Why is there a difference between how instructors and students insert images and audio files?
As an instructor, I am able to create the following example as part my Assignment description.
As a learner, I am NOT able to recreate this same example in my submission. This is because learners CANNOT insert images or audio files into a page in the same ways as an instructor can (see images below).
Is this something that can be turned on on at the level of this institution?
If not, I would like to hear a clear and rational explanation for why this is the case. Because the resulting workflow is disorganized, cumbersome, and confusing for students to submit and unnecessarily problematic for instructors to grade.
INSERT IMAGE:
* I find this last "Student View" interface one of the most problematic. In this day and age, why should a student need to enter a URL in order to embed (not attach) a picture in their assignment?!
Also, on the topic of images, I would like to see a moderator response to this question raised by @Jason.Shaeffer543 three years ago.
Tags: User Experience, UX, image, audio, insert file
Answers
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Hi @Mike.B.559,
Thank you for reaching out in the Brightspace Community.
Based on what you’re describing, I think it would be a good idea to have a support agent take a closer look at things.
If you are the ASC/ Admin for your Organization, please refer to our documentation for how to log a Support case OR request (https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/1175-approved-support-contacts-create-a-case-or-service-request), and a member of our Support team will be happy to assist you.
Thanks, Ana
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Thanks for this Ana. Before I start the ASC ball rolling, I just want to draw your attention to a post by @Jenn.R.456 on this thread. She says:
"…a while back, I reached out to our internal support folks asking if there was a config. variable that had been disabled or something when I noticed that our students lack the capability to embed multimedia content via their Brightspace HTML editor access. (They assured me there wasn't; the inability to embed content on the student side was, in fact, working as intended.)"If this is the case, my question is why?
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Hello @Mike.B.559,
Thanks for your response. Unfortunately I couldn't access the thread you have referenced from @Jenn.R.456.
Regarding the Insert Stuff > Courses Offering Files option is not present for the Student view but it is present for the Instructor view:
The permissions that control that option in the Insert Stuff are under the Manage Files permissions. The permissions are 'See the File Listing', 'Upload Files', and 'Browse Public Files'.
Please refer to the below documentation for more information about these permissions:
https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/4491-manage-files-permissionsPLEASE NOTE that we do NOT recommend enabling these permissions to student's/learner's roles because this would allow them to upload/access directly to manage files in the course.
By not enabling these permissions, you prevent students from uploading content and overwriting each other's content if they all use the same file name when needing to upload files.To upload files from the computer in the assignments, the students can use the attachment options showing in the screenshot below:
Please feel free to open a Support case and we can take a closer look to this.
Best, Ana
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Quick follow-up.
(1) I'm not sure why you are not able to access the other thread. It is also on Community:https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/discussion/comment/13492/#Comment_13492
(2) Do you mean that if student x uploads a file to a course and student y uploads a file to a course, both files are stored in the same directory?! -
Hello @Mike.B.559 ,
That is correct. If users have access to the manage file area, files with identical names can be overwritten.
Additionally, the shared discussion link isn't showing for us and gives us a 'Page not found' error. From the link shown, it appears it's for a specific comment. Can you please share the link to the discussion directly?
Thanks,
Rusha
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@Rusha.S.831 Here is a link to the discussion:
https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/discussion/7520/why-is-there-a-difference-between-how-instructors-and-students-insert-images-and-audio-files
And if this is the case, that one cannot share a link to a comment, then my feedback would be, depending on where you are in a discussion thread in Community, it's not always clear how to share a link.
On a related topic, has anyone tried making links to discussions hot in this comments section? FYI, it looks like this:
This is what a link looks like when I add my own title
This is what happens when I just hot link to a URL without changing the title:
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After experimenting with this at length, I have two things to say. One, it is possible to embed images in both File Submission and Text Submission assignment types without having to enable permissions for students to upload to the File Manager. But two, it is not at all straightforward. In my opinion, the workflows required to make this happen reveal serious limitations, inconsistencies, and gaps in the underlying architecture of the Assignments tool.
I started to write a more comprehensive response, but it got too complicated. If someone from the development team is interested in what I found, they're welcome to get in touch.
