Brightspace Platform 10.7.8

Release Notes

1

© 2017 by D2L Corporation. All rights reserved.

Contents

Features

Brightspace Learning Environment

Activity Feed - Load existing assignment | New

Activity Feed – OneDrive attachments| New

Activity Feed – Toggle Google Drive and OneDrive attachments| New

Advanced Data Sets – Improvements to Data Sets – AWS
enabled | Updated

Assignments – OneDrive attachments | New

Brightspace for Parents - Activity Feed assignment posts visible
to parents | New

Brightspace for Parents – Grade items visible to parents | New

Brightspace Learning Environment - Supported browsers | Updated

Brightspace Capture – Improvements to Capture 9.4 – AWS
Enabled | Updated

Data Hub – Two new competency data sets – AWS Enabled | New

Daylight Experience – Improvements to the My Courses
widget | Updated

Exemptions - Search and User Progress - Improvements | Updated

Intelligent Agents - Improvements | Updated

One Roster - Updated dashboard available | New

Lessons - Instructors can opt in or out of Lessons | New

Lessons - View and edit unit, lesson, and folder descriptions | New

Lessons - Release Conditions available | New

Lessons - Add LTI links | New

Lessons - Numbering and labels in table of contents no
longer display | Updated

Video Note – Video and Audio Notes are now available in
Canada – AWS enabled | Updated

Integrations

Critique^It Assignments Tool - Improvements - AWSEnabled | Updated

Fixed Issues

Assignments

PRB0052169

PRB0056419

PRB0056451

Brightspace Data Sets

PRB0056182

Brightspace for Parents

PRB0056370

PRB0056371

Brightspace Learning Platform

PRB0056040

Calendar

PRB0056515

Capture

PRB0055104

PRB0054444

PRB0053474

Competencies

PRB0051233

Customizations

PRB0055679

PRB0056555

Data Export

PRB0055437

Email

PRB0056453

Grades

PRB0055717

PRB0056318

PRB0056460

PRB0056353

Insights

PRB0054860

IPSIS

PRB0056094

PRB0056223

PRB0056224

Lessons

PRB0056112

PRB0056431

PRB0056066

Navigation and Themes

PRB0056288

Widgets

PRB0055328

Known Issues

Activity Feed

PRB0056583

Assignments

PRB0056232

PRB0055280

PRB0051051

Calendar

PRB0055694

Copy Course Components

PRB0056077

PRB0055964

Classlist

PRB0056124

Competencies

PRB0056036

Content

PRB0056355

PRB0056266

Discussions

PRB0055977

PRB0056300

Email

PRB0056298

Grades

PRB0056035

PRB0054295

Groups

PRB0056122

HTML Editor

PRB0055928

Links

PRB0056096

Quizzes

PRB0056312

PRB0055769

Release Conditions

PRB0056299

About D2L

1

© 2017 by D2L Corporation. All rights reserved.

Features

Brightspace Learning Environment

Activity Feed - Load existing assignment | New

This feature adds the ability for a teacher to load an existing assignment as an assignment post. Previously, only new assignments could be assignment posts.

Figure: The Select Existing button as it appears in the Add Assignment window

Figure: Previous assignments as they appear in the Assignment picker

Figure: Previous assignments that are selected will load and can post now or post later

Impact of Change / Technical Details / Next Steps
Slight impact to instructors due to new assignment upload type. / Availability: Available to all clients.
To enable: N/A
Microservices dependencies: N/A
Microservices locations: N/A / N/A

Activity Feed – OneDrive attachments| New

This feature lets instructors attach files directly from OneDrive to Message and Assignment posts. Previously, only Google Drive was supported as a third-party storage provider. Now, OneDrive is supported as well.

Figure: The OneDrive icon now appears in the attachment row for both Message and Assignment

Figure: The OneDrive picker window

Figure: OneDrive items will appear with the OneDrive icon to differentiate them from other attachment types

Impact of Change / Technical Details / Next Steps
Slight impact to instructors due to more options for uploading attachments for Assignment and Message posts. / Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: N/A
Microservices Dependencies: N/A
Microservices Location(s): N/A / Contact your administrator and request to set the d2l.3rdParty.OneDrive.EnableOneDrivePicker configuration variable to On.

