Video: Release Highlights
General Announcements
- As of 1 August 2024, the Brightspace Tutorials YouTube channel features only updated videos reflecting current workflows:
- The Brightspace Pulse app will stagger the release of its latest update until January 2025 to enhance the user experience with improved mobile browser integration, which includes:
- New seamless access to external tools and embedded course content.
- New security upgrades that strengthen login and content access for a safer learning environment.
- The 2025 Wave Schedule is available and the Full-text description of Wave image topic also describes the 2025 Wave Schedule.
- The Creator+ Practices Adoption Brightspace Data Set documentation launched in July 2024/20.24.7 is updated to correctly indicate that the ProviderObjectId column may be null.
To view the change log for this release note landing page, go to Change History at the bottom of this page.
Assignments – Prevent sections without evaluators in Advanced Assessments | Updated
This release updates the Advanced Assessments workflow to ensure users assign at least one evaluator from each section.
Previously, when instructors were unenrolled from a course, attempts to evaluate assignments from sections with no assigned evaluators could result in problematic scenarios.
To ensure a smooth user experience in these edge cases, a warning message now appears on the Assignment Creation page when evaluators are not assigned to a learner for the activity due to section restrictions.
During the period of unenrollment, the warning message in the Manage Allocations dialog informs users that some evaluators are being removed. Instructors and administrators with the Add/Edit Assignment Submission Folders and Edit Feedback permissions should redistribute these learners to other evaluators.
After unenrollment is complete, the Manage Allocations table displays another warning message under the names of selected learners, indicating that they no longer have an assigned evaluator in their section.
Figure: Upon completing the unenrollment action, the Manage Allocations dialog indicates which learners do not have an assigned evaluator.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators and instructors due to the new warning message in the Manage Allocations dialog and the Manage Allocations table.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
- The Assignments > Give Feedback permission is required to populate the Evaluators list. The Assignments > Add/Edit Assignment Submission Folders permission is required to edit assignments. This functionality is not dependent on any new permissions.
- This functionality requires the d2l.Tools.Activities.AdvancedAssessmentsEnabled configuration variable to be enabled (On).
Brightspace Community – Increased usability with Community enhancements | Updated
The Brightspace Community now provides increased usability with the following enhancements:
- Suggested Results in question workflows (English only): Quickly get answers with automatic searches across the Community as you type your questions.
Figure: On the Ask a Question page, type your question to view Suggested Results on the right side.
- Community announcement banners (English only): Keep up to date with essential news via announcements on specific category pages and within knowledge bases.
- ASC Homepage Known Issues automated search (English only): Search directly from the ASC homepage using the new ASC global search bar. Immediately find Known and Fixed Issues that may provide a workaround or a new workflow, speeding up your return to teaching and learning. Note that Known Issues and Fixed Issues can not currently link to cases.
- Learning Center course filters in Community search using course tags (English only): Use simple tag filters to find the course that meets your needs.
- Quicker search loading times: Search results now load faster with this update.
- Event tags for Group or Community-wide Events (English only): Identify group-specific or community-wide events with ease using the new tags in your search experience.
- Quicker access to the Best Answers (English only): Look for the Accepted tag on question results to quickly find the most reliable answers to your Brightspace inquiries. Comments on questions also appear in search results.
- Persistent saved filters: Maintain your selected search filters on the Search Results page even when switching content sources (for example, from articles to discussions), ensuring your filters stay intact.
- Specific documentation article feedback (English only): Use the new feedback feature to vote and provide detailed feedback on Community articles.
Figure: At the bottom of a topic page, respond to the Was this article helpful? question. When the feedback prompt appears, type your feedback and click Submit Feedback.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Moderate impact to all users due to the improved Community experience.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients with a Brightspace Community account.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users of Brightspace Community.
Course Publisher – Grade passback for individual Grade book items | Updated
Course Publisher can now be configured to pass back individual grade item values for supported non-Final Grade Item Types to a Recipient LMS. The supported Grade Item Types include: Numeric, Pass/Fail, and Selectbox.
When enabling an intermediate grade passback for a course package, launching the course package from an LTI link synchronizes the grade book between the course package and the grade book in the Recipient LMS. This action creates line items in the Recipient grade book, where each line item corresponds to a grade object from the course package. When learners receive a grade value for these grade objects in the course package, those grade values will automatically be posted to the corresponding line items in the Recipient LMS' grade book.
Disabling the intermediate grade passback option also disables grade book synchronization for intermediate grades. However, the course package continues to synchronize the final grade.
Previously, Course Publisher courses could only pass back final course grades to the Recipient LMS.
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Note: When a course package is published in Course Publisher, intermediate grade passback is disabled by default. |
Technical Details
Impact:
- Moderate impact to administrators and instructors who can now pass back non-Final Grade items to a Recipient LMS if those Grade Item Types are Numeric, Pass/Fail, or Selectbox.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users with a default state of OFF.
- To specify the role used for enrolling learners using Learning Paths, ensure that the d2l.System.Enrollment.LearnerRole configuration variable is set with your specific role requirements.
- To configure a role to use Course Publisher, grant the Publish > Publish Course permission at the organization level.
Groups – Restore groups and categories | Updated
A new Recycle Bin option is available in the Groups tool, enabling you to restore individual group units or entire categories within a course offering. When you restore groups, existing enrollments and lockers are also reinstated (if present). Any activities linked to the restored groups, such as discussions or assignments, can then be individually restored through their respective restore pages.
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Note: Groups and categories deleted before this feature was introduced in November 2024/20.24.11 do not appear in the Groups Recycle Bin. To restore these previously deleted items, contact D2L Support for assistance. |
This feature implements the following PIE item:
- D5136 ( Restore groups and group categories)
Figure: Click Recycle Bin to view the deleted groups and group categories.
Figure: Select the check box for a group or group category and click Restore.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators and instructors due to the ability to restore deleted groups and group categories.
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 or configuration variables.
Learner Experience – Updated permission check for displaying Learner Experience | Updated
With this release, the permission check to display the Learner Experience in a course is changed to Content > Manage Content. This ensures that learners can view Learner Experience while enabling instructors who cannot edit content to use the New Content Experience. This makes the permission check for Learner Experience consistent with the one used for the new Display Pages.
Previously, Learner Experience was displayed to all roles that did not have the Content > Create and Edit Modules and Topics permission. This allowed instructor roles who previously could not edit content to access the new Display Pages in the New Content Experience, since they could view Learner Experience.
Organizations that want to have their instructors see Learner Experience can do so by disabling the Content > Manage Content permission.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Moderate impact to administrators due to the permission check update, which may affect workflows.
- Moderate impact to instructors due to the ability to use the New Content Experience without being able to edit content.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
- To have instructors see Learner Experience, administrators must disable the Content > Manage Content permission.
- This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing configuration variables.
Learning Outcomes – Release Condition based on outcome evaluation status in Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions | New
This feature adds a release condition that automatically triggers the release of content and activities when a learner meets a specified achievement level for an outcome. It can only be aligned directly with activities in the Discussions, Quizzes, and Assignments tools.
This release condition allows instructors to create customized learning experiences by setting conditions based on learners reaching designated outcomes.
Figure: Instructors can set the Score on associated outcome release condition in Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to release course activities based on learner achievement of a specific learning outcome in Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes tools.
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 configuration variables.
- Ensure you have the following permissions assigned to your role:
- Quizzes > Attach/Remove Release Conditions on Quizzes
- Discussions > Create and Add Release Conditions on Forums and Topics
- Learning Outcomes > Manage Outcomes
Manage Extensibility – Browse, manage, and monitor integrations and connected applications from one location using Brightspace Extensions | New
The new Brightspace Extensions tool provides a consolidated experience where administrators can browse approved partner extensions, install these extensions into Brightspace, and manage their deployment and availability to courses within their organization. The list of available extensions is limited initially to select partners, but will expand as support for API and LTI components are added to Brightspace Extensions in future releases.
Certified integration partners can create Brightspace Extensions that can include JavaScript, extension parameters, default values for defined parameters, and IMS context role mapping managing to whom an extension applies. Once submitted for approval, partner extensions are reviewed and tested prior to being published in Find Extensions.
The Brightspace Extensions platform is accessible from Admin Tools > Manage Extensibility > Extensions.
Figure: Click the Extensions tab to view a list of installed extensions, access Find Extensions and manage extension deployments.
Administrators can search the Brightspace Extensions platform to find extensibility solutions that benefit their organization, install the extensions, and deploy them to specific branches or the whole organization.
The following features are also available to administrators:
- Browse and review details for published extensions using Find Extensions.
- Install an extension from Find Extensions.
- Deploy an extension to one or more org units and their children.
- Define the deployment of specific values for the extension’s parameters.
- Review an audit log of changes to an extension and its deployments.
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Note: As with all extensibility tools, consult with partner vendors directly for details on the security and privacy related to their products and integrations. |
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators and API developers due to the ability to embed integrations into core Brightspace workflows, such as content and navbars.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients. The ability to install specific extensions may require the add-on cost of licensing the specific app, and proper integration and provisioning of those extensions.
To enable:
- This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
- Ensure you set the following new Brightspace Extensions permissions for the required user roles:
- View Brightspace Extensions: Provides read-only view for Manage Extensions and enables users to access Find Extensions, but not install the found extension.
- Manage Brightspace Extension Deployments: Provides the ability to add, update, and remove deployments for an extension.
- Install Brightspace Extensions: Provides the ability to install extensions from Find Extensions.
- This functionality depends on the existing Security > Api > d2l.Security.Api.OrgAdminsCanRegisterApps (Org Admin-only) configuration variable being turned on for your organization.
New Content Experience – Module depth increased to support up to five nested levels | Updated
With this release, the New Content Experience (Lessons) and Learner Experience now supports nested modules up to a depth of five levels. This allows instructors and administrators to more easily migrate content or courses with complex module structures.
Additionally, this release improves the course migration process to ensure that course content is accurately displayed in the New Content Experience (Lessons), reducing the need for manual adjustments post-import.
Previously, the nesting limit for modules was set to three levels. Users attempting to migrate from Classic with courses with a nesting depth of greater than three levels were prompted to modify their course structure prior to moving to the New Content Experience (Lessons).
This feature implements the following PIE item:
- D6234 (Turn Lessons Into Units in the New Lesson Experience)
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators and instructors due to the ability to import courses with a nesting depth of five levels into the New Content Experience (Lessons).
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 configuration variables or permissions.
Quality Matters – HTML Template Service Offering | New
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This feature is included with the Quality Matters Template Service Offering as an add-on solution that must be purchased separately. For more information, contact your D2L Client Sales Executive or Account Manager. |
With this release, D2L has partnered with Quality Matters (QM) to incorporate QM standards and best practices into our HTML templates for use by customers seeking to build a high-quality course experience in Brightspace. The QM HTML Templates are compatible with both Creator+ and the Content tool.
This feature does not impact or modify any existing templates created by D2L or other users, such as those available on Brightspace Community.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators and instructors due to the ability to use the new QM HTML Templates.
Availability:
- This feature is available to all clients who purchase the Quality Matters Template Service Offering.
To enable:
- Administrators must set the d2l.Tools.Content.EnableHTMLTemplate configuration variable to ON for the specific course. In addition, the d2l.Tools.Content.TemplatePath configuration variable must be set to the directory containing HTML templates.
- This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing permissions.
Roles and Permissions – Manage Extensibility permission name change | Updated
The permission name Can Manage Extensibility now appears as Can Manage API Applications to provide more accurate language describing the functionality of the permission. The permission provides assigned roles the ability to create and manage API applications in Brightspace Learning Environment. This update affects the permission name only - the function of the permission is not changed. There is no disruption in the permission function for roles that already have this permission.
Figure: In the Roles and Permissions tool, the Can Manage API Applications permission appears when you select Manage Extensibility in the Filter by Tool drop-down menu.
Technical Details
Impact:
- Slight impact to administrators due to the name change of an existing permission.
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 or configuration variables.
17-October-2024 Preview Release Notes published.
7-November-2024 Updated the Quality Matters HTML Template Service Offering | New feature as a Release Note instead of a General Announcement.
7-November-2024 Added new release note Roles and Permissions – Manage Extensibility permission name change | Updated.
7-November-2024 Updated the Assignments – Prevent sections without evaluators in Advanced Assessments | Updated release note to improve clarity of the feature description.
7-November-2024 Updated the unlisting and removal of Brightspace Tutorials videos release announcement to change the video removal date to November 29.
7-November-2024 Updated all General Announcements to be clearer and more concise.
7-November-2024 Removed the Brightspace Editor – Access all your favorite authoring tools with Creator+ and H5P | Updated release note. More information will be released in the following months about the new Creator+ package and H5P.