2020 – Page 2 – CourseLink Continuous Delivery Update

Continuous Delivery Updates for July 2020

Students and Instructors

CourseLink – Supported Browsers

Brightspace Learning Environment supports HTML5 Video Player and does not rely on Adobe Flash and Adobe Flash Player.
The concept of a Maintenance browser is removed from the CourseLink (D2L) Platform Requirements documentation, as this previously related to the now unsupported Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. All supported browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari) deploy using a continuous delivery model and CourseLink supports the latest versions of these browsers.
As of the July 2020 release, Firefox ESR is no longer a supported browser, due to extremely low usage. To support clients through this transition, D2L will fix high-priority issues for Firefox 68 ESR (until the end of September 2020) and Firefox 78 ESR (until the January 2021 release).
D2L’s browser version check now displays warnings for browsers earlier than the following versions:
- Chrome 81 (released in April 2020)
- Chromium-based Edge 81 (released in April 2020)
- Edge Legacy 44 (not receiving any further updates)
- Safari 13 (released in September 2019)
- Firefox 76 (releases May 5th, 2020)

You can access CourseLink with older versions of our supported browsers; however, D2L does not test CourseLink against these older versions. This means you may encounter unexpected user interface behavior and appearance, or broken and unsupported functionality. In most cases, D2L does not fix software defects experienced in unsupported browser versions. For an optimal experience that offers better performance, accessibility, and security, D2L strongly recommends that all users access CourseLink with a supported browser.

Widgets – Pinned Tab on My Courses Widget

A new Pinned tab now appears in the My Courses widget (Update Sort Logic view only). The Pinned tab allows learners and instructors to create a curated view of their pinned courses.

The Pinned tab appears in the widget only after a user pins a course in the Course Selector. The tab remains in view until all courses are unpinned. The My Courses widget remembers the last viewed tab and shows that same tab the next time the homepage is viewed. This makes it easy for instructors and learners who only wish to view pinned courses to see those courses upon login.

Figure: The Pinned tab appears in the My Courses widget when users pin courses

User Management – Character limit enforced for text fields in User Profile

This feature was originally released for the User Management tool in January 2020. This update now enforces the 4000 character limit for long text fields in the User Profile page.

In the January 2020 release, reasonable character limits for long text fields in the User Profile page were added. The following Personal Info fields were limited to 4000 characters each:

Interests/Hobbies
Favorite Music
Favorite Books
Favorite TV Shows
Favorite Movies
Favorite Quotations
Favorite Websites
Future Goals
Most Memorable Learning Experience

After the January 2020 release, if users had information in these fields that exceeded 4000 characters, it continued to display.

Instructors Only

Dropbox – Competencies in the New Dropbox Creation Experience

This update includes the capability to add and remove learning objectives from the Competencies tool when used with the new create and edit Dropbox experience.

The new experience also displays a warning if a learning objective does not have an associated rubric, as objectives must have an associated rubric in order to be evaluated.

Figure: The create and edit Assignments page with the Manage Learning Objectives functionality and warning

When a user opts in to the new experience, the Manage Learning Objectives functionality appears under the Evaluation & Feedback accordion if the Competencies tool is enabled and if the user is not using the Learning Outcomes tool.

Email – Verify Email Address Changes

Previously, users were able to add a forwarding email address, or add a reply to address without verifying their email address.

Now, when users add a forwarding email address, or add a reply to address, they receive an email prompting them to verify their email address. When sent, the username that requested the email change appears in the verification email.

Rubrics – Accessibility improvements in Rubric creation workflow

This update includes the following accessibility improvements in the rubric creation workflow:

When you change the names of levels in the rubric create or edit experience, screen readers now read the updated name rather than the original default level names.
Screen readers now indicate when new levels, criterion, groups, and overall score levels are added to a rubric. Previously, there was no loading progress indicator.
Screen readers now state that there is a new level, criterion, group, or overall score level.
The keyboard navigation tab sequence is improved when navigating to the Add and Cancel buttons in the Outcomes Picker window.

