Release Notes

December 2023/20.23.12

Video: Release Highlights

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General Announcements

Capture 9.5 has reached its End of Life and is replaced with Capture X. Capture Web is now available to start recordings from the Media Library with no app download required. Locally installed applications for prior versions of Capture are no longer supported and can be deleted. Capture Portal is no longer available, and all videos from Capture portal are now migrated to Media Library.
Twitter has rebranded to X, and widgets in the Homepage Widget Expansion Pack connecting to the X platform are being updated for consistency with the new branding.
The 2024 calendar is now available on the Wave Schedule topic and the associated Full-text description of Wave image topic now also describes the 2024 wave schedule.
With this release, Creator+ elements, such as Accordion and Callout, are redeveloped to improve stability, portability, and accessibility. Accessibility is improved with minor changes in padding, color contrast, and iconography, as well as a larger selectable area for clickable elements.
Introduced as an opt-in experience for the December 2022/20.22.12 release, Assignments tool improvements to availability dates are now the default and the only available experience. The Tools.Dropbox.ConsistentDatesEnabled configuration variable is removed as users are no longer required to enable the new availability dates experience. The new default experience allows instructors greater control over the access and visibility of their assignments before or after the start and end dates. To learn more, refer to the New Assignments Date Feature - Updated Date Availability, Visibility, And Access Options blog post.
In March 2024 we're upgrading the Visualization Infrastructure for Insights Report Builder. To learn more about it refer to Insights Report Builder – Visualization Infrastructure Upgrade.
With this release, in test environments only, we have added a "Powered by D2L Brightspace" footer to select pages. This replaces the footer that previously appeared at the bottom of the login page and removes the corresponding Do not display D2L branded footer setting from the Login Page Management tool. Clients who have a test environment can provide feedback about the new footer to their account teams. Clients who have no test environment will see the footer after it reaches General Availability in February 2024. To learn more, refer to Powered by D2L in Brightspace Community.

To view the change log for this release note landing page, go to Change History at the bottom of this page.

Announcements – Copy announcements to other courses in published state | Updated

The ability to copy announcements to other courses was originally released for the Announcements tool in November 2023/20.23.11.

As of this release, users with proper role permissions can publish copied announcements in other courses using either the Announcements tool or widget. This is done by selecting the Copy to Other Courses option from the announcement's context menu. In the Copy Announcement window, there is a new check box option labeled Publish Announcement on Copy. When this box is selected, the announcement is directly published in the destination course or courses, skipping the draft stage. If the check box is not selected, the announcement copies as a draft into the destination course or courses.

Previously, copied announcements appeared in draft form and required publishing in the destination course to complete the process.

Figure: Select Publish Announcement on Copy to publish the copied announcement in the destination course or courses.

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to administrators due to the requirement to enable the Announcements > Copy to Other Courses permission for user roles.
Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to copy announcement content to other course offerings.
Slight impact to learners due to the ability to see copied announcement content in more than one course offering.

Availability:

This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

This functionality requires the permission Announcements > Copy to Other Courses to be enabled for all user roles that create announcements. This permission is disabled by default.
This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing configuration variables.

Assignments – Interface improvements for annotations | Updated

D2L is updating the Annotations tool in Assignments to be a web component, as part of our internal technical maintenance work. As a result, the user interface for the annotations viewer is improved to include the following changes:

Error state includes updated dialog language.
Document conversion state now has in-page messaging and a loading icon. Previously, there was a dialog displaying the messaging.
General loading state now has a loading icon. Previously, there was no loading icon.
Note annotations and their print format show annotations instead of just the annotations icon.

The error messaging dialog appears in place of the assignment file.

Figure: If an error occurs while loading the assignment file, an error dialog appears.

The message Document conversion is in progress appears with a circular loading icon in place of the assignment file.

Figure: The document conversion state appears while the assignment file is loading.

Figure: When an assignment file is loading, the loading icon appears.

An assignment showing two annotations on the page.

Figure: If you print or convert an annotated file, the annotation appears on the page.

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to instructors due to the new messaging and icons being displayed in the Assignments tool's Annotations interface.

Availability:

This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

This functionality is automatically enabled for all users who have the annotations viewer enabled.
This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing permissions.
This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing configuration variables.

Assignments and Discussions – Feedback field limitations for evaluation experiences | Updated

The Assignments and Discussions tools' evaluation feedback field is changing from a 500,000 character limitation to a 300,000 character limitation, resulting in an updated dialog warning appearing when the user hits 300,000 characters.

The character limit update improves performance and security for evaluations. Previously, when a user would enter over 300,000 characters, the new information may not have been saved. This potential save failure resulted in the loss of anything entered between 300,000-500,000 characters.

