This month’s updates for D2l Brightspace Include:

• Assignments – Save time by copying assignments to other courses | Updated
• Brightspace Pulse – Retirement of the + button for manual dates in Work To Do | Removed
• Classlist – Easily access and view sections for specific users | New
• Google File Picker – Improved search capabilities and multi-select | Updated
• Groups/Section Management – Automate asynchronous group creation with Copy Course Components/CCB |Updated
• Quizzes – Reduce test anxiety by creating quizzes without time limits | New
• Release Conditions – Choose the last date of enrollment in the current org unit | Updated

Assignments – Save time by copying assignments to other courses | Updated

Instructors who teach multiple courses can now copy assignments to other courses. To copy assignments, instructors first require the Assignments > Copy to Other Courses permission on both the originating and destination courses.

The new Save and Copy button replaces the old Save button in the Assignment dialog. If users want to adjust the text to reflect their workflow, they can change the name of the Save and Copy button to their preferred term.

Note: The Save and Copy button only appears when creating a new folder. It does not appear when editing an existing folder.

Instructors can copy assignments in two ways:

1. Using the Assignments tool to select an existing assignment
2. Using the New Content Experience (Lessons) tool

Each of these methods enables instructors to copy the following assignment attributes to the new destination:

• Assignment folder and its properties, including instructions, assignment category, and visibility
• Assignment properties, including description and category
• Attachments (direct file attachments, uploaded from Google Workspace or OneDrive, and audio and video files)
• Grade item and grade category
• Availability dates
• Submission and completion information, including the Optional Grade item and the course scheme
• Rubric(s) associated with the assignment

Note: When copying an assignment that uses a shared rubric, instead of linking a copied assignment to a shared rubric, the rubric is also copied. The copied assignment links to the copied rubric. If an assignment uses a rubric that is archived, the rubric is copied and retains its archived state in the destination course.

The following attributes are not copied to the new assignment destination:

• Instruction Quicklinks and attachment resources created with the Attach link to existing activity action
• Instruction images added using Insert Stuff that were saved to course files
• Availability release conditions and special access settings
• Submission and completion information including group assignment designation
• Evaluation and Feedback information, including Turnitin associations, competency, and outcome associations
• Content topic associations (for example, if the assignment is linked from content)

Note: In some cases, references to links and images that are not copied may result in broken links.

The Copy to Other Courses menu option in Assignments.

The Save and Copy option in Assignments that opens the Copy Assignment dialog, which replaces the old Save option.

Copy Assignment dialog showing course destinations.

Brightspace Pulse – Retirement of the + button for manual dates in Work To Do | Removed

The + button for adding manual dates in the work to do page is no longer available to learners. Previously, learners could use the + button to add personal due dates for activities. Now, only activities that come through Brightspace are viewable. All users who use this feature were notified a maximum of 90 days in advance each time they interacted with the manual dates, or+, button.

Classlist – Easily access and view sections for specific users | New

Instructors can now use the Classlist tool to view groups and sections. Previously, instructors could only view section enrollments using various filtering and sorting work flows or by searching within the Sections tool.

A new Classlist tool permission View Section Enrollments can be used alongside the existing View Group Enrollments permission to allow for both sections and groups to be displayed in the Classlist context menu. If a role has only one of the two permissions enabled, then users may only see either View group enrollments or View section enrollments in the Classlist context menu.

View groups and sections using the Classlist tool.

Google File Picker – Improved search capabilities and multi-select | Updated

To increase the value of the Google File Picker – Seamlessly access files from personal and Workspace Google accounts with a single file picker | Updated feature released in August, the new File Picker now searches all user folders for any file that matches the search terms.

Selecting multiple files.

Permission updates are applied to all selected files. If using a managed account, file permissions are updated to grant view permissions to anyone in the organization. If using a personal account, file permissions are updated to grant view permissions to anyone with the link. The number of selected files is shown on the ‘add’ button as a reminder to the user. If multiple files are added to content, each item becomes a separate content item.

Permissions can be set for all files selected.

Groups/Section Management – Automate asynchronous group creation with Copy Course Components/CCB | Updated

This feature implements group copying via Copy Course Components/CCB so that users can take advantage of the new asynchronous creation method already in use in the Groups tool. Groups copied via Copy Courses workflows create behind the scenes and no longer block further course copy items from completing.

Groups creation status is available in the Groups tool. While the asynchronous creation is in process, instructors see a message indicating that group creation is in progress. The copy history log reports that the group creation process has started. The completion status is notified via an update alert.Permissions can be set for all files selected.

Quizzes – Reduce test anxiety by creating quizzes without time limits | New

With this release, instructors have the option to create quizzes with no time limit. The No Time Limit option is now the default Timing setting for new quizzes.

Previously, instructors who wished to create quizzes with no time limit had to use the Recommended Time Limit option, which was selected by default and set to 120 minutes. This led to confusion for learners because the recommended time limit displayed on the quiz itself.

Instructors can create quizzes with no time limit using either the New Experience or the Classic Experience. In New Experience, under Timing & Display, click Manage Timing and select No Time Limit. In Classic Experience, in the Restrictions tab, under Timing, select No Time Limit.

