March 2022

Announcements — Create new announcements quickly with new Copy option

This feature adds a new Copy option in the context menu of an announcement in both the Announcements tool and the Announcements widget. The Copy option is applicable to both course level and global announcements. This only appears when you are in the org unit where the announcement was created.

Users click Copy, which opens a new edit announcement page in draft mode with the details of the original announcement copied over. The following details are copied:

• Headline, with “Copy of ” appended to the front
• Content
• Show Start Date setting
• Attachments
• Display Author checkbox setting (if role can change this setting)
• Release conditions (if role can set Release Conditions)

Start dates and/or end dates are not copied over. No notifications are triggered by this action until the edit page is saved.

Previously, users had to manually select the content of an announcement and paste it into announcement creation.

Figure: The new Copy option in the context menu.

Learning Environment — Improved layout of show/hide interface

To improve consistency across the platform, this release features a stylistic upgrade to the layout of the show/hide interface. This does not affect usability or change interactions; in addition, all accessibility interactions remain unchanged.

Figure: The updated show/hide interface.

Figure: The show/hide interface before this release.

Content — Media Library added to Classic Content Experience

This feature adds the Media Library to the Classic Content Experience, which is accessible by navigating to Existing Activities > Media Library.

Figure: The Media Library option in the Existing Activities dropdown menu of the Classic Content Experience.

For more information about the Media Library functionality, refer to Evolving The Audio-Video Experience in Brightspace Community.

Content — New Learner Experience now supports Print and Download for all file types

This release adds Print and Download options to content files and HTML content in New Learner Experience, which allows learners to study their course content offline more easily. The new buttons appear at the top of the page in the full-screen content viewer and function the same as in classic Content experience.

Previously in the new Learner Experience, learners could download their content files as PDFs but not in their original file formats, and there were no print or download options for HTML content.

Figure: Full-screen view of a Word file in New Learner Experience before the update, with buttons to download as a PDF and print as a PDF within the PDF renderer.

Figure: Full-screen content topic in New Learner Experience after the update, with Print and Download buttons near the top of the page.

Content – Workflow improvements to creating media topics

When creating a new video or audio topic in Content, instructors no longer must wait for the uploaded media file to finish processing to continue creating the topic. While the media file remains unavailable during processing, instructors can navigate away from the upload page to work on other content creation tasks. If another user attempts to access the media file in the topic before processing is complete, a message prompts them to wait for the media file to become available. When processing is complete (or the uploaded media file is invalid or corrupted), a notification displays from Update alerts on the navigation bar, with a link to the organization home page. Previously, instructors had to wait for a media file to complete processing before they could continue creating the topic. Also, a lack of status information about the media file processing caused some instructors to upload media files multiple times, believing that the processing had completed or failed.

Figure: Video file processing messages from Update alerts on the navigation bar

SCORM — Easier object import with optional custom review/retake process

This feature allows instructors using the new SCORM/xAPI in Classic Content or the New Content Experience to disable Brightspace’s built in SCORM review/retake functionality. Disabling Brightspace’s review/retake functionality will prevent learners from experiencing issues when the package has a native built review/retake logic. Disabling the custom review/retake functionality can only occur during upload of a SCORM/xAPI object.

To view this new option in Classic Content, navigate to Upload/Create > New SCORM/xAPI Object. In the New Content Experience, this workflow is Add Existing> SCORM/xAPI and then upload a SCORM object.

In the publishing workflow, navigate to Edit Properties and expand the Advanced Settings area. Under the new subheading Course Package Review/Retake Options, select one of the following:

• Add review/retake options. My package does not have built in review/retake functionality. (Default); or
• Do not add review/retake options. My package does have built in review/retake functionality.

If a currently uploaded file needs to have this setting changed, users must reupload and replace the original file.

Previously, instructors using new SCORM/xAPI workflows in Classic Content or the New Content Experience did not have a choice to disable the built-in review/retake functionality. This could cause conflicts with native functionality if it existed.

SCORM — Edit dates and associated grade items for imported SCORM packages 

Building upon the improved SCORM feature released in November 2021, imported SCORM topics in the New Content Experience have an improved editing experience. Instructors who use the new create/edit workflow can now edit dates and associated grade items for imported SCORM topics. This offers more consistent editing abilities to the New Content Experience and improves the editing experience for instructors.
Previously, in the New Content Experience, only topic titles were editable for imported SCORM.

Figure: SCORM edit page viewed in the Classic Content create/edit experience

Figure: SCORM edit page viewed in the New Content create/edit experience