Media Library will be included in the November 2022 release.
Media Library offers a consolidated media processing, storage, and streaming option for all audiovisual materials. Media files uploaded using Record Audio, Record Video, Video Note, Content Tool (Add video workflow), and Lessons are stored in the same Media Library repository.
The new Media Library management tool provides the following options:
Filter content based upon audiovisual type.
Update file information, such as the title and description.
Edit video timelines using the editor.
Add chapters to video content.
Create manual and automated captions for video content.
Download audiovisual content to a device.
Preview content.
Delete files.
Figure: Use the Add button of the Media Library to upload media files and record webcams.
Media Library – Create content with webcam recordings
This update introduces a webcam feature as an option in Media Library. Users can create both video and audio-only recordings, which improves their ability to directly record content for their course within Media Library.
Note: The Video Note record bar is now changed to show the New Recording option and the Audio only toggle. To record a video, or video note, click New Recording. To record only audio, or an audio note, toggle the Audio only switch to ON.
Figure: Webcam Recording session in Media Library.
Media Library – Easily search content with improved filter-sort options
Media Library now offers improved filter-sort functionality when searching for files. Audio-visual content is now easier to find and improves options for finding content in Media Library.
Users can search for specific pieces of content using the following old and new filters:
(NEW)Content Type: Audio, Video, or Both
(NEW)Source: Where content was added from. Multiple filters can be selected. Filters include:
Content – Uploaded from the Content tool
Media Library – Uploaded or created in Media Library
Audio or Video Note – Content created in Audio or Video Note
Capture App – Created and published via the Capture App
Imported – Added from course imports
Other – Content added prior to the addition of source tracking
Date Modified
Note: Changes to Date Deleted on the Recycle Bin screen.
Date Created
Note: Quicklinks are not available with this release, but will be available in a future release with the same options.
Media Library – Improve the content consumer experience by viewing and downloading audio-video transcripts
Users can now view and download transcripts from audio-video content in Media Library with the new Transcript View. This update consolidates and ensures that the media player experience is the same for all files uploaded to Media Library.
Transcript View allows users to pair playback of a video file with the captions scrolling as opposed to the standard bottom of the screen. This introduces a button in the media player that allows users to download the transcript in TXT format or the caption track in VTT format to their device. The ability to turn on Transcript View is an option in the media player’s menu.
Figure: Media Player with the View transcript option highlighted.
Quizzes – Improved population method for calculating standard deviation
With this release, in Quizzing statistics, the method of calculating standard deviation from the sample standard deviation is changed to the population standard deviation.
The population standard deviation (Excel STDEV.P) is a more appropriate method since sampling is not conducted when calculating statistics. This new method ensures that the values in Quizzing are consistent with the ones calculated in the Assessment Quality Dashboard and are statistically more correct. The updated value appears in the CourseLink Quizzing tool after viewing Quiz Statistics or downloading reports.
Rubrics – Clarify grading criteria by editing text fields in assessed rubrics
This feature is intended to let instructors correct spelling errors, clarify wording, and make other minor changes that do not impact the academic integrity of the rubric. Instructors still can’t make structural changes (such as adding evaluation levels or criteria), edit points, or add outcome alignments to assessed rubrics.
Previously, after an instructor used a rubric for an evaluation, the rubric was locked and couldn’t be edited. To make changes, instructors had to completely remove the rubric, make edits to a copy of the rubric, attach the copy of the rubric to the grade item, then redo all the assessments.
Figure: Alert box on the Edit Rubric page with new Edit Text button.
Contact
If you have any questions about the updates, please contact CourseLink Support at:
Brightspace Pulse – Access links and images in module descriptions when you’re on-the-go
To help improve the overall experience in Brightspace Pulse, users will be able to view module descriptions in a web view that displays images and preserves links. This presents a new user experience that is more aesthetically pleasing and functional.
Previously, users could only view module description text without any rich text elements or HTML. This meant that any links or images placed in a module description in CourseLink were not preserved or available in the module description while using Brightspace Pulse.
Figure: The new View description option in Brightspace Pulse with images and functional links.
To help improve the flexibility of push notifications in Brightspace Pulse, users will be able to choose which push notifications they receive. Previously, it was not possible to limit or control push notifications.
Figure: Push Notifications settings in Brightspace Pulse.
Lessons (Learner Experience) – Load more functionality for the initial overview page
For courses using the new Lessons content experience, this feature improves the load times experienced by learners in courses with many units (modules). Learners can now use the Load more button on the initial overview page. The button displays the number of available and currently displayed objects.