Learners who take a quiz with no time limit now see No time limit under Time Allowed on the Quiz Summary page and Est. Length: No Time Limit on the quiz itself.

Instructor view of the New Quiz page with the new default No Time Limit option selected.

Learner view of a quiz attempt in progress before this update, displaying the recommended time limit.

Learner view of a quiz attempt in progress after this update, with no recommended time limit displayed.

Release Conditions – Choose the last date of enrollment in the current org unit | Updated

To help users with more flexibility around course design, the release condition Date of enrollment in current org unit now includes the following options:

• Use first enrollment date
• Use last enrollment date

The Release Conditions menu with the choice of the date of enrollment in the current org unit highlighted.

This feature can also be used to set an intelligent agent; e.g., for learners who have been enrolled more than once in the course, you can decide if the agent applies based on the first time or the last time they were enrolled.

Intelligent Agent with enrollment date used.

This month’s updates for D2l Brightspace Include:

• Assignments – Access new shortcuts to undo and redo PDF annotations on evaluations | Updated
• Assignments – Apply the filters Show everyone and Show all groups for individual and group assignments | Updated
• Assignments – Save time copying assignments to other courses with simplified workflow | Updated
• Brightspace Editor – Easily insert code snippets with the Insert Code option | New
• Brightspace Editor – Quickly access and manage the files you uploaded using Insert Stuff | Updated
• Brightspace Learning Environment – Status Indicator set to Title Case to improve readability | Updated
• Google File Picker – Seamlessly access files from personal and Workspace Google accounts with a single file picker | Updated
• Intelligent Agents – Create more flexible agents with fewer criteria | Updated
• Quizzes – End of Life for Disable Right Click option | Removed
• Quizzes – Save time and prevent data loss with the Restore Deleted Quizzes functionality | New

Assignments – Access new shortcuts to undo and redo PDF annotations on evaluations | Updated

Previously, the only way to remove PDF annotations in Assignments was to use the eraser tool or delete the selection. Now, an undo/redo button is added for PDF annotations when evaluating in Assignments. Alternatively, standard keyboard shortcuts are now also supported for undoing and redoing annotations:

• Ctrl-z | Command-z (Apple) – Undo
• Ctrl-Shift-z | Command-Shift-z (Apple) – Redo

The top of the image shows the menu bar before the update; the bottom shows the menu bar after the update.

Assignments – Apply the filters Show everyone and Show all groups for individual and group assignments | Updated

• Previously, in Assignments, the search filter defaulted to Users with submissions for individual assignments and Submitted groups for group assignments. Now, instructors will instead default to Show everyone for individual assignments and Show all groups for group assignments. These modified filters are the new default search option. After applying one of these default filters, instructors can apply additional filters to improve search optimization.

New default search filter in Assignments

Assignments – Save time copying assignments to other courses with simplified workflow | Updated

• To increase the value of the Assignments – Save time by copying assignments to other courses you teach feature in, instructors can now copy assignments to additional courses from either the New Assignment workflow or the list of assignments in New Content Experience (Lessons). From the New Assignment dialog, there is a new Save and Copy button that initiates the copy process. From the list in New Content Experience (Lessons), there is a new option on the More Actions drop down list to copy an assignment to other course. Both options open the Copy Assignment dialog, where instructors can copy the course to another course, or copy the assignment as a quick link placed within a specific module of a course.
• Previously, instructors could only copy assignments from the list of assignments, and several enhanced options for placement and visibility status were not possible.

On the Lessons list, Copy to Another Course appears as an option on the More Options menu.

On the Lessons list, Copy to Another Course appears as an option on the More Options menu.

The Copy Assignment dialog enables you to define the destination, placement, and visibility of your copied assignment.

Brightspace Editor – Easily insert code snippets with the Insert Code option | New

There is a new option in Brightspace HTML Editor that allows instructors to directly insert a code snippet into their content. This is done by selecting the Other Insert Options menu from the Editor toolbar, and then selecting the new Insert Code option. From there, instructors select their programming language from a list of available choices and add their code into the interface to format before inserting it into the Editor.

Previously, instructors had to use the <code> tag and build out their own code to add a code snippet in the editor.

Note: The Insert Code option is not available in the Quizzes tool.

Brightspace Editor with the Other Insert Options menu opened, with Insert Code as the final menu option.

The Insert Code interface window.

The code snippet inserted into the content with Brightspace Editor.

Brightspace Editor – Quickly access and manage the files you uploaded using Insert Stuff | Updated

This feature releases an improvement to the Brightspace Editor > Insert Stuff dialog.

Now, when you are in the Brightspace Editor and you upload a file using Insert Stuff, a message appears indicating that the files uploaded using Insert Stuff are saved in the Manage Files area. The message also indicates that files in the Manage Files area are potentially accessible to all users enrolled in the course or to anyone who has access to the course.

As best practice, do not include individual learner feedback in the files you are uploading using Insert Stuff.

The Brightspace Editor > Insert Stuff dialog before this update

The Brightspace Editor > Insert Stuff dialog with the message

Brightspace Learning Environment – Status Indicator set to Title Case to improve readability | Updated

As of this release, the Status Indicator component is changed to read in Title Case, where the first letter of each word is capitalized. This is to improve readability and the user experience in Brightspace.

