Brightspace Platform 10.5.0 to 10.6.2 Release Web viewData is only transmitted between this service if the instance's Brightspace developer platform ... clients hosted in Amazon Web

Brightspace Platform 10.6.4 to 10.7.3Cumulative Release Notes

Brightspace Platform 10.5.0 to 10.6.2 Release NotesContents

ContentsContents...................................................................................................................................................... 2

August 2016 to July 2017/10.6.3 to 10.7.3 Releases......................................................................................7

Brightspace Data Platform............................................................................................................................ 8

Brightspace Data API - General availability | Updated.......................................................8

Brightspace Learning Environment 10.6.4.....................................................................................................9

Brightspace Daylight – Navbar now contains Overflow menu links | New..........................9Content - Separate Org files from Shared files | Update..................................................11Content - Support default MIME type mapping | Update..................................................13Intelligent Agents - Tool Improvements | New.................................................................14Quizzes - Quiz attempts override for individual learners | Updated.................................18

Brightspace Learning Environment 10.6.5...................................................................................................20

Binder Store - End-of-life | Removed................................................................................20Book List - Widget removed from Remote Plugins | Removed.........................................20LTI - Content-Item Message 1.0 | New.............................................................................21Quizzes and Surveys - Direct export of report data to Microsoft Excel | Updated............23


Awards - Clarify the Availability and Sharing options for award creators | Updated.........26Awards - Modifications to the logic for automatic award grants | Updated......................27Daylight Experience - Update to MyCourses widget | Updated........................................28Email - Updates to email-related configuration variables | Updated................................29Grades - Include group and section information in grade exports | New..........................30HTML Editor - TinyMCE | Updated....................................................................................31LTI - Content-Item Message Service for Course Import | New..........................................31LTI - Custom Parameter Substitution Variables | New......................................................32LTI - Improvements to External Learning Tools workflow | Updated................................34Video Note - EMEA region support | New.........................................................................35


Assignments - Enforce a window style for rubrics opened in Assignments | New............36Daylight Experience - Class Progress now uses updated styles | Updated.......................37

© 2017 by D2L Corporation. All rights reserved. 2


Daylight Experience - Content page Table of Contents is now responsive to small screen display.............................................................................................................................37Daylight Experience - LMS now uses updated core icons | Updated................................39Daylight Experience - Minor Updates | Updated...............................................................39Daylight Experience - My Courses widget can use images from curated library | Updated40Daylight Experience - Responsive Print and Settings links | New.....................................42Daylight Experience - Responsive Tables | New...............................................................43Daylight Experience - User Progress now uses updated styles | Updated........................45Groups - Single user, member specific groups | Updated................................................45HTML Editor – Cut and Paste│Updated.............................................................................46Intelligent Agents - Tool Improvements | New.................................................................47Language Management - User Progress tool is now the Class Progress tool | Updated. . .50Login Page Management - Specify a headline and background color | New.....................51LTI - Custom Parameter Substitution Variables | Updated...............................................54Quizzes - Create / Edit Multiple Choice Questions | Updated...........................................55


Announcements - Link directly to an announcement | New.............................................58Assignments - Assignment submission email notifications | New....................................59Daylight Experience - Re-skin of Assignments pages | New.............................................60Document Viewer - Viewing experience | Updated..........................................................61Grades - Grade book workflow and updated calculations for exemptions | New..............62Grades - Exempted grade item effects on release conditions | New................................63Grades - Grade exemptions can be imported and exported | New...................................64Grades - Grade exemptions are supported by Valence APIs | New..................................65Grades - Show exempted grade items in Class Progress | New.......................................67Quizzes - Create / edit True or False questions | Updated................................................68Class Progress - Dropped Grades appear on Summary and Grades tabs | New...............69Class Progress - Improved display of grade item weights | Updated................................71


Brightspace platform - Supported browser changes | Updated........................................73Brightspace platform – System navbar link points to new Brightspace Help site | Updated74Daylight Experience - Responsive button groups in Assignments | New..........................77Daylight Experience - Re-skin of Discussions | New.........................................................78Daylight Experience - Re-skin of Content Viewer | New...................................................78



Daylight Experience - Responsive multi-actions in tables | Updated................................79Daylight Experience - Typography changes to Daylight styles | Updated........................80Discussions - Improvements to group discussions | New.................................................81Discussions - Reading view user interface changes | Update...........................................86Grades - Automatically release final grades | Updated....................................................87Quizzes - Create / edit Long Answer questions | Updated................................................91

Brightspace Learning Environment 10.6.10.................................................................................................92

Daylight Experience - Improvements to My Courses widget | New..................................92Daylight Experience - Reskin of Discussions and Quizzing pages | New..........................94HTML Editor - Math Editor | Updated................................................................................95Quizzes - Create / edit Short Answer questions | Updated...............................................96


Daylight Experience - General availability | New.............................................................99Daylight Experience - Improvements to the My Courses widget | Updated....................101Daylight Experience - Logos on department and course level navbars | New................103Grades - Exempt a learner from multiple grade items | New.........................................105Microservices - Content Service | New...........................................................................106Quizzes - Improvements to the new quizzing experience | Updated..............................109Quizzes - Enhancements to Short Answer questions | Updated.....................................110SCORM – New Brightspace SCORM solution | New.........................................................111


Activity Feed - Limited release to US and Canada | New................................................116Brightspace Daylight - Optional course image banner on widget-based homepages | New...................................................................................................................................... 120Data Hub - Brightspace Data Sets | New........................................................................123Document Conversion Service | New.............................................................................126HTML Editor - New Question Authoring experience | Updated.......................................127HTML Editor - Accessibility Checker | New.....................................................................129HTML Editor - Version updates for TinyMCE and the TinyMCE PowerPaste plugin | Updated...................................................................................................................................... 133Quizzes - Renamed Long Answer (LA) to Written Response (WR) | Updated..................135


Brightspace Data Platform - End-of-life of the ODBC Driver | Removed.........................137Brightspace platform - Removal of legacy Help tool | Removed....................................137



Copy Course Components - Copying final grade properties includes calculated and adjusted grades | Updated...........................................................................................................139Daylight Experience - Improved learner workflows and responsive dialog boxes | Updated...................................................................................................................................... 140Discussions - Allow instructors to post to all groups at once | New................................142Discussions - Default value for Discussions configuration variable | Updated................144HTML Editor - Improved paste functionality in Quizzes | Updated..................................145


Activity Feed - Available to all hosted clients | New.......................................................146Classlist - Hide flags in the classlist | New.....................................................................150Daylight Experience - The Brightspace Daylight Experience is now supported on all Browsers | Updated.......................................................................................................152Document Conversion Service - General availability to all clients | Updated.................153Grades - Grade exports include all group and section enrollments | Updated...............155Lessons - Limited Availability | New...............................................................................156SCORM - Simplified workflow when exiting SCORM objects | Updated...........................159


HTML Editor - HTML Editor is now improved for use with Brightspace Daylight Experience | Updated.........................................................................................................................160HTML Editor - Paste from Microsoft Word | New.............................................................161HTML Editor - Unsaved changes prompt | New..............................................................162Learning Outcomes - Import and export standard alignments using bulk import and export tools - AWS Enabled | Updated......................................................................................163Quizzes - Shuffle the order of questions | New...............................................................164

Integrations 10.6.10.................................................................................................................................. 167

URKUND Plagiarism Detector - URKUND Plagiarism Detector integration available | New167

Integrations 10.6.11.................................................................................................................................. 169

Virtual Classrooms and Video Assignments - Live Captioning Role available | New.......169

Integrations 10.7.0.................................................................................................................................... 171

IPSIS - Improved Logging | Updated...............................................................................171

Integrations 10.7.1.................................................................................................................................... 172

IPSIS - Reactivate users | New.......................................................................................172IPSIS - Support for departments with upper org units | New..........................................173Activity Feed – Web link and Google Drive attachments | New......................................174



Virtual Classrooms and Video Assignments by YouSeeU...............................................176

Integrations 10.7.2.................................................................................................................................... 177

IPSIS - Plug and Play Administration | New....................................................................177

Integrations 10.7.3.................................................................................................................................... 180

Brightspace® App Finder - Update and delete listings from Instructor Feedback form | Updated.........................................................................................................................180IPSIS - Support for OneRoster v1.1 - AWS Enabled | New...............................................181

About D2L.........................................................................................................................................................184


Brightspace Platform 10.5.0 to 10.6.2 Release NotesBrightspace Learning Environment 10.6.5

August 2016 to July 2017/10.6.3 to 10.7.3 ReleasesThe following release notes are for clients who want information on all Brightspace Platform features released from 10.6.3 to 10.7.3 (August 2016 to July 2017).

Additional Information:

Brightspace Platform Cumulative Known Issues List (https://community.brightspace.com/s/article/ka1610000000pnHAAQ/Brightspace-Platform-Cumulative-KIL-10-4-0-to-10-7-3)

Brightspace Platform Requirements (https://community.brightspace.com/s/article/ka1610000000ozlAAA/Brightspace-Platform-Requirements)

Brightspace Development Platform (http://docs.valence.desire2learn.com/about.html)


http://docs.valence.desire2learn.com/about.html

https://community.brightspace.com/s/article/ka1610000000ozlAAA/Brightspace-Platform-Requirements

https://community.brightspace.com/s/article/ka1610000000pnHAAQ/Brightspace-Platform-Cumulative-KIL-10-4-0-to-10-7-3

https://community.brightspace.com/s/article/ka1610000000pnHAAQ/Brightspace-Platform-Cumulative-KIL-10-4-0-to-10-7-3


Brightspace Data PlatformBrightspace Data API - General availability | UpdatedThe Brightspace Data API provides developers with programmatic access to aggregated data in the Brightspace Data Platform. This allows developers to use custom applications built with the Brightspace Data API to access the aggregated data that is meaningful to them.

As of this release, the Brightspace Data API and corresponding API documentation are now available to all clients that enable the Brightspace Data Platform. Previously, the Brightspace Data API was only available to clients that purchased Brightspace Insights and enabled the Brightspace Data Platform.

Integration Role Permissions

System Requirement Change

Impact of Change Technical Details Next Steps

Slight impact to administrators because of system requirements.

The Brightspace Data API is compatible with Brightspace platform 10.6.5+.

The Brightspace Data API is currently available in English for North American clients only.

The Brightspace Data API depends on the Authentication Service and a new workflow in the Manage Extensibility tool. Administrators register a custom application through the new workflow in the Manage Extensibility tool so that they can enable applications built with the API.