The most recently visited unit and topics still automatically expand on the next visit. The Load more button is used only to display the number of units. The number of lessons and folders is unchanged.
Figure: The Lessons Load more button.
Reminder – Zoom Software Lifecycle Policy
A reminder that Zoom will be implementing its new Software Lifecycle Policy on November 5, 2022 for all products and services, starting with the minimum client version 5.8.6. Users who are running an end-of-life version after November 5, will not be able to join meetings via the Zoom Client and will be prompted to update or join from the Web browser. Please note that Zoom will also be ending support for the ChromeOS client and are asking all customers to migrate to Zoom’s Progressive Web Application (PWA). As always, we highly recommend you regularly download and update to the latest version of Zoom software by checking for updates within the Zoom client or by navigating to zoom.us/download to take advantage of all of the latest security and functionality features.
Instructor Only
Grades – Removal of unused and duplicated grade schemes in Grades
Building on the Grades – Copy grade items only copies unique or in-use grade schemes feature released in July 2022, this update performs a one-time deletion of all unused or duplicate grade schemes, leaving only unique grade schemes. This ensures increased performance during grade scheme copies and reduces errors when attempting to access grade schemes in existing org units where a large number of grade schemes exist.
Instructors may see their lists of grade schemes reduced as part of the release.
OpenEd Toolbox – Pre-assigned Zoom breakout room file
To simplify the process of producing a Zoom breakout rooms CSV file from CourseLink groups, OpenEd has added a feature to the OpenEd ToolboxGroups List tool allowing instructors to download a pre-assigned Zoom breakout room file based on existing CourseLink groups.
Please note that Zoom restricts to 100 maximum breakout rooms.
Figure: The Groups List tool showing the Export Pre-assigned Zoom Breakout Room File button.
Turnitin PeerMark (LTI 1.3)
The existing Turnitin PeerMark peer review assignment tool integration will be upgraded to LTI 1.3. The new location for adding the integration will show up under the Content tool Existing Activities dropdown.
Figure: The Turnitin PeerMark integration.
Contact
If you have any questions about the updates, please contact CourseLink Support at:
Brightspace Pulse – Retirement of the + button for manual dates in Work To Do
The + button for adding manual dates in the work to do page is no longer available to learners. Previously, learners could use the + button to add personal due dates for activities. Now, only activities that come through CourseLink are viewable. All users who use this feature were notified a maximum of 90 days in advance each time they interacted with the manual dates, or +, button.
Instructors Only
Classlist – Easily access and view sections for specific users
Instructors can now use the Classlist tool to view groups and sections. Previously, instructors could only view section enrollments using various filtering and sorting work flows or by searching within the Sections tool.
Figure: View groups and sections using the Classlist tool.
Quizzes – Align Quiz questions to Learning Outcomes in New Quiz Creation experience
As part of the New Quiz Creation experience, instructors can now view and edit Learning Outcome alignments in relation to quiz questions. Instructors can add or remove Outcome Alignments by selecting a question and then clicking More Actions > Align to Standards. Questions have a visual tag to indicate if they are aligned to outcomes.
Figure: The Quiz Questions menu with Align to Standards and the outcomes alignment tags highlighted.
Quizzes – Reduce test anxiety by creating quizzes without time limits
With this release, instructors have the option to create quizzes with no time limit. The No Time Limit option is now the default Timing setting for new quizzes.
Previously, instructors who wished to create quizzes with no time limit had to use the Recommended Time Limit option, which was selected by default and set to 120 minutes. This led to confusion for learners because the recommended time limit displayed on the quiz itself.
Instructors can create quizzes with no time limit using either the New Experience or the Classic Experience. In New Experience, under Timing & Display, click Manage Timing and select No Time Limit. In Classic Experience, in the Restrictions tab, under Timing, select No Time Limit.
Learners who take a quiz with no time limit now see No time limit under Time Allowed on the Quiz Summary page and Est. Length: No Time Limit on the quiz itself.
Figure: Instructor view of the New Quiz page with the new default No Time Limit option selected.
Release Conditions – Choose the last date of enrollment in the current org unit
To help users with more flexibility around course design, the release condition Date of enrollment in current org unit now includes the following options:
Use first enrollment date
Use last enrollment date
Figure: The Release Conditions menu with the choice of the date of enrollment in the current org unit highlighted.
Perusall LTI 1.3 Integration
The Perusall LTI 1.3 integration has been installed in CourseLink.
