CourseLink Continuous Delivery Update – Page 8 – A summary of the CourseLink monthly updates.

Continuous Delivery Updates for April 2021

Students and Instructors

Brightspace Editor – Replaces the HTML Editor

This feature releases the new and improved Brightspace Editor.

~~Please note this feature will be turned on starting April 29, 2021.~~ Please note that this editor has a bug and will be delayed until the May 2021 updates.

The new Brightspace Editor permanently replaces the previous editor in the new Dropbox Evaluation Experience and the new Dropbox Creation Experience. The new Brightspace Editor will be the only editor available in all new experiences released from April 2021 onwards. The new Editor will be released in the following tools at a later date:

Quiz Builder
Activity Feed
New Rubrics

The new Brightspace Editor includes the following improvements to existing features:

Refreshed formatting options
The Lato font type
A refreshed color picker
A refreshed font size menu
A comprehensive and standard emoticon menu
A comprehensive and refreshed Symbols menu
An advanced source code editor
A refreshed Tables feature, including data sorting
A refreshed Accessibility Checker
The Check Accessibility, HTML Source Editor, Preview, and Toggle Full Screen functionalities have now been placed in the top bar

The Editor also includes the following new features:

Wordcount functionality that includes words, characters, and text selection.
Context menus while editing to enable quick access to text, link, and image editing options; including advanced image editing options. Note that image editing is not available in all context menus yet.
A new overflow menu with additional, less frequently used menu options.

The list below outlines what is not included in the Editor:

Spell check functionality. D2L recommends using your browser spell check functionality.
Cut/Paste functionality. D2L recommends using your browser hot keys/menus for this functionality.

Rubrics – Navigation Accessibility Improvements

This feature was originally released for the Rubrics tool in June 2020 and updated in July 2020 and March 2021. To increase the value of the rubric tool in CourseLink, there have been accessibility improvements to the rubric creation and evaluation workflows:

Screen readers now inform users of controls for adding feedback to criteria when reading the criteria group table. The table summary now includes the following text: This table lists criteria and criteria group names in the first column. The first-row lists level names and includes scores if the rubric uses a numeric scoring method. You can give feedback on each criterion by tabbing to the add feedback buttons in the table.
When a score field has the focus, the screen reader now informs the user if it is a criterion score or a total score based on the field label. It also indicates which criterion the score is associated with and what action the user can take. For example: 2/4, score of Criterion 1. Press Enter to override the criterion score.
Previously, the Total Score and Criterion Score fields did not clearly indicate whether the score is a manual override. The override information appeared in a tooltip that was not visible to assistive technology including screen readers; an asterisk was the only differentiator. Now, the screen reader can read the tooltip content when the Total Score or Criterion Score fields have the focus.
Previously, when the Total Score was a manual override, the Clear Override button appeared; however, when Criterion Score was a manual override, the Clear Override button only appeared if the focus was on the score. Now, Clear Override appears when either the Total Score or the Criterion Score is a manual override, regardless of where the focus is.
To improve usability with assistive technology, the Add Feedback button indicates to screen readers the criterion to which the feedback is associated. The Clear Feedback button also indicates the associated criterion.
When the keyboard focus moves to the default rubric group or new criteria group, the screen reader now tells users the number of rubric levels and criteria in the group.
Previously, users who used keyboard-only navigation and screen readers were not able to delete aligned outcomes. Now, when a user navigates to the Browse Standards button and focuses on an outcome tag, the screen reader reads the tag content and provides guidance that they can press Delete to remove the aligned outcome
Previously, the screen reader only read the content of the level name and points fields and indicated that it was a text field. There was no indication of the significance of the field. Now, when the level name text field has the focus, screen readers indicate that the field is for editing the name of a specific level. When the points text field has the focus, the screen reader indicates that the field is for editing the points of a specific level.

Instructor Only

Dropbox – Action menu for group assignments in New Dropbox Evaluation Experience

The New Dropbox Evaluation Experience now includes a drop-down menu from the group name. This menu contains links to:

Email the group (opens in a new window)
See all group members
Instant message the group (opens in a new window)

Figure: The drop-down action menu appears from the Group Name on the File Submission page in Dropbox.