To get started with the Brightspace Data API, visit the Analytics Data Access page (https://community.brightspace.com/devcop/analytics_data_access) in the Brightspace Developer Community of Practice for documentation and community support.


https://community.brightspace.com/devcop/analytics_data_access





Slight impact to administrators because of required role permissions.

The account used to call the Brightspace Data API requires the Brightspace Data Platform > Query Data Platform permission.

Once a custom application is built using the Brightspace Data API, the account using the application requires the permission. The expected persona is a Brightspace Administrator or Data Scientist in an organization.

Brightspace Learning Environment 10.6.4Brightspace Daylight – Navbar now contains Overflow menu links | NewThe Brightspace navbar now includes a More menu that contains overflow items if there are space limitations due to a narrow screen (such as a tablet or phone screen) or a large number of links. The More menu appears as the last menu link on the Daylight navbar. The changes make the appearance of the core Brightspace Platform consistent across the product offering.



For the purposes of the early release of the Daylight Experience, it is recommended that you only turn on the Daylight Experience in test environments. In previous releases, you have seen Daylight applied to Brightspace Capture, and Brightspace Assignment Grader for Android, and more recently to Brightspace Learning Environment. By installing Daylight in your test environment, you can see how it affects core tools and workflows in Brightspace and follow the progress each month as we apply more Daylight design updates across the product suite.

Figure 1: The More menu contains navbar links that do not fit on the screen

Global Change Look and Feel

Organization Wide




Slight disruption to all users due to the changes to the user interface. There are no workflow changes as a result of these changes.

The Daylight navbar changes appear only when the configuration variable d2l.System.BrightspaceDaylightExperience is turned on.

You must turn on the configuration variable in Admin Tools > Config Variable Browser before you can see the Daylight updates.

For the purposes of the early access release of the Daylight Experience beta program, it is recommended that you only turn on the Daylight Experience in test environments.

Content - Separate Org files from Shared files | UpdateInstructors can now be set up to only view or view and edit files in the Shared Files area as a result of the newly created Browse Shared Files and Upload/Edit/Delete Shared Files permissions under the Manage Files tool.

Instructors can store templates and files in the Shared Files area and other instructors can then import these files into their courses when creating content. If instructors with the Browse Shared Files permission try to edit a file in the Shared Files area, they are prompted to save a copy of the file in the Course Offering Files area. If instructors have both the Browse Shared Files and Upload/Edit/Delete Shared Files permissions, they are prompted to either save a copy of the file they want to edit in the Course Offering Files area, create a new file within the Shared Files area, or overwrite the existing file within the Shared Files area.

This feature implements PIE Ideas D1522 and D2705.



Figure 2: Add a file to Content from Shared Files

Global Change Organization Wide

Role Permissions Tool Change

Workflow




Slight impact to instructors due to change in workflow.

If instructors previously had the See the file listing permission at the organization level, they will be granted the Browse Shared Files permission at the organization level. With just this permission, instructors cannot edit files in the Shared Files area.

If instructors previously had the See the file listing permission at the organization level and had at least one of the existing Edit/Upload/Delete Manage Files permissions at the organization level, they will be granted the Upload/Edit/Delete Shared Files permission at the organization level.

You must have these permissions set before you can use this feature.

Content - Support default MIME type mapping | UpdateInstructors can now upload new file types into their courses and learners can download them without encountering an error. This is the same behavior if a default application MIME type mapping was added. This feature changes the default behavior when learners try to download new file types that instructors have uploaded into course content and have linked to within an HTML file.


Tool Change Workflow




Slight impact to instructors who can upload new file types into course content and link to them within an HTML file.

Restricted file types (like *.exe) still cannot be uploaded into Content. There is no change to upload functionality or restrictions.

Note that any new special file types that must be opened with a specific application instead of being downloaded, for example, a new media type, must be registered as the correct MIME type and require a code change in Brightspace Learning Environment.

N/A

Slight impact to learners who can download new file types linked to within their course content without encountering an error.

N/A N/A

Intelligent Agents - Tool Improvements | NewBrightspace Learning Environment 10.6.4 introduces new features and functionality for Intelligent Agents:

A new history page allows users creating Intelligent Agents to see each time the agent runs, which users it identifies, what emails have been sent, and details on any errors that occurred during the agent run. You can view this page by clicking View History on the Edit Agent page. It is also available from the context menu of the agent on the Agent List page. You can view the history of the most recently executed run directly from Results of Last Run in the agent list. This lists how many users were identified, and/or error information. This feature implements PIE item D158.

A new mode for running Intelligent Agents allows users to select Practice Run from the agent context menu on the Agent List page. This runs the agent, and reports back a list of users who met the specified criteria. Users identified in a practice run are not notified or emailed. A practice run does not count as an action when using the Take action only the first time the agent’s criteria are satisfied for a user type of agent. As with existing Intelligent Agents, the agent must be turned on to trigger a practice run. In conjunction with the new history page, users can also now see the history of all practice runs. This feature partially implements PIE item D2312.

In Intelligent Agents Settings, instructors can now set custom values for the Name that emails come from and Reply-To address for responses so that the automated emails can appear to come from the instructor instead of from a helpdesk. Learners can reply directly to the agent emails and replies are directed to the instructor. If instructors want their emails to continue to come from a helpdesk and do not want to have a reply-to function, they don't have to take any action to maintain the existing behaviour. The course values for Name that emails come from and Reply-To address for responses are not copied during copy course components and instructors need to update these fields post-copy. This feature implements PIE items D157 and D2884.



When an instructor uses custom values, the Name that emails come from displays to learners as the person from whom the email is sent, both in the email header and in Messages alerts in the minibar. When learners reply to an email, responses route to the email address specified in Reply-To address for responses.

There is no longer a 4000-character limit on email text from Intelligent Agents. This is now unlimited. This feature implements PIE item D1979.

The Agent Name field in an Intelligent Agent previously truncated to 50 characters. It now has an available length of 128 characters.

Existing Intelligent Agents without any conditions attached to them (“empty” agents) no longer run and spam all users. When an empty agent is triggered, it fails with an error and is automatically turned off. This error info is available on the history page. This feature implements PIE items D1158 and D1159.

Users can now copy Intelligent Agents within the same course from a new context menu item for each agent listed in the Agent List. The copy is called "Copy of <name>" and is turned off by default. This feature implements PIE item D2858.

Figure 3: The results of agent runs can now be viewed on a history page

Figure 4: Users creating Intelligent Agents can now test them with a Practice Run option



Figure 5: Instructors can now customize the From name in Intelligent Agent emails

Figure 6: Instructors can now also receive replies to Intelligent Agent emails directly






Slight impact to users creating Intelligent Agents due to a tool change providing a new history page within Intelligent Agents.

Users require the existing permission Manage Agents to view the history page.

Some data from agent runs done prior to the release of this feature is migrated to the new history page. For example, users see past agent runs listed, however no email information is available. For agents where Take action only the first time the agent’s criteria are satisfied for a user is set, migrations include which users received emails on past runs, so that re-notification does not occur.

n/a

Slight impact to users creating Intelligent Agents due to a tool change that allows for practice runs of Intelligent Agents.

Users require the existing permission Manage Agents to select a practice run for an Intelligent Agent.

n/a

Slight impact to administrators due to new configuration variables to support instructors wanting to use the new email functionality.

Slight impact to instructors due to tool change that allows for custom values to be used for the Name that emails come from and Reply-To address for responses fields in Intelligent Agent Settings.

The configuration variables d2l.Tools.IntelligentAgents.EmailFromName and d2l.Tools.IntelligentAgents.EmailReplyTo have been created to support this functionality. No action is required on the part of the administrator.

Instructors who want their agents to continue to come from a helpdesk and who do not want to have a reply-to function can do nothing and the existing behavior is maintained.

Instructors who want to override the system values with their own name and/or email can do this via the Settings page in Intelligent Agents in their course.

The course values for Name that emails come from and Reply-To address for responses are not copied during copy course components.

n/a




Slight impact to instructors due to tool change that allows for increased number of characters in the email text from Intelligent Agents.

n/a n/a

Slight impact to instructors due to tool change that allows for increased number of characters in the Agent Name field of an Intelligent Agent.

n/a n/a

Slight impact to users creating Intelligent Agents due to new workflow for existing Intelligent Agents for which no conditions are attached.

When an "empty" agent is triggered (i.e. an agent for which previous release conditions that were applied to the agent have been deleted through other means), it will fail with an error and be automatically disabled. This error information is available on the new history page.

n/a

Slight impact to instructors due to tool change that allows instructors to copy Intelligent Agents within a course.

n/a n/a

Quizzes - Quiz attempts override for individual learners | UpdatedThe configuration variable associated with instructors' ability to specify a different number of quiz attempts allowed for individual learners, d2l.Tools.Quizzing.AllowSpecialAccessForAttempts, is now turned on by default.

Configuration Variable Global Change

Organization Wide Tool Change



Workflow


Slight impact to administrators due to a change in the default setting of an existing configuration variable.

This feature is dependent on the d2l.Tools.Quizzing.AllowSpecialAccessForAttempts configuration variable.

This configuration variable is turned on by default and can be set by administrators.



Brightspace Learning Environment 10.6.5Binder Store - End-of-life | RemovedD2L announces the end-of-life of the Binder Store. The Binder Store will no longer be enhanced or supported.



Slight impact to users due to the end-of-life of the Binder Store.

N/A N/A

Book List - Widget removed from Remote Plugins | RemovedThe Book List Widget no longer appears when managing Remote Plugins in Brightspace Learning Environment. The widget can no longer be added to a homepage and it no longer appears on any existing home pages that previously included the widget.

Global Change Tool Change

Organization Wide




Large impact to all users of the Book List Widget due to the removal of the widget from the Remote Plugins list

LTI - Content-Item Message 1.0 | NewAdministrators can set up a third party integration that uses the standard message service for IMS certified content items from Remote Plugins. This allows instructors to select and insert content from the third party tool into Brightspace Learning Environment. Depending on the type of remote plugin you select during set up, the tool will be added to one or both of the following locations in Brightspace Learning Environment:

Content > Add Existing menu option or the Insert Quicklink option in the HTML Editor - used to add content as Quicklinks

Insert Stuff option in the HTML Editor - used to add items as Objects


Integration Organization Wide





Moderate impact to administrators who can turn on the Content-Item Message Service and set up the new remote plug-in types

The third party tool must support an IMS certified version of Content-Item Message 1.0, and LTI 1.1*

The d2l.Tools.Lti.ContentItemMessaging.IsEnabled configuration variable must be turned on.

*If you are using LTI 2.x, use the LTI v1.x link your third party tool offers, as well as its associated key and secret. The same key and secret can be used with either LTI version 1.x or LTI version 2.x.