A red warning message appears above the evaluation feedback field when more than 300,000 characters are present.

Figure: The warning message for character limitations appears when a user enters over 300,000 characters.

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to instructors who now see a dialog message when they exceed 300,000 characters.

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.

Calendar – View quiz start and quiz end dates as separate events in Calendar | New

When an instructor adds a Start Date and End Date in Quizzes and then selects Add Availability Dates to Calendar, both dates are displayed in the Calendar tool as separate events. Previously, only one event displayed showing when the availability of that quiz ended.

Figure: From Quizzes, instructors must enter a Start Date and End Date, and then select Add Availability Dates to Calendar.

The List tab of the Calendar tool displaying two separate events (start and end) for the same quiz.

Figure: Users can see when a quiz is available as a separate event item from when it ends.

This feature implements the following PIE items:

D10060 (Consistency among Calendar Events (Start, Due, End Dates) for Quizzes and Assignments)
D9956 (Add quiz start dates to calendar widget)
D7273 (Add quiz start dates to calendar widget)
D5688 (Post Assignment and Discussion End Dates in the Calendar and Upcoming Events)

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to instructors and learners due to the ability to see a new start date event in Calendar for all existing and newly created quizzes with start and end dates.

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.

Course Import – Homepage and Navigation Bar NAME values retained for comparison within parent orgunits | Updated

This release updates the course import workflow to include the NAME values of the active Homepage and Navigation Bar during export, provided that the Homepage or Navigation Bar:

is shared from a parent orgunit level; and
is specifically chosen (not Default).

During import, Brightspace attempts to match the NAME of the Homepage and Navigation Bar to one shared to the destination course offering. The Homepage and Navigation Bar are set to the match if found; otherwise, the course offering is set to use the Default.

Note: Currently exported Brightspace packages do not contain Homepage and Navigation Bar information and use the Default during import.

While this information is exported automatically, users can choose to not set the active homepage and navbar to the one in the imported package by navigating to Advanced Options and un-selecting Homepage and Navigation Bar named in course package should be set as active.

Previously, information about the Homepage and Navigation Bar was not retained during import or export. This feature only imports and exports the NAME value of Homepages and Navigation Bars; it does not allow for the import or export of a Homepage or Navigation Bar.

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to export Homepage and Navigation Bar NAME values, and the ability to match them during course import.

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.

Data Hub – Brightspace Data Sets improvements for December | Updated

To increase the value of our Data Hub offerings, this release adds, removes, and renames columns in existing Brightspace Data Sets (BDS).

The following changes are included in BDS version 8.11 and version 9.0:

Discussion Posts - new column: Version
PreRequisite Conditions Met - new columns: Action and LastModified

The following changes require you to adopt BDS version 9.0 and are not included in BDS version 8.11:

Awards Issued - new columns: RevokedDate, RevokedReason, RevokedBy, LastModifiedBy, LastModifiedDate, and Version
Awards Issued - remove columns: Type, IsRevoked, and Credits
Awards Issued - change columns Criteria and Evidence from nullable to non-nullable
Enrollments and Withdrawals - remove column: EnrollmentType
Grade Schemes - remove columns: GradeSchemeRangeId and IsDeleted
Quiz Attempts - new columns: IsSynchronous and DeductionPercentage
Quiz Attempts - remove columns: GracePeriod and ExtendedDeadline
Quiz Attempts - rename column: GracePeriodExceededBehaviour to TimeLimitExceededBehaviour
Quiz Objects - new columns: IsSynchronous and DeductionPercentage
Quiz Objects - remove columns: TimeLimitGracePeriod, ShowClock, and TimeLimitExceededBehavior
Role Details - new columns: LastModifiedDate and DeletedBy
Role Details - remove columns: OrgId, ClassListDisplayRoleCategory, ClassListRoleCategory, ClassListRoleCategoryOrder, and Version
Role Details - change size of columns RoleName, Description, ClassListRoleName, RoleAlias, and RoleCode
User Logins - new column: LoginSource
User Logins - remove columns: TimeOff and OrgId
User Logins - change column UserId from nullable to non-nullable
User Logins - change column StatusType from varchar to nvarchar
User Logins - change column LoginAttemptId from type bigint and size 8 to type nvarchar and size 36

Technical Details

Impact:

Moderate impact to all administrators due to the addition of new columns to existing Brightspace Data Sets. Large impact to administrators who adopt BDS version 9.0 due to the removal and renaming of existing columns in 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 8.11 or 9.0. New and changed data sets appear the first time the data set runs after the version update.