Dropbox – Anonymous marking in the New Dropbox Evaluation Experience

This feature makes anonymous marking fully supported in the New Dropbox Evaluation Experience. When using Anonymous marking, the Anonymous User number appears in place of the username, just as it appeared in the legacy Dropbox experience. In addition, the following features of anonymous marking remain the same:

No profile card appears for anonymous users
Usernames become visible once any learner’s evaluation is published
Group names are always visible even when using anonymous marking
Rubrics do not include the user’s name

Anonymous marking uses Publish All instead of the Publish button. If no feedback for anonymous users has yet been published, the Publish button is disabled and a message appears to direct users to the Publish All button. If any user feedback has been published, all Publish buttons become automatically enabled.

Figure: Anonymous marking in Dropbox displays learners as Anonymous User [#] instead of by username.

Dropbox – Context menu on the Evaluation screen in the New Dropbox Evaluation Experience

A new context menu appears in the side panel of the updated Dropbox evaluation screen. This menu links to the following:

Edit Activity (opens assignment page in new tab).
Special Access Dates (opens the Edit Activity screen so users can update Special Access rules).

Note: The context menu will not appear if the user does not have the required permissions to access these links.

Figure: The new context menu appears when grading a submission in the New Dropbox Evaluation Experience.

Dropbox- Single file submissions open directly in the New Dropbox Evaluation Experience

In the New Dropbox Evaluation Experience, when a learner has submitted only one file, the evaluator no longer has to click into the evaluation and then into the file. The file opens directly for the evaluator, saving a click during the evaluation process. Late submission information continues to display above the file, as it currently does.

Brightspace Insights – Engagement Dashboard User Level Metrics

To increase the value of the new Engagement Dashboard, originally released in November 2020 and most recently updated in March 2021, this release adds the following:

New User Level Metrics tab in Engagement Dashboard Settings where you can select which metrics appear on the Learner Engagement Dashboard display.

Figure: All the User Level Metrics are selected by default.

Classlist – Search filter when adding existing users

When enrolling users in a course, an instructor can now deselect the Include users already enrolled in org unit check box to set their search filter to filter out users already enrolled in the course.

The Add Existing Users page with the new Enrollment search filter. — Figure: The Add Existing Users page with the new Enrollment search filter

Content – URL topics now Open as External Resource by default

Previously, when a user created a new URL Content type, the Open as External Resource option was not selected by default. In some cases, this caused a Cross-Origin resource sharing (CORS) error to appear when viewing the content topics. Now, the URL Content type, such as a Google Team Drive Public link, has the Open as External Resource check box selected by default. Users can choose to deliberately remove the Open as External Resource option if necessary. If it is deselected, users are advised that D2L recommends opening links in a new window to prevent issues viewing the resource before saving.

When viewing a content topic that is a URL, the button to open the resource in a new window always appears so that if the content cannot load in an embedded frame, a user can choose to open the content in a new window.

Grades – Mastery View calculation improvements

Mastery View was originally released for the Grades tool in December 2020. To increase the value of the Mastery View of the Grades tool in CourseLink, there have been improvements to the calculation functionality:

When you switch to a calculation method, but do not save the new method, you can return to the original calculation method, and restore the original values of the Choose Activities to use in the calculation field. If you switch to a new calculation method and save the new method, if you return to the original calculation method, the Choose Activities to use in the Calculation field uses the default values.

Quizzes – Improvements to Special Access functionality

Instructors can now grant learners special access in terms of quiz time multipliers (for example, 1.5x quiz time) or +minutes (for example, an additional 30 minutes). For example, if an instructor has a 30-minute quiz and using the Special Access page, grants three learners 1.5x the quiz time, their updated quiz time of 45 minutes displays. Instructors no longer have to manually calculate the updated quiz time.

Note: After extending the learners quiz time by way of quiz time multipliers or +minutes on the Special Access page, if an instructor updates the duration of the quiz, the learner’s quiz time on the Special Access page does not dynamically update at this time.