Once this configuration variable is turned on, a new remote plugin can be created using the Quicklink (CIM) and Insert Stuff (CIM) options in the Remote Plugins > New Remote Plugin > Plugin type drop-down menu.

Moderate impact to instructors who can add Quicklinks in Brightspace Learning Environment using the Content > Add Existing or Insert Quicklink options and objects using the Insert Stuff option.

NA NA



Quizzes and Surveys - Direct export of report data to Microsoft Excel | UpdatedYou can export quizzes and surveys data using the Export to Excel button in Quizzes and Surveys. The Excel format supports Unicode and accented characters.

Figure 7: The Quiz Attempts screen now includes the Export To Excel button



Figure 8: The User Statistics tab now includes the Export To Excel button



Figure 9: The Question Statistics tab now includes the Export To Excel button

Workflow Tool Change


Slight impact to instructors and administrators who export report data for Surveys and Quizzes.

In the report areas within Surveys and Quizzes, click the Export to Excel button. You can view the resulting XLSX file using Microsoft Excel.



Brightspace Learning Environment 10.6.6Awards - Clarify the Availability and Sharing options for award creators | UpdatedThe availability options to define to whom the award is available and where in the org structure the award is available have changed. The text for the options is now the same on both the Edit and the Create pages. The availability options now include:

Make the award available to all my courses (default). This new option provides the same result as if you previously did not select an availability option.

Make the award available to other award creators and their courses. If you configure an award to be available to other award creators, you can then make the award available only to the current org unit and any child org units.

This feature implements PIE item D3319.

Figure 10: In the Awards tool, you can choose to share the badges and certificates you create with other award creators, and how you want to limit the ability of others to use your awards.

Users Only Tool Change

Workflow




Slight disruption to instructors and admins who define the availability and sharing of awards.

When creating an award, you can select one of two radio buttons that indicate how you want to share the award. If you select the radio button indicating that you want to share it with other award creators in other courses, there is a check box that you can select to determine how broadly you want to share the award in the org unit.

Awards - Modifications to the logic for automatic award grants | UpdatedIn the past, if an award was being shared to several courses and a release condition was set to release a second award, the second award would be awarded if the first was earned in ANY course to which the award was shared. The logic has been modified to release the second award only if the first award was earned in that specific course.

Tool Change


Slight impact to instructors who now have better control over the release of the second award.

This modification affects the release conditions and scheduled jobs that monitor and assess release conditions. There is no additional change required by users to enable this modification.



Daylight Experience - Update to MyCourses widget | UpdatedThe MyCourses widget now uses the Daylight styling, responsive layout, and tile-based layout, and the ability to add an image to the tile for each course. Users can see their pinned courses in a tile-based view, and can search through their courses.

For the purposes of the early release of the Daylight Experience, it is recommended that you only turn on the Daylight Experience in test environments. In previous releases, you have seen Daylight applied to Brightspace Capture, and Brightspace Assignment Grader for Android, and more recently to Brightspace Learning Environment. By installing Daylight in your test environment, you can see how it affects core tools and workflows in Brightspace and follow the progress each month as we apply more Daylight design updates across the product suite.

Figure 11: You can change the image on a course tile using the Change Image option.

Look and Feel Global Change



Slight impact to administrators, instructors, and learners due to the workflow changes.

The feature is now availalble to clients who turn on the d2l.system.BrightspaceDaylightExperience configuration variable and the My Courses Tile View feature flag in the D2L.LE.ManageCourses.Web.Desktop.Widget.ICourseTileViewFeature configuration variable.

You must have these configuration variables set before you can use this feature.

If you do not specifically set an image, a gray box appears for the course.



Email - Updates to email-related configuration variables | UpdatedIn order to more fully support DMARC conformance within Email, there have been changes to the following configuration variables:

d2l.Tools.Awards.IssuerContact set default to "[email protected]"

d2l.Tools.FromEmail set default to "[email protected]"

d2l.Tools.FromEmail set Description to "The email address that is used as the From address for system generated emails (Ex From Assignments or Intelligent Agents)"

d2l.Tools.Helpdesk.FromEmail set default to "System - No Reply"

d2l.Tools.Helpdesk.FromEmail set Description to "The email name that is used as the From name for system generated emails (Ex From Assignments or Intelligent Agents)"

d2l.Tools.Mail.D2LMailDomain set default to "brightspace.com"

d2l.Tools.Mail.PostmasterAddress set default to "[email protected]"

d2l.Tools.Mail.UseReplyToInFromAddress set default to "0"

d2l.Tools.Notifications.Email.FromAddress set default to [email protected]

In addition, the d2l.Tools.Mail.UserReplyToInFromAddress configuration variable is being deprecated in order to allow for DMARC support and conformance within Email. In the next release (10.6.7), a new variable that obscures LMS usernames will replace the deprecated variable.

Configuration Variable Tool Change


No impact. These variables are automatically updated using a migration script.

A migration script automatically updates the affected configuration variables, if you have changed any of the default configuration variables to custom values, the migration script persists those custom values. If you have not changed the defaults for any of these configuration variables, they are automatically changed to the new values.

N/A



Grades - Include group and section information in grade exports | NewWhen exporting grades from the grade book, under User Details, there is a new option to include group and section membership information for each user. This allows for more detailed analysis of grade exports outside of Brightspace Learning Environment.

This feature implements PIE items D1840 and D2281.

Figure 12: The option to include group and section information is available in grade exports.

Look and Feel Organization Wide





Slight impact to instructors and administrators who export grades from courses with multiple sections or groups due to availability of new User Details options.

These group and section membership export options are only available if the course you are working in contains groups or sections.

The instructor role must have the permissions to Access all course groups/sections under their role settings enabled in order to view these options.

When exporting grades, you can optionally include Group or Section details for each learner by selecting the corresponding option under User Details.

HTML Editor - TinyMCE | UpdatedTinyMCE has been updated to version 4.4.2 as part of quarterly maintenance.

Tool Change


n/a n/a n/a

LTI - Content-Item Message Service for Course Import | NewThis feature is the application of LTI Content-Item Message 1.0 to Course Import. Instructors can now use the standard Content-Item Message as the content picker for inserting third-party common cartridge packages into Brightspace Learning Environment. This can be done using Course Import from Table of Contents or Import/Export/Copy Components in Brightspace Learning Environment.







Moderate impact to administrators who can turn on the Content-Item Message (CIM) Service and set up the new remote plugin type, Course Import (CIM).

The third-party tool must support an IMS certified version of Content-Item Message 1.0.

The existing d2l.Tools.Lti.ContentItemMessaging.IsEnabled configuration variable must be turned on.

Once this configuration variable is turned on, you can create the Course Import (CIM) remote plugin from the Remote Plugins > New Remote Plugin > Plugin type drop-down. Creating this remote plugin makes the third-party content provider available to instructors from Course Import in Table of Contents and Import/Export/Copy Components.

Moderate impact to instructors who can use the Course Import (CIM) plugin to import common cartridge packages from a third-party tool provider into Brightspace Learning Environment.

NA NA

LTI - Custom Parameter Substitution Variables | NewCustom parameter substitution variables allow specific values to be dynamically substituted for custom parameters requested by a third-party tool, as defined by the LTI 1.1.1 standard specification. Some third-party vendors require substitution variables to support feature functionality, whereas some features are enhanced by the use of substitution variables. For example, a hypothetical use case includes providing a third-party tool the actual course start/end date and the user email address (where both are custom parameters being substituted by substitution variables) which could allow the tool to send the user a reminder about a task if that is a feature the tool provides.

The following custom parameter substitution variables are implemented:



$User.id

$Person.name.full

$Person.name.family

$Person.name.given

$ResourceLink.title

$ResourceLink.description

$CourseTemplate.sourcedId

$CourseTemplate.label

$CourseTemplate.title

$CourseOffering.sourcedId

$CourseOffering.label

$CourseOffering.title

$CourseSection.sourcedId

$CourseSection.title

$CourseSection.dept

$CourseSection.timeFrame.begin

$CourseSection.timeFrame.end







Slight impact to administrators who can select security settings to allow Brightspace Learning Environment to send additional data to the third-party tool as requested.

Before administrators can use this feature, they must turn on the d2l.Tools.Lti.CustomParameterSubstitution.IsEnabled configuration variable.

This data is used to turn on or support a feature the third-party tool provider releases to users.

You must have this configuration variable turned on before you can use this feature.

LTI - Improvements to External Learning Tools workflow | UpdatedThe following improvements have been made to the External Learning Tools workflow:

A new permission, Create External Learning Tool links from available Learning Tool Providers, has been created to give instructors the ability to create new Learning Tool links using only pre-approved tool providers. This feature implements PIE item D2546.

When an instructor creates an External Learning Tools link using the Content tool, if the URL specified matches an available Tool Provider, the Use tool provider security settings option is enabled automatically. This feature implements PIE item D2438.

When a Tool Provider is created from a Remote Plugin, the Name and Description for the Tool provider are pulled from the organization's Tool Consumer Information settings instead.

Organization Wide Role Permissions





Slight impact to instructors due to change in LTI workflow.

Slight impact to administrators due to addition of new permission.

The Create External Learning Tool links from available Learning Tool Providers permission gives instructors a subset of the permission Manage External Learning Tool Links. Users with the Manage External Tool Links permission do not require the new permission.

If you give this permission to instructors, ensure that you the role also has the Launch External Learning Tool Links and Create Quicklinks from available External Learning Tools links permissions.

To enable instructors to add External Learning Tools links from pre-approved tool providers, set the Create External Learning Tool links from available Learning Tool Providers permission.

Video Note - EMEA region support | NewThe microservice used by Video Note is now deployed in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, allowing learners and instructors in that region to use Video Note in Brightspace Learning Environment.

Global Change System Requirement Change


No impact to administrators. Video Note is a light-weight video recording service that allows learners and instructors to record short videos with a webcam. These videos can be added where video attachments are supported and when the HTML Editor’s Insert Stuff option is available.

For EMEA clients, the Video Note Service used by Video Note is located in Amazon Web Services™ (AWS) – EU (Ireland).

For detailed information regarding data residency, privacy, and transmission, refer to the updated Microservices in the Brightspace Cloud guide when it is released.



Brightspace Learning Environment 10.6.7Assignments - Enforce a window style for rubrics opened in Assignments | NewAdministrators can use the d2l.Tools.Dropbox.RubricWindowStyle configuration variable to change the way that rubrics display when they open them for assessment in the Assignments tool.

