July 2022

Brightspace Platform Requirements – Receive browser update alerts

The supported browser list is updated to reflect browsers that need to be updated. Users will receive the message “Your browser is looking a little retro” that prompts users to update their browser. Legacy Browsers are also updated. All users of Legacy Browsers receive the message “Unsupported Browser” either before or after logging in. There are no changes to the ability to access Avenue to Learn.

Figure: Browser update prompt in Brightspace Learning Environment.

Brightspace Pulse – Discovery better supports text-to-speech assistive technology

This release contains several accessibility improvements to Brightspace Pulse’s Discovery feature, allowing it to better support users who employ text-to-speech assistive technology. These improvements consist of:

• The Who provides your learning autocomplete field is renamed to Find your school or institution. This is to make the label more intuitive and gives a non-visual learner a better idea that the field is autocomplete. The Find your school or institution autocomplete field is additionally marked up as an edit field, indicating to the user where to tap to activate it and what to enter in the field. If no results are returned, the following prompt is shown: “We’re sorry! We were not able to find a match. Please try a different institution. Or, if you know the school or institution’s web address, you can enter it down below.” Previously this prompt read “This may not be a compatible learning management system”.
• When a user types a letter, the displayed results are announced via an ARIA audio alert. When a user enters a search without any results, they are notified of such without requiring them to press the Enter key. Upon pressing the Enter key, the ARIA audio alert indicates that “<N> results found. This indicates to non-visual users if there are results. Previously, this change of results was not announced by an ARIA audio alert despite changing visually.

This feature has accessibility impacts, including:

• WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions

• WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships

• WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 4.1.3 Status Messages

Grades – Copy grade items only copies unique or in-use grade schemes

This feature updates the Copy Course Components functionality in regard to copying grade schemes to prevent unnecessary duplicates.

When a grade item is copied, any grade scheme associated with the item is also copied. If a grade scheme is not associated to a grade item within the course offering, the scheme is only copied if the grade scheme is unique (i.e., there are no duplicates which match on name, and ranges).

Previously, unassociated grade schemes were always copied over with the grade items, causing numerous unnecessary duplicates.

Microsoft OneDrive – Use Microsoft’s OneDrive LTI application to link and embed files from OneDrive

The new Microsoft OneDrive LTI is similar to the existing application and will replace the existing OneDrive App in the future. The new OneDrive application supports file browsing, navigating and sorting directories, selecting files, and switching between Microsoft accounts. Depending on institutional Microsoft OneDrive settings, users are able to access both their personal and institutional accounts. The update introduces an LTI file picker for OneDrive users that acts as an alternative to the current OneDrive file picker used by instructors. The changes to support the new OneDrive LTI include:

• Supporting the OneDrive LTI app Cancel button.
• Adding a config variable to display the OneDrive LTI App in the Quicklink option, which is found in Edit Assignments.

Note: This integration is available on or around July 29, 2022 when Brightspace configuration information is added to this page: An overview of Microsoft LTI apps | Microsoft Docs.

Figure: OneDrive deep link LTI 1.3 File Picker.

The current OneDrive Link/Embed tool will end-of-life in the near future. However, this update does not change any existing learner OneDrive file pickers.

NOTE: This integration work is not yet completed at McMaster University, but it is a high priority item on our development roadmap.