updates – Page 10 – CourseLink Continuous Delivery Update

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 December 2019

Students and Instructors

Dropbox – File size information in submission receipt email

File size information now displays next to the file name in the submission receipt email sent to learners upon making a submission to a Dropbox submission folder.

Dropbox – Submission ID displays for Learners

A new column that displays Submission ID information is visible to learners on the View Feedback page in Dropbox. The ID can be useful when troubleshooting issues with Dropbox submissions.

Figure: Submission ID visible to learners when reviewing Submission Feedback information

Release Conditions – Learners are notified when a release condition triggers new content

In a course that uses release conditions to unlock additional content, learners previously were not informed when new content became available as a result of a release condition that was satisfied. Because there was no automatic notification or refresh of the table of contents, there was the potential for frustration when learners think they are done a module, and are later informed that there are steps left to be completed.

Now, when release conditions are satisfied, the learner is notified using a pop-up (“toast”) message that there are new items available in the course.

Instructors Only

Content – Sort HTML templates in alphanumeric filename order

To make it easier to find HTML templates when using Content, instructors can select the new Sort HTML Templates by name option from the Content Settings page in Content. Selecting this new option sorts templates in alphanumeric order based on filename. Previously, HTML templates were sorted alphanumerically based on directory structure.

Figure: The new Sort HTML Templates by name option in the Content Settings page

Quick Eval – Display unevaluated submissions past course end date

Previously, unevaluated learner submissions were removed from Quick Eval when a course’s end date was reached. A new option has been set to display unevaluated learner submissions for 7 days beyond a course’s end date. This allows instructors to continue to use Quick Eval for courses past their end date for that specified amount of time.

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 October 2019

Students and Instructors

Accessibility – Compliance with WCAG 2.1 level AA | Updated

As part of D2L’s ongoing commitment to design and develop against WC3 accessibility best practices, CourseLink now aligns to the updated WCAG 2.1 level AA standards in both compliance reporting and all new development work. It is D2L’s intention to be an industry leader in inclusive design, and these changes improve support for individuals with alternative fine motor, cognition, and low vision needs. There are no major changes to workflows with these improvements; however, we have updated our shared components, such as fonts, buttons, menus, and input fields to better support WCAG 2.1 level AA requirements and recommendations. These changes include:

Adding input type and auto-complete to appropriate fields to facilitate a user’s ability to complete forms.
Adding escape key commands where appropriate to components that appear on hover or focus.
Updating components that activate on down event to ensure that a user can cancel actions.
Improving color contrast on additional components in CourseLink.

Supported browsers | Updated

As previously announced in the August release, Microsoft Internet Explorer is approaching End of Life (EOL) status as a supported browser. Starting January 2020, CourseLink will no longer support Internet Explorer. To provide more visibility about this upcoming change, when an existing user logs in to CourseLink using Internet Explorer, a banner now informs the user about the approaching EOL date. The banner also includes a recommendation to upgrade their browser and a link to the EOL communication on the Brightspace Community. After logging in, the user can dismiss the banner for that session. For each subsequent session, the banner displays; however, the user can dismiss it.

Figure: The Internet Explorer End of Life banner in CourseLink.

Brightspace Pulse – iOS support | Updated

The latest version of Brightspace Pulse is supported on Apple devices with iOS 11 or higher. Older versions of Brightspace Pulse will continue to work on Apple devices with iOS 10, but will not receive any app updates. For an optimal experience, D2L recommends installing the latest version of Brightspace Pulse on Apple devices with iOS 11 or higher.

Instructors Only

Dropbox, Quizzes, Discussions – Change to immersive navigation bar

When evaluating a assignment submission, quiz, or discussion, the user interface has been updated slightly. The Next Student and Previous Student buttons above the submission and learner information have been replaced by forward and back chevrons that display in the immersive navigation bar. Previously, these buttons were displayed across the entire width of the page. The information on which user you are evaluating (e.g. 1 of 12) displays between the back and forward chevrons.

Figure: Evaluating an assignment with the new immersive navigation bar.

CourseLink – Improvements to consistency

To provide a more consistent experience, there have been changes to update the language, interface controls, and workflows throughout CourseLink.

The language and methods by which instructors make activities hidden or visible to learners across different tools is now consistent.

The visibility control now uses a checkbox with the consistent terminology Hide from users in all instances. This change affects the Dropbox, Discussions, Quizzes, Surveys, and Grades (grade item and grade category) tools.
In Discussions, the Visibility, Availability Dates, and Locking options move from the Properties tab to the Restrictions tab.
The Hide from users checkbox appears under the title field of all activity creation pages in the Content tool.
There is now only one Special Access icon in Quizzes (previously there were two, one for each type of Special Access). The Special Access icon also now appears in Dropbox where it previously did not.
In the Grade book, on the context menu for a grade item, the Grade All option is now Enter Grades.
In the Grade Item and Grade Category event log, the End Date Restriction and Start Date Restriction properties are now Availability End Date and Availability Start Date.

Intelligent Agents – Email Attachments

You can now add attachments to automated email messages when creating and editing intelligent agents. The intelligent agent email template contains an Attachments area that enables you to upload local files, select from available course files, or record audio.

Links – Improved link validation

The Links tool has been updated to improve the link validation process. Pre-existing links are not impacted; however, any new links or updates to pre-existing links must be formatted to follow the new validation rules. (Valid formats include: URLs that begin with http/https, ftp/sftp/ftps, file, mailto, feed, itpc, mms, rtsp, or relative paths beginning with /).

Quick Eval – Accessibility improvements to Activities view

To increase the accessibility of the Activities view in Quick Eval, the feature is now compatible with screen reader technology.

Quizzes – Enter as User permission

Instructors can now use the Enter In-Progress Quiz as User permission. With this change, users marking quizzes can impersonate students to submit the quiz on behalf of the student. Administrators can be sure that there are no privacy infringement issues, and instructors will not accidentally infringe on a learner’s privacy.

Contact

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

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