September 2021

Assignments – Create select box grade items in the New Assignment Creation Experience

This feature builds on the Add categories capability in the Assignment Creation Experience feature released earlier this year in July.

With this release, the new assignment creation experience supports creating new select box grade items. Previously, only numeric grade items could be created from the new assignment creation experience.

In addition, this feature provides support for choosing a grade scheme when creating numeric or select box grade items. Grade categories now progressively display when creating a grade item. Previously, grade categories always displayed when available.

Also, to make interface text more clear, the following labels have been renamed in the new assignment creation experience:

• Score out of is now Grade out of
• In Grades is now In Gradebook
• Choose in Grades is now Edit or Link to Existing
• Remove from Grades is now Not in Gradebook

When creating a new assignment as an instructor, under Grade Out Of, click Ungraded.

Click In Gradebook, and then select Edit or Link to Existing.

From the Edit or Link to Existing dialog, the following options may display under Create a new grade item:

• If the Grades tool has available grade categories, the Choose Grade Category option displays. Clicking this button displays available grade categories for association.
• If the Grades tool has multiple grades schemes, the Change Grade Type & Scheme option displays. Clicking this button displays available grade types and schemes for association.

Click OK, and then Save.



Figure: In Gradebook options when creating a new assignment



Figure: Edit or Link to Existing options when creating a new assignment

Assignments – Restricting file extensions for submissions

Instructors can now specify the extensions of files that learners can upload as assignment submissions. When an instructor is creating a file submission assignment there is a drop down in the Submission and Completion section of the New Assignment Creation Experience. In this drop-down list, instructors can choose the restrictions they want. Choices include:

• Annotatable files, which include all file types that are supported by the Annotation tool in Assignments. For more information, see File types supported by Annotations.

Note: When a .GIF file is converted to PDF, only the first frame of the .GIF displays.

• .PDF only
• Files that can be previewed without any conversion, such as .HTM, .HTML, .MHT, .MHTML, and .BMP
• Images and videos
• Custom filetypes

If an instructor choses Custom File Extensions, they can then enter file extensions that are allowed for file submissions. When this restriction is set, learners are presented with a list of acceptable file extensions for their assignments. When a learner attempts to upload a file submission for an assignment of an file extension type that the instructor has restricted, an error message appears.

Learning Environment – Set and view user pronouns

Once the new Set My Pronoun permission is granted to a user role, users can set their pronouns through Account Settings. If a user role also has the User Information Privacy > See Pronouns permissions, they can see pronouns set by the users they interact with in the respective user’s profile card. If user pronouns are set and then the option to set pronouns is disabled, a user’s pronouns are no longer displayed.

If a user’s pronouns exist in a different system of record, these pronouns can be systematically added through the Users API (pending forthcoming development by the Avenue Support Team). Users can choose to set, show or hide their pronouns in Avenue to Learn.

Figure: The area under Account Settings, where you can set your pronouns

Figure: A user profile card with the pronouns displayed

Import / Export / Copy Components – Export release conditions in course packages

Now when you export Brightspace Learning Environment course packages, you can export release conditions and any associations. As a result, you no longer need to re-create these release conditions when you import the course package.

Rubrics – Additional information on Grade tiles

When a rubric is collapsed, instructors can now see if the rubric is complete. If the rubric is complete, the collapsed rubric shows the overall level of the rubric, and if the rubric is not complete, the number of unscored criteria appears on the tile.

Previously, it was only possible to see the overall score of the rubric when the rubric was expanded.

Figure: Previous Experience collapsed tile for unscored rubrics (points-based and text-only rubrics)

Figure: New Experience collapsed tile for partially scored points-based rubric

Figure: Previous experience collapsed tile for partially scored text-only rubrics

Figure: New Experience collapsed tile for completed rubrics (points-based and text-only rubrics)

In addition, customers using rubrics with the New Evaluation Experiences can see Rubrics Statistics from within the evaluation panel.

Rubrics – Brightspace Editor Additional Functionality

This update includes the following:

• The Brightspace Editor toolbar now appears in the rubrics creation and edit experience in description and feedback fields. The Brightspace Editor is the text editor across most of Avenue to Learn.
• The Insert Stuff and Insert Quicklink buttons now appear in the different views with additional formatting options.

Figure: The Brightspace Editor in the Rubrics Description field 



Figure: The Brightspace Editor in the Rubrics Feedback field 

Rubrics – Copy and delete criteria groups

In response to client feedback about the New Assignment Evaluation Experience, it is now possible to copy or delete a criteria group on a rubric. The delete option is only available if there is more than one criteria group.
Note: When a rubric with attached assessment items has submissions evaluated against it, the rubric is locked and can no longer be edited or deleted.

After you click Copy Criteria Group, a new criteria group appears below the original criteria group.

If you are using keyboard-only navigation, these options are available in the tab order after the criteria group name. Once the criteria group is copied using keyboard navigation, the keyboard focus moves to the new group’s name.

Note: Aligned learning outcomes are not copied when you copy a criteria group. Specific details of the evaluation criterion should be updated and re-aligned with specific learning outcomes which apply to the new criterion elements in the criteria group.

Figure: The Copy and Delete options are available in the action menu on the Criteria Group header.