Video: Release Highlights
Announcements
- The user interface for Data Hub is updated to provide improved interface elements for users. Tab control and error dialogs have been updated for clarity. In addition, the Advanced Data Sets page contains updated drop-down menus that are consistent with current Brightspace interface styles.
- The deployment information for widgets in LTI Advantage (LTI 1.3) has been updated in LTI Links grid to say Widget instead of Basic Launch Widget. This is a language term change only; there is no functional change.
- On June 1, 2023, the Legacy Brightspace Help site will be decommissioned. All links, references, and bookmarks clients have created must be updated by that date. For additional information refer to Community Transition Plan.
To view the change log for this release note landing page, see Change History at the bottom of this page.
Creator+ – Insert Element options available for custom templates | Updated
Creator+ Insert Element features can now be used with any client-created, Community, or Creative Services template.
Previously, the Insert Element tool would check for template compatibility and a ‘Template Incompatibility’ warning appeared to prevent unintentional CSS conflicts when authoring Creator+ elements on unsupported templates. This limitation is now removed as Creator+ elements have been re-engineered to be agnostic.
Note: Content creators using custom CSS should be aware that Creator+ elements are not logically isolated from the surrounding page and could be impacted by CSS rules on the parent page. While work has been done to drastically reduce the chance for conflicts when using Insert Element with custom CSS, we recommend testing Creator+ elements against your custom CSS frameworks.
This improvement implements feedback from content creators.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators and instructors due to the option of using Creator+ elements in custom templates; and the need to test custom templates for potential styling impact on Creator+ elements.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients who purchased Creator+.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users with Creator+. If you wish to purchase Creator+, contact your D2L Sales representative.
Discussions – Introducing the new creation and editing experience | Updated
The new discussion creation experience brings create and edit consistency changes from Assignments and Quizzes to Discussions, making it familiar and easy to learn. This first release is at full parity with classic discussions and brings refreshed workflows and improvements to restricting group topics and threads, associating topics to forums, and wording changes to a few settings that you may be familiar with.
Figure: The new Discussions creation and editing experience.
The primary panel on the left contains the same frequently-used fields as Assignments and Quizzes. These fields are most relevant to learners and are core to discussion topic creation. The right-hand panel provides advanced options such as start and end dates and release conditions. These options follow the same logical groupings as found in Assignments and Quizzes. Other topic-specific settings can be found in the right-hand panel.
Refer to the Introducing the New Discussion Creation Experience knowledge article for an in-depth look at all the feature and capability changes with this update.
Important: The default state for the new Discussions experience is OFF. To enable the new Discussions experience, change the value of the configuration variable d2l.Tools.Discuss.CreateExperienceOptIn to ON or Opt-In (Recommended). The Opt-In value allows users to better transition to the new Discussions experience and lets administrators opt in their organization or specific areas. The ON value is recommended if a user is new and starting to use Brightspace.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators who can now opt in to the new Discussions experience.
- Large impact to instructors due to a new create and edit discussion experience that they can opt into or out of within a specific course at any given time if enabled by administrators.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- Change the configuration variable d2l.Tools.Discuss.CreateExperienceOptIn to ON or Opt-In (Recommended). The configuration variable can be enabled at all org unit levels or at the individual org unit level if desired.
Note: The configuration variable default is OFF.
LTI – Improved filtering and troubleshooting functionalities for LTI 1.3 | Updated
To improve administrators’ experience in finding and troubleshooting failed migrations, the filtering functionality is updated on the LTI Advantage page.
This new feature includes the following:
- The new Registration name filter on the LTI Advantage tab and Type filter on the Links page (LTI Advantage > LTI Tool > View Links).
- The updated filter for Status on the Migration Log tab.
The new filter on the LTI Advantage tab helps users with large numbers of deployments, as administrators can select a registration and filter the results by their Registration Names.
Figure: The new filtering option on the LTI Advantage tab.
The Links page now has a consistent filtering interface. With this release, administrators can filter links by Type as well as by Status and Name.
Figure: The new Filter by Type option on the Links page.
To further speed up troubleshooting, the Migration Details section includes shortcuts and the new View Developments link, which helps to find matching deployments. This link takes users straight to the deployments page, filtered by registration.
Figure: The Migration Details section of the Migration Log tab, with shortcuts to the tool deployment page.
Previously, administrators had to copy the deployment name and navigate to the LTI Advantage tab to search for the deployment when troubleshooting.
To provide better levels of control for customers with multiple units under one organization, the migration details are locked down based on enrollments and permissions at the course offering level.
Administrators must have the existing Manage LTI Migrations or View LTI Migrations Log permission at the Organization and the Course Offering levels to check course migration details by clicking a link from the Job Id column.
Figure: The Job Id link of the Migration Log tab.
Previously, administrators with the Manage LTI Migrations or View LTI Migrations Log permissions could open migration details from the migration jobs table only at the Organization level.
Technical Details
Impact:
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for administrators with the existing Manage LTI Migrations or View LTI Migrations Log permission at the Organization and Org unit (Course Offering) levels.
Quizzes – Confirmation dialog for learners exiting a quiz | Updated
This feature introduces a confirmation dialog to learners closing in-progress quizzes. The dialog is context-based, providing additional information about the impact of exiting the quiz (such as whether a learner will be able to return to their quiz after exiting).
Figure: An example of a confirmation dialog displayed to learners closing in-progress quizzes.
Previously there was no dialog or warning to learners who exited a quiz accidentally or on purpose.
Note: The dialog only appears when the learner selects the X [Close this Quiz] for the quiz. Closing the browser window or tab does not display the confirmation dialog.
This feature implements the PIE item D7289 (Close/Exit Quiz errors correction).
Figure: The X (Close this Quiz) button appears to a learner attempting a quiz.
The message shown when a student tries to exit a quiz depends on the time limit and end date settings for the quiz. In every scenario after exiting a quiz, learners are directed back to the Quiz Details page.
Figure: The Exit Quiz confirmation dialog for quizzes with no time limit, no end date, or a time limit that expires before the end date.
Figure: The Exit Quiz confirmation dialog for quizzes with a time limit and no end date.
Figure: The Exit Quiz confirmation dialog for quizzes with an end date, no time limit, or an end date that will arrive before the time limit expires.
Figure: The Exit Quiz confirmation dialog for quizzes that have an end date in the past.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to learners due to the additional step required to leave a quiz.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
- Added on 16-March-2023 Preview Release Notes published
- Added on 22-March-2023 Updated the Quizzes – Confirmation dialog for learners exiting a quiz | Updated release note to add an animated GIF.
- Added on 22-March-2023 Updated the LTI – Improved filtering and troubleshooting functionalities for LTI 1.3 | Updated release note to add information about new permissions required for administrators.
- Added on 6-April-2023 Added the Community Transition plan link in an announcement about the decommissioning of Legacy Brightspace Help.
- Added on 6-April-2023 Updated the Discussions – Introducing the new creation and editing experience | Updated feature for accessible wording.
- Added 11-April-2023 Updated the Quizzes – Confirmation dialog for learners exiting a quiz | Updated feature for clarity about the process and end result when exiting an in-progress quiz.
- Added on 11-April-2023 Updated the LTI – Improved filtering and troubleshooting functionalities for LTI 1.3 | Updated release note to add information about permissions required for administrators.
- Added 17-April-2023 Updated the Quizzes – Confirmation dialog for learners exiting a quiz | Updated feature to specify that exiting an in-progress quiz returns users to the Quiz Details page.