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:
To streamline access to assignment feedback, learners can now immediately access inline feedback from User Progress, Grades, and Dropbox. From these tools, the View Inline Feedback link takes the learner directly to the annotations view (or Turnitin viewer, if that is the tool used to provide feedback). The inline feedback also includes a link to the file for the assignment, so learners know which document contains the feedback. Previously, the View Inline Feedback link took the learner to the Dropbox feedback summary page, where they had to click a second link to view the feedback.
Figure: Grades view for learners displaying the View Inline Feedback link, which now opens directly in the annotation view.
CourseLink – EXIF Data Warning Appears when Uploading Images
In some instances, when users upload .jpg files in any file upload area across CourseLink, an EXIF (exchangeable image file) data warning appears informing the user that the file may contain geolocation data.
Video Note – Automatic Closed Captioning
To improve accessibility, video notes now provide automatic closed captioning for newly created videos. After video processing, users can view closed captions using video player controls.
In addition, users can now download a transcript and the closed caption file associated with a video independent of Video Notes.
Localized closed captioning is available for the following languages:
US English (en-US)
British English (en-GB)
Canadian French (fr-CA)
German (de-DE)
Brazilian Portuguese (pt-BR)
Korean (ko-KR)
Italian (it-IT)
Spanish (es-US)
Modern Standard Arabic (ar-SA)
Russian (ru-RU)
Japanese (ja-JP)
Turkish (tr-TR)
Dutch (nl-NL)
Chinese Mandarin (zh-CN)
Notes:
Canadian English is not available for closed captioning and defaults to en-US.
Chinese Traditional (zh-TW) closed captions are not currently available and defaults to zh-CN.
Mexican Spanish (es-MX) closed captions may not be available and defaults to US Spanish (es-US)
Swedish closed captions are not available.
Figure: A Video Note with closed captions.
Instructors Only
Course Administration – Course Reset
Course Reset is a new tool that enables an instructor to reset a course back to an empty shell. Course Reset permanently deletes course content, activities, associated files, user grades, user progress records, and interaction data from the course in a single bulk process. Users can optionally choose to include course groups, and/or course widgets, navbars, and homepages as part of the course reset process, or leave them in the course.
The Course Reset process does not affect user enrollments, sections and section enrollment, course associations, course paths associated to the course, ePortfolio, ePortfolio sharing groups or forms, email/instant messages sent to or from users in the course, and Activity Feed posts.
Course Reset permanently deletes the course data and it will not appear in any reporting or data sets after the course reset process is complete. After performing a course reset, an Audit Log maintains a record of the course reset action, including the date and time of the course reset, the data that was selected for deletion, the user who performed the course reset, and any errors that occur during the course reset process.
Grades – Tab Delimited Import into Gradebook
Users can now import tab separated value (.tsv) files into Gradebook. Previously, users could only import comma delimited files into Gradebook, which created a usability issue in some international regions.
Outcomes Management – Levels of Achievement are Mapped to Rubric Levels
Levels of achievement, used to measure progress towards learning outcomes, can now be mapped to rubric levels. Instructors no longer have to use a percentage score to translate rubric levels to levels of achievement. This means they can use text-only rubrics, as well as points-based rubrics, to automatically identify a suggested level of achievement for the learner’s performance.
Achievement levels are automatically mapped to rubric levels. If there are more rubric levels than achievement levels, some achievement levels may span more than one rubric level. In this case, the levels on each side of the center are symmetrically and evenly distributed.
If there are more achievement levels than rubric levels, some achievement levels are excluded in the map. In this case, the top and bottom achievement levels are automatically mapped to the top and bottom rubric levels and distributed evenly and symmetrically.
After the automatic mapping has occurred, instructors can manually adjust the alignment. The alignment levels can be manually adjusted by dragging the colored circles in the Achievement Levels row of the rubric to identify the desired mapping. Changes can be made to the alignment until a submission is evaluated using the rubric. At that point, the rubric and mapped achievement levels are locked.