There are several benefits to using the LTI 1.3 integration. First, you can still create individual assignment links, called “deep links” in LTI 1.3, which point to particular Perusall assignments even when the link and assignment do not have matching names. Second, your LMS course roster automatically syncs to your Perusall course; instructors will be able to view the full roster in Perusall even before students ever launch into Perusall. That way, instructors can set up groups in advance of the start of the semester.
Figure: The Existing Activities menu in Content showing the Perusall Deep Link option.
Respondus LockDown Browser – Show Your Work feature
The “Show Your Work” feature allows students to upload hi-resolution images of worksheets they’ve prepared during their exam. If this setting is enabled by the instructor, the student will be given the opportunity to upload photos of their work immediately after they submit their exam.
*** This feature is only available if “Respondus Monitor” has been selected as the proctoring option for the exam. ***
More information and examples can be found on the Respondus Show Your Work instructor FAQ.
Figure: The Show Your Work option selected under Advanced Settings.
Microsoft OneDrive – Update to OneDrive LTI 1.3
*** This update will occur sometime during the month of October. ***
The new LTI 1.3 OneDrive application supports file browsing, navigating and sorting directories, selecting files, and switching between Microsoft accounts. Users are able to access both their personal and institutional accounts. The update introduces a file picker for OneDrive users that acts as an alternative to the current OneDrive file picker used by instructors.
Instructors will notice a new location, under Third Party, for the OneDrive option when adding Quicklinks in the system.
Figure: The OneDrive file picker option listed under the third party section of Quicklinks.
Contact
If you have any questions about the updates, please contact CourseLink Support at:
Brightspace Pulse – OAuth2-compliance added for user login
The update to OAuth2 switches users over from the existing API authentication workflow. Improvements to Pulse authentication will require all Pulse users to re-login to CourseLink after they update the Pulse app. This is to facilitate Pulse and CourseLink authentication consistency and is a one-time requirement. The change will occur in two parts:
Updating the Pulse app.
Opening an external browser to handle authentication.
To sign into Pulse with OAuth2:
From your device, tap the Brightspace Pulse icon.
Learn more about Brightspace Pulse by swiping left/right or proceed to the next step by tapping Next.
Tap Pick Your School.
Search for Guelph.
Tap on CourseLink.
Sign into CourseLink.
Instructors Only
Dropbox – Access new shortcuts to undo and redo PDF annotations on evaluations
Previously, the only way to remove PDF annotations in Dropbox was to use the eraser tool or delete the selection. Now, an undo/redo button is added for PDF annotations when evaluating in Dropbox. Alternatively, standard keyboard shortcuts are now also supported for undoing and redoing annotations:
Ctrl-z | Command-z (Apple) – Undo
Ctrl-Shift-z | Command-Shift-z (Apple) – Redo
Figure: The top of the image shows the menu bar before the update; the bottom shows the menu bar after the update.
Dropbox – Apply the filters “Show everyone” and “Show all groups” for individual and group assignments
Previously, in Dropbox, the search filter defaulted to Users with submissions for individual assignments and Submitted groups for group assignments. Now, instructors will instead default to Show everyone for individual assignments and Show all groups for group assignments. These modified filters are the new default search option. After applying one of these default filters, instructors can apply additional filters to improve search optimization.
Data also shows that instructors prefer to display all users before applying additional filters.
Figure: New default search filter in Dropbox.
HTML Editor – Easily insert code snippets with the Insert Code option
There is a new option in the HTML Editor that allows instructors to directly insert a code snippet into their content. This is done by selecting the Other Insert Options menu from the Editor toolbar, and then selecting the new Insert Code option. From there, instructors select their programming language from a list of available choices and add their code into the interface to format before inserting it into the Editor.
Previously, instructors had to use the <code> tag and build out their own code to add a code snippet in the editor.
Note: The Insert Code option is not available in the Quizzes tool.
Figure: Editor with the Other Insert Options menu opened, with Insert Code as the final menu option.Figure: The code snippet inserted into the content with Brightspace Editor.
HTML Editor – Insert Stuff now includes Media Library
Media Library is now available as an option within Insert Stuff. This allows users to embed any audio or video files added via Content since January 2022 and any existing Audio Notes and Video Notes into any supported HTML Editor field.
Previously, Media Library was not accessible from Insert Stuff and it was only possible to insert Video notes via Search for Video or Insert Video Note.
This release also allows instructors to embed a new inline Audio Player using Insert Stuff.
Figure: The Insert Stuff dialog with Media Library listed.
HTML Editor – Quickly access and manage the files you uploaded using Insert Stuff
This feature releases an improvement to the HTML Editor > Insert Stuff dialog.