Figure: The Add Special Access screen with the updated Timing area.

Quizzes – Secure and consistent editing experience

For a more secure and consistent editing experience in CourseLink, creating any of the following question types now automatically filters out JavaScript and non-standard HTML: Likert, Ordering, Matching, Fill in the Blanks, Short Answer, Multi-Short Answer, Arithmetic, and Significant Figures. For existing questions containing JavaScript and non-standard HTML, the questions continue to display as intended until an instructor edits and saves the questions, which removes the JavaScript and non-standard HTML. Previously, instructors could add JavaScript or non-standard HTML to question types in order to create dynamic content for quizzes.

Contact

If you have any questions about the updates, please contact CourseLink Support at:

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

Continuous Delivery Updates for March 2021

Students and Instructors

CourseLink – Support alert banner for older browsers

In order to be consistent with the Microsoft End of Support for Legacy Edge in March 2021, CourseLink is also ending browser support for Legacy Edge. To encourage clients to use CourseLink with a browser that provides robust support for all features, a warning banner appears in CourseLink if the client is using Legacy Edge.

Instructors Only

Dropbox – Learner profile card in New Evaluation Experience

When hovering over a learner’s name or profile picture in the new evaluation experience, the learner’s user profile card appears. The card displays the user’s online/offline status as well as links to:

Email
Instant Message
User progress
User profile

Clicking any of the links in the profile card opens a new window.

Figure: Hovering over the name of profile image of a learner opens a profile card with links to Email and Instant Message the learner, plus User Progress and the learner’s User Profile.

Dropbox – Turnitin® support in New Evaluation Experience

The New Evaluation experience now supports Turnitin® Similarity and Turnitin® Grademark® in Dropbox. The existing Turnitin® workflows and functionality appear on the User Submissions page in the new experience. The Turnitin® workflows are also supported in the mobile experience.

Figure: Turnitin® Similarity and Turnitin® Grademark® feedback appears on the User Submissions page.

Awards – Password-protected certificates

To prevent plagiarism and protect an organization’s intellectual and branding copyrights, all earned certificates downloaded from the Awards tool are now password-protected from editing. Each certificate is generated with a random password that is not displayed to users, preventing anyone from editing the certificate in Adobe® Acrobat® or Adobe Reader®. Previously, if an administrator or instructor uploaded a password protected certificate, any learner that downloaded the earned certificate could edit it in Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader.

Figure: A password-protected certificate downloaded from the Awards tool

Insights – Additional cards and paging on the new Engagement Dashboard

There are three new cards on the user drill down page of the Engagement summary view, which provide the ability to see how key engagement metrics change over time for a single learner:
- The Grade over time trend chart displays the learner’s current grade for each week as a line graph, with a color-coded line for each course. Grades may be adjusted or calculated.
- The Content view over time trend chart displays the number of content topic views for the learner for each week as a line graph, with a color-coded line for each course.
- The Access over time trend chart displays the number of course accesses for the learner for each week as a stacked area chart, with a color-coded area for each course.
The Active Courses table now includes paging on the user drill down page.

Figure: Summary view of the Learner Engagement Dashboard, with three new trend charts: Grade over time, Content view over time, and Access over time.

Calendar – Improvements to date and time selection web components

To improve the ease of use for clients using the date and time picker in CourseLink, there have been updates to the web components related to date and time selection. These changes are intended to provide better usability for keyboard users and better integration with assistive technology. Changes include:

Ability to use arrow keys rather than the Tab key to improve keyboard navigation and accessibility.
Aesthetic changes to hide unused elements until they are active.
New selectable values of 12:01 AM and 11:59PM in the time picker
New default values for Start, Due, and End dates.
The new Set to Today button inside the date picker replaces the Now button outside the date picker.

Note: There may be some instances of the older date picker remaining in CourseLink. These instances will be changed to the new date picker in a future release.

Figure: When the date picker is open, the field to which it applies is highlighted and the picker dialog points to the field.

