What’s New with Brightspace?

Assignments

• Rubric Evaluation:  Rubrics can now be edited within the evaluation screen (right side of the assignment evaluation frame). You can access and override the Overall Score scale within the evaluation frame, and the Total Score value appears a second time at the bottom of the Rubric.

Greater keyboard functionality has also been added to rubrics. Navigate through the various elements of the Rubric using the TAB key on your keyboard and move through Criterion levels/scale segments using the “left” and “right” arrow keys on the keyboard.

TIP: Preview the Criterion level description by placing your cursor over a Criterion level, even if you already have another level selected.

• Feedback Options: When grading Assignments, use the new icons below the Overall Feedback field for attaching different forms of feedback: upload a file from your computer or attach links to course activities and stored course files, as well as weblinks to external resources.

Discussions

• Consistent Evaluation Experience: The layout for evaluating students’ Discussions posts now resembles that of the Assignment evaluation experience. When assessing a student, the evaluation elements (Rubrics, Overall Grade, Overall Feedback) will appear in a separate frame directly beside the list of posts. These frames can be resized in relation to each other using the sliding divider.
  In the assessment view, student’s posts are now clearly labelled when they are replies. Clicking on the hyperlinked thread title will open the original post in a new browser tab with the student’s reply highlighted.

NOTE: This update will be implemented on Wednesday, August 18.

• Start, End, and Locking Dates: Brightspace has consolidated the date and posting restriction settings for Discussions. You can now refine your restrictions on Start and End Dates individually to prevent students from accessing or posting in Discussion and Topics, or to hide Discussions from the students’ view completely.

NOTE: This update will be implemented on Wednesday, August 18.

Did you know?

You can personalize course communications to heighten student engagement. Add Replace Strings to create a personalized piece of text into your communication. Add {FirstName} to Announcements, content descriptions, or even your course homepage header, and Brightspace will automatically insert the name of the student viewing the content.

For example, you might type

Welcome to HIST 1001, {FirstName}!  as your course header. Where the  {FirstName} string, the student would see only their own first name.

To learn more about customizing course communications, see our support page on how to use Replace Strings. (NOTE: Replace strings are not available within Brightspace email.)

Brightspace Editor

(Not part of D2L Release notes for this month, but a recent change for Carleton!)

The HTML editor has changed to the Brightspace editor: A new text editor is available in Brightspace when you add content to areas in the course, such as module/submodule descriptions, content pages, and quiz/discussion/assignment descriptions. The new editor features all the same functionality you are used to, with some additional features such as a more options for font formatting, font colours, source code editing, an improved table creation experience, and a more robust accessibility checker.  Word count is also available for users.

NOTE: Spell check has been removed as a feature of the Brightspace Editor as most modern web browsers already include spellcheck functionality already.

Quizzes

• Improvements to Manual Grading Workflow: Quizzes that have manually graded questions (i.e. Written Response), and that are not set to be published immediately, will now display the Status “Pending Evaluation” on the Grade Quiz. This feature helps to identify quiz attempts that are awaiting manual grading.

NOTE: To prevent automatic publication/posting of quiz marks, make sure that the option “Allow attempt to be set as graded immediately upon completion” is inactive under the Assessment tab in the quiz’ Settings.

This Status feature is complemented by new Search filters on the “Grade Quiz” page to pinpoint quiz attempts that are Pending Evaluation.

• Access to Quiz Reports Moved: “Reports Setup” is no longer located inside the quiz settings. Instead, “Setup Reports” and “View Reports” options have been added to the dropdown menu for a quiz. Click the chevron next to the quiz’ name on the Tools > Quizzes page to find the Report tool links.
• “Introduction” Field Removed: Previously, the quiz creation settings featured two main text fields: Description and Introduction. Brightspace has reduced this to just the Description field. Any Introduction text in pre-existing or imported quizzes is automatically appended to the Description field when you re-enter and save the Edit Settings for the quiz.
• Assign Zero (0) Minutes for Grace Period: It is now possible to assign a Grace Period of zero (0) minutes for quizzes with Enforced Time Limits. This setting is found under the Restrictions tab in the quiz creation/edit settings.

For more information on quiz settings, see our support page: https://carleton.ca/brightspace/instructors/editing-quizzes/.

Assignments

• Option to Add to an Assignment Category (or Create a New One): It is now possible to designate Assignments to Assignment Categories via the create/edit settings, under the “Submission & Completion” menu. If no Assignment Categories exist, there is the option in the menu to create a New Category and use it immediately.

NOTE: Categories are tool specific. As such, Assignment Categories will not be impacted by or synchronize with, for example, Gradebook Categories.

Grades

• Assign Formula, Calculated, and Text Items to Gradebook Categories: If you use Formula, Calculated, and Text items in your weighted or points-based Gradebook, you can now assign them to Categories to create a more intuitive structure.

NOTE: Formula, Calculated, and Text grade items do not contribute to either the category’s subtotal calculation or the final grade calculation.