Figure: Rubrics dialog enabling instructors to adjust the outcomes mapped to rubric levels.
Quizzes – Learning Outcomes can be aligned to Quiz Questions
In the new Quiz Builder, questions can be aligned to learning outcomes. After you align an outcome to a quiz question, that outcome is aligned for all quizzes in which the question appears. This feature builds on the availability of learning outcomes with other tools, including content items, Dropbox, and rubrics.
After instructors align learning outcomes to one or more questions in a quiz, they can evaluate levels of achievement against learner quiz attempts. Suggested outcome achievements are provided for questions that are auto-graded with the ability to overwrite the suggestion. The default outcome achievement suggestion is based on the default outcomes achievement scale for the course. After the learning outcomes are published, quiz attempts appear in the outcomes progress page as individual demonstration of the learners’ achievement toward the outcomes. They are also visible to instructors when evaluating or reviewing attempts from within Quizzes and visible to learners within Quizzes if a submission view is set up to show quiz questions, responses, and associated outcomes to learners.
Instructors can align outcomes to all questions in a question pool by selecting the question pool from the main Quiz Builder page and then selecting Align to Outcomes from the More Actions menu. They can remove alignment to a particular question or set of questions within a question pool by opening the pool and selecting the clear option next to outcomes tag on each individual question.
Quick Eval – Course Level Filtering
When opening Quick Eval within a course, only the list of activities and submissions related to that course display. This helps instructors easily view and evaluate submissions on a course-by-course basis. If an instructor wants to view all submissions across all their courses, they can still use the More Options menu to see the Multi-Course Quick Eval, or open Quick Eval from outside of a course.
Quick Eval – Dismiss Activities until next Submission
Instructors can now remove items from their Quick Eval list until a new submission is received for the activity. The removed activity appears on the Dismissed Activities list and can be restored at any time. Once a new submission arrives to the Quick Eval list, the previously dismissed activity reappears there.
Previously, instructors could only select a specific date or forever when dismissing an activity. This new option provides instructors with an additional option to manage the submissions on their Quick Eval list.
Contact
If you have any questions about the updates, please contact CourseLink Support at:
Brightspace Pulse – Additional Languages Supported
To provide consistent language support with the Brightspace
platform, Brightspace Pulse is now available in the following additional
languages:
Arabic (Saudi Arabia)
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Danish
French (France)
German (Germany)
Japanese
Korean
Swedish
Turkish
Previously, Brightspace Pulse was only available in: English (U.S.), Spanish (Latin America), French (Canada), Portuguese (Brazil), and Dutch.
Classlist – Total Number of Users Field and Floating Buttons
To improve ease of use, the total number of users for their selection (whole class, section, group) now appears in a field at the bottom of the Classlist page for at-a-glance viewing to help instructors keep track of the total number of learners, which may extend beyond the users visible on the page. On the Print Classlist and Email Classlist pages, the clickable Print and Email buttons now float consistently on screen, to ensure easy access to these actions without excessive scrolling.
Groups – Self-enrollment Group Capacity, Start Dates and Descriptions
This feature includes three improvements to Groups:
Group members can now see the description of their group. For self-enrolled groups, group members will now see the group description at all times, including before and after enrollment. For other group types, instructors can now choose to display the description to members of the group. This visible group description setting is off by default for non-self-enrollment groups. Previously, all group descriptions were hidden from group members.
An instructor can now increase or decrease the capacity for self-enrollment groups after they have been created, and prior to the group sign-up expiry date. Decreasing a group size to an amount smaller than has already signed up for a group will not re-allocate users to other groups. Previously, self-enrollment groups were not editable after they were created.
Instructors can set Start dates for self-enrollment groups. This feature allows them to schedule self-enrollment groups availability, ensuring learners are prepared and have equal opportunity to self-enroll.