Navigation and Themes – Create language specific custom links

instructors can create and display language specific custom links on the Navbar when designing courses. This feature provides learners a more complete translation experience.

Quizzes – Copy quiz workflow

Previously, to copy and continue editing a quiz, you had to navigate to the Manage Quizzes page, click the More Actions > Copy functionality, and then select the quiz you wanted to copy, rename it, and click Edit quiz after copy completes.

This feature updates the copy quiz workflow to better align with Dropbox. Now, the copy functionality is available on the individual quiz drop-down menu. When you copy a quiz, the copied quiz is set to inactive (as per the original copy quiz workflow) and you are directed to the Edit Quiz screen to continue editing it. Now, the copy quiz workflow also copies over Special Access settings and aligned Learning Objectives.

Rubrics – Navigation Accessibility Improvements

To increase the value of Rubrics in CourseLink, there have been accessibility improvements to the rubric creation workflow:

In the Overall Score, screen reader users are now informed that the overall score levels are selectable items. When the user navigates between levels, the screen reader now reads the level order, level name, point level, level content, and selection status.
When reading descriptions in rubric table cells, screen readers now read the level name and the point value.
Radio buttons that are used to grade a criterion are now labelled for screen readers to include the criterion for which this radio button applies, and the corresponding rubric level name and point value for each radio button.
When an Add Feedback button has the focus, screen reader also reads the name of the associated criterion.
When the screen reader focus is on the outcomes icon in the criterion column, it indicates the standard associated with the criteria name and reads the tooltip content.
When a Criterion Score cell has the focus, screen readers now indicate that it is the score of the criterion name, the score, and that the user can press enter to adjust the score using a spin button.
Screen readers now have access to controls for adding feedback to criteria when reading the criteria group table. The table summary now includes the following text: This table lists criteria and criteria group name in the first column. The first-row lists level names and includes scores if the rubric uses a numeric scoring method. You can give feedback on each criterion by tabbing to the add feedback buttons in the table.
When a page is loaded, the keyboard focus is now on the first focusable interface component; extra tab stops have been removed.

Contact

If you have any questions about the updates, please contact CourseLink Support at:

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

Continuous Delivery Updates for February 2021

Instructors Only

Dropbox – Save Progress and Visual Enhancements

The Save button in the new Dropbox creation experience enables an instructor to save their progress while creating or editing a folder. Previously, Save and Close was the only option.

The scrollbars on the main and right-hand panels now appear thinner and less noticeable, providing more vertical space when creating or editing a folder.

The name of the folder appears in the immersive navbar along the top of the page.

Figure: The name of the Dropbox folder on the immersive navbar and the less obtrusive scrollbar in the new Dropbox creation experience

Brightspace Pulse – Course access events added to Brightspace Data Platform

To allow administrators and instructors to see when learners access courses from Brightspace Pulse, the app now sends course access events to the Brightspace Data Platform (BDP). The BDP stores these events, and then computes and stores the aggregated data, which can then be accessed through various course reporting tools, such as Classlist, Class Progress, Engagement Dashboard, and the Course Overview widget. For example, in Classlist, the Last Accessed column now displays a timestamp when a learner accesses a course from Brightspace Pulse.

Grades – Additional features for Mastery view of the grade book

The first time you use the Mastery View table page, a message appears under the page title indicating the default calculation method for the data in the view and provides a link to the Settings page, where you can change the calculation method.

If you change the calculation method after evaluation data has been collected, a warning message appears to indicate that the evaluations must be recalculated according to the newly selected method. Any prior evaluations with manual overrides or feedback are not affected by changing calculation methods. If outcome overall achievements are already published, recalculations for the newly selected method are also immediately visible to learners.

When viewing the Outcomes Progress Evidence page from a mobile device, the evidence appears in a responsive display format for the smaller screen.

Quick Eval – Homepage widget

Quick Eval can now be added to course homepages as a widget to allow instructors to view and access any submissions awaiting evaluation. The Quick Eval widget displays a list of up to six activities with submissions to evaluate. The activities are sorted by due date, with the earliest date first. The icon indicator in the widget shows the type of activity (dropbox, discussion, or quiz), and the number of unevaluated submissions for each activity. The due date and course information are also visible below the title of each activity.