Did you know?

You can contribute to the user experience of Brightspace. Create an account at https://community.brightspace.com/ to access the Product Ideas Exchange (or, PIE). Enter a feature suggestion or improvement (i.e. a PIE item), and review/upvote other development ideas.

Discussions 

Users can now “tag” other users in Discussion threads by typing the @ symbol followed by the user’s name. When  posting to a Discussion thread, users now have the ability to use @name to tag another user in the thread. Autocomplete will provide options as you type the @name tag! Users who are “tagged” will receive a notification within Brightspace to let them know that they’ve been mentioned in a discussion. It is not necessary to subscribe to the Forum or Topic to receive a notification. This feature only works for Discussion threads, and only users enrolled in the course can be tagged. But if an unfamiliar name pops up as a tagging option, please don’t worry; it’s just a member of our helpful TLS or ITS staff on account of their special system access. 

Text Editor 

The “Format Painter” feature allows you to copy the formatting of one text element and apply it to another. Within the text editors found throughout Brightspace, the tool ribbon contains a button for a Format Painter. The Format Painter allows the user to select specific text and then copy the formatting using the Format Painter button.  (If this sounds a lot like a feature in Microsoft Word, you’re right!).  Simply place your text cursor over the text that has the formatting you want to duplicate. Then click on the “paint roller” icon in the Text Editor’s toolbar. TIP: You may need to click first on the “…” to expand the toolbar options.) Your cursor will turn into a paint roller. Then click on the text that you want to apply the formatting to. 

Attendance 

• Delete attendance registers in bulk. Last month, D2L added a “More Actions” menu to the Attendance page for applying settings to Attendance Registers in bulk. This month D2L has added a “Delete” option. Select multiple registers by checking the box next to each, and then choose the “Delete” option from “More Actions” menu.
•  Restore a deleted attendance register.  If you need to recover a deleted attendance register, select the “View Deleted Registers” option from the “More Actions” menu within the Attendance tool. You will be taken to a new page with a list of all deleted Attendance Registers. Click the “Restore” button beside the deleted register you’d like to recover and it will be restored.

Rubrics 

Reorder criteria groups when creating/editing a rubric: Now when you are editing a rubric that has multiple Criteria Groups, Up/Down move arrows will appear to the left of the header. Clicking on the arrows will move the entire group Up or Down respectively, so that you can reorder your groups easily.

Did you know?

The Brightspace Text Editor will preserve the formatting of text you copy and paste from an external word processor, such as MS Word. This includes: font size and type (including special fonts); effects, such as bold, underline, and superscript; bullets; heading levels; tables; colouring and shading; and more! 

Assignments

• Assignment annotations available for TXT file types: TXT file format has been added to the list of file types that can be annotated using the Assignment grading tools. See the full list of file formats that can be annotated. Annotation refers to the ability to mark-up documents directly within Brightspace when grading.

• The Assignment download button in the grading screen has a menu with download options: The Download button in the header of the document viewer is now a menu when grading an assignment within Brightspace.

The menu contains two options:

• • “Download Original” will download the student’s assignment in its original submission format.
  • “Download” will export the assignment as a PDF that incorporates your annotations. This is currently the only way to export an annotated assignment.
•  Drag and Drop is available for images within Assignment Feedback: “Drag & drop” image files from your computer to quickly insert images into the text field of an assignment’s Overall Feedback.

To learn more about the Assignment tool, please join us for our workshop, Brightspace Assignments and Rubrics, or visit the Assignments support page.

Rubrics

• Drop-down menu added to criterion column of rubric: Clicking on the “…” button at the head of each criterion row will display a menu with options to duplicate the criterion row (“Copy row”) or remove it from the Criteria Group (“Delete row”).
• Options to print rubrics and export to PDF:  When viewing a rubric in a pop-up window or embedded in a page, a “Print Rubric” link appears in the top right-hand corner. Click the link to open a print settings window. In addition to selecting a printing device, one of the options is to save/export the rubric as a PDF. This “print” function works for both blank and evaluated rubrics. However, it is not possible to print/export a evaluated rubric for an assignment that is in the process of being graded.

See the Brightspace Support Site page, Creating Rubrics,  for more information.

Attendance

• Set attendance registers in bulk to hide or make visible: A “More Actions…” menu has been added to the Attendance Registers page for applying settings to registers in bulk. The options are to “Hide” and “Make Visible” multiple registers simultaneously. However, D2L will be adding additional functions in coming updates.
• Attendance scheme disabled once data is entered: The option to change the Attendance Scheme of a register is now automatically disabled once attendance data has been entered. This is to prevent the accidental deletion of attendance data when the scheme is changed.

HTML/Text Editor

•  Copy & Paste images added to HTML/Text editor: “Copy & paste” images into any HTML/Text Editor field within Brightspace. This works with images that you find online and image files on your computer that are open in a photo viewer.

See the Brightspace Support Site page, Using the HTML Editor, for more information.