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 June 2020

Instructors Only

Dropbox – Create and edit experience

The create and edit Dropbox page has an updated look and feel. The classic tabbed view has been transformed into a new, fully immersive page layout.

Figure: The updated look and feel of the new Dropbox creation screen

The primary panel on the left contains frequently used fields that are always displayed. These fields are most relevant to learners and are the core details instructors want to add; a due date, instructions, and attachments.

The panel on the right organizes additional, more advanced options such as start and end dates, rubrics, annotation tools, and Turnitin. When these options are collapsed, summary text provides details about which settings are active and subtle hints that aid in the discovery of additional settings. As a result, you can see everything at a glance with little to no scrolling, and without having to navigate through any tabs.

The new experience streamlines the process of linking folders to your gradebook and builds on a pattern first introduced in Activity Feed. When you enter a score, your assignment is added to Grades, and the name and score are automatically synced for you. If you traditionally create grade items in advance, support for selecting existing grades and categories is also available.

As an Instructor, if you are opting out of the new experience, a prompt appears encouraging you to leave feedback on the new experience.

Learning Outcomes – Detach copied Learning Outcomes from the originating course

The default behavior for copying outcomes is to remain linked to the course from which they were copied. If you want to edit the target course, the outcomes must be detached, either individually, or in bulk. To solve this issue, the copied objects must be unlinked in the target course to be editable. When custom created learning outcomes are detached from the source course, they become their own object. This is useful in a scenario when you want to create an update to a master course shell or to teach a new course based on another course with similar but not identical outcomes.

Note: This feature does not apply to Achievement Standards Network (ASN) or Program-imported outcomes.

A warning message appears when you start this action to confirm that you intend to detach locally authored outcomes from the source, and that there is no undoing this function.

When the detach function is performed, all the aligned outcomes in the course are collected. For each outcome that references back to the source, a new outcome is created to replace the linked original. All reference links to the original linked object are updated with the object ID of the new outcome object.

Use the Import/Export/Copy Components tool to copy one or more learning outcomes from a source to a target course. Then, in the target course, in the Outcomes tool, select one or more outcomes to detach from the source course.

Rubrics – Accessibility improvements in Rubric creation workflow

The following updates have been made to improve the accessibility of the rubric creation workflow:

The button next to the page title is now labeled so a screen reader reads “Actions for [title]” when the button has the focus.
The Overall Score now has the proper heading level so screen reader users can navigate directly to it from the heading list. Previously, users were required to tab through all previous headings in the list first.
There is no longer a skipped heading level between Rubric Levels and Criterion (both level 3) and Standards (previously level 5).
In the rubric preview window, Criterion Score has been added as a column header. Previously, the column did not have any header text.

Widgets – My Courses and Updates widgets display unevaluated assignment submissions

The My Courses Widget and the Updates widget now display new, unevaluated assignment submissions instead of unread assignment submission files to instructors. This change aligns the widgets with the Assignments page and the Quick Eval tool to consistently notify users of unevaluated submissions and help them to track their work.

Figure: The My Courses widget displays unevaluated Dropbox assignment submissions

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 May 2020

Students and Instructors

Brightspace Pulse – Multi-Account Login Support

Brightspace Pulse for iOS and Android now supports the ability to simultaneously log in to multiple Brightspace Pulse accounts. Learners can easily switch between multiple Brightspace instances without logging out from Brightspace Pulse. In addition, learners can receive notifications from all of their accounts in Brightspace Pulse.

This feature is useful to learners who may be:

supplementing a degree with a preferred course offering at a partner institution
simultaneously pursuing a degree and professional development at work

In Brightspace Pulse, a new menu icon or your organization’s logo displays in the navigation bar. Tap the menu icon or logo to open a menu with options to switch accounts, add new accounts, and access settings. The current active account is indicated by a checkmark icon.

If there is at least one outstanding notification for any of the accounts, a red notification dot displays on the menu icon or organization logo in the navigation bar.

