Video: Release Highlights
Announcements
- Bulk Course Create (BCC), Bulk Course Export (BCE) and Bulk Course Copy (CCB) tools generate logs only if an input file is processed. A conditional generation of logs improves troubleshooting task runs. Previously, when the bulk tools scheduled troubleshooting runs, they would generate a log regardless of if the input file was processed, which made troubleshooting tedious.
- Updates are coming to the Documentation knowledge bases in Brightspace Community! Starting in October 2023, in the Instructor Documentation (Higher Ed) knowledge base, we are introducing a new tool-based navigation structure that keeps the best parts of the current task-based content, but improves navigability by organizing content into Brightspace Tool categories. We are working to minimize the impact of any broken links that may occur due to reorganized and streamlined content changes, but some bookmarks and links may need to be updated. Thank you for your feedback and suggestions. Your insights have made these improvements possible and will continue to be our guide as we strive to serve you better!
- As of September 1, 2023, we will continue decommissioning legacy Community. Please be advised that we will be archiving old and outdated content and frequently accessed Community resources as they are now available in new Community.
To view the change log for this release note landing page, see Change History at the bottom of this page.
Announcements – Pin announcements to top of Announcement widget and tool pages| New
With this release, instructors and administrators can now pin announcements and global announcements to the top of the Announcement Widget and Tool pages, allowing important information to remain visible to learners. Announcements so pinned are indicated to learners as such with the use of a new pinned icon that appears on the announcement. Pinned global announcements appear at the top of the page before any announcements pinned within a course offering.
Note: Pinning or viewing pinned announcements is not currently supported in Slim Announcements.
Figure: Select Pin to top to pin an announcement to the top of the Announcement Widget.
This feature implements the following PIE item:
- D7111 (Ability to Pin Announcement to the Top)
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to pin global announcements to the top of the Announcements widget page.
- Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to pin announcements to the top of the Announcements widget page.
- Slight impact to learners due to the ability to easily view pinned announcements.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users who can have the Announcements tool permission Add/Edit/Delete Announcements.
- This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing configuration variables.
App Finder – End of Life for App Finder and App Finder LTI 1.1 integration | Removed
As of August 31, 2023, App Finder and its LTI 1.1 integration are no longer supported by D2L. App Finder is an integrated app catalog built on LTI 1.1 that enabled Brightspace users to discover partner solutions. It has been available since 2015. Due to its limited functionality, and to incorporate the latest security and authentication mechanism of LTI 1.3, D2L has decided to discontinue its support and replace it with the more advanced IntegrationHub.
D2L IntegrationHub, launched in May 2023, is a centralized platform for partner solutions that offers improved functionality. D2L recommends administrators replace the LTI integration and App Finder links, set up, and review the new IntegrationHub before the retirement of App Finder occurs.
For more information, refer to the following resources:
Technical Details
Impact:
- Moderate impact to administrators due to the steps required to transition the LTI integration, links and setup for IntegrationHub.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically disabled for all users.
- This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing permissions.
- This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing configuration variables.
Creator+ – Layouts now supports Insert Element | Updated
Creator+ Layouts now supports inserting elements in a Layouts panel. Elements inserted into panels are responsive and follow the same behavior when displayed on smaller screens, like in mobile view. These elements include:
- Accordions
- Carousels
- Hotspots
- Tabs
- Callouts
- Timelines
- Click and reveals
- Stylized quotes
- Flip cards
Previously, creators could not insert any elements into a Layouts panel.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Medium impact to instructors who can now insert elements into a Layouts panel.
- Slight impact to learners due to the ability to interact with elements in a Layouts panel.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients with Creator+.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all Creator+ clients wherever Insert Element is available.
- This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing permissions.
- This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing configuration variables.
Data Hub – Brightspace Data Sets improvements for August | Updated
This release adds new columns to existing Brightspace Data Sets (BDS):
- The Version column is added to the Rubrics Edit BDS to track which edits were made during the same session and allow users to determine the sequence of changes made to a rubric. This column only has data for edits made to assessed rubrics from August 2023 onward. All records from before August 2023 have a 0 in this column.