The areas of Brightspace affected by this change are:

• My Courses Widget (Active/Inactive indicators)
• Parent Portal (Overdue Indicators)
• Bulk Course Import (Bulk Course Import History Completion indicators)

Not all areas of Brightspace will be affected by this change. Previously, the Status Indicator component was set to Uppercase, where every letter is capitalized.

This feature addresses the following accessibility criteria:

• WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.4.8 Visual Presentation

The Status Indicator component set to Title Case.

Google File Picker – Seamlessly access files from personal and Workspace Google accounts with a single file picker | Updated

The multiple file pickers currently used in Brightspace Learning Environment are now updated to be one file picker. The new file picker supports both personal and Workspace Google accounts. For institutions with the Google Workspace integration, learners can submit files from private Workspace drives and institutional Workspace accounts. There is no longer a requirement to setup the full Google Workspace integration. The update improves the speed and efficiency of using the file picker across the platform.

If configured, the Google Workspace tool allows the following Workspace integrations for learners and instructors.

For learners:

• Assignments – Add file > Supported
• Discussions – Add attachment > Supported
• Brightspace Editor – Insert stuff > Not supported
• Insert Quicklink > Not supported (Google File Picker only)

For instructors:

• Assignments – Upload a file > Not supported
• Discussions – Add attachment > Supported
• Announcements – Attachments > Supported
• Quizzes Eval (legacy) – Add file > Supported
• Content Overview (legacy) – Attach manual > Supported
• Content (legacy) – Upload > Supported
• Content (Lessons) > Not supported (Google File Picker only)

The old file picker is retired with this update and is being replaced with the new, updated file picker to integrate Google Workspace.

Note: Selecting multiple files is temporarily not possible and will be restored at a later date.

New Google File Picker displaying inside Google Drive.

Intelligent Agents – Create more flexible agents with fewer criteria | Updated

• On the New Agent page, in the Criteria section, all selections under Take Action on Activity are now optional. This means users can now create a new Intelligent Agent that applies to certain roles and doesn’t require any other criteria. Users are still required to select one of the options under Role in Classlist.
• Previously, to create an Intelligent Agent, users had to select the roles the agent applies to, and one or more conditions the agent must check against: login activity, course activity, or release conditions. If a user attempted to save the agent without selecting a condition to check against, they received an error saying No Agent Criteria Defined.
• Also in this update, on the New Agent page, in the Criteria section, under Role in Classlist, the option All users visible in the Classlist is no longer selected by default. This is a precaution to prevent users from accidentally creating an agent that runs against everyone.

The Criteria section before this update, showing the No Agent Criteria Defined error message when none of the options under Take Action on Activity are selected.

The Criteria section after this update, with All users visible in the Classlist no longer selected by default, and an asterisk next to Role in Classlist to indicate that the user must select one of the options.

Quizzes – End of Life for Disable Right Click option | Removed

As of this release, the Disable Right Click option in quizzes is removed from Quizzes in Brightspace Learning Environment. The option is no longer available in Quiz Setup, and existing quizzes with the setting no longer enforce the limitation on learners.

This option was previously intended to allow Instructors to disable right-clicking during the time a learner was taking quiz, thus making it more difficult for learners ability to copy or print the quiz and share it with others. However, as browsers have reduced the ability for web sites to control end-user behavior, the Disable Right Click setting could not necessarily be applied to all students, and it provided a false sense of security around quiz content.

For more information concerning this change, refer to in Brightspace Community.

Quizzes – Save time and prevent data loss with the Restore Deleted Quizzes functionality | New

This feature adds a new option in quizzes that allows instructors to restore deleted quizzes. This option appears in the More Actions menu in the Quizzes tool. Instructors using this option are provided with a list of deleted quizzes that indicates when they were deleted and by whom, along with a button to restore a selected quiz.

Restored quizzes automatically have any associated quiz attempts that were already taken, statistics, and scores for those quiz attempts restored as well. Learning Outcomes associated to quiz questions are unaffected, and re-appear with the questions when the quiz is restored. Links to a grade item and competencies are not restored.

The Delete Quizzes permission has been renamed to Delete and Restore Quizzes. Roles that previously had the Delete Quizzes permission set automatically gain the ability to restore quizzes.

The Restore option in the More Actions drop-down menu of the Manage Quizzes tab.

The new Restore Quizzes page.

This month’s updates for D2l Brightspace Include:

• Brightspace Platform Requirements – Receive browser update alerts | Updated
• Brightspace Pulse – Discovery better supports text-to-speech assistive technology | Updated
• Grades – Copy grade items only copies unique or in-use grade schemes | Updated

Brightspace Platform Requirements – Receive browser update alerts | Updated

The supported browser list is updated to reflect browsers that need to be updated. Users will receive the message “Your browser is looking a little retro” that prompts users to update their browser. Legacy Browsers are also updated. All users of Legacy Browsers receive the message “Unsupported Browser” either before or after logging in. There are no changes to the ability to access Brightspace.