Previously, when instructors opened rubrics within Assignments, the rubrics appeared either in a dialog that covered the assignment submission or in a pop-up window that instructors could move away from the submission. How rubrics appeared depended on the window style configuration in Account Settings.

Most users prefer to have pop-up content appear in a modal dialog, which is the default behavior. Now, administrators can set rubrics to open in a particular window style independent of instructor Account Settings. This choice is particularly useful to organizations who want to have rubrics open in a separate, movable window when instructors view assignment submissions, while at the same time, leaving all other pop-up content to appear within the window style of their choice across all other tools. This feature implements PIE item D2737.

Configuration Variable Look and Feel



Slight impact to administrators due to addition of new configuration variable.

Before the window style can be enforced, it must be configured by an administrator. In the Config Variable Browser, under Tools > Dropbox, the d2l.Tools.Dropbox.RubricWindowStyle variable is set to open rubrics in the style that is specified by the user's Account Settings.

You can change the window style to Always show rubrics in dialogs or Always show rubrics in pop-ups. These settings cause rubrics to open in the specified window type format. A course-level override can be added so that instructors in an individual course can be given a different experience.

To change the window style, you must change the value of the configuration variable before you can use this feature.



Daylight Experience - Class Progress now uses updated styles | UpdatedThe Class Progress tool has been updated to use the Daylight Experience styles. There may be some low-traffic pages within the Class Progress tool that have not fully implemented the Daylight Experience styling.

For the purposes of the early release of the Daylight Experience, it is recommended that you only turn on the Daylight Experience in test environments. In previous releases, you have seen Daylight applied to Brightspace Capture, and Brightspace Assignment Grader for Android, and more recently to Brightspace Learning Environment. By turning on Daylight in your test environment, you can see how it affects core tools and workflows in Brightspace Learning Environment and follow the progress each month as we apply more Daylight design updates across the product suite.



There is a slight impact to users of the Class Progress tool due to the updated styles.

The feature is now available to clients who turn on the d2l.system.BrightspaceDaylightExperience configuration variable

You must have this configuration variable set before you can use this feature.

Daylight Experience - Content page Table of Contents is now responsive to small screen displayThe Content landing page containing the Table of Contents is now responsive to tablet or mobile device screens. The Table of Contents sidebar appears at the top of the mobile page, with the main page contents below it. When you are using search, the sidebar is hidden so that you can read the results below the search field. When you clear the search, the sidebar is visible again.





Figure 13: The Table of Contents of the Content tool, when viewed on a mobile device, appears above the main content area


Users Only


Moderate impact to all users who use Brightspace Learning Environment on a tablet or mobile device.

The feature is now available to clients who turn on the d2l.system.BrightspaceDaylightExperience configuration variable.




Daylight Experience - LMS now uses updated core icons | UpdatedThe Brightspace Learning Environment now uses updated Daylight icons. Work for this feature has been completed in priority order based on page usage. Any low-traffic pages that did not get updated in v 10.6.7 will be completed in 10.6.8.




There is a slight disruption to all users due to the updated icons.



Daylight Experience - Minor Updates | UpdatedThere have been several minor improvements to the Brightspace Daylight Experience:

The optional Admin Tools navbar link has been removed as it is redundant to the Admin Tools gear icon.

Admin Tools is now available from the mobile menu.


Tool Change Look and Feel

Users Only Workflow




There is a slight impact to users due to the newly available updates.



Daylight Experience - My Courses widget can use images from curated library | UpdatedWhen you have turned on the Daylight Experience, the My Courses feature is also turned on. In the new My Courses interface, all courses display a default image assigned from the curated image library. Users can then search for different images and change the default image.




Figure 14: The MyCourses widget now uses a default image from a curated library

Figure 15: You can change the default image for a course on the MyCourses widget






Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to use and change default images in the My Courses widget.


Instructors also need the Change Course Image permission to change the default image.

You must have this configuration variable and permission set before you can use this feature.

Daylight Experience - Responsive Print and Settings links | NewOn mobile devices or narrow displays, there is now an overflow menu for links in the top-right corner of many tool pages. This overflow menu appears as an ellipsis, and contains all of the links that previously resided in the top right corner, such as Settings, Print, and Help.




Figure 16: The Print and Settings options are now available in an overflow menu on the top-right corner of many tool pages.

Organization Wide Look and Feel

Users Only


Slight impact to users who use Brightspace Learning Environment on a tablet or mobile device.



Daylight Experience - Responsive Tables | NewTables are now displayed in the Daylight style, and large tables are now responsive to display on tablet or mobile device screens. When a table is too wide to display in the viewing area, it is obvious that there is additional content beyond



the current viewing area, and the user can use a swipe gesture or click a button to view the additional content. In this release, the responsive table functionality has been added to Class Progress and User Progress tools.

For the purposes of the early release of the Daylight Experience, it is recommended that you only turn on the Daylight Experience in test environments. In previous releases, you have seen Daylight applied to Brightspace Capture, and Brightspace Assignment Grader for Android, and more recently to Brightspace Learning Environment. By installing Daylight in your test environment, you can see how it affects core tools and workflows in Brightspace Brightspace Learning Environment and follow the progress each month as we apply more Daylight design updates across the product suite.

Figure 17: Users can click a button to view additional content that appears offscreen. This feature is visible to screen readers to provide access the additional content.

Tool Change Look and Feel

Users Only Workflow


Slight impact to all users who are able to better view tables on tablets or mobile devices





Daylight Experience - User Progress now uses updated styles | UpdatedUser Progress has been updated to use the Daylight Experience styles. There may be some low-traffic pages within User Progress that have not fully implemented the Daylight Experience styling.

For the purposes of the early release of the Daylight Experience, it is recommended that you only turn on the Daylight Experience in test environments. In previous releases, you have seen Daylight applied to Brightspace Capture, and Brightspace Assignment Grader for Android, and more recently to Brightspace Learning Environment. By installing Daylight in your test environment, you can see how it affects core tools and workflows in Brightspace Learning Environment and follow the progress each month as we apply more Daylight design updates across the product suite.



There is a slight impact to users of User Progress due to the updated styles.

The feature is now available to clients who turn on the d2l.system.BrightspaceDaylightExperience configuration variable


Groups - Single user, member specific groups | UpdatedThere is a new group category type called Single user, member-specific groups. Using this group category creates a group with a single user where the first name and last name of the learner is the name of the group. When a new learner is enrolled in the course a group is automatically created for them. Instructors no longer have to rename groups of one. This new category type is now on by default.


Organization Wide




No impact to users. For new clients, the d2l.Tools.Groups.AllowSingleUserNamedGroups configuration variable is turned on by default to enable the single user, member specific group category.

For existing clients, the previous value of the configuration variable persists. This update does not change the value of the configuration variable, that is, whether users can see this option or not in their existing instance of Brightspace Learning Environment.

n/a

HTML Editor – Cut and Paste│UpdatedUsers can now copy and paste content from a Microsoft Word document or HTML source and the content retains the look and feel of the source document. This feature implements PIE item D2627.




Slight impact to instructors who can now paste content from MS Word or an HTML site and have the look and feel of that content retained.

Improved paste functionality is the result of an update to the plugin.

n/a

Intelligent Agents - Tool Improvements | NewBrightspace Learning Environment 10.6.7 introduces new features and functionality for Intelligent Agents:



Scheduled intelligent agents stop running and are automatically disabled if the course is inactive, over (end date passed), or deleted. You can still set up a practice run or a manual run of an intelligent agent at any time in a course with a passed end date. This feature implements PIE item D1156.

Users can now multi-select and delete agents on the Agent List page. The new Restore Agents page allows you to restore deleted agents. All restored agents maintain existing properties and history. Deleted agents do not run if they have a recurring schedule. This feature implements PIE item D2664.

Figure 18: Intelligent Agents Settings page


The Practice Run and Run Now options work on disabled agents. You no longer have to enable the agent prior to selecting these options. The enable/disable status only affects scheduled runs and not the agent. Enabled now means that the schedule is enabled for an agent.

There are three new replace strings available for use when composing the email sent with an agent:

{LastLoginDate} - The date the initiating user last logged in or Never if they have not logged in. This lang term can be edited. The date format is Tuesday, September 20, 2016 9:39 AM EDT, for example.

{LastCourseAccessDate} - The date the initiating user last accessed the course or Never if they have not accessed the course. This lang term can be edited. The date format is Tuesday, September 20, 2016 9:39 AM EDT, for example. This feature implements PIE item D2762.

{OrgUnitId} - The org unit ID required to make quicklinks work in the emails sent with an agent.



There is inline help for replace strings with updated text that includes the three new replace strings.


The Agent List page contains a new column that lists the Next Run Date for scheduled agents. There is no next run date if a schedule is not enabled.




The Intelligent Agents Settings page contains a note that indicates the time of day the scheduled agents will run.




Workflow


Slight impact to administrators due to multiple improvements to the Intelligent Agents tool.

These features are available to administrators with the existing Manage Agents permissions in the Intelligent Agents tool.

N/A




Slight impact to instructors due to multiple improvements to the Intelligent Agents tool.

These features are available to instructors with the existing Manage Agents permissions in the Intelligent Agents tool.

N/A

Language Management - User Progress tool is now the Class Progress tool | UpdatedTo improve language consistency in the Brightspace platform, the User Progress tool is now called the Class Progress tool. Related page names, permissions, configuration variables, and tool references elsewhere in the Brightspace platform reflect this change. User Progress is still used on pages where a single learner’s progress displays, but Class Progress is used where the progress of all users in a class displays.

Figure 23: Class Progress tool under Learner Management in Course Administration

Figure 24: Class Progress tool in Roles and Permissions






Slight impact to all users due to tool name change from User Progress to Class Progress.

In Course Administration under Learner Management, Class Progress now displays.

In Admin Tools > Tools, Class Progress now displays.

Permissions that were formerly classified as User Progress are now classified as Class Progress.

Configuration variables of the type d2l.Tools.UserProgress have been changed to d2l.Tools.ClassProgress. For example, d2l.Tools.UserProgress.LoginHistoryDateLimit is now d2l.Tools.ClassProgress.LoginHistoryDateLimit.

n/a

Login Page Management - Specify a headline and background color | NewTo more closely reflect your organization's branding, administrators can now specify a headline and background color for the Brightspace Learning Environment login page.



Figure 25: The new Background Colour option in the Login Page Management tool

Figure 26: A custom background colour on the login page






Slight impact to administrators due to new options in the Login Page Management tool that allow them to specify a headline and background color for the login page.

Administrators specify a headline and background color from the Login Page Management tool in Brightspace Learning Environment.