- The Criteria column is added to the Award Objects BDS to indicate the criteria necessary to issue the award. The possible values for this column are determined by the instructor.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Moderate impact to administrators due to the addition of new columns to existing Brightspace Data Sets.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all Brightspace Core clients.
To enable:
- Ensure the Can Access Brightspace Data Sets permission is granted to administrators at the org level.
- Ensure the d2l.Tools.BrightspaceDataSets.Version configuration variable is set to version 8.
- New and changed data sets appear the first time the data set runs after the version update.
Discover – Create and add rules to multiple courses with enhanced Enrollment Rules | New
To help administrators and instructors better manage enrollment rules at scale, users with proper permissions can create an enrollment rule and apply it to as many courses as required.
Users can review and edit enrollment rules from the Enrollment Rules page, select Create Enrollment Rule to create a new rule, apply conditions to the rule, and associate that rule with multiple courses.
Figure: The Create Enrollment Rule workflow for Manager Dashboard users. Select Enrollment Rules in the More Actions menu, and click Create Enrollment Rule to create a new rule. Specify Rule Name, add conditions and select courses to apply this enrollment rule.
Previously, users could only create and add enrollment rules to a single course from the Course Offering Information page and therefore could only manage enrollment rules on a course-by-course basis.
Figure: Access the new Enrollment Rules page by selecting the More Actions dropdown menu on the Discover home page.
Figure: Review all existing rules from the Enrollment Rules page. Select an enrollment rule to edit or select Create Enrollment Rule to create a new rule.
Brightspace Core customers can use the Create Enrollment Rule page to add a Role in Organization condition to the rule. Users can select from up to 10 role values to apply to the Role in Organization condition (for example, Learner or Instructor). Users can also add or remove as many courses as required while creating or editing an enrollment rule from this page.
Figure: Use the new Create Enrollment Rule page to add role values to the Role in Organization condition and add or remove courses as desired.
Users of Manager Dashboard can add up to 10 conditions, each with up to 10 specified User Attributes.
Figure: Use the new Create Enrollment Rule page to add multiple conditions, each with multiple User Attributes, to an enrollment rule.
Previously, users with the Configure Availability in Discover permission could only add or remove enrollment rules from a course directly from the Course Offering Information page. This release update moves that functionality to the Manage Discover permission. Users with the Manage Discover permission have access to the Manage Enrollment Rules link, which takes them to the new Enrollment Rules page.
Important: Users who do not have the Manage Discover permission do not have access to this link and are only able to view enrollment rules associated with a course. D2L is planning further improvement to the Enrollment Rules section of the Course Offering Information page in the September 20.23.9 release. These improvements will include the ability to add or remove enrollment rules directly from the Course Offering Information page with only the Configure Availability in Discover permission granted.
Figure: Users with the Manage Discover permission have access to the Manage Enrollment Rules link.
Updates to enrollment rules also impact approval requests. In the new Enrollment Rules workflow, a user can create an enrollment rule and add a course that is not yet visible in Discover to that rule. This action automatically makes that course visible to users in Discover. If the course is also set to Require approval for self-enrollment requests, then all approval request data is available to a user with proper permissions. If a user with proper permissions removes all rules from that course, and therefore makes the course no longer visible in Discover, all approval request information is maintained.
In addition, if a user with proper permissions clears Require approval for self-enrollment requests or the Make course available in Discover so Learners can self-enroll on the Course Offering Information page, all approval request information is maintained. Previously, all approval request data associated with a course were purged automatically in these cases.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Large impact to administrators due to the ability to create, edit, or delete enrollment rules from the Enrollment Rules page and associate rules with multiple courses from the Create Enrollment Rules page.
- Large impact to instructors due to the change in permissions functionality.
Availability:
- The ability to access the new Enrollment Rules and Create Enrollment Rules pages is available to all clients.
- The ability to add Role in Organization as an enrollment rule condition is available to all Brightspace clients.
- The ability to add multiple attributes as an enrollment rule condition, in addition to Role in Organization, is available to Manager Dashboard clients only.
To enable:
- This functionality is dependent on the following permissions:
- The Manage Discover permission is required to:
- Access the new Enrollment Rules page from the Discover page.