User Management – Character Limit for Long Text Fields in User Profile
To add a reasonable character limit to long text fields in the User Profile page, the following Personal Info
fields are now 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
Instructor Only
Copy Course Components – Add Validation Logic to the Copy Process
Copy Course Components now contains a validation logic step to the course copy process, which can inform users if they performed a copy from the source previously, avoiding unnecessary duplication of copied course components.
Discussions – Assessment Consistency Changes
When assessing discussions, instructors have new multi-select options to Publish Feedback and Retract Feedback. In the Status column, the Draft / Published checkbox has been replaced by information on the date when feedback was saved as draft or published. These changes are visible on both the Users and Assessments tabs. The Save, Save and Close, and Cancel buttons have also been removed as their functionality has been replaced by the Publish Feedback and Retract Feedback options.
Figure: Previous view when assessing a discussion topicFigure: Updated view when assessing a discussion topic
Grades – Export Sorting Options
This feature introduces the ability to sort exported gradebooks based on the following options: OrgDefinedID, Username, Last Name, and First name. The sort options available are based on the User Information Privacy permissions for the role.
Outcomes Management – Levels of Achievement are Mapped to Rubric Levels
Levels of achievement, used to measure progress towards learning
outcomes, can now be mapped to rubric levels. Instructors no longer have to use
a percentage score to translate rubric levels to levels of achievement. This
means they can use text-only rubrics, as well as points-based rubrics, to
automatically assess students against learning outcomes.
Achievement levels are automatically mapped to rubric levels. If
there are more rubric levels than achievement levels, some achievement levels
may span more than one rubric level. In this case, the levels on each side of
the center are symmetrically and evenly distributed.
If there are more achievement levels than rubric levels, some achievement levels are excluded in the map. In this case, the top and bottom achievement levels are automatically mapped to the top and bottom rubric levels and distributed evenly and symmetrically. After the automatic mapping has occurred, instructors can manually adjust the alignment. The alignment levels can be manually adjusted by dragging the colored circles in the Achievement Levels row of the rubric to identify the desired mapping. Changes can be made to the alignment until a submission is evaluated using the rubric. At that point, rubrics and mapped outcome achievements are locked.
Figure: Rubrics dialog enabling instructors to adjust the outcomes mapped to rubric levels
After rubrics and assessment outcomes are mapped, when an instructor enters a mark on the rubric, a suggested achievement level is automatically set based on achievement levels and rubric level mappings.
The suggested achievement levels are displayed for the instructor to review and adjust if necessary.
Figure: Rubric items aligned with outcomes provide information results in suggested achievement levels, which can be adjusted by instructors
Quick Eval – Dismiss Activities from List
To improve the ability to manage items on their Quick Eval list, instructors can now select items that appear in their Quick Eval list and remove them temporarily or permanently. Instructors can view their dismissed items in the Dismissed Activities List and restore them to the Quick Eval list at any time.
Quizzes – Synchronization with Grades
Quiz scores and feedback entered in Grades now synchronize automatically with Quizzes. To further streamline the workflow, the Overall Feedback fields in Grades and Quizzes are now consolidated, and the Grade Item Public Comments field has been removed from Grades. All comments entered in the Overall Feedback field in Grades synchronizes automatically with the Overall Feedback field in Quizzes. This update creates a more direct workflow and aligns Quizzes with the consistent feedback experience implemented in Assignments and Discussions. Refer to the blog post Improving Consistency Of Synchronization Between Grades And Quizzes Tool (20.20.01 – January Release) for more information. Note: Synchronization only occurs for new grade entries. Existing grade data for quizzes will not be migrated due to the high impact to all past data and reports.
Contact
If you have any questions about the updates, please contact CourseLink Support at:
The Dropbox page shows a count of new submissions and resubmissions in the New column, which you can opt-in /opt-out of displaying.