Data Hub – Brightspace Data Sets Major Version 9 | New

Brightspace Data Sets (BDS) Major Version 9 is now available. Version 8 will still be accessible through March 2024 to give users four months to accommodate the changes before migrating. All clients will be automatically migrated to BDS Version 9 in April 2024.

The upgrade to Major Version 9 includes disruptive changes to existing Brightspace Data Sets. A full list of changes is in the Data Hub – Brightspace Data Sets improvements for December | Updated release note above. To understand why these changes are happening, refer to Motivations behind the changes in Data Hub Brightspace Data Set (BDS) Major Version 9 on Brightspace Community.

Technical Details

Impact:

Large impact to administrators due to disruptive changes to existing data sets. Any automated workflows based on the affected data sets must be reviewed and potentially adjusted to work with the new version.

Availability:

This feature is available to 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 9.0. New and changed data sets appear the first time the data set runs after the version update.

Discussions – Administrators can choose forum workflow in New Discussion Creation Experience | Updated

With this release, administrators can now determine how users assign forums to topics in the New Discussion Topic Editing experience. The new d2l.Tools.Discuss.CreateForumWorkflow (Org Unit) configuration variable enables administrators to choose either the existing streamlined behavior for assigning discussion topics to forums or an option to directly select a forum on the primary panel. The default setting for the configuration variable is the existing streamlined workflow.

This feature implements the following PIE item:

D10555 (New Discussion Experience - Forum Automatically Created)

A comparison between the two options for Forum selection, with the existing streamlined forum behavior on the left and the explicit forum fields in primary panel on right.

Figure: Administrators can use the d2l.Tools.Discuss.CreateForumWorkflow configuration variable to choose between the existing streamlined version (left) or the explicit forum selection option (right).

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to configure forum workflows in the New Discussion Topic Editing experience.
Slight impact to instructors if the explicit forum selection option is enabled due to the introduction of a modified forum workflow.

Availability:

This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

The streamlined forum workflow is enabled automatically. Administrators can enable the d2l.Tools.Discuss.CreateForumWorkflow (Org Unit) configuration variable to allow for the explicit forum selection option.
This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing permissions.

Discussions – New Discussion Topic Editing Experience universally enabled | Updated

With this release, the New Discussion Topic Editing Experience, which was introduced in the December 2022/20.22.12 release, has completed the adoption program and is now the only editing experience for all customers. The New Discussion Topic Editing Experience is set to on as the default with no option to opt out, and the Legacy Discussion Topic Editing Experience is no longer available after this release.

The d2l.Tools.Discuss.CreateExperienceOptIn (OrgUnit) configuration variable is deprecated and is no longer available to site administrators.

Technical Details

Impact:

Moderate impact to instructors who previously used the Legacy Discussion Topic Editing Experience, which is no longer available.

Availability:

This feature is available to all clients, as the New Discussion Topic Editing Experience is now the only Discussion Topic Editing option available.

To enable:

This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing permissions.

Lessons – Associate Competencies to LTI and SCORM content using Create/Edit pages | Updated

Instructors can now associate Competencies with LTI and SCORM content in Lessons (New Content Experience) through the Create and Edit pages, providing consistent functionality with the capabilities of the legacy Classic Content tool. To facilitate this change, a new collapsible Feedback panel that includes the Competency component now appears on the Create and Edit pages for LTI and SCORM content. This update provides consistent functionality for content activities with the existing ability to associate Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions with Competencies.

The expandable Feedback section lists any learning objectives you have aligned with the content.

Figure: The Feedback area lists the learning objectives or indicates No Learning Objectives. Click Manage Learning Objectives to add, edit, or remove a learning objective.

The Learning Objectives dialog displays the associated learning objectives, and provides the Associate Learning Objectives button to add more objectives.

Figure: The More Actions menu to the right of the Learning Objective title provide options to Edit Learning Objective or Remove the Learning Objective. Users can also click Associate Learning Objectives to associate more learning objectives to the content.

When you click the Associate Learning Objectives button, it opens a dialog for you to browse or search for the Learning Outcome you want to associate with the content.

Figure: Associate Learning Objectives opens a dialog where users can browse or search for the Learning Outcome to associate with the content.

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to instructors, who can now align LTI and SCORM content activities to Competencies using Create and Edit pages.

Availability:

This feature is available to all clients.
Note: It is only possible to use either Standards or Competencies in your Brightspace implementation. If you are using Standards in the course, the updated collapsible panel does not appear on the Create/Edit page. Competencies must be enabled and set up for your organization to see competency options in Content.

To enable:

This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.

Local Authentication Security – Enforce Two Factor Authentication in Brightspace | Updated

Building upon the Local Authentication Security – New role permissions allow users to perform local logins and set up Two Factor Authentication | Updated feature introduced in the November 2023/20.23.11 release, this feature adds the new Enforce Two Factor Authentication role permission. When enabled for a role, this permission prompts all local logins to configure Two Factor Authentication (2FA). Users who have a role with this enabled can skip configuring 2FA when logging in but can only do so a maximum of five times by default. This number can be altered by adjusting the value of the d2l.Auth.TwoFactor.SkipEnforcedTwoFactorPrompt configuration variable. Users are unable to alter their email and password until they have set up 2FA.

This feature additionally updates the Local Authentication overrides in the Users tool to allow administrators to apply enforced 2FA overrides for users.

Previously, configuring 2FA was optional for users.

This feature implements the following PIE item:

D8010 (Require 2FA in Local Authentication Security before local access granted)

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to set enforced 2FA authentication for user roles.

Availability:

This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

Administrators must enable Enforce Two Factor Authentication for the desired user roles.
The d2l.Auth.TwoFactor.SkipEnforcedTwoFactorPrompt configuration variable has a default value of 5. Administrators can choose to adjust this number as required by their organization.

Manager Dashboard and Learning Groups – Display Unique Identifiers and Profile Pictures | Updated

This feature was originally released for the Manager Dashboard and Learning Groups tools in November 2023/20.23.11, in which the user selector window added learner email details to enhance the manager's ability to locate and identify learners to assign to courses.

With this update, Manager Dashboard and Learning Groups have enhanced the landing pages and the user selector window with the following changes:

Profile pictures appear alongside user names in the user selector window in Manager Dashboard and Learning Groups tools. This addition serves as a unique identifier, along with the previously-released email feature, to easily distinguish between users with the same name.
Managers can view and search user emails from the landing pages of the Manager Dashboard and Learning Groups tools. This update helps to identify and select the correct user when multiple users share the same name.
User email address links are now visible to learners on the home pages within these tools.

In the manager view, the email address of the user appears as a link beside their role.

Figure: In the manager's view, the email address link appears alongside the user’s role.

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to managers and administrators who can now identify learners through their profile pictures and view and search for email addresses.
Slight impact to learners who can view email address links alongside names on the landing pages of the tools.

Availability:

This feature is available to all clients running Manager Dashboard and Learning Groups as part of the Brightspace Core for Corporate or PD for Education packages.

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.

Quizzes – Better identify bonus questions in a quiz | New

Quizzes now clearly mark bonus questions with Bonus, improving learner understanding and addressing a previous lack of indication in Quizzes.

A bonus question in a quiz showing the term Bonus in parenthesis.

Figure: Learners completing a bonus question now see Bonus.

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to clearly display bonus quiz questions for learners.
Slight impact to learners due to the ability to clearly identify which questions are bonus questions in a quiz.

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 – Grades tool now uses Consistent Evaluation interface for assessments | Updated

When an evaluator assesses an assignment or discussion in the Grades tool, the rubric now uses the Consistent Evaluation interface whether there is work submitted for evaluation. This is consistent with the assessment experience for assignments or discussions in other areas of Brightspace.

Previously, evaluations for these types of activities used a pop-out Rubric grid when launching from the Grades tool. When users click the drop-down menu on the column header to enter grades, the rows with un-submitted work now use the Consistent Evaluation experience instead of the previous Rubric pop-out.

This feature addresses the following accessibility criteria:

WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 3.2.4 - Consistent Identification

The Assessment column containing yellow icons to indicate that there are assignments to evaluate.

Figure: The Assessment column contains icons to indicate that there are evaluations available to complete.

The Rubrics associated with the grade item appear on the right side of the page. Click the arrow beside the Rubric name to expand the rubric.

Figure: The grade item (in this example, a discussion submission) appears with the rubric collapsed on the right. Click the arrow beside the rubric name to expand the rubric assessment area.

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to assess assignments and discussions in the Grades tool using the Consistent Evaluation interface.

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.

SIS Course Merge – Merge Log improvements | New

The SIS Course Merge Log enhances administrators' tracking and understanding of course merge activities with detailed merge and unmerge logs, user information, action timestamps, advanced search options, and expandable log entries for in-depth information. Previously, this functionality was handled by the Section Association tool, which did not include a merge log.

Technical Details

Impact:

Moderate impact to administrators due to the ability to review enhanced Merge Log details.

Availability:

This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
Users must have the Can access the audit log for all/my Courses permission granted to their role to view the Merge Log tab within the SIS Course Merge tool.
This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing configuration variables.