Figure: The Quick Eval widget displaying unevaluated activities

Rubrics – Warning dialog for partial evaluations

Previously, if an instructor attempted to publish a partially completed rubric evaluation, the partial evaluation dialog appeared. If the instructor tapped Enter on their keyboard, the partial evaluation was published.
Now, the default button behavior has changed so that tapping Enter on the page returns the user to the rubric to complete the evaluation. This change adds a verification layer to reconsider their action and ensure that instructors are not mistakenly publishing incomplete evaluations.

Figure: The partial evaluation warning dialog appears the same, but has updated default behavior.

Respondus – New Live Proctoring Feature

Earlier this month, the Respondus Live proctoring feature was released to instructors.

This feature leverages a video conferencing system (Zoom, MS Teams, etc.) and allows instructors to proctor students in real-time during online exams, tests, and quizzes.

This feature is intended for small classes where an instructor can view all students on the screen at once.

For more information on this new feature as well as instructions on how to enable it, please see the Live Remote Invigilation of CourseLink Quizzes with Respondus LockDown Browser section of the Tips for Live Remote Invigilation with Zoom or Teams page on OpenEd’s Remote Teaching & Learning website.

Zoom – Live Transcription (Closed Captioning) Service

Earlier this month, the Zoom Live Transcription Service was released.

The Live Transcription (closed captioning) service is available for Educational/Pro account holders. This service automatically captions speakers in Zoom meetings, adding their text to the bottom of the meeting window, as well as making a live transcript available in its own panel.

Visit the Zoom: Live Transcription Service page for details on configuration and setup options.

Contact

If you have any questions about the updates, please contact CourseLink Support at:

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

Continuous Delivery Updates for January 2021

Students and Instructors

Respondus LockDown Browser for Chromebooks

A beta release of Respondus LockDown Browser for Chromebook is now available for CourseLink.

Instructors

During the beta period, instructors will have to enable the use of the Chromebook version on a per exam basis.

Go to the LockDown Browser Dashboard within CourseLink
Select “Require Respondus LockDown Browser for this exam”
Expand “Advanced Settings” and select “Allow students to use LockDown Browser for Chromebook (beta)”
Save the exam settings for LockDown Browser

Students

Installing LockDown Browser on your Chromebook is easy.

Log into the Chromebook and start Google Chrome
Log into CourseLink and navigate to the exam that requires LockDown Browser
Select the link for downloading and installing LockDown Browser
From the Chrome web store, select “Add to Chrome” to install the LockDown Browser Extension
Note: during the beta, this extension will only work with quizzes an instructor has enabled for use with LockDown Browser for Chromebook

Instructors Only

Dropbox – Multiple Rubric Support in Consistent Evaluation Experience

This feature is a continuation of the feature that was introduced in the December 2020 release.

If a Dropbox folder includes multiple rubrics, they are all visible to instructors using the Consistent Evaluation Experience. Instructors are also able to choose the default scoring rubric. Previously, the Consistent Evaluation Experience would only display one rubric on the assignment evaluation screen.

Insights – Settings and Filter Improvements on the new Engagement Dashboard

The new Settings page has two tabs: Summary Metrics and Result Table Metrics. The Summary Metrics tab contains the Roles filter, which enables you to select the learner roles you want to include in dashboard data. All roles that you exclude are not included in any data query on the Engagement Dashboard. The Summary Metrics tab also enables you to determine which cards are included in the Dashboard display and set your own threshold for the System Access metric. By default, all the cards are included on the dashboard.

Figure: All cards appear in the selection list, and all are selected by default.

Widgets – Widget Sandboxing to Enhance Content Security

To enhance the security of Widgets that execute scripts to create extra-rich HTML experiences (such as objects that can execute JavaScript), there is now a sandboxing feature that creates a secure iFrame around the HTML file. This will allow an HTML file to execute scripts (such as JavaScript) within the iFrame only but will prevent them from executing outside the iFrame (against the domain). This enables some flexibility in creating rich content, but reassurance for the security- conscious that end user information remains secure in all situations.