Figure: Menu options that display when you tap the menu icon or organization logo in the navigation bar

Brightspace Pulse – Pin and Unpin Courses (updated)

To help learners more easily find their current courses in Brightspace Pulse for Android, learners can now pin and unpin courses from the Courses screens. Pinning a course ensures it remains at the top of the screen for easy access. Previously, learners could only pin and unpin their courses in Brightspace Learning Environment and Brightspace Pulse for iOS.

To pin or unpin a course in Brightspace Pulse, do one of the following:

From the Courses screen, tap the ellipses (…) icon in a course tile.
From the Course Homepage screen, tap the ellipses (…) icon at the top of the screen.
From the list of actions, tap Pin or Unpin. A pinned course is denoted by a Pin icon. Unpinning a course removes the pin icon.

The Courses screen displaying a pinned course tile with the ellipses (...) icon and pin icon — Figure: The Courses screen displaying a pinned course tile with the ellipses (…) icon and pin icon

Instructors Only

Microsoft Teams Meetings Integration

Instructors with University Central Accounts can create, schedule, and share Teams Meetings from within CourseLink.

Add the instructor only widget to your course by making a copy of your homepage or editing an existing copy.

On your homepage, in the MS Teams Meeting widget, click Create meeting link.
Sign in with your account if you haven’t previously signed in.
Click Create meeting link.
Add a meeting title and select a date and time.
Click Create.
Click Copy to copy the dynamically generated meeting link.
Paste the meeting link into your course announcement, discussion, calendar event, or email.

Figure: Microsoft Teams Meetings sign in page

Calendar – Bulk Delete Items

To create parity with other tools and improve workflow, the Calendar tool now offers a Delete interface. Previously, it was impossible to bulk delete calendar items. This change enables users to multi-select and delete calendar items using the More Actions menu.

Figure: The Delete option appears in the More Actions drop-down menu.

Export Course Components – Org Unit Code Included in File Name

The default file name for exported courses now includes the Org Unit Code of the course being exported. The new file name convention follows the format: D2LExport_{OrgUnitId}_{OrgUnitCode}_{Timestamp}.zip. Previously, exported course names followed the format: D2LExport_{OrgUnitId}_{Timestamp}.zip.

Learning Outcomes – Transfer Rubric Feedback to General Feedback

Rubrics can be set to three types of visibility to learners: Always visible, Visible after assessment, and Always hidden. When a rubric is set to hidden, there is now a checkbox to indicate that you want the feedback provided on hidden rubrics to be transferred back to general feedback. The feedback from a rubric with this option enabled will appear to the learner as part of the general feedback on the activity. This is useful when instructors provide rubrics as a marking scheme for teaching assistants (not appropriate for learners to view), but want learners to benefit from the feedback provided on those rubrics. Instructors can also use this approach to provide learners with feedback on specific criteria listed in a rubric without knowing all the details for that criteria, such as a lab simulation for chemistry.

Note: If you select the option to display hidden rubric feedback in general feedback, the content does not also appear on the Outcomes Progress page for the submitted learner evidence.

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 April 2020

Students and Instructors

Classlist – Removal of the Classlist Navbar Link

To increase the level of student privacy in CourseLink, the Classlist navbar link will be removed from the default navigation bar.

Instructors can access the Classlist link by selecting Course Admin from the navbar. If there is a compelling reason to add the Classlist link, instructors can create a copy of the default navbar and add the Classlist link.

Brightspace Pulse – Pin and Unpin Courses

To help learners more easily find their current courses in Brightspace Pulse for iOS, learners can now pin and unpin courses from the Courses screens. Pinning a course ensures it remains at the top of the screen for easy access. Previously, learners could only pin and unpin their courses in CourseLink.

To pin or unpin a course in Brightspace Pulse, do one of the following:

From the Courses screen, tap the ellipses (…) icon in a course tile.
From the Course Homepage screen, tap the ellipses (…) icon at the top of the screen.

From the list of actions, tap Pin or Unpin. A pinned course is denoted by a Pin icon. Unpinning a course removes the pin icon.

Instructors Only

Dropbox – Dropbox Page Column Name

This feature updates the New column name on the Dropbox page to read as New Submissions.