An administrator must set the following configuration variables:

d2l.Tools.Login.EnableCustomLoginPage

d2l.Tools.Login.OrgLoginPath (or d2l.Tools.Login.OrgMobileLoginPath for mobile)

To access the Login Page Management tool, administrators must have the Manage login page (Organization level) permission.

By default, black (#000000) is the headline color and off-white (#FAFAFA) is the background color.

To ensure Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Level AA compliance, the headline color picker and background color picker are linked. An icon and tooltip message in each color picker inform the administrator if the color choices meet WCAG AA standards.

A transparent background color is an option, and if selected, the colors specified in the page theme display in the login page.

This feature does not impact the login page for Brightspace Pulse. To customize the Brightspace Pulse login page, use the Mobile Brand Administration tool in Brightspace Learning Environment.

1. From Admin Tools, select Login Page Management.

2. Under Headline, click the

Change Foreground Color icon.

3. Select a pre-defined color or click More to create a custom color.

4. Under Background Color,

click the Change Background Color icon.

5. Select a pre-defined color or click More to create a custom color.

6. To preview your changes, click Preview.



LTI - Custom Parameter Substitution Variables | UpdatedCustom parameter substitution variables allow specific values to be dynamically substituted for custom parameters requested by a third-party tool, as defined by the LTI 1.1.1 standard specification. Some third-party vendors require substitution variables to support feature functionality, whereas some features are enhanced by the use of substitution variables. For example, a hypothetical use case includes providing a third-party tool the actual course start/end date and the user email address (where both are custom parameters being substituted by substitution variables) which could allow the tool to send the user a reminder about a task if that is a feature the tool provides.

The following additional custom parameter substitution variables are implemented:

$Person.email.primary

$CourseSection.numberofStudents


Integration Look and Feel


Workflow


Slight impact to administrators who can select security settings to allow Brightspace Learning Environment to send additional data to the third-party tool as requested.

Before administrators can use this feature, they must turn on the d2l.Tools.Lti.CustomParamSubstitution.IsEnabled configuration variable.

This data is used to turn on or support a feature the third-party tool provider releases to users.


Quizzes - Create / Edit Multiple Choice Questions | UpdatedThis feature is a visual redesign of the Quizzes tool that improves and modernizes its look and feel. This feature also enables responsive multiple choice question editing layouts.



Administrators and instructors can opt-in or opt-out of this new look and feel. There is no change in the workflow related to creating and editing multiple choice questions.

This feature implements PIE items D977, D1452, and D3320.

Figure 27: Initial launch of the new question creation experience

Figure 28: Editing Question and preview screen





Tool Change


Moderate impact to administrators due to the change in the Quizzes > create/edit multiple choice question user interface.

Administrators can opt-in to create or edit multiple choice questions using the new create / edit multiple choice questions user interface.

Click Turn it off to return to the original user interface.

This feature is dependent on the Authentication Service microservice in the Brightspace Cloud.

Turn on the d2l.Tools.Quizzes.NewExperienceOpt-In configuration variable to enable the new quizzing experience for instructors at any org level.

Moderate impact to instructors due to the change in the Quizzes > create/edit multiple choice question user interface.

Click Leave it on to use the new create / edit multiple choice questions user interface.

Click Turn it off to return to the original user interface.

Contact your administrator if you do not see the new create / edit multiple choice question user interface.


Brightspace Platform 10.5.0 to 10.6.2 Release NotesIntegrations 10.7.3

Brightspace Learning Environment 10.6.8Announcements - Link directly to an announcement | NewThis feature allows instructors to link directly to individual announcements by using the Insert Quicklink button from the HTML Editor. It simplifies the process of referencing announcements and bringing them to the attention of learners.

Figure 29: Select Announcements from the Course Materials list

Figure 30: Select the announcement you want to link to






Slight impact to instructors due to changes in workflow when bringing announcements to the attention of their learners.

No additional configuration variables or permissions are required to use this feature.

From the HTML Editor click the Insert Quicklink button. From the Course Materials list, select Announcements, and choose the item you want to link to.

Assignments - Assignment submission email notifications | NewWhen instructors create or edit an assignment submission folder, they can now fill in a Notification Email field in the Properties tab. This allows instructors to receive email notification when a new submission is uploaded, and helps instructors manage folder submissions and perform grading on recently submitted assignments.

This feature implements PIE items D2062, D2895, D2444, D1222, and D584.

Figure 31: Notification Email field in submission folder properties







Slight impact to administrators due to the addition of a new configuration variable, d2l.Tools.Dropbox.AllowNotificationEmail.

The availability of this feature is controlled by d2l.Tools.Dropbox.AllowNotificationEmail which is enabled by default in Brightspace Learning Environment 10.6.8.

Administrators can turn off this feature in the Config Variable Browser if they do not want this option to be available to instructors.

Slight impact to instructors due to additional options when creating or editing submission folder properties.

When you edit the properties for an assignment submission folder, enter your email address or a comma-separated list of addresses, in the Notification Email field to receive a notification when new submissions are added.

Daylight Experience - Re-skin of Assignments pages | NewAssignments pages have been modified so that many of the high priority workflows for teachers and students work more intuitively on all devices. The following pages are affected by these changes:

Assignments > Student view > Assignment List

Assignments > Student view > Submission History

Assignments > Student view > Submit Files

Assignments > Student view > File Upload Results

Assignments > Student view > View Feedback



Assignments > Instructor view > List page

Assignments > Instructor view > Evaluate Submission

Look and Feel Tool Change

Users Only Workflow


Moderate impact to clients who use Brightspace Learning Environment on small screens, tablets, or mobile devices.



Document Viewer - Viewing experience | UpdatedThis enhanced viewing experience allows instructors to view PDF and image files in their original format.


Tool Change


Slight impact to instructors due to an updated viewing experience for PDF and image files in Assignments, Brightspace Learning Repository, and Brightspace ePortfolio.

n/a n/a



Grades - Grade book workflow and updated calculations for exemptions | NewInstructors can now use an exemption as a reason why a learner has not completed a grade item. Previously, a blank grade could mean the learner hasn’t submitted the item, and a zero (0) could mean either exempt, ungraded, or failure. Having a specific exemption setting supports the differentiation for learners. Instructors can now exempt numeric, selectbox, pass/fail, calculated, formula, and text item types; however, instructors cannot exempt a learner from a final calculated grade or a final adjusted grade.

When an instructor exempts a grade item for a learner, the following pages are affected:

Instructor pages: Enter Grades, Grade User, Grade Category, Grade Item, Import Preview.

Learner pages: My Grades.

User Progress: Summary and Grades tabs.

Grade Category and Grade User pages display exemptions, but do not support adding or removing exemptions.

Figure 32: Instructors can exempt a learner from an assignment. The exemption appears in the Scheme field of the grade table.




Workflow


Slight impact to instructors who set and remove grade exemptions, and to learners who view their grades page that can contain exemption entries.

The grade exemptions feature uses the d2l.Tools.System.Features.IsExemptionsEnabled configuration variable. This variable is turned off by default.

This feature requires the Enter Grades permission.

Exemptions affect the calculations of formula grades, calculated grade, grade categories, and final grades. Adding exemptions to the system, and then turning off the exemptions feature might result in incorrect results on calculated items. When an exemption is set or cleared, it creates an Event Log entry.

You must have this permission and configuration variable set before you can use this feature.

Grades - Exempted grade item effects on release conditions | NewInstructors can set release conditions to provide new content to learners after a particular grade item is complete. Since Grade Exemptions do not count as completed grade items nor do they count as incomplete grade items, there are two release conditions that are affected by exemptions:

Grade value on grade item

No grade received

These release items now respect the exemption and do not trigger on the presence of a grade exemption.


Workflow




Slight impact to instructors who set and remove grade exemptions, and have release conditions set that depend on grades.


This feature requires the Enter Grades permission.

Exemptions affect the calculations of formula grades, calculated grade, grade categories, and final grades. Adding exemptions to the system, and then turning off the exemptions feature might result in incorrect results on calculated items.

You must have the permission and configuration variable set before you can use this feature.

Grades - Grade exemptions can be imported and exported | NewThe process that exports and imports grade data now includes exemptions. Post-processing for export activities can differentiate between a learner with a grade, without a grade, and with an exemption.


Workflow




Slight impact to instructors who set and remove grade exemptions, and to learners who view their grades page that can contain exemption entries.


To import or export grade exemptions, you must also have the d2l.Tools.Grades.ExemptionImportExportKeyword configuration variable set. The default setting is Exempt.

To set and remove exemptions, you require the Enter Grades permission. There are no additional permissions required beyond the permissions to import and export grade items.

The configuration variable applies to both import and export. If you change the value after instructors have set export file values to depend on a particular value, such as Exempt, there might be unexpected results in the imported grade exemptions.

You must have these permissions and configuration variables set before you can use this feature.

Grades - Grade exemptions are supported by Valence APIs | NewThe following API routes are available to retrieve and set exemptions for learners:

GET /d2l/api/le/(version)/(orgUnitId)/grades/(gradeObjectId)/exemptions/ Retrieve all the exempt users for a provided grade.

GET /d2l/api/le/(version)/(orgUnitId)/grades/(gradeObjectId)/exemptions/(userId) Determine if a user is exempt from a grade.

POST /d2l/api/le/(version)/(orgUnitId)/grades/(gradeObjectId)/exemptions/(userId) Exempt a user from a grade.


Workflow




Slight impact to administrators who have defined integrations with external systems that set and retrieve grades.

The grade API exemptions feature uses the d2l.Tools.System.Features.IsExemptionsEnabled configuration variable. This variable is turned off by default.

This feature does not depend on additional permissions beyond those currently required to access learner grades.

Exemptions affect the calculations of formula grades, calculated grade, grade categories, and final grades. Adding exemptions to the system, and then turning off the exemptions feature might result in incorrect results on calculated items.

You must have the configuration variable set before you can use this feature.



Grades - Show exempted grade items in Class Progress | NewExempted grades appear in the Grades tab on a learner's User Progress page, but do not appear in the Grades section of the Summary Tab or the bar graph for received grades at the top of both Grades sections.

Figure 33: Grade Exemptions appear on the learner's User Progress page.


Workflow




Slight impact to instructors who set and remove grade exemptions, and view exemptions in the Class Progress.


Exemptions affect the calculations of formula grades, calculated grades, grade categories, and final grades. Adding exemptions to the system, and then turning off the exemptions feature might result in incorrect results on calculated items.

You must have this configuration variables set before you can use this feature.

Quizzes - Create / edit True or False questions | UpdatedBuilding upon the visual redesign of the Quizzes tool, this feature enables responsive True or False (T/F) creating / editing layouts.

Administrators and instructors can opt-in or opt-out of this new look and feel. There is no change in the workflow related to creating and editing True or False questions.

Figure 34: Creating a True or False question in the new interface for the Quizzes tool






Moderate impact to administrators due to the change in the Quizzes > create/edit True or False question user interface.

Administrators can opt-in to create or edit True or False questions using the new create / edit True or False questions user interface.

To return to the original user interface, click Turn it off.


To enable the new quizzing experience for instructors at any org level, turn on the d2l.Tools.Quizzes.NewExperienceOpt-In configuration variable.

Moderate impact to instructors due to the change in the Quizzes > create / edit True or False question user interface.

To use the new create / edit True or False questions user interface, click Leave it on.

To return to the original user interface, click Turn it off.

If you do not see the new create / edit True or False question user interface, contact your administrator.

Class Progress - Dropped Grades appear on Summary and Grades tabs | NewIn the Class Progress tool, it is important that instructors and learners are aware of which grade items are dropped. Changes to the Class Progress tool now provide more clear information about which grades are included in the calculation of a final mark and clearly indicate which items are included in category totals. Changes include:

On the Grades section of the summary page, dropped items do not appear.

On the Grades Detail page, dropped items are indicated by Dropped! Not included in the final grade.

An exclamation mark appears beside dropped items, and the hover text reads Dropped.

The bar graph on the top of both the Grades and Summary pages does not include dropped items.

The Grades bar graph on the Class Progress screen does not include dropped items.



Drop rules appear under each category.

Figure 35: Grade items and categories show the drop rules and the grade items that have been dropped and are not included in the final grade.


Tool Change




Slight impact to learners and instructors who can now better see how grade items affect final grades

This feature depends on the d2l.Tools.ClassProgress.ShowDroppedAndFinalWeight configuration variable. The configuration variable is turned off by default. If you do not turn on the variable, dropped grades and drop rules do not appear in the Summary and Grades tabs.

N/A

Class Progress - Improved display of grade item weights | UpdatedGradebook items now display the weight of the item as part of the final mark. Weights for both the weight of each item and category and the marks achieved in both item and category provide the learner with information about how they are progressing at every point in the course. This is important because individual grade items often have different weights toward the final mark, and reviewing grades without knowing their weight does not help a learner understand the relative success of their progress in the course. For example, a learner may achieve a very high mark in a grade item that contributes very little to the final mark, and may do very poorly on a mark that contributes a high weight to the final mark. Without knowing the weights of each grade item, the learner might incorrectly assume that they all contribute to an equally weighted average.

Learners can view their grades within the gradebook with the weight achieved, which makes the views consistent in both Class Progress and Grades.

The following pages show the grade items with weights toward the final grade:

Grades (detail) tab of Class Progress



Grades (summary) tab of Class Progress

Figure 36: On the detail view of the Grades tab, each category shows the weight value, the achieved value toward the final grade, and the achieved percentage mark. You can expand the category to see each grade item.

Figure 37: On the summary view of the Grades tab, each category shows the weight value, the achieved value toward the final grade, and the achieved percentage mark.


Tool Change




Slight impact to learners and instructors who now have a more robust view of how grade items contribute to final grades.

This feature depends on the d2l.Tools.ClassProgress.ShowDroppedAndFinalWeight configuration variable. The configuration variable is turned off by default. If you do not turn on the variable, dropped grades and drop rules do not appear in the Summary and Grades tabs.

N/A

Brightspace Learning Environment 10.6.9Brightspace platform - Supported browser changes | UpdatedAs of this release, the Brightspace platform no longer supports the following browsers:

Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 10 (IE10)

Apple® Safari® 6, 7, and 8

For a complete list of supported browsers, refer to Brightspace Platform Requirements (https://community.brightspace.com/resources/documentation/platform_requirements/brightspaceplatformrequirements).



Slight impact to learners, instructors, and administrators currently using IE10 or Safari 6, 7, or 8 with the Brightspace platform.

Using an unsupported browser with the Brightspace platform displays a pop-up message, recommending a supported browser.

Unsupported browsers may produce unexpected results or some tools may not function in the Brightspace platform.

Before you use the Brightspace platform, D2L recommends switching to a supported browser for an optimal experience.


https://community.brightspace.com/resources/documentation/platform_requirements/brightspaceplatformrequirements

https://community.brightspace.com/resources/documentation/platform_requirements/brightspaceplatformrequirements


Brightspace platform – System navbar link points to new Brightspace Help site | UpdatedThe system navbar link for Help has been updated to Brightspace Help and now directs users to the new Brightspace Help site (https://documentation.brightspace.com/EN/-/-/-/welcome_page.htm), which contains Continuous Delivery help resources for the suite of Brightspace products, microservices in the Brightspace Cloud, integrations, customizations, and Semester Start "frequently asked questions".

This feature enables users to access up-to-date help resources from within Brightspace Learning Environment, so they can get help more quickly in the location they need it.

Figure 38: The Brightspace Help link on a navbar



Figure 39: The Welcome page for the new Brightspace Help site


Organization Wide




Slight impact to users of Brightspace Learning Environment, due to the change in the name of the system Help link and where it points to.

For clients that currently have the Help link in their navbar, the lang term is now Brightspace Help, and it points to the new Brightspace Help site.

For new instances of Brightspace Learning Environment, the new Brightspace Help link is included on all default navbars.

The link opens the Brightspace Help site in a new window.

The new Brightspace Help site includes the following functionality:

Available in English, French-Canadian, Brazilian-Portuguese, and Mexican-Spanish

Download customizable help packages for all languages by role (administrator, instructor, and learner)

Filter content by role (administrator, instructor, and learner)

Full text search (listing total pages found from most to least)

Sticky navigation menu (so you don’t lose your spot)

Bookmark topics in your browser

Print individual topics

Links to Brightspace videos and guides

1. To add the new Brightspace Help link to your navbar, from the Admin Tools menu, select Navigation and Themes.

2. Click the link for the navbar you want to add the help link to.

3. On the Edit Navbar page, in the Links area, click Add Links.

4. In the Add Links dialog window, select the Brightspace Help check box.

5. Click Add, and then Save and Close.

6. On the navbar, click the Brightspace Help link. A new browser window opens to the Welcome page of the new Brightspace Help site.

7. To learn how to effectively navigate and utilize Brightspace Help, in the left-hand navigation panel, click Navigating in Brightspace Help.



Daylight Experience - Responsive button groups in Assignments | NewWhen the browser window is narrow, long lists of action buttons now collapse into a More Actions dropdown button. On extremely narrow screens, the text inside a button might wrap over two lines and the More Actions button may collapse down to an ellipsis button. If menu buttons are collapsed into a More Actions dropdown button, the menu options are displayed when you hover over the menu button entry in the list. If there is already a More Actions dropdown, the collapsed action buttons become standalone actions on the same level as other actions on the existing dropdown.

Some tools, such as Brightspace ePortfolio, do not use this tool, and are not changed as a result of this feature. Other tools, such as Content, have manual fixes applied as part of this feature.


Figure 40: This image shows how the buttons collapse into the More Actions menu. As the display gets more narrow, the More Actions menu only displays an Ellipsis.


Workflow




Slight impact to clients who use Brightspace Learning Environment on small screens, tablets, or mobile devices



Daylight Experience - Re-skin of Discussions | NewThe View Topic and Discussion list pages of the Discussions tool have been updated to use the Daylight Experience styles.



Users Only





Daylight Experience - Re-skin of Content Viewer | NewThe Content Viewer that Brightspace Learning Environment uses to display content topics such as Microsoft Word documents or HTML documents uses an iframe. The iframe is surrounded by other controls such as the topic title, context menu, iterator buttons, or tabs. A smaller screen, such as a tablet or mobile device now display the content viewer and surrounding controls appropriately.






Users Only Workflow





Daylight Experience - Responsive multi-actions in tables | Updated

Actions performed in tables now adhere to the Daylight Experience styling and responsive behavior. Actions include search and result count, paging controls including legacy numeric paging, and inline filters.



Users Only







Daylight Experience - Typography changes to Daylight styles | UpdatedThe light weight of the Lato font have been replaced with the normal weight of the Lato font. This update increases accessibility for users with low vision or eye sensitivity. Some projectors, operating systems, and browsers also see better rendering of text at the heavier font weight. In addition, the 20 point font size is also being used more sparingly, and the size and line height of headings, field labels, or other topographical elements have had minor changes to fit into the new style.

Note that these changes do not affect products that manage their own styles, such as Brightspace Capture, Brightspace Assignment Grader, or Brightspace Pulse. Content topics and custom widgets also maintain their own font styles. You may choose to update your font use to match the heavier font.



Users Only







Discussions - Improvements to group discussions | NewBrightspace Learning Environment 10.6.9 simplifies the management of group discussion topics.

New Topic workflow - When you are creating a new topic, on the Properties tab, the topic type defaults to Open topic. Administrators and instructors can select the new Group or section topic option instead. Once you create and save the topic, you cannot change the topic type. If you selected the topic type as open, you can access the original Group Restrictions area on the Restrictions tab.

Figure 41: New topic Properties tab

New Group Category workflow - To create a new group category the original way, select the Create one topic per group radio button. To create group categories the new way, select the Create one topic with threads separated by group radio button.

Figure 42: Create group discussion - default



Figure 43: Create group discussion - new option

Creating / reading / participating in group discussions - One discussion topic is created for an entire group and posts within it are associated with specific groups. As a result, instructors observe less scrolling on the discussion list. Instructors can use the new All Groups filter on the topic to view all posts or to only view posts for a specific group. Inside a discussion thread, users can see which group the thread belongs to.



Figure 44: New thread - choice of group

Figure 45: Groups filter



Figure 46: View discussion thread

Assessments - Only one grade item is required. This makes assessing discussion topics faster as instructors do not have to navigate in and out of topics to complete an assessment.

Copying groups - Now, when instructors copy groups to new courses, the group setup (grade item, assessment option, etc.) is also copied over.

There is no change in workflow for learners as they can only see one discussion topic and the posts within it that are associated with their group, as expected.

This feature implements PIE items D113, D185, D386, D511, and D3362.







Slight impact to administrators due to the change in the group discussions user interface.

These features are turned off by default and are configured by the following new configuration variable: d2l.Tools.Discuss.EnableGroupFilteredTopics.

To use the updated create group discussions user interface, administrators must turn on the d2l.Tools.Discuss.EnableGroupFilteredTopics configuration variable.

Once the configuration variable is turned on, instructors can also use the updated create group discussions user interface.

D2L recommends turning this configuration variable on for test instances.