Figure: The Widget Security area of the Widget Properties dialog box.

Course Export – Export File Upload Attribute for Written Response Questions

Written Response quiz questions that allow for file upload can now be imported and exported from CourseLink. With the ability to import and export these questions users can share them with users from other instances of CourseLink (D2L Brightspace).

Grades – Additional Features for Mastery View in Grades

To increase the value of the Mastery view of Grades, originally released in December 2020, this release updates and adds the following new features:

Three new calculation methods: Highest Level, Most Recent Level, and Decaying Average.
A Publish All button for overall levels of achievement for all outcomes to all learners.
A Search by Student Name field.
A warning when the user attempts to change the default achievement scale.
Removal of the Clear Default option in the Achievement Scale dialog.

Contact

If you have any questions about the updates, please contact CourseLink Support at:

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

Continuous Delivery Updates for December 2020

Instructors Only

Dropbox- Consistent evaluation experience

The consistent evaluation experience for Dropbox brings consistency to evaluating in Brightspace Learning Environment for all assessable tools . This feature provides an opt-in experience for users to familiarize themselves with the new experience when evaluating in Dropbox. In future releases this evaluation experience will become available in additional tools.

The default value for this configuration is On(Opt-In).

No changes have been made to page navigation. The user context bar now includes a menu to choose a learner, and another menu to choose a submission. On the user submission list, files are now grouped by submission without repeating comments to make it easier to distinguish between submissions. The evaluation pane divider is now draggable to suit a user’s preferences and screen size. Rubrics are now located at the top of the page, and assignment details are in the ellipsis menu. The overall grade remains as an icon that indicates if that grade is tied to the gradebook. Existing outcomes and competency web components are also visible. Publish, Save Draft, and Next Student options continue to function as before.

Instructors should wait to turn on the Consistent Evaluation experience in this release if they:

Use TurnItIn – No integration with Turnitin is available in this release of the consistent evaluation experience
Use Anonymous Marking/Grading – Learner name display does not respect the Anonymous Marking setting
May have multiple rubrics attached to assignments – Only one rubric displays in the consistent evaluation experience
Use large rubrics with many levels or criteria – Large rubrics may have a reduced usability due to the way in which the new experience displays rubrics. All levels and criteria display, though large rubrics may require more scrolling
Use Group assignments extensively – There is no access to view group members from within the consistent evaluation experience
Use the Edit a Copy function to annotate text or HTML submissions – This option is not available in the consistent evaluation experience
Require access to Student ID (or Class Progress) while evaluating – These options are not accessible from within the consistent evaluation experience

These items will be addressed in future updates to the Consistent Evaluation experience.

Figure: Instructor view when evaluating assignments in the consistent evaluation experience.

CourseLink – Updated video and audio player in Content

To improve accessibility and create a consistent user experience, a new audio and video media player has been added to Content.

The new media player offers the following features:

Consistent keyboard controls, and screen reader support.
Keyboard controls improvements and fixes to known issues. The previous media player had an issue where keyboard focus could become stuck in the caption language selection menu.
Screen reader improvements with the new media player include off-screen messages for screen readers to announce when a video has loaded or if there was an error loading the video.

Note: Download will not be turned on by default.

Figure: The new video player in Content showing the playback speed option.

Figure: The new audio player appears in Content

Grades – Mastery view in the Gradebook now available

The Mastery view of the Gradebook provides visibility into additional details of learner performance beyond what is available using traditional grades associated with an activity. Using outcomes associated with various types of assessments (such as quiz questions, rubric criterion rows, assignments or discussions), additional dimensions of performance can be recorded. The Mastery page provides instructors with information about the overall achievement for leaners in their course. The achievement is related to learning outcomes and standards associated to assessment activities and helps instructors to quickly identify learners who are potentially at risk. The page provides a quick holistic view of aggregated performance across all learners in the course for all outcomes assessed in the course. Instructors can click on individual table cells of the Mastery view to drill-down into individual learners’ performance and view evidence associated with each outcome. In that detailed view, instructors can use their professional judgement to manually override the calculated suggested level of overall achievement.