- Create new enrollment rules from the Enrollment Rules page.
- Edit or delete enrollment rules from the Enrollment Rules page.
- Access the Manage Enrollment Rules link, which opens the new Enrollment Rules page from the Course Offering Information page.
- The Configure Availability in Discover permission is required to view existing rules applied to a course from the Course Offering Information page as read-only.
- This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing configuration variables.
Rubrics – Improve your evaluation experience with the new collapsible panel for Assignments and Discussions in mobile view | Updated
When evaluating assignments or discussions in a mobile browser, instructors can now collapse the containers for Rubrics, Grades & Feedback, Outcomes, and Competencies. The new collapsible container appears in the right-hand panel and reduces unnecessary scrolling, giving instructors more control over which fields are displayed to them. Each component is open by default when the instructor accesses the item. Instructors can open and close each collapsible component by selecting the triangle beside the name of the container.
Note: This change applies to the mobile view only.
The Rubrics tool was updated in the July 2023/20.23.7 release to include collapsible panels as part of interface improvements.
Figure: The previous mobile view for evaluation components.
Figure: The new mobile view that includes the collapsible evaluation components. Instructors can open and close each collapsible component by selecting the triangle beside the name of the container.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to instructors who can now collapse evaluation components in mobile view.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
- This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing permissions.
- This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing configuration variables.
Rubrics – Pop-out details provide increased evaluator awareness | Updated
To provide a more complete context for learner evaluation, rubric pop-outs now provide activity details including activity title, course name, learner name, and evaluator name. The evaluator name only appears if it is explicitly assigned; implicit evaluators' names do not appear with the additional details. These additional details are critical for new multi-evaluation workflows, where evaluators can have access to view and edit multiple rubrics concurrently. However, having the additional activity details in the single-evaluation experience also provides consistency across all evaluator experiences.
Note: Multi-evaluation workflows are currently only available as part of a development pilot program.
Previously, the activity title, course name, learner name, and evaluator name were not visible in the rubric pop-outs.
Note: Learner name information respects user information privacy policies and displays Anonymous if evaluating with the Anonymous role or marking in Anonymous Mode.
Figure: An example rubric showing the activity title, course name, and learner name.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to view additional activity details on the Rubrics pop-out.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
Note: Multi-evaluation workflows are currently only available as part of a development pilot program.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
- This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing permissions.
- This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing configuration variables.
User Progress – Class Progress displays absent periods more clearly | Updated
This feature updates Class Progress to better align the login date and the absent period. When viewing data for Course Access, Login History, and System Access History, the absent period now correlates to the login date on the same line.
Previously, the login date and absent period were misaligned, which caused confusion to users viewing the data.
This feature addresses the following accessibility criteria:
- WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.4.8 Visual Presentation
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to view login date and absent period in a clearer format.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
- This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing permissions.
- This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing configuration variables.
Added on 12-July-2023 Preview Release Notes published.
Added on 3-August-2023 Updated the Discover – Create and add rules to multiple courses with enhanced Enrollment Rules | New release note to clarify Availability section and add an animated GIF.
Added on 3-August-2023 Updated the Announcements – Pin announcements to top of Announcement widget | New release note to add an animated GIF.
Added on 3-August-2023 Updated the Rubrics – Improve your evaluation experience with the new collapsible panel for Assignments and Discussions in mobile view | Updated release note to add an animated GIF instead of an image.
Added on 3-August-2023 Added the announcement about Tool-based navigation in the Documentation knowledge base of Brightspace Community
Added on 3-August-2023 Renamed the Announcements – Pin announcements to top of Announcement widget and tool pages | New release note, and updated it to include impact to administrators and add a note about pinning availability in Slim Announcements.
Added on 3-August-2023 Updated the Data Hub – Brightspace Data Sets improvements for August | Updated release note to clarify the Availability section.
Added on 24-August-2023 Updated the Announcements – Pin announcements to top of Announcement widget and tool pages | New release note to clarify that pinned global announcements appear before other pinned announcements. Non-pinned global and in-course announcements appear after pinned announcements in chronological order.