Announcements

• Brightspace Editor includes a new limitation of 2 million characters including hidden formatting for all Content files. This limitation applies to any content experience or when using Manage Files. The new character limit does not apply to uploaded files. However, restrictions apply if the user edits the uploaded content. Previously, the unlimited character amount caused performance issues and was a known issue. For more information on resolved defects with this release, visit the Known issues and Fixed issues lists located on the Release Information page of Brightspace Community.
• Brightspace’s minimum for supported browser versions increases every January and July. The July update increases the minimum supported browser versions to: Chrome 112+, Edge 112+, Safari 16+, and Firefox 112+. The minimum legacy browsers remain at: Chrome 74, Edge 74, Safari 13, and Firefox 67. For an optimal experience that offers better performance, accessibility, and security, D2L recommends that all users access Brightspace with the latest version of their supported browser.
• Rubrics are updated to include a minor visual improvement to collapsible panels when a user is evaluating a rubric. Keyboard navigation is also improved when users navigate to, navigate within, and exit components.

 

Avenue to Learn Editor – Edited images are saved with their original names to improve ease of location |New

With this release, images edited within Avenue to Learn Editor are saved with their original names followed by a date-time string, which helps instructors find changed images easily in Manage Files. Changes to an image using Edit image in the floating toolbar are saved as a copy of the image with the name format ‘OriginalFileName_yyyyMMddHHmmss.jpg. ‘

Figure: Click the Edit image option in HTML Editor to make changes to the image.

This update resolves the Brightspace Editor – Crop function for images does not function as expected issue. For more information about which defects have been resolved by this update, refer to our Known issues and Fixed issues lists on Brightspace Community.

Previously images that were edited were given a different, random filename on saving.

 

Discussions – Consistent settings and interface of availability dates across Avenue to Learn | Updated

This feature updates the settings and format of availability dates and states in Discussions, to align with other activity tools and create a unified content experience for both instructors and learners. This update is a continuation of the changes introduced to the Assignment list tab in June 2023/20.23.6.

Availability dates in the Discussions list are now displayed as a simple date range below the titles of discussion topics. Hovering over the date range text displays a tooltip that includes the information about start and end dates. Tooltips also include applied settings to explain how the discussion topic appears to learners before and after these dates.

Previously, the availability dates in the Discussions topics did not include a hover tooltip.

The corresponding update for Quizzes is planned for a future release.

Figure: The previous format of the availability dates in a discussion topic. The availability information appears beneath the topic title.

Figure: The updated format of the availability dates in a discussion topic. Availability details now appear in a hover tooltip.

 

Discussions – New Creation Experience is ON by default | Updated

To encourage user adoption of the new Discussions creation experience, the default state for the experience is now set to ON. The New Creation Experience for Discussions was previously introduced in the April 2023/20.23.4 release as an opt-in feature.

To learn more about the new Discussions creation experience, refer to the Introducing the New Discussion Creation Experience blog post in Brightspace Community.

Figure: The new Creation experience in Discussions appears in the desktop view.

 

Quizzes – Quiz Timing Improvements Featuring Auto-Submission | Updated

This release updates the Quiz Creation experience for instructors by simplifying the quiz timing setup workflow, adding useful new features, including the ability to auto-submit, and removing obsolete quiz timing options.
With this release, learners can show or hide the timer, receive time warning messages, and access more information about their quizzes.

Note: All Quiz Timer settings behavior and User Interface changes will immediately be applied to existing and in-progress quizzes with the Continuous Delivery Update.

Instructors Workflow Changes

The following workflow changes and advanced Quiz Timing options are now available for instructors.

• Simplified and redesigned Quiz Timing & Display settings
  • The updated settings allow instructors to choose if they want to set a time limit by selecting the Set time limit checkbox, which is cleared by default. If Set time limit is selected, instructors can add a Time Limit and edit the Timer Settings.
  • The previous Prevent the student from making further changes option has been changed to Automatically submit the quiz attempt. Quiz auto-submission automatically hands in quizzes on enforced time limit quizzes at the end of the set time, improving quiz integrity. This behavior is changed on all existing and in-progress quizzes with the update.
    Note: The Automatically submit the quiz attempt option is now the default setting for all newly created quizzes with a time limit and is used automatically if the instructor does not edit the quiz timing settings. The previous default setting was Allow the student to continue working.
  • The previous Allow the student to continue working option has been changed to Flag the attempt as exceeded time limit and allow the learner to continue working. This behavior is changed on all existing and in-progress quizzes with the update.
  • The Grace Period and Allow student to continue working but automatically score zero options are removed to further streamline the process of quiz creation. With this update, any existing and in-progress quizzes that include these settings are changed to the following new behavior:
    • A quiz that previously had a grace period now uses the time limit set on the quiz.
    • A quiz previously set to Allow student to continue working but automatically score zero now sets the quiz to Automatically submit the quiz attempt.

Figure: The Timing menu before this update.

Figure: The Timing menu after this update.

• The Timing & Display section displays comprehensive summary information in either collapsed or expanded view, helping instructors to find errors and to understand which settings they could change.

Figure: The collapsed view of a quiz with an enforced time limit in the Timing & Display section shows instructors a summary of their settings.

The Special Access settings are updated to simplify setup and incorporate the updated settings.

Figure: The Timing settings in the Edit Special Access menu before this update.

Figure: The Timing settings in the Edit Special Access menu after this update.

Improvements for learners

The following improved Quiz Timing options are now available for learners:

• Option to show or hide the timer to reduce anxiety during quiz taking.
  Note: Once a learner sets their preference, the setting preserves across all quizzes.

Figure: Click the Hide Timer button beside the quiz timer to hide the timer from the view.

• Warnings displayed at certain times to support awareness of time left. The following warnings are applied:
  • 1 minute remaining on the quiz
  • 5 minutes remaining (only on quizzes with 10 minutes or longer quiz time limit)
  • Half of the elapsed time (only on quizzes with 20 minutes or longer quiz time limit)

Figure: The Timer Warning dialog indicates how much longer a learner has in a quiz.

• The simplified Quiz Results page appears when a learner completes a quiz attempt or returns later to view their quiz results (previously known as Submission View). The page now displays the text ‘Your work has been saved and submitted’ to all learners. This text is no longer editable by instructors. The existing text field allows adding a custom message to be displayed within the Quiz Results page under the new default message.

Figure: The Quiz Results page shows learners the status of their quiz and their score.

• Option to review quiz instructions and details without leaving the quiz.

Figure: Click the Quiz Information option on the quiz page to view instructions and other information. This does not leave the quiz.

If a learner is taking a quiz at the time of the update, they will notice the user interface changes and new quiz timer setting behaviors immediately following the Continuous Delivery update. For more information about the impact to existing and in-progress quizzes, refer to the Quiz Timing Improvements – Pilot Summary blog post.

Quizzes – The New Quiz Creation Experience is now universally enabled | Updated

In this release, the New Quiz Creation Experience reaches the end of the adoption phase of feature development and becomes the only editing experience for all customers. The New Quiz Creation Experience is now set to on as the default with no option to opt out.

Navbar – updated Resources menu items

Changed Navbar to include ‘Student Census and Experience Survey (SCES)’ link in the ‘resources’ menu in avenue. Also removed the peer review link.