Slight impact to instructors due to the change in the group discussions user interface and due to the change in workflow related to assessing group discussions and reading topics in the discussion list.

These features are turned off by default. Contact your administrator if you do not see the updated create group discussions user interface.

D2L recommends using these features in a test environment.



Discussions - Reading view user interface changes | UpdateWhen viewing a discussion topic, the properties are now listed together, directly below the topic's name. This includes availability and locking information along with other details set by the instructor. The filtering options are now displayed in a Filter by drop-down list above individual posts to allow sorting by unread, flagged, and unapproved posts.

Figure 47: Topic properties and filtering options have an updated look



Workflow




Slight impact to instructors due to change in location of the topic properties and filtering context menu.

n/a n/a

Slight impact to learners due to change in location of the topic properties and filtering context menu.

n/a n/a

Grades - Automatically release final grades | UpdatedThis feature allows final grades to be released automatically to learners so that instructors don’t have to manually release them as learners enroll in a course. Final grades released before the end of a course serve as current grades for learners and can show them their progress throughout the term. Administrators can set the default behavior for releasing final grades for the organization, and if administrators grant instructors permission, they can change the setting for their particular org unit(s) without affecting the organization default.




Figure 48: Automatically release final grade option in Grades Settings



Figure 49: Automatically release final grade option in Grades Setup Wizard







Slight impact to administrators due to the addition of a new configuration variable and permission related to final grades in the Grades tool.

Upon release, d2l.Tools.Grades.FinalGrade.AutoReleaseFinalGrade is set to off for the organization and final grades do not release automatically. If administrators turn on this configuration variable, new final grades in all new courses release automatically, unless an instructor turns off this option in their course.

Note that if administrators turn on this configuration variable, the release status of existing final grades is not affected. That is, unreleased grades do not release automatically; they must still be released manually.

Upon release, the Edit Automatic Final Grade Release Setting permission is not enabled for instructors.

For final grades to release automatically to learners across the organization, in the Config Variable Browser, set d2l.Tools.Grades.FinalGrade.AutoReleaseFinalGrade to on.

For instructors to change the Automatically release final grade option in their org units, in Roles and Permission, enable the Edit Automatic Final Grade Release Setting permission.

Slight impact to instructors due to the availability of a new option in the Grades tool.

Upon release, the Automatically release final grade option is turned off in Grades Settings and in the Grades Setup Wizard for all existing courses in the organization. If instructors turn on this option, new final grades in the course release automatically without affecting the organization default.

If the administrator turns on the configuration variable, and if they've enabled the required permission, instructors can turn off this option for their course(s) without affecting the organization default.

Note that if instructors enable this option, the release status of existing final grades is not affected. That is, unreleased grades aren't released automatically; they must still be released manually.

For final grades to release automatically to learners in a course, in Grades Settings, in the Calculation Options tab, select the Automatically release final grade option.

Alternatively, in Step 2 of the Grades Setup Wizard, select the Automatically release final grade option.



Quizzes - Create / edit Long Answer questions | UpdatedAs another stage in the visual redesign of the Quizzes tool, the Long Answer (LA) question creation and editing layouts have been updated. Additionally, on the question creation page, a drop-down menu now gives users the ability to select the type of question they want to create.

Administrators and instructors can opt in or opt out of this new look and feel. There is no change in the workflow related to creating and editing Long Answer questions.

Figure 50: Creating a Long Answer question in the updated interface for the Quizzes tool






Moderate impact to administrators due to the change in the Quizzes > create/edit Long Answer question user interface.

Administrators can opt in to create or edit Long Answer questions using the updated create/edit Long Answer questions user interface.

To return to the original user interface, in the Welcome to the new Question Creation Experience! flyout, click Turn it off.


To enable the new Long Answer question experience for instructors at any org level, turn on the d2l.Tools.Quizzes.NewExperienceOpt-In configuration variable.

Moderate impact to instructors due to the change in the Quizzes > create/edit Long Answer question user interface.

To use the new create/edit Long Answer questions user interface, in the Welcome to the new Question Creation Experience! flyout, click Leave it on.

To return to the original user interface, in the Welcome to the new Question Creation Experience! flyout, click Turn it off.

If you do not see the new create/edit Long Answer question user interface, contact your administrator.

Brightspace Learning Environment 10.6.10Daylight Experience - Improvements to My Courses widget | NewImprovements to the My Courses widget include the following items:

Users can now include a catalog and custom image in Copy Course Components, Bulk Course Copy, course templates, import content, and export content. Select the image as a component during the copy, export, or import workflow.



Users can display the course code in the widget using a widget setting.

Figure 51: By setting the Show Course Code on the Customize Widget settings, the code appears below the course name in the My Courses list.

The course search functionality has been improved.

Figure 52: As you enter search criteria, suggested results display beneath the search box. You can further refine your results based on search criteria, filters, and sort.





Users Only Workflow


Slight impact to administrators and instructors who include course catalog and image when copying and exporting content.

Slight impact to administrators or instructors who set up the My Courses widget as a result of new workflow for adding a course code to the display.

Slight impact to all users who search the My Courses widget due to improved ability to narrow search results.



Daylight Experience - Reskin of Discussions and Quizzing pages | NewThere have been updates to the following pages to include additional Daylight Experience styles:

Discussions

Quizzes - Student view while taking a quiz





Users Only


Slight impact to learners due to change in styles.



HTML Editor - Math Editor | UpdatedThe Math Editor in the HTML Editor tool has been updated. Now, when equations are inserted into the HTML Editor, instructors can see the equations inline while they are editing their work.

Figure 53: Math editor




Organization Wide Users Only


Slight impact to instructors who can now preview math equations within the HTML Editor tool.

n/a n/a

Quizzes - Create / edit Short Answer questions | UpdatedAs another stage in the visual redesign of the Quizzes tool, the Short Answer (SA) question creation and editing layouts have been updated. Administrators and instructors can opt in or out of this new look and feel.

Some additional updates were made to Short Answer questions along with the visual redesign:

All blanks are assessed using the same comparison method, that is, either Text (case insensitive text), Case-Sensitive Text, or Regular Expression. In the original experience, each answer for a blank can be assessed using a different method.

Points for each blank are calculated automatically and evenly distributed. In the original experience, each blank can be weighted differently.



Figure 54: Creating a Short Answer question in the updated interface in the Quizzes tool






Moderate impact to administrators due to the change in the Quizzes > create/edit Short Answer question user interface.

Administrators can opt in to create or edit Short Answer questions using the updated create/edit Short Answer questions user interface.


To enable the new Short Answer question experience (along with the other new question experiences) for instructors at any org level, turn on the d2l.Tools.Quizzes.NewExperienceOpt-In configuration variable.

To return to the original user interface for the org unit, in the Welcome to the new Question Creation Experience! flyout, click Turn it off.

Moderate impact to instructors due to the change in the Quizzes > create/edit Short Answer question user interface.

To use the new create/edit Short Answer questions user interface, in the Welcome to the new Question Creation Experience! flyout, click Leave it on. To return to the original user interface for the org unit, click Turn it off.

If you do not see the new create/edit Short Answer question user interface, contact your administrator and request that they enable the appropriate configuration variable.



Brightspace Learning Environment 10.6.11Daylight Experience - General availability | NewThe Brightspace product suite has been redesigned using the Brightspace Daylight Experience. This new design provides increased visual appeal including new fonts, icons, colors, and simpler formatting. There have been changes to improve responsive navigation for mobile devices, tablets, and other narrow displays. Applications and tools now have a consistent look and feel with a focus on learning activities.

The Daylight Experience also features a new My Courses widget that provides a responsive tile-based layout and a new image library that contains over 3000 images.

Figure 55: Daylight Experience styles featured on a laptop screen



Figure 56: Daylight Experience styles featured on a tablet and mobile device screen

The Brightspace Daylight Experience features are now optimized for production environments when using the Google Chrome or Apple Safari browsers. The core tools and workflows in Brightspace Learning Environment have been tested extensively on these two browsers. In the coming months, D2L will continue to make updates across the product suite that reflect Daylight design and will continue to optimize the Daylight Experience in other browser environments. Turning on Daylight does not modify your content or other settings in Brightspace. All workflows and features in the Brightspace Daylight experience are available on all supported browsers; however, D2L is continuing to optimize performance and improve page load times on browsers other than Chrome and Safari. If you turn on the Brightspace Daylight Experience to do some testing, you can turn off the configuration setting to restore your site to the original look and feel.





Workflow


Slight impact to all users who are now able to use the Daylight Experience in a production environment optimized for the Google Chrome browser.



Daylight Experience - Improvements to the My Courses widget | UpdatedThe My Courses widget has been improved in the following ways:

Improved ability to search for courses.

Relevant courses automatically display in the widget for most users. Based on your enrollments and Course Access options, up to 12 current and future courses automatically display in the widget. Users with more than 12 current and future courses that have not manually pinned at least one course continue to see a banner message to remind them to pin their courses using the options in the View All Courses page. The widget does not override any choice a user has made to specifically pin or unpin a course.



If you have See Course Info permission for courses that aren't current or active, the My Courses widget now displays course start dates, course end dates, and course inactive states.

Figure 57: For users with permissions to see courses that aren’t current or active, the My Courses widget displays course start dates, course end dates, and course inactive states.

If a course is inactive but has started, the course tile has a yellow dot in the top right corner. A banner displays in the widget indicating to the instructor that students are not able to access inactive courses.

Figure 58: A yellow dot appears in the top right corner of a course tile if the course is inactive but has started.

If you have See Course Info permission turned on for an org unit, the Course Offering information page is available as an option on the course context menu. Instructors can use this information page to quickly change a setting such as the course active state.

Course titles in the My Courses widget now display a total count of the unread course updates, including unread discussion posts, ungraded quiz attempts, unattempted quizzes, unread assignment submissions, and assignment submissions with unread feedback. If the total count is more than 99 items, the number appears as 99+ on the title. If you do not want to display all the unread items, you can turn on or turn off these settings in the My Courses widget settings.





Tool Change Role Permissions

Users Only Workflow


Slight impact to administrators due to change in workflow.


You must have this configuration variable set before you can use the Daylight feature.

Additionally, you must have the See Course Info permission to see the Course offering information page as a menu option on the course context menu.

Daylight Experience - Logos on department and course level navbars | NewClients can now apply navbar logos at all org unit levels using the active navbar and theme. This feature allows institutions to showcase different logos at the org, department, course, and custom org unit level. Clients can also configure the org unit name to appear in addition to the logo, except on the org navbar (which always hides the name), and course navbar (which always shows the name)



The logo is pulled from the Left Logo field in the active navbar's current theme. If the logo's link destination is not My

Home, a My Home icon ( ) appears in addition to the logo.