Widgets – End of Life for Homepage Widget Expansion Pack | Removed

With this release, the Custom Hosted version of widgets in the Homepage Widget Expansion Pack (HWEP) has reached the End of Support milestone and will be removed from the platform in September 2024/20.24.9. Clients can continue to use the hosted versions of the widget until that date; however, they are no longer supported by D2L. Clients must switch to the system versions of the widgets before the September 2024 release.

Previously, the Homepage Widget Expansion Pack offered an array of homepage system widgets to provide a more customized learning experience for your homepages. These widgets are now being delivered inside Brightspace as System Widgets.

This release introduces the following features to support the replacement of Custom Hosted widgets with the equivalent System Widgets:

The Custom Hosted Widgets page. This page enables users who have the Create/Edit Homepage permission to do the following:
- Check a list of all Custom Hosted widgets as well as the number of homepages the widget is active on.
- Drill down to see the exact locations where each widget is active.
  Figure: The Custom Hosted Widgets page.
  Note: In future releases, new features will be added to the Custom Hosted Widget Replacement Service that will allow users to:
  - Bulk replace all instances of the Custom Hosted widget with the system version (configurations will be automatically migrated).
  - Bulk delete all instances of the Custom Hosted widget.
    Once all personal versions of Custom Hosted widgets are replaced or deleted, the Custom Hosted widget will be removed from the environment.
In-Widget Message. For users who have the Create/Edit Homepage permission, the following message is displayed: “Action Required: Widget Update - Support for this widget is ending. For automated support to replace this widget visit HWEP EOL Support Service.” From this in-widget message, users can navigate to the Custom Hosted Widgets page.
Figure: You can use the in-widget message service (for example, in the Visual Table of Contents Widget) to navigate to the HWEP EOL Support Service.
The d2l.Custom.LCSWidgets.[WIDGET_NAME].ContextOverride configuration variable. Every HWEP widget has the corresponding d2l.Custom.LCSWidgets.[WIDGET_NAME].ContextOverride configuration variable. The Learner Awards, Slim Announcements, and Welcome Window widgets use this configuration variable to link the widget's permissions to different system roles using a JavaScript string. The rest of the HWEP widgets also have this configuration variable, but they do not use it.
The configuration variables that store role configuration information for HWEP widgets were previously accessible only by D2L Support. With this release, they have been made public, allowing system administrators to edit the individual permissions of all HWEP widgets.

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to administrators due to the need to set the d2l.Custom.LCSWidgets.[WIDGET_NAME].ContextOverride configuration variable and switch to the system versions of the HWEP widgets.

Availability:

This feature will be removed from the platform in September 2024/20.24.9. Clients can continue to use the hosted versions of the widgets until that date.

To enable:

This functionality will be disabled for all users in September 2024/20.24.9. Clients must switch to the system versions of the widgets before the September 2024 release.
This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing configuration variables.

Change History

16-November-2023 Preview Release Notes published.

7-December-2023 Updated Manager Dashboard and Learning Groups – Display Unique Identifiers and Profile Pictures | Updated to remove the email address links and default email client workflow functions of this feature.

7-December-2023 Added an announcement about the upcoming new Insights Report Builder experience.

7-December-2023 Updated Brightspace – Branded footer on main pages | New to add a link to a complementary blog post.

7-December-2023 Updated Data Hub – Brightspace Data Sets improvements for December | Updated to add that columns in the Awards Issued BDS are changing from nullable to non-nullable, columns in the Role Details BDS are changing size, and columns in the User Logins BDS are changing type and size.

7-December-2023 Updated Data Hub – Brightspace Data Sets improvements for December | Updated to remove all changes to the Attendance Registers, Attendance Schemes, Attendance Sessions, Attendance User Sessions, and Checklist Completions BDS. These updates will be available in a future release.

7-December-2023 Updated Assignments – Interface improvements for annotations | Updated to include an animated GIF.

7-December-2023 Updated Announcements – Copy announcements to other courses in published state | Updated to include an animated GIF.

7-December-2023 Updated Assignments – Interface improvements for annotations | Updated to improve clarity.

12-December-2023 Updated the announcement about Insights Report Builder.

12-December-2023 Removed the Brightspace – Branded footer on main pages | New release note and added an announcement because the footer has only been released to test environments.

12-December-2023 Updated Widgets – End of Life for Homepage Widget Expansion Pack | Removed to replace an image and accurately describe this feature.

16-January-2024 Updated SIS Course Merge – Merge Log improvements | New to correct the name of the log from Audit Log to Merge Log.