Browser update prompt in Brightspace Learning Environment.

Brightspace Pulse – Discovery better supports text-to-speech assistive technology | Updated

This release contains several accessibility improvements to Brightspace Pulse’s Discovery feature, allowing it to better support users who employ text-to-speech assistive technology. These improvements consist of:

The Who provides your learning autocomplete field is renamed to Find your school or institution. This is to make the label more intuitive and gives a non-visual learner a better idea that the field is autocomplete. The Find your school or institution autocomplete field is additionally marked up as an edit field, indicating to the user where to tap to activate it and what to enter in the field. If no results are returned, the following prompt is shown: “We’re sorry! We were not able to find a match. Please try a different institution. Or, if you know the school or institution’s web address, you can enter it down below.” Previously this prompt read “This may not be a compatible learning management system”.

When a user types a letter, the displayed results are announced via an ARIA audio alert. When a user enters a search without any results, they are notified of such without requiring them to press the Enter key. Upon pressing the Enter key, the ARIA audio alert indicates that “<N> results found. This indicates to non-visual users if there are results. Previously, this change of results was not announced by an ARIA audio alert despite changing visually.

Grades – Copy grade items only copies unique or in-use grade schemes | Updated

This feature updates the Copy Course Components functionality in regard to copying grade schemes to prevent unnecessary duplicates.

When a grade item is copied, any grade scheme associated with the item is also copied. If a grade scheme is not associated to a grade item within the course offering, the scheme is only copied if the grade scheme is unique (i.e., there are no duplicates which match on name, and ranges).

Previously, unassociated grade schemes were always copied over with the grade items, causing numerous unnecessary duplicates.

This month’s updates for D2l Brightspace Include:

• Assignments – Save time by copying assignments to other courses you teach | New
• Brightspace Pulse – Pulse App now only supported on Android 6 / iOS13 and above | Updated
• Classlist – View user pronouns next to names to further personalize learning | Updated
• Manage Files – New/Edit File workflow change | Updated
• Rubrics – Quickly determine a Rubrics state with archived tags and selection list descriptions | Updated

Assignments – Save time by copying assignments to other courses you teach | New

Instructors who teach several courses and have the new Assignments > Copy to Other Courses permissions are now able to copy assignments between their courses. The copied assignment includes the following key assignment properties:

• Assignment folder and properties, including instructions, assignment category, and visibility
• Assignment properties including description, attachments (direct file attachments, uploaded from Google Workspace or OneDrive, and audio and video files), and category
• Grade item and grade category
• Availability dates
• Submission and completion information, including the Optional Grade item and the course scheme if used.
• Rubric(s) associated with the assignment. When copying an assignment that uses a shared rubric, instead of linking a copied assignment to a shared rubric, the rubric is also copied. The copied assignment links to the copied rubric. If an assignment uses a rubric that is archived, the rubric is copied and retains the archived state in the destination courses.

The following attributes are not copied:

• Instruction quicklinks and attachment resources created with the Attach link to existing activity action.
• Instruction images added using Insert Image that were saved to course files.
• Availability Release conditions and special access settings
• submission and completion information including group assignment designation.
• Evaluation and Feedback information including Turnitin associations, competency, and outcome associations.
• Content topic associations (for example, if the assignment is linked from content)

NOTE: In some cases, references to links and images that are not copied may result in broken links.

The Copy to Other Courses option appears in the context menu of assignments.

Figure: The Copy Assignments dialog enables you to select the associated rubrics and grade items and choose destinations.

In the Copy Assignment dialog, you can select any rubrics and grade items associated with the selected assignment to include them in the copy package. The Choose Destinations area enables you to search by keyword or semester to find the destination courses for the assignment. Only course offerings for which a user has the Copy to Other Courses permission appear in the Choose Destinations list. By default, the maximum number of courses you can select is 10.

The Copy Assignments dialog enables you to select the associated rubrics and grade items and choose destinations.

After you have completed the Copy Assignment dialog, the progress page indicates the status of each destination course and any issues. If you navigate away from the progress page, a minibar notification in Brightspace Learning Environment indicates when the assignment has been copied to all the destination courses. You can click the notification to open the progress page to review the status and logged issues.

Brightspace Pulse – Pulse App now only supported on Android 6 / iOS13 and above | Updated

With this release, the Brightspace Pulse App is now only supported on the following mobile operating systems:

• Android 6 and above
• iOS13 and above

This ensures that mobile level support is consistent across all D2L Apps, rather than being on a per-app basis; and consistent with Android and Apple policies concerning operating system support.

Previously, Brightspace Pulse was supported on Android 6 and iOS12 and above.

Classlist – View user pronouns next to names to further personalize learning | Updated

Classlist can now display users’ pronouns next to their names

Users with the existing Set My Pronouns permission enabled for their role can choose whether to display their pronouns to other users in the Account Settings > Pronouns menu. They must check the Allow others to see my pronouns check box for their pronouns to display in Classlist. Users must have the existing See Pronouns permission enabled for their role to see their classmates’ pronouns in Classlist.

Previously, the only location where pronouns displayed was in a user’s profile card.