Activity Feed – Toggle Google Drive and OneDrive attachments| New

This feature allows administrators to turn on and off Google Drive and OneDrive in Activity Feed. Setting the Google Drive and OneDrive config variables to On enables the Google Drive and OneDrive icons to appear as attachment options for Messages and Assignment posts.

Figure: The Google Drive and OneDrive options as they appear in the Config Variable Browser

Figure: In this image, the Google Drive config variable is set to on, while the OneDrive config variable is set to off

Impact of Change / Technical Details / Next Steps
Slight impact to administrators due to additional Google Drive and OneDrive toggles for Activity Feed. / Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: Activity Feed now respects the on/off values from the d2l.3rdParty.GoogleDrive.EnableGooglePicker and d2l.3rdParty.OneDrive.EnableOneDrivePicker config variables.
Microservices Dependencies: N/A
Microservices Location(s): N/A / For more information, contact your D2L account manager.

Advanced Data Sets – Improvements to Data Sets – AWS enabled | Updated

Improvements have been made to increase the value of the Brightspace Data Sets. These Data Sets can are available from the Brightspace Data Hub.

Differentials are now available for the following data sets:

  • Course Copy Logs
  • Org Units
  • Org Unit Ancestors
  • Org Unit Descendants
  • Users

The CompetencyActivityResults data set now has a new CriterionId field column.

In addition, the data sets previously available in Brightspace Insights are converted to ensure fresher data and reduce reliance on the old warehouse split; all the data now resides in one location. To support the new data sets, there are two new permissions that are automatically changed during the update: StandardDataExtracts.CanExecuteFinalGrades and StandardDataExtracts.CanExecuteEnrollmentsAndWithdrawals

Impact of Change / Technical Details / Next Steps
Slight impact to users who can use the improved Advanced Data Sets / Availability: Brightspace Core clients in the following regions:
  • North America
  • EMEA
  • APAC
To enable: Users of the previous Insights data sets are automatically updated after they update the StandardDataExtracts.CanExecuteFinalGrades and StandardDataExtracts.CanExecuteEnrollments
AndWithdrawals
Microservices dependencies: Authentication Service and Landlord Service.
Microservices location(s): Authentication and Landlord are services in the following Amazon Web Services™ (AWS) location: U.S. East (N. Virginia)
For more information, refer to the updated Brightspace Analytics - Administrator Guide and Data Hub - Administrator Guide when they are released. / For more information, refer to the updated Brightspace Analytics - Administrator Guide and Data Hub - Administrator Guide when they are released.

Assignments – OneDrive attachments | New

This feature enables instructors to attach an item directly from OneDrive to an Assignment submission folder. Previously, this function was only available with Google Drive. Now, OneDrive attachments are available.

Figure: The OneDrive option appears in the Assignment submission folder expanded menu for the Add Attachment button

Figure: The OneDrive picker window

Figure: OneDrive attachments include the OneDrive logo to differentiate from other attachment types

Impact of Change / Technical Details / Next Steps
Slight impact to instructors due to additional item upload functionality for Assignments. / Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: N/A
Microservices Dependencies: N/A
Microservices Location(s): N/A / Request your administrator to set the d2l.3rdParty.OneDrive.EnableOneDrivePicker configuration variable to On.

Brightspace for Parents - Activity Feed assignment posts visible to parents | New

Parents can view assignment posts in the Activity Feed. Attachments added to assignment posts are not accessible to parents, however links to external URLs are available. Parents cannot select the assignment post to view assignment details.

Figure: Parents can view assignment posts in the Activity Feed

Impact of Change / Technical Details / Next Steps
Slight impact to parents due to additional information available when accessing their Brightspace for Parents account. / Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: N/A
Microservices Dependencies: N/A
Microservices Location(s): N/A / N/A

Brightspace for Parents – Grade items visible to parents | New

Parents can view grade items released from all courses that their child is enrolled in. This does not include their child's final calculated or final adjusted grade, or feedback left on grade items. If a grade is associated with an assignment or quiz, then the association is visible to parents on the View all grades page.

