Continuous Delivery Updates for January 2023

Students and Instructors

CourseLink – Supported Browsers

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 100Safari 15, and Firefox 99. There are no changes to legacy browser requirements that remain at versions below Chrome/Edge 74Safari 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.

The Equation Editor showing the rendering of an equation during creation after the January Release.
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.

The View Description option for a topic in Pulse.
Figure: The View Description option for a topic in Pulse.

Instructors Only

Learning Outcomes – Clear aligned learning outcomes from assessment activities

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:

  • WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 3.3.6 Error Prevention (All)
The new Clear All button. The Clear All Alignments dialog requires you to verify that you intend to clear all alignments.
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.

The Create a Release Condition dialog with the new Replies Only option selected from the Type drop-down menu.
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.

The Discard button on an in-process evaluation. The Saving and Saved indicators no longer appear at the top of the evaluation window.
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.

Previously, the Rubrics Statistics icon appeared outside the collapsed Rubrics tile.
Figure: Previously, the Rubrics Statistics icon appeared outside the collapsed Rubrics tile.
Now, the Rubrics Statistic icon appears at the bottom of 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:

courselink@uoguelph.ca
519-824-4120 ext. 56939