Figure: Dropbox page with the New column
Intelligent Agents – Email images
This feature includes the following change to Intelligent Agents (IA):
Users can now insert images directly into the body of intelligent agent emails using the Add Image button in the HTML editor. The images are attached to the email and shown in place when viewed in the recipient’s external mail client.
Learning Outcomes | New
CourseLink has released a new tool called Learning Outcomes. The new outcomes tool can be used to track and assess learning outcomes at a program and/or course level.
You can find the tool under the Course Admin options.
Figure: The Learning Outcomes tool under Course Admin
Once outcomes have been added to a course, they can be linked to Rubric criteria, Dropbox folders, and Discussions.
Note: Linking to Grade items and Quiz questions will be coming in a future release.
Any new programs or achievement scales can be set up by contacting CourseLink Support.
The official release video, below, can be viewed on D2L’s YouTube channel.
With the release of the new Learning Outcomes tool, all language related to outcomes will be removed from the Competencies tool.
Updated terminology:
LOA Framework will be restored to Competency
Learning Outcome will be restored to Objective
Learning Outcomes – View assessment details on the Outcomes Progress Details page
To increase the value of the Outcomes Progress Details page, instructors and other instructor-type roles can now view feedback and submissions for dropbox and discussion topics for individual learners.
The page links to a summary of the activity, the learner’s submission or demonstration of the activity, the assessment that an instructor has provided. The feedback page displays the following information:
Activity description
Learner submission
Rubric assessment
Score achieved by the learner
Start, due, and end dates
Outcomes and levels achieved
General feedback provided by the instructor or evaluator
Quick Eval – Improve consistency across supported tools
To improve consistency across tools in Quick Eval, the following updates are being released:
When feedback on a quiz submission is saved as draft, a draft icon displays next to the quiz submissions in Quick Eval.
In Activities view, the Publish All option is available for Quizzes.
Quizzes – Restore quiz attempts in the Quiz Attempt log | Update
When an instructor restores a learner’s deleted quiz attempt, note the following workflow changes:
A deleted quiz attempt can only be restored if the learner does not have another quiz attempt in progress.
The Restore button only appears for the latest deleted quiz attempt.
Quizzes – Save feedback as draft
Instructors can now clearly see when feedback is saved as a draft, or published, while evaluating quiz submissions. On the quiz evaluation page, the Graded (G) checkbox and Save button have been replaced by the Publish and Save Draft buttons.
Figure: The Publish and Save Draft buttons allow instructors to quickly save drafts of feedback left on quiz submissions
Quizzes – Set quiz options in Quiz Builder
The new Quiz Builder experience now allows instructors to set additional quiz options when creating quizzes. A More Actions button is visible when users select the checkbox for one or more questions; allowing instructors to set questions as mandatory or bonus directly from Quiz Builder, and change the number points assigned to a question or set of questions. There is no change in how the bonus, mandatory, or points features work.
Video Note – Removal of Flash
The Video Note tool has removed all Flash-based recording options.
Video Note – Record Video workflow update
Instructors are now able to attach pre-existing Video Notes in the Record Video workflow.
Contact
If you have any questions about the updates, please contact CourseLink Support at:
To improve the delivery of course notifications in CourseLink, the Notifications option, available from the username on the minibar, includes the following changes:
Added a Summary of Activity option for receiving email notifications about the summary of activity for each course. Options include: Never, Daily, or Weekly (default).
Removed the following Customize Notifications options: Allow past courses to send me notifications and Allow inactive courses to send me notifications. Learners can now only receive daily email digests for current and future courses.
Removed the following SMS notifications for Instant Notifications: Content – content item created, Content – content item updated, and Content – content overview updated.
If any of the removed notification options are currently selected, learners will no longer receive these notifications after the monthly update. To receive content-related instant notifications, CourseLink recommends using the Brightspace Pulse mobile app or select the Email option for the instant notification type on the Notifications page. Email content notifications remain unaffected.
