D2L Help

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October 2019, version 20.19.10

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, the Brightspace Learning Environment 20.19.10/October 2019 release 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 Brightspace Learning Environment.

 

Assignments – Change to immersive navigation bar | Updated

When evaluating an assignment submission, 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 The Next Student and Previous Student buttons above the submission and learner information have been replaced by forward and back chevrons that display in the immersive navigation bar.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.

 

Brightspace Learning Environment – Improvements to consistency | Updated

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

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

• The visibility control now uses a checkbox with the consistent terminology Hide from users in all instances. This change affects the Assignments, 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.
• In Content, on the table of contents, there is now a visibility icon button for use with both content topics and modules. The icon serves as a visibility switch. The visibility status of a topic appears when the topic is not visible, when the table of contents is in bulk edit mode, or when a topic is in edit-in-place mode. The table of contents fly-out no longer provides the ability to switch the visibility of a topic or module.
• In Content, the Hide from users and Make Visible to users options are available in the context menus for topics and modules in the table of contents, and in the context menus of topics on the topics’ detail page.

The Instructor view of the list page of several tools now has consistent icons in a consistent order for activity restrictions. Changes include:

• All common activity icons appear before tool-specific icons.
• 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 Assignments where it previously did not.
• All icons have been updated to the Daylight style (except the Bonus Grade item, which will be done in a future release).
• Alt-text appears on all icons on the activity pages. In some cases, the alt-text has been changed to provide consistent text across all icons of the same type.

Across many tools, including Quizzes, Surveys, Grades, and Discussions, the Restrictions tab provides the ability to control the visibility status and availability dates for an activity. Changes include:

• Changes to the Restrictions tabs in Quizzes, Survey, Grades, and Discussions to show Hide from Users with a check box control to turn on or turn off the visibility of the item.
• Previous sections containing the visibility settings in Surveys, Grades, and Discussions (for Forums and Topics) are renamed to Availability.
• Availability dates in Grades (for a grade item and grade category) and Discussions (for Forums and Topics) now appear and can be hidden.

There is now a consistent individual and bulk process workflow to hide or show activities. With this workflow, users can quickly change the visibility status from the list of activities without first having to edit the activity. Changes include:

• In Quizzes, Surveys, and Grades, users can hide or show individual items under the context menu of an individual item or bulk items from the More Actions button at the top of the page.
• In Discussions, users can hide or show individual items under the context menu of each topic and forum. Bulk hide or show is not available for Discussions.

The language and methods by which instructors save content on the New Activity page (Content tool) are now consistent. Whether the item is visible or not is determined by the Hide from Users permission check box. Changes include:

• Publish and Save as Draft have been combined into a single button called Save.

In addition, there are other consistency updates throughout the Brightspace Learning Environment:

• The Completion Method icon in the table of contents in the Content tool is now a menu. I
• 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 Visibility property is now Visibility Status. Status options are now Hidden or Not Hidden.
• 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.
• In the Grade Item and Grade Category event log, changes to the Visibility and Date properties are now logged independently.
• In Surveys, the display of availability dates on the survey Administrator and User list pages are now consistent with the display currently used in Quizzes.

For additional information about the changes as a result of this feature update, see Activity Visibility Improvements - Part 1 and Activity Visibility Improvements - Part 2

 

Brightspace Learning Environment – Supported browsers | Updated

As previously announced in the August 2019/20.19.8 release, Microsoft Internet Explorer is approaching End of Life (EOL) status as a supported browser. Starting January 2020, Brightspace Learning Environment will no longer support Internet Explorer. To provide more visibility about this upcoming change, when an existing user logs in to Brightspace Learning Environment 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.

For an optimal experience that offers better performance, accessibility, and security, D2L strongly recommends that all users access Brightspace Learning Environment with a supported browser.

Figure: The Internet Explorer End of Life banner on the login page.

Figure: The Internet Explorer End of Life banner in Brightspace Learning Environment.

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.

 

Intelligent Agents - Email Attachments | New

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. Attachment size is based on the email attachment size setting for your organization.

Figure: The Attachments area now appears when creating or editing Intelligent Agents emails messages.

Quizzes – Change to immersive navigation bar | Updated

When evaluating a quiz submission, 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) now displays between the back and forward chevrons.

Figure: Evaluating a quiz with the new immersive navigation bar.

Quizzes - Enter as User permission | New

In the past, users with appropriate permissions to preview and grade quizzes could use the Enter In-Progress Quiz as User feature to create a restricted impersonation session. They could then use the impersonation session to submit the quiz on behalf of the user. Now, administrators can control the ability to preview and grade in-progress quizzes using the Enter In-Progress Quiz as User permission. With this change, users marking quizzes no longer need to have impersonation permissions, administrators can be sure that there are no privacy infringement issues, and instructors will not accidentally infringe on a learner's privacy.

 

September 2019, version 20.19.9

 Activity Feed - Inline rendering of remote plug-in attachments | New

When an instructor attaches a remote plug-in via a Quicklink to a message or assignment post, the plug-in now renders inline as an embedded attachment. This allows users to view the material without navigating away from Activity Feed. Previously, a remote plug-in attachment rendered as a simple web link.

Figure: An Activity Feed post with a remote plug-in attachment

Activity Feed - Message posts now support embed codes | New

To allow instructors and learners to share more material in a course, users can now paste embed codes directly into the body of message posts. These embed codes automatically attach and display inline for all users to view and interact with.

Figure: An Activity Feed post with an embed code attachment

Activity Feed - Improved attachment workflow and thumbnail previews | New

Users can now attach web links to message and assignment posts by pasting them into the body of messages or the instructions of assignments. The display of link attachments has also been enhanced to show a thumbnail and description, if available. Previously, links could only be added to posts by the Click and Attach workflow and the display was limited to a simple link icon and title.

Figure: An Activity Feed post with the new link styling containing a thumbnail preview and description

Assignments - Grades entered in Assignments and Grade Book are synchronized | New

When an instructor enters a grade for an assignment submission in the standard or spreadsheet view of Grade Book, the grade also appears with the submission in Assignments. Previously, grades entered in the Assignment tool were passed on to Grade Book; however, grades for assignment submissions entered in Grade Book were not passed to the Assignments tool. This change ensures data consistency between Assignments and Grade Book. Currently Assignment grades are not synchronized when the Assignment tool is updated by the Brightspace API or when Grade Book is exported and imported.

Note: This synchronization only occurs for new grade entries. Existing grade data for assignment submissions will not automatically be migrated because it would impact all past data and reports.

This feature implements PIE items D3610, and D391.

 

Brightspace Pulse - Activity Feed notifications | New

To help keep learners up to date on course activity, Brightspace Pulse now displays Activity Feed notifications in the Updates tab, for example, messages and links to course materials and external resources. Tapping an Activity Feed notification displays the post in Brightspace Pulse.

 

Discussions - Grades entered in Discussions and Grade book are synchronized | New

When an instructor enters a grade for a discussion in the standard or spreadsheet view of Grade Book, the grade also appears with the discussion post in Discussions. Previously, grades entered in the Discussion were passed on to Grade Book; however, grades for discussions entered in Grade Book were not passed to the Discussions tool. This change ensures data consistency between Discussions and Grade Book. Currently Discussion grades are not synchronized when the Discussion tool is updated by the Brightspace API or when Grade Book is exported and imported.

Note: This synchronization only occurs for new grade entries. Existing grade data for discussions will not automatically be migrated because it would impact all past data and reports.

This feature implements PIE items D3610 and D391.

 

Release Conditions - Release condition for topic completion | New

The Completed content topic is a new release condition that is met when a user completes a content topic. The method of completing the topic depends on the type, such as viewing a file or submitting an assignment. Similar to the currently available Visited content topic release condition, optional topics can also trigger this release condition.

This release condition ignores exemptions, meaning that if the learner completes the activity, the release condition can be met, regardless of the activity being required, optional, or exempt.

Figure: The Completed content topic release condition is now available from the Condition Type drop-down list.

 

What's New for Fall 2019

Welcome Back! The D2L Services office  has been working on new updates and new integrations over the summer.

Subscription Training

Ready to take your D2L courses to the next level? D2L Subscription training provides faculty and staff unlimited access to on-demand and live D2L training. It provides convenient access to training anytime, anywhere.  In addition to flexible access, some additional features are:

• Tiered training to match your skill level- Beginner, intermediate advanced content
• Keep up-to-date with D2L features with What's New Sessions
• Get started quickly with recommended playlists

Find out more information on how to register for subscription training.

New Rubric Experience

What does the new rubric experience look like?

• The new rubric grading is consistent across all workflows and tools
• It auto-saves your changes as you grade
• It separates rubric Total from Overall Score making it possible to communicate both the numeric grade, and the level of achievement to learners
• It works the same whether you have Learning Objectives associated or not
• It has a responsive mobile view making it attractive to grade on tablets and phones

Instructor View:



Student view:

In summary, here are the key new best practices to keep in mind:

• Since rubric work is auto-saved, there is no need to continuously Save the rubric. Instead, use the Publish and Save Draft options to make feedback visible immediately or later.
• Leave overall activity feedback in Overall Feedback for the activity, and not in the rubric. It will display to the learner in a nice consistent block, followed by a completed rubric with detailed criteria feedback.
• Be assured that your students will see your rubric and overall activity feedback in a consistent presentation across User Progress, Content, Assignments, Discussions and Grades

Kaltura Capture

Kaltura Capture is a personal recording solution for your Mac or PC that is integrated with My Media (Kaltura) and D2L. It allows you to record multiple inputs, such as your computer's screen, webcam, and microphone. Once it is installed, you're only one click away from recording your next course introduction or lecture video. Give it a try to turn your voice-over-PowerPoints into interactive embedded videos. Find out more on how to download and use the software on our website.

Kaltura Closed Captioning

All videos added to your My Meda (Kaltura) now have automatic, machine-generated closed captions. These captions are editable within My Media. The machine-generated captions are intended to be a base for creating accurate captions with the editor and also to enable users the ability to search and interact with transcript while watching a video. Read more about this feature on our Kaltura Closed Captioning page.

New Widget on Default Course Homepage

The Course Overview widget is a dashboard on your course homepage that allows you to see some data about course access and engagement.

The widget displays high-level aggregate information about the course and links to course-specific reports. For example, the widget can display a visualization of weekly course access (the Course Access report as a bar chart) and how many learners submitted quizzes today. In addition, the widget includes links to the Class Engagement tool, and Course Access and Tool Access reports. More information on the Course Overview widget can be found on our help page.

24/7 D2L Support Available

 The D2L technical support specialists at the 24/7 Technical Support help desk are trained to assist users on a variety of topics including:

• Configuring your computer to use D2L
• Logging into D2L
• Troubleshooting problems accessing your online content
• Setting up your browser to support D2L
• Questions about how to use features in D2L
• Uploading and downloading assignments/email attachments

 

August 2019, version 20.19.8

Activity Feed – Visual improvements

The following changes are visible in Activity Feed:

• When selecting between Message and Assignment posts, the chosen option is now underlined to better indicate the post type.
• Field names have been added to improve accessibility.
• The post type icon has been removed to provide more authoring space when creating posts.
• Once a post is published, the new layout makes more efficient use of screen space.

Figure: Before and after view of Activity Feed

Brightspace - Improvements to course notifications

To improve the delivery of course notifications in Brightspace Learning Environment, 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, D2L 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.

This feature implements PIE item D2203.

Figure: The new Summary of Activity option in Notifications

Brightspace Learning Environment – Supported browsers

New clients can no longer access Brightspace Learning Environment using Microsoft Internet Explorer. If users attempt to access Brightspace Learning Environment 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 Brightspace Learning Environment using any version of Internet Explorer.

When a user tries to access Brightspace Learning Environment 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 Brightspace is accessed using any version of Internet Explorer. The pop-up can be dismissed again and will not reappear with subsequent updates. Sites that have explicitly turned off the retro pop-up dialog box for their entire org are not affected.

Brightspace - OpenDyslexic font setting | Removed

The OpenDyslexic font is intended to increase readability of text for users with dyslexia. D2L introduced this font into Brightspace Learning Environment 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.

For more information, see the Intent To End Of Life Notice For: OpenDyslexic Font Option In Account Settings blog post.

Email – Add images to messages

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.

This feature implements PIE items D871, D5458, D2163.

Intelligent Agents - Release Condition Re-evaluations

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.

This feature implements PIE item D3497.

Quizzes - Restore quiz attempts in the Quiz Attempt log

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

The Restore button appears when a quiz attempt is deleted for a user. Instructors can access the attempt logs from the Quiz name drop-down menu and in the Grade Quiz area. The ability to see the Restore button beside deleted attempts is now controlled by the renamed Reset and Restore Attempts permission.

The Detailed Quiz Log captures the following actions:

• Quiz Entry and re-entry
• Response Save time
• Page Movement time
• Quiz confirmation screen / completion