Now, when you are in the HTML Editor and you upload a file using Insert Stuff, a message appears indicating that the files uploaded using Insert Stuff are saved in the Manage Files area. The message also indicates that files in the Manage Files area are potentially accessible to all users enrolled in the course or to anyone who has access to the course.
As best practice, do not include individual learner feedback in the files you are uploading using Insert Stuff.
Figure: The HTML Editor > Insert Stuff dialog with the warning message.
Intelligent Agents – Create more flexible agents with fewer criteria
On the New Agent page, in the Criteria section, all selections under Take Action on Activity are now optional. This means users can now create a new Intelligent Agent that applies to certain roles and doesn’t require any other criteria. Users are still required to select one of the options under Role in Classlist.
Previously, to create an Intelligent Agent, users had to select the roles the agent applies to, and one or more conditions the agent must check against: login activity, course activity, or release conditions. If a user attempted to save the agent without selecting a condition to check against, they received an error saying No Agent Criteria Defined.
Also in this update, on the New Agent page, in the Criteria section, under Role in Classlist, the option All users visible in the Classlist is no longer selected by default. This is a precaution to prevent users from accidentally creating an agent that runs against everyone.
Figure: The Criteria section after this update, with All users visible in the Classlist no longer selected by default, and an asterisk next to Role in Classlist to indicate that the user must select one of the options.
Quizzes – End of Life for Disable Right Click option
As of this release, the Disable Right Click option in quizzes is removed from Quizzes in CourseLink. The option is no longer available in Quiz Setup, and existing quizzes with the setting will no longer enforce the limitation on learners.
This option was previously intended to allow Instructors to disable right-clicking during the time a learner was taking quiz, thus making it more difficult for learners ability to copy or print the quiz and share it with others. However, as browsers have reduced the ability for web sites to control end-user behavior, the Disable Right Click setting could not necessarily be applied to all students, and it provided a false sense of security around quiz content.
Quizzes – Save time and prevent data loss with the Restore Deleted Quizzes functionality
This feature adds a new option in quizzes that allows instructors to restore deleted quizzes. This option appears in the More Actions menu in the Quizzes tool. Instructors using this option are provided with a list of deleted quizzes that indicates when they were deleted and by whom, along with a button to restore a selected quiz.
Restored quizzes automatically have any associated quiz attempts that were already taken, statistics, and scores for those quiz attempts restored as well. Learning Outcomes associated to quiz questions are unaffected, and re-appear with the questions when the quiz is restored. Links to a grade itemare not restored.
The Delete Quizzes permission has been renamed to Delete and Restore Quizzes.
Figure: The Restore option in the More Actions drop-down menu of the Manage Quizzes tab.
Zoom Cloud Retention – Some older recordings to be deleted on September 1, 2022
In accordance with communication sent out earlier this year, Zoom Cloud is intended for temporary, non-archival storage, and recordings will be deleted based on the following schedule:
Deletion Date
Delete up to:
Semesters Retained
September 1, 2022
August 31, 2021
F21, W22, S22
January 3, 2023
December 31, 2021
W22, S22, F22
May 1, 2023
April 30, 2022
S22, F22, W23
As of September 1, 2022, any Zoom meeting cloud recordings created up to and including August 31, 2021 will be deleted.
After deletion, all deleted files will be stored in the associated Zoom account’s Trash for an additional 30 days and may be recovered by following the steps outlined on Zoom’s Recover a deleted cloud recording page. After the 30-day Trash timer expires, the recordings will be permanently deleted.
If you have multiple UofG Zoom Pro accounts, such as a personal account (jdoe@uoguelph.ca) and an organizational account (code1000@uoguelph.ca), please be certain to check all impacted accounts to avoid losing any required recordings.
How to Retain Recordings (if required)
If there is a need to retain recordings stored on the Zoom cloud long term, it is recommended they be transferred to a University-approved storage solution, like OneDrive.
To help facilitate the process of copying Zoom cloud recordings to OneDrive, OpenEd developed the Zoom Transfer Tool, which allows staff and faculty with UofG Zoom Pro accounts to simply select Zoom cloud recordings from their account to copy to the associated UofG OneDrive account. The Zoom Transfer Tool can also be set to automatically copy all Zoom cloud recordings to OneDrive by enabling the Automate Transfers option.
Questions or Concerns
If you have questions, concerns, or require assistance using the Zoom Transfer Tool, please contact CourseLink Support.
Contact
If you have any questions about the updates, please contact CourseLink Support at:
