November 2024 Edition
The Product and Services Preview document replaces the former 60/90 day Review/Preview. Along with Release Notes (which cover near-term delivery plans for December 2024), the Product and Services Preview document covers January and February 2025 to provide product and feature delivery plans for the 90 day preview window.
Important update
To provide Product and Services Preview information to a wider audience, D2L has made some changes to this page:
- To improve the content's reach, we are localizing this content into American English (en-us), French (fr-ca), Spanish (es-mx), Portuguese (pt-br), Dutch (nl-nl) and Arabic (ar-sa).
- To improve it's findability using the Brightspace Community search function, we are changing the distribution from an attachment to being embedded text in the article.
To create a printable version of the Product and Services Preview information
- Highlight the feature announcement(s).
- Right-click and select Copy.
- Paste the content into a text editing document. This process copies over all text, images, tables, and links.
Enablement Information
Information about the default state of a released feature, function or change in a Brightspace site is included to provide additional information, supporting change preparation, or planning in your organization.
Availability (Enabled State)
Advanced knowledge about whether customers can control access to the feature, function, or changes. This allows Administrators, trainers and supporting roles in an organization an opportunity to know which items are controllable and which are not.
- On: Indicates that the feature’s default state is visible/on and that there is no override or setting to control this state by any user.
- Off: Indicates that the feature’s default state is hidden/off and that there is no override or setting to control this state by any user.
- On (Overridable): Indicates the features default state and that it can be controlled or overridden by a user. For example, a new permission that is automatically selected for specific roles, or an editable config variable default that is on both offer opportunities to configure or override the default states.
- Off (Overridable): Indicates the features default state and that it can be controlled or overridden by a Brightspace user. For example, a new permission that is not selected, a new setting or new config variable that is off by default both provide opportunities to review and enable if desired.
Site Actions (Enablement Method)
For any feature, function, or change that is controllable, how are they controllable. This allows Administrators, trainers, or supporting roles in an organization the opportunity to make decisions earlier and better plan for any work required to support any updates or changes. Some examples include;
- Role Settings
- Role Permissions
- Config variables
- In Tool settings (such as Grades Settings or Widget customization)
- In Application settings (such as Pulse Settings)
20.25.01
API: New API Routes for Course Completion | New
Planned Release: 20.25.01 | Feature ID: ARK-1547
Change and Enablement information:
- Role / Audience: API Developer
- Site Availability: ON for all customers
- Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview:
To build on the value of APIs available with Brightspace, the following new API routes will be available in January 2025/20.25.1:
- New API to manually override course completion
- New API to get completion status
Browser Updates: Updated Supported Browser List | Update
Planned Release: 20.25.01 | Feature ID: GAUD-7068
Change and Enablement information:
- Role / Audience: All
- Site Availability: ON for all customers
- Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview:
Our Supported browser list has been updated. We’re also updating our language around browser support into new categories:
Supported
The most recent currently available browser available:
- Safari >= 18 (September 2024), previously Safari >= 17
- Chrome >= 129 (September 2024), previously >= 124
- Edge >= 129 (September 2024), previously >= 124
- Firefox >= 130 (September 2024), previously >= 124
Legacy
Starts roughly 3 years behind present time.
- Safari 15 (September 2021) - 17 (September 2023), previously 14 - 16
- Chrome 94 (October 2021) - 128 (August 2024), previously 81 - 123
- Edge 94 (October 2021) - 128 (August 2024), previously 81 - 123
- Firefox 92 (September 2021) - 129 (August 2024), previously 75 - 123
Unsupported (warning)
Starts roughly 5 years behind present time.
- Safari 12 (September 2018) - 14 (September 2020), previously 12 - 13
- Chrome 67 (May 2018) - 93 (August 2021), previously 67 - 80
- Edge 80 - 93 (August 2021), previously 80 - 80
- Firefox 67 (May 2019) - 91 (August 2021), previously 67 - 74
Unsupported (blocked)
Data Access/Data Hub: Data Set Updates for the January (20.25.01) Release | Update
Planned Release: 20.25.01 | Feature ID: NIM-2830, BORG-3873
Change and Enablement information:
- Role / Audience: Administrator, Data Admin
- Site Availability: ON for all customers
- Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview:
The following changes will be made to Brightspace Data Sets with the 20.25.01 release :
Assignment Summary Brightspace Data Set – new column added to include instructions from the assignment.
- Name: Instructions
- Description: – Instructions that are shown to the student in the submission page. This field can be null
- Field Size: 10,000 characters
- Field is: nullable
- Primary Key = DropBoxId
Quiz Attempt Logs Data Set - New columns added
- Name: UserID (Int, 4, not nullable)
- IsDeleted: (bit, 1, not nullable)
H5P: Assessable H5P Content automatically creates grade book entries when content is added to HTML pages | New
Planned Release: 20.25.01 | Feature ID: ARK-1546
Change and Enablement information:
- Role / Audience: Instructor, Administrator
- Site Availability: ON for all customers with the Creator+ with H5P Package
- Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview:
For creator enabled H5P integrations, the grade object is made when assessable H5P content is added to the HTML page.
Previously a learner had to interact with H5P content that was added to an HTML page before the grade object was created.
Learning Groups:
Manually override course completion status within Learning Groups | Update
Planned Release: 20.25.01 | Feature ID: ARK-1545
Change and Enablement information:
- Role / Audience: People Manager, Administrator
- Site Availability: ON for all customers using Learning Groups (Core for Corporate or Upskilling & PD)
- Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview:
Learning Administrators can now manually override Course Completion Status within Learning Groups.
Manager Dashboard: Option for Defined Condition Course Completion - Outcome Achieved | New
Planned Release: 20.25.01 | Feature ID: ARK-1609
Change and Enablement information:
- Role / Audience: Instructor
- Site Availability: ON for all customers using Manager Dashboard
- Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview:
Instructors can set the course completion criteria to Outcome Achieved so learners cannot complete the course until they have achieved a particular outcome.
New Content Experience (Lessons): Adjust depth of content within the content hierarchy | Update
Planned Release: 20.25.01 | Feature ID: KAIJU-28
Change and Enablement information:
- Role / Audience: Instructor, Administrator
- Site Availability: ON for all customers
- Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview:
With these changes, instructors and administrators can create new content with modules up to 5 levels deep and adjust the module depth in the New Content Experience.
The New Content Experience does not currently allow Instructors to create new content with a depth larger than 3 levels, and they cannot move content between different depths within the hierarchy. Currently, this requires temporarily enabling Classic Content or using Course Builder.
Pulse: Landing on the correct homepage org unit | Update
Planned Release: 20.25.01 | Feature ID: VOY-2652
Change and Enablement information:
- Role / Audience: Learner, Instructor, Administrator
- Site Availability: ON for all customers
- Site Enablement Actions: In Tool/App Setting
Additional Information Overview:
This update allows clients who work in distributed environments to have their users land on the correct org unit homepage to avoid confusion and exposure to other org home pages.
Quizzing:
Import H5P Questions into Quizzes | Update
Planned Release: 20.25.01 | Feature ID: BORG-3975
Change and Enablement information:
- Role / Audience: Instructor, Administrator
- Site Availability: ON for all customers using Creator+
- Site Enablement Actions: In Tool/App Setting
Additional Information Overview:
Users can now import existing H5P questions into a quiz for the purposes of using the questions formative assessment items.
Release Conditions:
New Release Condition - Course Completion | New
Planned Release: 20.25.01 | Feature ID: ARK-1546
Change and Enablement information:
- Role / Audience: Instructor, Administrator
- Site Availability: ON for all customers
- Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview:
Adding the ability to set a new release condition based on Course Completion Setting.
Rubrics:
Select all ungraded criteria to minimum and maximum | Update
Planned Release: 20.25.01 | Feature ID: MAN-2826
Change and Enablement information:
- Role / Audience: Instructor
- Site Availability: ON for all customers
- Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview:
In Consistent Evaluation for Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzing Written Response questions, options will be available to set the minimum and maximum values for unassessed grade items. The options appear in the evaluation popout for Discussions and Quizzing Written Response questions, users will see a dropdown menu next to the rubric name. In Consistent evaluation, the options will be in a context menu.
There are two options listed in the menus:
- Set ungraded to [max value], where max value is the top level name. This option sets all ungraded levels within the rubric to the top level.
- Set ungraded to [min value], where min value is the lowest level name. This option sets all ungraded levels within the rubric to the lowest level.
When users select the menu item, a confirmation dialog appears advising the bulk action and providing an option to undo the update.
Note: When there is only one level in the rubric, this functionality does not appear.
Figure: Click to open the drop-down menu beside the rubric name to choose an option for ungraded criteria.
Figure: Click to open the Context menu to choose an option for ungraded criteria.
Widgets: Course Completions widget | New
Planned Release: 20.25.01 | Feature ID: ARK-1548
Change and Enablement information:
- Role / Audience: Instructor, Learner, Administrator
- Site Availability: ON for all customers using Manager Dashboard
- Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview:
Instructors can use this widget to learn what requirements the course designer has set to determine that a learner has completed a course.
A learner can use this widget to learn the requirements that they are expected to meet in order to complete a course, and how the learner is progressing toward meeting those expectations.
20.25.02
Course Management: Manage courses tool in non-production environments | New
Planned Release: 20.25.02 | Feature ID: AUT-10
Change and Enablement information:
- Role / Audience: Administrator
- Site Availability: ON for all customers in non-production environments
- Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview:
A new Course Management Experience offers functional parity with the current tools and workflows in a easy-to-use user experience. Users are currently required to navigate between the Course Management, Import/Export/Copy Components, User Enrollments, and Bulk Course tools in order to accomplish their goals. With this new Course Management tool, users can:
- Create a new course
- Create a new course template or use the automatic Template creation functionality.
- Search for courses and templates
- Copy/re-offer an existing course
The new Course Management page page will be available in Test Environments in February 2025, and will be the default experience for all users in May 20.25.5
IPSIS - Additional log message context for IPSIS errors | Updated
Planned Release: 20.25.02 | Feature ID: HYRL-2432
Change and Enablement information:
- Role / Audience: Administrator
- Site Availability: ON for all customers
- Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview:
Additional log message context is now available to help administrators resolve IPSIS errors related to requests to create a user with a duplicate username or org defined ID.
In some cases, there are IPSIS errors that read Error creating user mapping, which can direct clients to a problem; however, IPSIS separately reports certain errors of that generic class of errors. Two relevant errors point to IPSIS having received a record that could result in a duplicate user in Brightspace:
- User cannot be created. Errors: The username supplied is invalid or already in use. Please choose a different username.
- User cannot be created. Errors: The Org Defined ID is already assigned to a different user.
For these errors, the corresponding username or org defined ID that triggered the error message will be included in the metadata that’s shown along with the error message. Admins can use the username or org defined ID to search for the corresponding user in Brightspace and in their SIS.
IPSIS - Reduced sync times with OneRoster REST systems | Updated
Planned Release: 20.25.02 | Feature ID: HYRL-2430
Change and Enablement information:
- Role / Audience: Administrator
- Site Availability: ON for all customers
- Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview:
Sync times with OneRoster REST systems are reduced through the expansion of incremental syncs to enrollments, which is the last data element type that was pulling all records each sync.
Currently, Brightspace requests the full data set of enrollments from OneRoster REST system (such as GG4L and Infinite Campus) during a sync. Over time, the number of enrollment records steadily increases which, in turn, means that the time for IPSIS to process the batch also steadily increases. With some customers having over 1 million enrollment records, IPSIS batch processing times exceed 3 hours.
This feature switches the sync of enrollment records from full to incremental. Each night, IPSIS should then process several hundred enrollment changes which will drastically reduce the nightly batch sync times.
Safe Harbor Statement
The information provided herein is confidential and proprietary to D2L Corporation and its affiliates (“D2L”) and may not be shared without the written consent of D2L. Nothing herein should be construed as legal, human resources, insurance, tax, or other advice for any particular issue, including compliance with relevant laws. You must consult a professional advisor that is familiar with your particular factual situation for any such advice. The information provided herein could include inaccuracies, typographical and other errors. The information provided herein is subject to change at any time, at the discretion of D2L, and D2L makes no commitment to update the information.
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