January Update - Improved Accessibility and Launch of Grade Sync Feature
We're thrilled to share some exciting news! As part of our ongoing commitment to providing the best user experience in the Advanced Assessment beta program, we have successfully addressed two accessibility defects and are thrilled to introduce the new Grade Sync feature launching this month.
1. Accessibility Improvements:
Our team has been diligently working to enhance the accessibility of our platform, ensuring a more inclusive and user-friendly experience for all. We are pleased to announce that we have successfully fixed two accessibility defects in the Advanced Assessment workflows, making our platform more accessible and accommodating to users with diverse needs. These improvements align with our dedication to creating a product that is not only innovative but also inclusive. The defect fixes will be available in the 2024.02 release. You can find the description and areas changed for the two defects below:
DE55541 - Language Changes to Improve Comprehension in Assignment Creation for Advanced Assessment Assignments
Issue Description - The dialog title "Advanced Evaluation Settings" doesn't share language with the opener, and the "Save" button doesn't make a save to the database. Language choices within the dialog are not internally consistent with the rest of the Advanced Assessment features, and this makes comprehension difficult.
Areas fixed:
- Change dialog title to "Manage Allocations"
- Change "Save" to "Done"
- Change "Allocation Options" from being a label to being an H4, rename it to "Default Allocation Method" - This is H3 which actually follows the Heading order
- Change help text to read as: "Set a default method for how to automatically allocate evaluators to learners. New enrolments will follow this default method."
- Change "Apply" button to "Apply Allocation Method"
- Change "Clear Table" button to read as "Clear Table Selections" AND change the icon from the delete trash can to use close-small-tier-1 icon
- Change the "Change Your Manual Edits?" confirmation dialog text:
- Change title from "Change Your Manual Edits?" to "Overwrite Manual Selections?"
- Change text to "This will clear manual selections and repopulate the table with the selected allocation method."
- Change "Reset" button to "Overwrite"
- Change the "Clear Table?" confirmation dialog text:
- Change title from "Clear Table?" to "Clear Table Selections?"
- Change text to "This will remove all evaluator allocations from every learner."
- Change "Clear Table" button to "Clear"
DE55537 - Updates to Matching Table Structure so it's easier to navigate and use with Assistive Technologies
Issue Description - There were multiple Accessibility issues with the Instructor to Learner matching table in the Assignment Creation page. The structure of the matching table is making it difficult to navigate by keyboard and with multiple Assistive Technologies. Users had difficulty navigating down to the bottom area of the table. Sometimes users' focus got lost because it was underneath the header table. In addition, the structure of the headers in the matching table made interpreting the table tricky. There are two header rows with mixed information, the bulk selection checkboxes visually compete with the evaluator names.
Areas Fixed:
- Give the table a <caption> that reads as:
- This table shows a list of learners and who is evaluating them. Column 1 lists learner names while the remaining columns represent each evaluator and their allocations. Row 2 summarizes how many learners each evaluator is allocated to and allows you to bulk select allocations.
- Keep the current labels for column headers and style them like Daylight table headers: Learners, Evaluator 1, Evaluator 2, etc
- Change the style of the second row to match the design
- Instead of the "Last Name" "First Name" sort cell, change the contents of that cell to a row header with the text: "Learners per Evaluator"
- Move the Sort to one of the table actions. Use the Daylight Filters component, configure it as a Sort with the following sort options:
- First Name A to Z
- First Name Z to A
- Last Name A to Z
- Last Name Z ro A
- Change the labels on the bulk checkboxes to:
- If all selected: <offscreen>Deselect All</offscreen> [x] of [y] learners
- If some selected: <offscreen>Select All</offscreen> [x] of [y] learners
- If none selected: <offscreen>Select All</offscreen> [x] of [y] learners
- Make the whole cell toggle the checkbox -
- Make the first two rows of the table sticky to the top
- Add the Load More paging component to the table
2. Grade Sync Feature Release in 2024.01:In addition to addressing the above accessibility concerns, we are excited to reveal that we have the new Grade Sync feature available. This upcoming addition is designed to enhance your overall experience with the Multi-Evaluator tool and the connection with the Gradebook.
Context- In traditional assessment workflows, we can sync assignment evaluations to gradebook and vice versa and the connection works as expected. With Delegation and Co-Marking assignment, this sync also works as expected, as there's only one grade evaluation to sync to the Gradebook. With Multi-Evaluator and the availability of mulitple evaluations per assignment, syncing from the Grade Book to Multi-Evaluator was not yet supported prior to the release of the Grade Sync feature.
Features:
- Permissions -Grade Sync features should be available only to users who can edit grades and feedback in Gradebook
- To initiate the Grade Sync, grade the desired student from the Grade Book
- Users will be able to sync grades and feedback from the Gradebook into Assignment Evaluation, even multi-evaluator evaluations
- Inputs into Gradebook will populate into the aggregated tab for Assignment Evaluation when a user chooses to sync from the Gradebook
- Any aggregated tab that has a draft saved and published will be overridden by the Gradebook inputs, when the Gradebook sync has been initiated
- Any evaluation that is still not marked as ready to aggregate is switched to ready to aggregate when the Gradebook sync has been initiatited
- Any evaluation that is already marked as ready to aggregate will stay unchanged when the Gradebook sync has been initiated
This feature will be available in the 2024.01 release if you have the Advanced Assessment Beta Program turned on.
We sincerely appreciate your ongoing support and feedback, if you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to reach out to me via email at jacqueline.guan@d2l.com or to your D2L representative.
Thank you for being a valued part of the Advanced Assessment Beta program. We look forward to bringing you more exciting updates in the future.
Best regards,
Jackie Guan
Product Manager
Comments
-
I was wondering if there is a timeline yet as to when this will be generally available for all to use, and if so will there be a config item so we can turn this on at a time that is appropriate for our teaching periods? Many thanks Rebecca
-
hi @Rebecca.F.235 . The features described here are automatically available with the 2024.01 release , if you are a part of the Advanced Assessment Beta program.
-
Yes - we are a member of the beta program and have been involved in testing and giving feedback. I am asking if there is a timeline for when this will be generally available within the product for all users. I cannot see it on the current roadmap.
-
hi @Rebecca.F.235 , the general availability of the features will be sometime towards the back half of the year.