Pronouns display in the ‘Last Name, First Name’ column of Classlist, to the right of the user’s name, in parentheses. User name text is blue, pronoun text is grey.

Manage Files – New/Edit File workflow change | Updated

Currently, when choosing the New File or Edit File option from Manage Files, users see a dialog open that must be moved or expanded to become properly visible. If users attempt to use the advanced code editor (source code editor), they open a second dialog that is not sized correctly and cannot be resized due to constraints from the first dialog.

Now, the New File and Edit File options in Manage Files open in a new tab in the user’s browser in order to support more efficient editing. By allowing the editor to open in a new tab, the advanced code editor dialog now opens fully.

Rubrics – Quickly determine a Rubrics state with archived tags and selection list descriptions | Updated

To provide consistency with other Rubrics experiences and build on the value of the Rubrics tool, there are several improvements in this release.

Archived Rubrics now appear with an archived tag

The Archived tag enables users to update rubric versions while keeping the existing evaluation records available for instructors and learners to review. Previously, when you changed a rubric, previous evaluations were removed. Now, if you change the status of a rubric to Archived, there are no effects on the alignment of rubrics to any assessment activities or previous evaluations that were completed using the rubric. Rubrics that are changed to an Archived status after the initial alignment to the activity continue to display and can be used for evaluation. There is a new Archived tag that appears on rubric tiles in activity creation and activity evaluation workflows to provide information to instructors and course developers that a rubric previously aligned to an activity is now archived. The Archived tag appears in both full-screen and pop-out views of the rubric in Grades, Competencies, and in the Consistent Eval experience. In addition, it appears in rubrics results pages and during evaluation for instructors in collapsed, expanded, and full-screen view. You cannot add archived rubrics to assessment activities and new rubric alignments – this behavior has not changed.

Note: The archived state tag is not visible to learners. If you have been evaluated using an archived status rubric, the learner can see those evaluations and feedback.

Rubric descriptions now appear in the Rubric picker list

The Rubric selection dialog window now includes the first two rows of the rubric description to enable instructors and course designers to better identify the version of a rubric when its name is being reused for a current rubric.

The help description for Status in the Rubrics tool now more clearly explains the interaction of archived status rubrics

The help text icon now appears next to the Status column heading, and the Archived Status text now more accurately reflects the available interactions with archived status rubrics. Specifically, it expands the description to indicate that archived rubrics do not appear in default search results and cannot be added to activities; however they can be evaluated. Further, archiving a rubric does not remove it from activities or published feedback.

The Archived tag appears under the Rubric title.

The Archived tag in the Rubrics list of Consistent Evaluation.

The Archived tag in the Rubrics detail view of Consistent Evaluation

The new location of the help icon in the Rubric Status column.

This month’s updates for D2l Brightspace Include:

• Brightspace Learning Environment – Updated default font and color stylings for improved accessibility | New
• Brightspace Pulse – Added @mention push notifications | New
• Brightspace Pulse – Updates and subscriptions now align with all update subscriptions Alerts in Brightspace | Updated
• HTML Editor – Improved context link menu supports previewing of quicklinks in Brightspace Editor | Updated
• Manage Files – Improved error message when invalid files are uploaded | Updated

Brightspace Learning Environment – Updated default font and color stylings for improved accessibility | New

This feature introduces a color change to fonts and icons in Brightspace Learning Environment to meet WCAG guidelines.

Previously the dark grey font #494c4e did not meet the 3:1 contrast ratio with the color of our links. The new font #212324 (still grey!) is darker and meets the WCAG link contrast criteria for accessibility. This change is visible in most locations in Brightspace Learning Environment.

Before and after showing the updated font color visible in the My Courses widget.

Before and after showing the updated font color visible in text and inline links.

This feature has accessibility impacts, including:

• WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.4.1 Use of Color
• WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)

Brightspace Pulse – Added @mention push notifications | New

Brightspace Instructors can now use @mention push notifications to direct a message to Learners using Pulse. Originally, @mentions came through Brightspace Learning Environment but were only visible if the user opened Pulse and viewed their Subscriptions tab under Notifications. Now, the new functionality sends a push notification to the user when they are @mentioned.

Note: These notifications are available in the Pulse Notifications > Subscriptions area and are still available in Discussions. @Mentions are currently not supported in Activity Feed.

Brightspace Pulse – Updates and subscriptions now align with all update subscription Alerts in Brightspace | Updated

In Brightspace Pulse, the Updates and Subscriptions tab is now aligned to show the same items as the Alert Bell and Discussions in Brightspace Learning Environment.

All Brightspace alerts now display within the Pulse Updates and Subscriptions tab. Improved logic in how alerts are sent to Pulse ensures that alerts are no longer sent from courses that are inaccessible (courses that are inactive or past their end date).

HTML Editor – Improved context link menu supports previewing of quicklinks in Brightspace Editor | Updated HTML Editor – Improved context link menu supports previewing of quicklinks in Brightspace Editor | Updated

This feature implements a new and improved context link menu in Brightspace Editor. The new menu has the same functionality as before – enabling users to highlight text and create a link, edit the link, remove the link, and preview the link – but now also enables support for the previewing of quicklinks that contain replace strings while editing their HTML. The new formatting context menu continues to allow users to highlight text within the editor and apply formatting or create links.

Previously, when a user created a new quicklink within the editor that contains a replace string, this proved not replaceable by the context menu. Clicking to preview the link resulted in a 404 Error.

The layout of the new Content link menu.

The layout of the old Content link menu.

The layout of the old formatting context menu.

Manage Files – Improved error message when invalid files are uploaded | Updated

Building on the Manage Files – Users receive warning message when uploading a file blocked due to security | New feature added in the , this feature adds an improved error message to the File Upload dialogue. When a user attempts to upload a file containing one or more illegal characters in the file name, this message explains to the user the reason why the upload failed.

Previously, users received a generic “Oops! Your file could not be uploaded” message, which did not explain the reason the file upload failed.

The File Upload dialogue with the new error message displayed.

This month’s updates for D2l Brightspace Include:

• Brightspace Editor – Advanced code editor visual update and accessibility improvements | Updated
• Group/Section Management – Asynchronous Group Creation | New
• Intelligent Agents – Create Agent page facilitates more flexible scheduling and frequency options | Updated

Brightspace Editor – Advanced code editor visual update and accessibility improvements | Updated

Minor visual updates made to the advanced code editor in Brightspace increase the readability of tags and text in the advanced code editor and place the Save and Cancel buttons in consistent locations. Improved compatibility with screen reader technology is also included in this feature.

Previously, certain screen readers in specific form settings were unable to access or read from the advanced code editor.

This feature makes no changes to the functionality or workflows associated with the advanced code editor.

The updated location of the Save and Cancel buttons for the advanced code editor.

Brightspace Editor – Advanced code editor visual update and accessibility improvements | Updated

This feature moves group creation and enrollment to background task, minimizing risk of timeouts when creating large numbers of groups requiring enrollments.

When instructors create and save a new group category, the Groups tool displays the category and prompts instructors that their group or groups are being created in the background; further, it indicates that the instructor will be notified once the groups are created. The instructor who created the group receives a subscription alert in the minibar that indicates that the groups for their courses have been created.

While this is in process, the Brightspace UI indicates that “Group creation is in progress”. While processing, users are unable to make changes to groups or enrollments.

To facilitate these changes, and the potential for allowing clients to make much larger numbers of groups in a category, this feature introduces pagination to the Groups tool, that limits each page to a maximum of 200 groups. In addition, the header row for the category has been moved to above the grid and the Delete and Email options are added to the Category dropdown menu.

The updated Groups page with the ‘Group Creation in Progress’ message highlighted.

The updated Groups page with the Category dropdown menu and the Delete and Email options highlighted.

Intelligent Agents – Create Agent page facilitates more flexible scheduling and frequency options | Updated

Building on the Intelligent Agents – Agent List page changes | Updated feature released in, this feature changes the Intelligent Agents Create Agent page to facilitate additional scheduling options and frequency options to allow for improved flexibility.

The changes to the Create Agent page include:

• A modernized user interface. This is a visual upgrade and does not impact functionality.
• Scheduling options have been moved to the top of the page.
• The ability to expand/collapse each section on the agent creation page (Scheduling, Criteria, Actions) to improve usability.
• Two new agent frequency options:
  • One-Time Run allows instructors to choose a single date and time to run.
  • Hourly allows instructors to choose a date and time to run between. If no dates are chosen, the Hourly agent runs every hour with the first time being “now” (that is once the agent is saved and enabled).
• The existing Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Annually options all now have a Scheduled Time option that users complete to determine what time that the agent will run on the dates scheduled for the agent to run.

The Subject line of the agents’ emails now supports up to 128 characters. This brings it inline with the Email tool. Previously, the character limit was 100 characters.

The Intelligent Agent scheduling page with the Hourly option selected.

This month’s updates for D2l Brightspace Include:

• Announcements — Create new announcements quickly with new Copy option
• Content – Workflow improvements to creating media topics

Announcements – Create new announcements quickly with new Copy option

This feature adds a new Copy option in the context menu of an announcement in both the Announcements tool and the Announcements widget. The Copy option is applicable to both course level and global announcements. This only appears when you are in the org unit where the announcement was created.

Users click Copy, which opens a new edit announcement page in draft mode with the details of the original announcement copied over. The following details are copied:

• Headline, with “Copy of ” appended to the front
• Content
• Display Author checkbox setting
• Show Start Date setting
• Attachments
• Release conditions

Note: Release conditions only copy if the user has the Attach/Remove Release Conditions on Announcements permission. Display Author Information setting only copies if the user has the Change Display Author Information Setting permission.

Start dates and/or end dates are not copied over. No notifications are triggered by this action until the edit page is saved.

Previously, users had to manually select the content of an announcement and paste it into announcement creation.

The new Copy option in the context menu.

Content – Workflow improvements to creating media topics

When creating a new video or audio topic in Content, instructors no longer must wait for the uploaded media file to finish processing to continue creating the topic. While the media file remains unavailable during processing, instructors can navigate away from the upload page to work on other content creation tasks. If another user attempts to access the media file in the topic before processing is complete, a message prompts them to wait for the media file to become available. When processing is complete (or the uploaded media file is invalid or corrupted), a notification displays from Update alerts on the navbar, with a link to the organization home page. Previously, instructors had to wait for a media file to complete processing before they could continue creating the topic. Also, a lack of status information about the media file processing caused some instructors to upload media files multiple times, believing that the processing had completed or failed.