Figure: Parents can view grade items in the Recent Grades widget

Impact of Change / Technical Details / Next Steps
Slight impact to parents due to additional information available when accessing their Brightspace for Parents account. / Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: N/A
Microservices Dependencies: N/A
Microservices Location(s): N/A / N/A

Brightspace Learning Environment - Supported browsers | Updated

The following updates have been made to the browsers supported by D2L:

- D2L no longer supports BlackBerry and Microsoft Surface mobile browsers

- D2L supports the current major version of iOS and the previous major version of iOS, and the latest version of Google Chrome on Android KitKat (4.4) and above

- D2L supports the latest versions of Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox desktop browsers

Impact of Change / Technical Details / Next Steps
Moderate impact to users due to the updated list of supported browsers. / Availability: N/A
To enable: N/A
Microservices dependencies: N/A
Microservices locations: N/A / For an updated list of supported browsers, refer to the Brightspace Platform Requirements guide.

Brightspace Capture – Improvements to Capture 9.4 – AWS Enabled | Updated

To improve the Brightspace Capture experience, updates have been made to accessibility and usability, including:

  • Video player improvements provide keyboard shortcuts to change the HD and SD options, and the video speed.
  • The Brightspace Capture widget now supports the custom org unit type.
  • Brightspace Capture now supports upper-case file extensions.
  • The user grid in the localized French interface is now fixed.

In addition, Capture is now compatible with the AWS data center in Canada.

Impact of Change / Technical Details / Next Steps
Slight impact to users due to possible work process changes resulting from improvements. / Availability: This update is available to all customers who request an upgrade to Capture 9.4.
Existing Capture clients in Canada will continue to have their data stored at a datacenter in the United States.
To enable: There is no action required to turn on the accessibility and architecture improvements. The new Canadian datacenter is available to new Capture clients in Canada as part of their deployment.
Microservices dependencies:
  • Chat Microservice
  • Polling Microservice
Microservices locations:
The following Amazon Web Services™ (AWS) location are now supported:
  • U.S. East (N. Virginia)
  • EU (Ireland)
  • Asia Pacific (Sydney)
  • Canada Central (Montreal)
  • South America (Brazil)
Client regions are determined by D2L to provide the best user experience and in accordance with data residency requirements. / If you are an existing customer, request an upgrade to Capture 9.4 using Service Now to receive the infrastructure and accessibility updates. If you are a new customer, indicate that you want to have Canada as your datacenter.

Data Hub – Two new competency data sets – AWS Enabled | New

Brightspace has developed 2 new data sets:

  • The Competency Log records changes to the competency structure
  • The Competency Activity Log records changes as competencies are mapped to specific activities.

These data sets can be used in conjunction with the other Brightspace Data Sets that are currently available. The information from these data sets is included in hourly differential reports.

Impact of Change / Technical Details / Next Steps
Slight impact to administrators because of additional Brightspace Data Sets. / Availability: These data sets are available to clients who have turned on the Data Hub, who are using Brightspace Insights and Brightspace Core in the following regions:
  • North America
  • EMEA
  • APAC
To enable: N/A
Microservices dependencies: Authentication Service and Landlord Service
Microservices locations: Authentication and Landlord are services in the following Amazon Web Services™ (AWS) location: U.S. East (N. Virginia)
Client regions are determined by D2L to provide the best user experience and in accordance with data residency requirements. / For more information, refer to the updated Data Hub - Administrator Guide when it is released on December , 2017.

Daylight Experience – Improvements to the My Courses widget | Updated

There are two improvements that have been added to the My Courses widget:

  • There is a new widget setting that provides the ability to show or hide the semester on the course tile.
  • Courses can now be filtered by Role in View All Courses. A Role Alias must exist for the role to appear in the filter. A user only sees the role filter if they have more than one Role Alias.

Figure: Instructors can include the semester when the course is offered on the course tile.

Figure: The Role option appears on the FilterBy context menu, providing the ability to filter by administrator, Student, or Teacher.

Impact of Change / Technical Details / Next Steps
Slight impact to users who can now indicate the semester on their course tiles. / Availability: This feature is available to all clients.
To enable: N/A
Microservices Dependencies: N/A
Microservices Location(s): N/A / To show the semester date on the course tile:
Select Customize this widget from the context menu for the My Courses widget.
Select Show Semester.
Click Save.
Slight impact to users who can now filter the course tiles by Role / The Role filter relies on the Role Alias for a role. You must define the Role Alias so that role names are not erroneously shown to roles that should not see those details.
Users only see the Role filter if they have more than one Role Alias. Otherwise, a choice is not necessary.
If the same Role Alias is used for multiple roles, they are grouped together in the filter. For example, if the roles Full Time Learner and Part Time Learner both have the Role Alias Learner, users with both these roles (plus another role) see Learner in the Role Filter options. / Ensure that the Role Alias is defined for the roles you want to see in the Role filter.

Exemptions - Search and User Progress - Improvements | Updated

This feature includes the following improvements to User Progress and to the Manage Exemptions page that is launched from the Content tool.

Improvements in the User Progress page:

- Details pages of Assignments, Quizzes, Discussions, Surveys, and Checklists now display if an activity is exempt by showing the (exempted) label beside the name of the activity

- The Summary pages for Assignments, Surveys, Quizzes, and Checklists hide exempted activities

- A set of statistics appear at the top of each respective tool's Summary page section, and the same statistics appear at the top of each tool's Details page. The statistics exclude exempted activities.

Improvements in the Manage Exemptions page:

- This page now supports search to help instructors find a learner who can then be exempted.

- The list of users in the Manage Exemptions page now only includes users with the Can be graded in Grades role setting.

- The Manage Exemptions page now displays a loading spinner while data is retrieved.

Note:When activities are exempted, any associated release conditions on these exempted activities must still be met.

Impact of Change / Technical Details / Next Steps
Slight impact to instructors due to the search capability on the Manage Exemptions page. / Availability: These improvements are available to all users.
To enable: The existing d2l.Tools.System.Features.IsExemptionsEnabled configuration variable must be turned on.
Microservices dependencies: N/A
Microservices locations: N/A / N/A
Slight impact to learners who will see a more consistent display of exempted activities throughout Brightspace Learning Environment. / N/A / N/A

Intelligent Agents - Improvements | Updated

This feature includes the addition of new action types in the Intelligent Agents tool. You can now apply an enrollment or unenrollment action to a user once the user meets a condition or a set of conditions.

The following improvements have been made to the existing Edit Agent page and the New Agent work flow:

- The Description field is minimized by default.

- Numbers have been added to the sections to help with work flow.

- The New Agent work flow has been changed to initially call out role criteria, then actions, and lastly scheduling. All agents do not need to have a schedule. An intelligent agent can be run as a one-time query or on-demand.

- Under Actions, UI changes have been made to the Send Email action to make better use of the space on the Edit Agent page.

- Under Actions, the new Change User Enrollments option allows instructors to enroll a user into a course or unenroll a user from the current course.

This feature implements PIEitem D1904.

Figure:Before - Edit Agents page - Agent Details section

Figure:Before - Edit Agents page - Agent Criteria section

Figure:Before - Edit Agents page - Agent Action section

Figure: After - Edit Agents page - Criteria section

Figure: After - Edit Agents page - Actions section

Figure: After - Edit Agents page - Scheduling section

Impact of Change / Technical Details / Next Steps
Slight impact to administrators due to the improvements to the New Agent work flow and UI in the Intelligent Agents tool, the new action types, and the new UI under ActionsChange User Enrollments. / Availability: These improvements are available to all clients. The new Change User Enrollments option is available to users who have the new User Agent Enrollment Actions permission.
To enable: The new actions are available to users who already have the Manage Agents permission and the new User Agent Enrollment Actions permission.
Microservices dependencies: N/A
Microservices locations: N/A
If the new User Agent Enrollment Actions permission is not turned on, users will not be able to edit or trigger any agents that have enrollment actions.
If the new User Agent Enrollment Actions permission is not turned on for users who can currently manage agents, they will see a few UI changes in the Edit Agent page. / Contact your Administrator to enable the Change User Enrollments permission for any role that has the Manage Agents permission.

One Roster - Updated dashboard available | New

A new dashboard has been added to the SIS Integration tool to improve the visibility of error and audit log messages generated during batch jobs. The dashboard features detailed job statistics showing error information along with the number of courses, departments, users, and enrollments created. This allows administrators to easily see an overview of entity types that were either processed or have errored out. The dashboard tab continues to include the ability to create a new SFTP site, and add CSV files to it, in order to run a batch.