Note: This option is hidden if learning outcomes are not being used in the course.

The Mastery view table displays evaluated outcomes as the columns of the table and learners enrolled in the course as rows of the table. In the columns for each outcome, there is a color and text indication of the suggested overall level of achievement based on the currently selected calculation method. The color of each cell and the text label is based on the color and level name defined in the default Achievement Scale in the Learning Outcomes tool.

Figure: The Mastery view with three outcome columns of evaluated activities, and several unevaluated outcome columns for each learner.

Within each achievement cell, there are several indicators of the status of the learner’s progress toward the achievement, including:

Number of activities evaluated (out of the total aligned)
Suggested overall level achievement (or manually overridden level of achievement)
Manual override indicator in the form of an asterisk beside the overall achievement label.
Out of Date icon (if newer evaluations have been made since a manual override was recorded or a feedback is added)
Published/Not published icons to indicate the visibility status to the learner

Figure: Displays a single cell of the mastery view, the manual override asterisk, the Out of Date icon, and the Not Published icon

Insights – Additional cards on the New Engagement Dashboard

The new Engagement dashboard contains visualizations that provide insight into how users are engaging with their courses. Using this information, users can identify at-risk learners and intervene to get them back on track. To increase the value of the Engagement dashboard, originally released in March 2019, and updated in November 2020, this release updates and adds the following new features:

The Discussion Summary pie chart indicates the number of discussion threads created, replied to, and read. If you hover over a pie segment, a popup appears with a number and description of the segment. This is helpful for understanding the proportion of passive or active social engagement. If you click a segment, the rest of the Engagement dashboard automatically filters the returned data for the learners represented by the segment. This is also summarized in the results table.
The System Access summary card indicates the number of users who have not accessed the system in the previous 14 days. This can include access of Brightspace Pulse or Brightspace through their internet browser. This is also summarized in the results table.
The ability to take action from the dashboard by exporting the results table or emailing one or many users. Users require permission to see and send emails at the Org Level in order to take advantage of the email option.

Note: The default setting for this feature continues to be Opt-in.

Figure: The Engagement Dashboard with the Discussion Activity and System Access areas highlighted.

Quizzes – Improved workflow for creating multi-select questions

As part of the ongoing initiative to improve the quiz creation experience for instructors, this release streamlines the interface for creating multi-select questions, making the workflow simpler and more intuitive.

When instructors initially launch the Question Editor to create a multi-select question, the interface displays the two main components of a multi-select question: the question and potential answers. Selecting a field displays a pop-up toolbar for formatting the text and adding images, links, and graphical equations. As each field is completed, the preview pane displays how the question and answers appear to learners.

Next, instructors can choose to click Options to add the following optional information to the multi-select question: Add Feedback, Add Hint, Add Short Description, and Add Enumeration.

Instructors can then choose to randomize the order of answers, assign points, and determine how points are assigned to blanks.

For determining how points are assigned to blanks, a new grading type is available in the classic and new multi-select question experience: Correct Answers, Limited Selections. For this grading type, points are evenly distributed across correct answers only. The number of selections allowed is limited to the number of correct answers. Learners earn partial points for each correct answer selected.

Figure: Question text and answers in the new multi-select question experience

Quizzes – Improvements to the ability to retake incorrect questions in quizzes

Building on the previous Quizzes – Retake incorrect questions in subsequent attempts, there are several improvements to increase the value of the feature:

Instructors can now identify retaken attempts in the Attempt log.
Instructors can now identify a Retaken Attempt while grading a quiz in the Quizzes tool on the User tab and the Attempts tab.

Figure: The Attempt log indicates the retaken attempts for the quiz.

Figure: The Users tab indicates the retaken attempts for the quiz.

Contact

If you have any questions about the updates, please contact CourseLink Support at:

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