Video file processing messages from Update alerts on the navbar

This month’s updates for D2l Brightspace Include:

• Brightspace – Updated visual branding |New
• Content – Print and Download in fullscreen | Updated
• Intelligent Agents – Agent List page changes | Updated

Brightspace – Updated visual branding | New

To reflect D2L’s growth and evolution as a company, on January 12, 2022, we updated our visual brand to better reflect who we are today and will be in the future. Over the next several releases, the new visual brand will be updated in the default logos and icons that appear in Brightspace web applications and mobile apps. These updates do not impact brand overrides in existing Brightspace instances. For more information on the new visual branding, browse to: .

The new visual brand on the Brightspace login page

Content – Print and Download in fullscreen | Updated

The Print and Download buttons are now available when viewing a topic in fullscreen, using the classic Content experience.

Previously, the options to print and download a topic only appeared on the main Content view, and when users opened a topic in fullscreen by clicking View content in new window, those options were not available.

Top of a fullscreen topic page, with the new Print and Download buttons in the top right.

Intelligent Agents – Agent List page changes | Update

This feature adds the following new functionality to the Agent List page, where users manage the Intelligent Agents they have created:

• The ability to create, assign, and manage categories; and
• A new Bulk Edit for some agent details: title, category, and active/inactive state.

This feature also updates the icons denoting the active/inactive state of each agent.

The new Intelligent Agent List page, with the bulk edit and category management functionality.

This feature addresses the following accessibility criteria:

• WCAG 2.1 Success criterion 1.3.6 Identify Purpose

This month’s updates for D2l Brightspace Include:

• Browsers – List of supported browsers | Updated
• Brightspace Pulse – Subscription notifications for Discussions | Updated
• Calendar – Improvements to Date and Time Selection Web Components | Updated
• Course Import/Export – Logging improvements | New
• Discussions – Scoring Rubric drop-down for evaluations  | New

Browsers – List of supported browsers | Updated

With this release, Brightspace Learning Environment’s browser version check now displays warnings for browsers earlier than the following versions:

• Chrome 93 (released in August 2021)
• Safari 13 (released in September 2019)
• Firefox 91 (released in August 2021)
• Edge 93 (released in August 2021)

You can access Brightspace Learning Environment with older versions of our supported browsers; however, D2L does not test Brightspace Learning Environment against these older versions. This means you may encounter unexpected user interface behavior and appearance or broken and unsupported functionality. In most cases, D2L does not fix software defects experienced in unsupported browser versions. For an optimal experience that offers better performance, accessibility, and security, D2L strongly recommends that all users access Brightspace Learning Environment with the latest version of a supported browser.

Brightspace Pulse – Subscription notifications for Discussions | Updated

With this release, subscription notifications in Brightspace Pulse are now consistent with subscription notifications in Brightspace Learning Environment. From the Notifications > Subscriptions tab in Brightspace Pulse, learners now receive all replies to discussions they are subscribed to and @-mentions in discussion threads. Previously, the subscription notifications that learners received in Brightspace Pulse were inconsistent with the subscription notifications that they received in Brightspace Learning Environment.

Calendar – Improvements to Date and Time Selection Web Components | Updated

Building upon the Calendar – Improvements To Date And Time Selection Web Components | Updated feature released in , this release updates the date and time picker in Brightspace Learning Environment to include the following usability changes:

• The Set to Today button is renamed to Today. The Today button continues to set the date and the time based on the context. For example, choosing Today for an End Date sets the current date and sets the time to 11:59 PM.
• Added a Now button that sets the current date and time. The Today ���Ի���Now buttons only appear when a date and time are required. When only a date is required, only the Today button appears and functions the same as the Now button.

The Today, Now, and Clear buttons are center-aligned in the date and time picker.

The new date and time picker in Brightspace Learning Environment

The previous date and time picker in Brightspace Learning Environment

Course Import/Export – Logging improvements | New

To simplify user access to import/export logs, the Course Import/Export tool now includes import/export logs as part of the Course Import/Export History, which include navigation breadcrumbs. In addition, the logs display the results in the order of import/export operations. Previously, import/export logs opened in a new tab and displayed the results out of order, without navigation breadcrumbs.

The new import log in the Course Import/Export tool

The previous import log in the Course Import/Export tool

Discussions – Scoring Rubric drop-down for evaluations  | New

To make the Discussion evaluation consistent with the Assignments evaluation, this feature adds the Grading Rubric drop-down to the sidebar menu. This allows the instructor to choose a grading rubric when evaluating a discussion.

If a normal topic assessment with Points/Custom Points-based rubric is selected, this rubric is the one whose score transfers to the Overall Grade field. The score transfer does not occur if Allow assessment of individual posts or a Percentage rubric is selected.

The new Discussions evaluation with the Grading Rubric drop-down.