The Dropbox page with the New Submissions column. — Figure: The Dropbox page with the New Submissions column

Pagination Default for Classlist and Grades

The pagination default in CourseLink for Classlist and Grades will be increased to [50, 100, 150, 200, 250] instead of the scale that started at [10, 20, …].

Learning Outcomes – Ability to Copy Outcomes

To provide a consistent copy experience, all learning outcomes that are in a course can now be copied to another course.

Now, you can outcomes from a source course to a target course. When selecting to copy outcomes with other course components, all other object references, such as alignment to rubric criteria or achievement scale mapping in the source course, and so on, are copied from the source to the target course as expected.

The changes also provide consistency in the editing experience. You can only edit outcomes at the location they originated. For example, if the outcome was authored in a program, it can only be edited in that program; it cannot be edited in the target course. To assist in knowing which learning outcomes can be edited from a user’s current location, there are icons to indicate if an outcome is locked (cannot be edited) or open (can be edited).

Copied outcomes will be copied as a reference (or link) back to the original source course. Any change made to the source outcome is automatically inherited in all target courses. If an outcome is copied to a target course, you cannot delete the outcome at the source without first deleting the outcome from all target courses.

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 2020

Instructors Only

Announcements – Display Author Information

To provide more information to users, Announcements now supports displaying author information (name and timestamp) on new and edited announcements.

A new Show Author Information check box displays in the New/Edit Announcement page, allowing instructors to choose if they want author information to display.

Users reading the announcement may see some or all of the following author information:

the original author
the original date and time of the announcement
the author who edited the announcement
the date and time of the edit

Figure: The new Show Author Information option on the New/Edit Announcement page

Groups – Set Exact Time Learners Can Self-Enroll

When setting up groups that allow learners to self-enroll, instructors can now add an exact time when enrollment opens, and an exact time when self-enrollment expires. Previously, instructors could only set the date when enrollment opened or expired.

Figure: Set exact time when enrollment opens and expires

Quick Eval – Support for Anonymous Marking

Dropbox assignments created with the Hide student names during assessment option selected now display in Quick Eval’s Submission view with learner names and profile images hidden. Instructors using anonymous marking can access Quick Eval with confidence that it supports their anonymous marking needs.

Figure: Learner names and profile images are hidden in Quick Eval Submissions view

Rubrics – Confirmation Message for Partially Unevaluated Rubrics

To prevent publishing partially unevaluated rubrics, the publishing workflow in the new Rubrics grading experience now includes a confirmation message that warns users when the rubric is not fully evaluated. Instructors have the option to continue publishing, or cancel. Warning messages appear when publishing a rubric for an individual student and when bulk publishing rubrics. Users attempting to publish an incomplete rubric evaluation must now click Publish to complete the workflow.

Figure: The confirmation message asks users if they want to publish anyway, when attempting to publish an incomplete evaluation for an individual learner.

Rubrics – Improved Accessibility in Rubric Grading

In Rubrics, when using keyboard navigation to tab to a row of selectable cells, there is now a focus indicator to help orient users on the page.

Rubrics – Manually Map Outcomes Achievement Levels to Rubric Levels

You can now manually map achievement levels to Rubric levels for all types of rubrics. Previously, achievement levels were automatically mapped to points-based or custom points-based rubrics. This feature enables you to override the percentage scale alignment with respect to an individual rubric if you choose to do so. This feature only appears when the scale has percentage values defined and is only enabled for points and custom point-based rubrics. For no score rubrics, the threshold marker placement is suggested and adjustable since there is no score calculation in the rubric.

Figure: New learning outcomes containing options to manually or automatically map achievement levels to rubric levels

Rubrics – Overall Score Levels Calculated After Rubric Criteria Completion

In the new Rubrics grading experience, the Overall Score level is now only calculated after all the criteria in the rubric have been assessed. This change optimizes rubric performance by eliminating the calculation of incomplete Overall Score levels until the rubric evaluation is completed, and improves the grading experience for instructors and rubric evaluators.

Contact

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

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