Brightspace Data Sets Updates

Bruce.B.64

Hi @Jonathan.W.515 - I wanted to add a note that the data is still available (just requires a bit of additional joins) by looking at the User Login BDS.

• FirstLoginDate - look for the earliest occurrence of the UserID (so you get the first login);
• LastAccessed - Last accessed would be the latest occurrence of the UserID login.

I appreciate this adds an extra couple steps to reference the information; but it does eliminate risk of duplicate data in the system (as a colleague has told me, if in the same place twice, one of the places is probably wrong).

To perform the join, just link the Users table based off UserID to the User Login BDS.

Let me know if that is helpful in answering your question.

Jonathan.W.515

Hi @Bruce.B.64,
Here's the issue: the 'User Login BDS' only "contains data from 1 January 2021 onwards and adheres to the default system limit of 150 million rows of the most recent data." according to D2L's docs. The 'Data Hub' page in the LE states "This data is limited to the past two calendar years." Additionally, 'user logins' does not cover Pulse access, whereas 'LastAccessed' does.

I need to know the 'FirstLogin' and 'LastAccessed' for the past 7 years due to data retention policies. Here's an example: "Find all the user accounts created more than 7 years ago, with no logins in the past 5 years."

Also, for an admin who doesn't have a database/warehouse and just needs to get a list of email addresses of any account who has accessed Brightspace in the past 6 months, this change makes that extremely frustrating (joining three data sets >40 million rows in Excel) or at best, extremely tedious (copy/paste from the LE).

Bruce.B.64

Thank you for that feedback @Jonathan.W.515 - Our product team has taken your feedback and will have some more information in the near future.

Claire.D.2

The Keeping on Top of Brightspace Data Sets blog now includes upcoming changes from December 2024 through February 2025.

Please note: the BDS Major Version 10 release is no longer happening in December 2024/20.24.12; it has been tentatively postponed to March 2025/20.25.3.

Randall.S.394

@Jonathan.W.515

If you don't have a DBMS you can use, something you can do to more easily combine large datasets is to import them into MS Access (or the OpenOffice analog). You are then able to easily join the tables they create.

However, if you plan on doing this often or you plan on trying to create a historical record longer than the BDS retention policy, you should probably consider using something more robust. There are quite a few open source dbms's that scale better than Access. However, using Acces should, at least, provide a short term solution as well as act as a proof of concept for a larger plan (should you decide to go that way).

Jonathan.W.515

@Randall.S.394,
Thank you for the idea. This does help to address the first example of "which user accounts have logged in within the past 6 months." However, I have to download a 5MB (compressed) Users file and a 430MB (compressed) 'System Access' file. Import via linked table (as the file is too big) into Access, build a query, and wait for the processing to run. The current process is a 5MB file opened in Excel and filtered; much easier, quicker, and less bandwidth needed.

For the other example of 'the last login for all users', this is something that cannot be met with any DBMS solution in the proposed change (but is today). I'm not opposed to changes, but I am opposed to them when they cause a worse experience or a loss of functionality.

Renee.J.194

With mMajor Version 10 now becoming available (tentatively) in March, does that mean that Major version 10 will be forced in July (tentatively)?

Bruce.B.64

Hi @Renee.J.194 - Based on discussion with Product Management, that is correct. With the adjusted window to March 2025; the period of adoption will be from March 2025 - July 2025; based on your wave calendar in alignment with our data set change management process.