The previous Discussions evaluation without the Grading Rubric drop-down.

This month’s updates for D2L Brightspace Include:

• Assignments – Create select box grade items in the New Assignment Creation Experience
• Assignments – Restricting file extensions for submissions | Updated
• Discussions – New Discussion Evaluation Experience | Updated
• Import / Export / Copy Components – Export release conditions in course packages | New
• Rubrics – Additional information on Grade tiles | Updated
• Rubrics – Brightspace Editor Additional Functionality | Updated
• Rubrics – Copy and delete criteria groups | Updated

Assignments – Create select box grade items in the New Assignment Creation Experience | New

With this release, the new assignment creation experience supports creating new select box grade items. Previously, only numeric grade items could be created from the new assignment creation experience.

In addition, this feature provides support for choosing a grade scheme when creating numeric or select box grade items. Grade categories now progressively display when creating a grade item. Previously, grade categories always displayed when available.

Also, to make interface text more clear, the following labels have been renamed in the new assignment creation experience:

• Score out of is now Grade out of
• In Grades is now In Gradebook
• Choose in Grades is now Edit or Link to Existing
• Remove from Grades is now Not in Gradebook

When creating a new assignment as an instructor, under Grade Out Of, click Ungraded.

�����������In Gradebook, and then select Edit or Link to Existing.

From the Edit or Link to Existing dialog, the following options may display under Create a new grade item:

• If the Grades tool has available grade categories, the Choose Grade Category option displays. Clicking this button displays available grade categories for association.
• If the Grades tool has multiple grades schemes, the Change Grade Type & Scheme option displays. Clicking this button displays available grade types and schemes for association.

Click OK, and then Save.

In Gradebook options when creating a new assignment

Edit or Link to Existing options when creating a new assignment

Assignments – Restricting file extensions for submissions | Updated

Instructors can now specify the extensions of files that learners can upload as assignment submissions. When an instructor is creating a file submission assignment, there is a drop down in the Submission and Completion section of the New Assignment Creation Experience. In this drop-down list, instructors can choose the restrictions they want. Choices include:

• Annotatable files, which include all file types that are supported by the Annotation tool in Assignments. Currently, that list includes .DOC, .DOCX, .RTF, .ODT, .PPT, .PPS, .PPTX, .PPSX, .ODP, .XLS, .XLSX, .TXT, .JPG, .JPEG, .PNG, .TIF, .TIFF, and .GIF

Note: When a .GIF file is converted to PDF, only the first frame of the .GIF displays.

• .PDF only
• Files that can be previewed without any conversion, such as .HTM, .HTML, .MHT, .MHTML, and .BMP
• Images and videos
• Custom filetypes

If an instructor choses Custom File Extensions, they can then enter file extensions that are allowed for file submissions. When this restriction is set, learners are presented with a list of acceptable file extensions for their assignments. When a learner attempts to upload a file submission for an assignment of an file extension type that the instructor has restricted, an error message appears.

Discussions – New Discussion Evaluation Experience | Updated

The new evaluation experience for Discussions appears first for all users, but they have the ability to opt-out until the December 2021/20.21.12 release, at which time the new evaluation is set to on.

Import / Export / Copy Components – Export release conditions in course packages | New

Now when you export Brightspace Learning Environment course packages, you can export release conditions and any associations. As a result, you no longer need to re-create these release conditions when you import the course package.

Rubrics – Additional information on Grade tiles | Updated

When a rubric is collapsed, instructors can now see if the rubric is complete. If the rubric is complete, the collapsed rubric shows the overall level of the rubric, and if the rubric is not complete, the number of unscored criteria appears on the tile.

Previously, it was only possible to see the overall score of the rubric when the rubric was expanded.

Previous Experience collapsed tile for unscored rubrics (points-based and text-only rubrics)

New Experience collapsed tile for partially scored points-based rubric

Previous experience collapsed tile for partially scored text-only rubrics

New Experience collapsed tile for completed rubrics (points-based and text-only rubrics)

Rubrics – Brightspace Editor Additional Functionality | Updated

This feature updates the Brightspace Editor released in June 2021/20.21.6 and updated in Brightspace Editor released in July 2021/20.21.7. This update includes the following for Rubrics:

• The Brightspace Editor toolbar now appears in the rubrics creation and edit experience in description and feedback fields.
• The Insert Stuff and Insert Quicklink buttons now appear in the different views with additional formatting options.

The Brightspace Editor in the Rubrics Description field

The Brightspace Editor in the Rubrics Feedback field

Rubrics – Copy and delete criteria groups | Updated

In response to client feedback about the New Assignment Evaluation Experience, it is now possible to copy or delete a criteria group on a rubric. The delete option is only available if there is more than one criteria group.
Note: When a rubric with attached assessment items has submissions evaluated against it, the rubric is locked and can no longer be edited or deleted.

After you click Copy Criteria Group, a new criteria group appears below the original criteria group.

If you are using keyboard-only navigation, these options are available in the tab order after the criteria group name. Once the criteria group is copied using keyboard navigation, the keyboard focus moves to the new group’s name.
Voiceover.

The Copy and Delete options are available in the action menu on the Criteria Group header.