Supported browsers | Updated
New clients can no longer access the CourseLink Learning Environment using Microsoft Internet Explorer. If users attempt to access CourseLink using Internet Explorer, an unsupported page appears. The unsupported page contains links to download supported browsers and a link to the Community End of Life communication. The text of the unsupported page is customizable using the Language Management tool. Users cannot log in to CourseLink using any version of Internet Explorer.
When a user tries to access CourseLink using any version of Internet Explorer, a retro pop-up dialog box appears. The text in the retro pop-up dialog box has been updated to include the January 2020 end of life date information. Users who had previously dismissed the pop-up will see it again following the August update if CourseLink is accessed using any version of Internet Explorer. The pop-up can be dismissed again and will not reappear with subsequent updates.
OpenDyslexic font setting | Removed
The OpenDyslexic font is intended to increase readability of text for users with dyslexia. D2L introduced this font into CourseLink as a measure of support for users with dyslexia, based on interest from clients and initially positive media reports. However, to date, there is no empirical evidence that it improves readability or comprehension for users with dyslexia. To ensure that D2L offers true accessibility solutions and that we align our design system and development practices with the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1 Level AA Criteria), the OpenDyslexic font is removed in the August 2019 release.
Email – Add images to messages | Updated
When composing email messages, users can select Insert Image to add pictures from their computer, a URL, or Manage Files. Images are inserted in place, attached to the email, and display in place for the recipient. The Insert Stuff button is no longer shown in Email, as it has several workflows that are incompatible with the external email experience.
Instructors Only
Dropbox – Spell check for annotation notes | Updated
When assessing submissions with the built-in annotation tools in Dropbox, text within the comment annotation is now checked for spelling mistakes.
Intelligent Agents now re-evaluate the status of release conditions at the moment of triggering to determine whether a user has completed a particular release condition or not. Previously, Intelligent Agents retained release condition information from users, even if users no longer triggered the retained release condition.
Quizzes – General availability of Quiz Builder
Quiz Builder is a new work flow for adding, editing, reordering, and deleting quiz content in the Quizzes tool.
Quiz Builder saves instructors time by streamlining the screens and work flows for building and arranging quiz content. Instructors can add questions, sections and question pools, or import from the Question library. From a single interface, they can edit, delete and reorder questions. They can also review critical information such as question points and total points in the quiz; mandatory and bonus status and shuffling behavior.
You can use the new Quiz Builder experience by clicking Add/Edit Questions on the quiz Properties tab. The updated Add/Edit Questions screen provides the option to add, edit, reorder, delete, and move between sections using keyboard interaction in the new experience. The experience is accessible when using assistive technologies.
Quizzes – Restore quiz attempts in the Quiz Attempt log | New
Instructors can now restore deleted quiz attempts for learners from within a quiz using the new Quiz Attempt log. The New Quiz Attempt log tracks quiz attempt submissions per user, in both an overview and detailed set of logs.
The following actions are captured in the Overview:
Attempt Started
Attempt Submitted
Attempt Deleted
Attempt Restored
Figure: The overview tab on the Attempt Logs page
Video Assignments – Auto Analysis ™ tool | New
Auto Analysis™ is a tool for the Video Assignments integration. It automatically transcribes all uploaded Individual Project assignments and measures the speaking rate, speech clarity, and use of filler words. The transcribed data is compiled into a report with a score that instructors can use as a data point when assessing the assignment. Instructors can configure an Individual Project to show or hide overall delivery scores.
The Auto Analysis™ tool interface appears in all languages supported by Video Assignments. Note that Auto Analysis™ is designed for English-speaking video assignments only – it cannot transcribe or analyze non-English audio.
This automated reporting feature provides learners greater insight into their performance and opportunity to reflect, practice and improve their assignment before submission.
Figure: The report view by Auto Analysis™ provides feedback on the Clarity, Fillers, Speaking Rate and Overall Delivery score on Individual project assignments
Contact
If you have any questions about the updates, please contact CourseLink Support at:
