December 2021
Brightspace Editor – Hotkey shortcut to source editor
This feature adds a new hotkey shortcut in the Brightspace Editor (the editor you see when creating in Content) to access the source editor. Previously, the source editor was unavailable by a hotkey shortcut.
The hotkey shortcut is:
- Windows: Ctrl+Shift+E
- Mac: Command+Shift+E
This feature addresses the following accessibility criteria:
- WCAG 2.1 Success criterion 2.1.4 Character Key Shortcuts
Learning Environment – Alerts in the minibar persist for 90 days
With this release, when you click on the Message alerts, Subscription alerts, or Update alerts icons in the minibar, you can retrieve alerts from the last 90 days. Previously, all alerts disappeared after 7 days.
The way these alerts display to users has not changed: when you click one of the icons, the 5 most recent alerts appear in the dropdown. When you click Load More, 5 more alerts appear.
Brightspace Pulse – Display Pulse banner in Grades
To promote Brightspace Pulse usage in organizations, administrators can choose to display a banner in the learner view of the Grades tool. The banner includes links to the Brightspace Pulse app from the Google Play and Apple App Store. Previously, the banner was only visible from the Notifications Settings page.
Figure: The Brightspace Pulse banner visible from Grades and the Notifications Settings page
Content – Language changes for back buttons in New Learner Experience
When a user accesses the new learner experience immersive viewer from a location other than the course content area, the Back to Content button has been updated to display Back. Clicking Back returns the user to their previous location in Avenue. The language has been updated to remove confusion over where the button directs the user. There are two places this text changes: the immersive navigation page, and the end-of-unit page.
Content – New Content Edit Experience supports media file captions
The New Content Edit Experience now supports the ability to upload captions to a media file. This functionality was previously only available in the previous Lessons view and the Classic Content Experience.
To add captions, users select Advanced Editing and select a language along with their SRT file with the subtitles.
This feature addresses the following accessibility criteria:
- WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded)
Content – Updated count and overdue badges
In the Classic Content tool for instructors and learners, the count and overdue badges in the Table of Contents now reflect an updated appearance that is consistent with other tools. The new count badge is circular (for single digits) or a capsule (for double-digits), with a grey background, and with higher contrast text. In addition, the overdue badge is now circular (for single digits) or a capsule (for double-digits). Previously, the count badge was rectangular, with a white background, and grey text/outline. The overdue badge was rectangular and red.
This feature addresses the following accessibility criteria:
- WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)
Figure: The new count and overdue badges in the Classic Content tool
Figure: The old count and overdue badges in the Classic Content tool
Course Import/Export – Import and export intelligent agents
With this release, administrators and instructors can now include intelligent agents when importing or exporting courses. This allows administrators and instructors to share the dynamic notification interactions in imported/exported courses with other instances. Previously, intelligent agents were not included when importing or exporting courses.
Email – Address Book changes to To/Cc/Bcc options
This feature changes the Email tool’s workflow when selecting an email recipient in the To, CC, and/or Bcc fields. Each of these fields in the Compose window are now links that, when clicked, launch an Address Book dialog to select recipients from. Once a user or users are selected, they are added to the respective field.
Each of the three fields (To, CC, and Bcc) have their own separate links.
This feature also affects the Intelligent Agents tool; when users create a new Intelligent Agent, they can select the Send an Email option. Users then click the Address Book button next to each To, CC, and/or Bcc fields to choose the recipient(s). In effect, the changes made to email above are also reflected in the Intelligent Agents tool.
Under the previous workflow, users would have to select Address Book, select a recipient or recipients from the list by clicking the checkbox, and then selecting the Add Recipients button. The existing Address Book button remains unchanged; users can continue to use the old workflow.
Figure: The layout of Compose Email window prior to this feature, where the user must select a field (To, CC, or Bcc), select a recipient or recipients from the list by clicking the checkbox, and then click the Add Recipients button.
Figure: The layout of Compose Email window with this feature, where the user adds the recipients directly to the desired field (To, Cc, or Bcc).
Quizzes – Improved language terms
To offer more intuitive and consistent terminology to instructors and learners when using Quizzes, many interface labels and dialogs now use more descriptive language. For example, Automatic Grade is now Automatically Publish Evaluation. Previously, many interface labels and dialogs used short terms that did not provide clear meaning for some users.