The Org Unit Name appears in the Course Offering navbars, as in past releases. In addition, the org unit name appears in the course navbar on course offerings, and in other org unit levels if the navbar and theme are configured to display it. The Org Unit name is not displayed at the organization level.




Slight impact to administrators due to change in appearance of logo appearing at all org unit levels and new My Home icon for logos that do not go to the user's homepage.


If you want the org unit name to appear on other org unit levels, you must configure the currently-used navbar and theme to include the org unit name.




Grades - Exempt a learner from multiple grade items | NewThe grade exemption workflow in Grades has been updated to allow instructors to exempt learners from multiple grade items at one time, through the use of multi-select check boxes.

Figure 59: Bulk exemptions of grade items



Workflow




Slight impact to administrators due to an existing configuration variable that must be set.

The existing d2l.Tools.System.Features.IsExemptionsEnabled org unit configuration variable must be turned on for the bulk exemption page to appear.

Administrators must turn on this configuration variable before instructors can use this feature.

Slight impact to instructors due to the update to the grade exemption workflow.

n/a n/a

Microservices - Content Service | NewThe Content Service is a new underlying service that will house future Brightspace content. It currently provides and standardizes functions such as import/export, storage, preview, permissions, and basic search of SCORM objects in the Brightspace platform. By default, the Content Service is off and administrators must enable it for their organization.


Role Permissions




Slight impact to administrators who must enable the Content Service for their organization.

By default, the Content Service is off. To enable the Content Service, administrators must do the following:

o Turn on the d2l.Tools.ContentService.Endpoint configuration variable. Enter the appropriate URL corresponding to the AWS region, based on location (default is US region).IMPORTANT: Once the AWS region is specified and SCORM content is added, the region cannot be changed without data loss.

o Enable the Content Service under Organization Tools.

This microservice is regionally deployed to Amazon Web Services. Administrators must select their region based on their location.

Data is only transmitted between this service if the instance's Brightspace developer platform API is publicly accessible.

This service depends on the Authentication Service and Landlord Service.

1. In the Config Variable Browser, set the d2l.Tools.ContentService.Endpoint configuration variable to on and enter the appropriate URL. When selecting the AWS region from the list below, confirm with those responsible within your organization whether there are any geographic or other restrictions regarding where your organization's data must reside. The following general guidelines might help with your selection, but you must first ensure that the region you select is consistent with local law, and with the contract that your organization signed with D2L:




If you are located in The United States, Central America, or South America, choose the US region; enter https://api.us-east-1.content-service.brightspace.com (default).

If you are located in Europe, Africa, or the Middle East, choose the Ireland region; enter https://api.eu-west-1.content-service.brightspace.com.

If you are located in Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, China, India, or the rest of Asia (excluding Singapore), choose the Australia region; enter https://api.ap-southeast-2.content-service.brightspace.com.

If you are located in Singapore, choose the Singapore region; enter https://api.ap-southeast-1.content-service.brightspace.com.

. In Organization Tools, set the toggle for Content Service to on.


https://api.eu-west-1.content-service.brightspace.com/




Quizzes - Improvements to the new quizzing experience | UpdatedThis release introduces further improvements to the new quizzing experience for True or False, Multiple Choice, Long Answer, and Short Answer quiz questions, which include the following:

If instructors opt out of the new quizzing experience, they are prompted to provide a reason why they are opting out.

An option has been added that enables users to save the current question and copy the content to a new question that can be edited.

Figure 60: Opt out reason

Figure 61: Save and Copy



Workflow




Slight impact to instructors due to improvements made to the new quizzing experience.

Before instructors can use these features, they must be configured by an administrator. In the Config Variable Browser, under Tools > Quizzes, the d2l.Tools.Quizzes.NewExperienceOpt-In configuration variable must be enabled.

These features are dependent on the Authentication Service.

You must have the d2l.Tools.Quizzes.NewExperienceOpt-In configuration variable set before you can use these features and the new experience itself.

Quizzes - Enhancements to Short Answer questions | UpdatedShort Answer questions have been enhanced. Instructors can select the new Students must answer all blanks correctly grading option, which is an all or nothing grading option. Learners must answer all short answer questions accurately to receive marks.

Figure 62: Grading Option - Students must answer all blanks correctly



Workflow




Large impact to instructors due to enhancements made to Short Answer questions.

Before instructors can use this feature, it must be configured by an administrator. In the Config Variable Browser, under Tools > Quizzes, the d2l.Tools.Quizzes.NewExperienceOpt-In configuration variable must be enabled.

This feature is dependent on the Authentication Service.

You must have the d2l.Tools.Quizzes.NewExperienceOpt-In configuration variable set before you can use this feature and the new experience itself.

SCORM – New Brightspace SCORM solution | NewA new SCORM solution is available for the Brightspace platform. It is turned off by default, but if administrators turn it on for their organization, it replaces the existing solution. The new features and improvements include the following:

Integrates a new, robust SCORM Engine and Content Player to support importing, playing, and tracking interaction data for all versions of SCORM.

Basic search capabilities of an instructor's own SCORM content.

Static and dynamic linking of SCORM objects, and linking to multiple courses.

Makes use of the new SCORM Engine to open and play SCORM objects in a new browser tab to optimize screen real estate, instead of objects playing inline as they do in the existing solution.

Equivalent navigation between the Brightspace Learning Environment interface and the SCORM interface, and between versions 1.2 and 2004 of SCORM objects.

Users are only marked for one attempt on the content when they open the SCORM object in full screen mode, instead of being marked for an additional attempt as they are in the existing solution. Additionally, SCORM objects in full screen no longer play over top of objects playing inline since in the new solution, SCORM objects automatically and only open and play in a new window.

Has its foundation in the new Content Service, which provides standardized content access and management.

Resides in AWS

The new SCORM solution still allows users to do the following:

Instructors can import, export, and copy courses that include course content and SCORM objects, both SCORM 1.2 and 2004.

Learners can play and interact with a course that includes course content and SCORM objects, both SCORM 1.2 and 2004.



Instructors can view high-level interaction data for their SCORM objects. In the future, more detailed interaction data will be available.

Instructors can connect SCORM objects with grade items that automatically enter into a grade book, if that functionality is enabled within their instance.

Figure 63: New SCORM Object option in the Content tool

Figure 64: New SCORM Object selection/upload dialog window with basic search field



Figure 65: Static and dynamic linking options

Figure 66: SCORM Object in a content module with Open in New Window option



Figure 67: Sample SCORM Object open and ready to play in new browser tab



Workflow




Slight impact to administrators who must enable the new SCORM solution for their organization.

Administrators must do the following to enable the new SCORM solution:

Enable the Content Service by setting the d2l.Tools.ContentService.Endpoint configuration variable.

Enable the Content Service under Organization Tools.

Set the appropriate permissions for the Content Service and External Learning Tools.

Ensure that user roles that need to add or upload SCORM content have the IMS role of "Instructor", and roles that need to view content have the IMS role of "Learner".

1. In the Config Variable Browser, set the d2l.Tools.ContentService.Endpoint configuration variable to on and enter the URL for the appropriate region, according to your location (see the list in “Next Steps” in the Content Service release notes, and ensure that your choice is consistent with your organization’s requirements regarding data residency).

2. In Organization Tools, set the toggle for Content Service to on.

3. In Roles and Permissions, grant the appropriate permissions to instructors, that is, ensure they have the Content Service > Can add new SCORM objects, Can view SCORM objects, and Can view SCORM reports permissions, and the External Learning Tools > Manage External Learning Tools Links permission.

4. In Roles and Permissions, grant the appropriate permissions to learners, that is, ensure they have the Content Service > Can view SCORM objects permission.




Slight impact to instructors due to changes in some workflows within the new SCORM solution.

Existing SCORM content does not transfer to the new solution. Existing content remains where it is, and users interact with it in the same manner as before. If organizations choose to enable the new SCORM solution, all new content that is uploaded leverages the new capabilities and workflows.

Instructors require the Content Service > Can add new SCORM objects, Can view SCORM objects, and Can view SCORM reports permissions, and the External Learning Tools > Manage External Learning Tools Links permission.

n/a

Slight impact to learners due to changes in the look and feel when they access SCORM objects in Brightspace Learning Environment.

Learners require the Content Service > Can view SCORM objects permission to access SCORM content.

n/a

Brightspace Learning Environment 10.7.0Activity Feed - Limited release to US and Canada | NewActivity Feed is a new course homepage widget for Brightspace Learning Environment available to clients in the US and Canada. Activity Feed provides a central location for instructors to post messages and links to course materials. It gives learners the ability to quickly access links to important materials, and comment on messages made by instructors and classmates.



This features implements PIE item D2983.

Figure 68: Instructor view of the Activity Feed



Figure 69: Student view of the Activity Feed

Configuration Variable Organization Wide

Role Permissions




Slight impact to administrators due to a configuration variable that needs to be enabled, and having to map IMS roles to Brightspace Learning Environment roles.

Before this widget can be used, the configuration variable d2l.Tools.ActivityFeed.ShowWidget must be enabled. Features of the tool can be turned on for specific courses by adding override values in the Config Variable Browser. Administrators must access Admin Tools > IMS Configuration to map IMS roles to Brightspace Learning Environment roles.

The configuration variable to enable Activity Feed will be available at the end of April, after all continuous delivery wave deployments are complete. It will not be visible when Brightspace Learning Environment 10.7.0 is first released.

Activity Feed is a service located in the following Amazon Web Services™ (AWS) locations:

U.S. East (N. Virginia)

Canada Central (Montreal)

Client regions are determined by D2L and routed accordingly.

This feature is dependent on the Authentication Service, and Landlord Service.

1. In the Config Variable Browser, set the d2l.Tools.ActivityFeed.ShowWidget configuration variable to on.

2. From the Admin Tools menu, select IMS Configuration and map IMS roles to Brightspace Learning Environment roles. Brightspace Learning Environment roles for student, parent, and instructor must be mapped to the IMS roles for student, mentor, and instructor.

3. Add the Activity Feed widget to the default course homepage, or notify instructors that the widget is available for them to add to custom homepages.

Please make sure that you have the appropriate permissions to enable these features by checking your organization’s policies regarding data residency, and by consulting with your legal advisors.




Slight impact to instructors due to the availability of a new widget.

n/a 1. Add the Activity Feed widget to a course homepage from Course Admin > Homepages.

2. Post messages and links to course materials.

Slight impact to learners due to the availability of a new widget.

n/a View messages and links posted by instructors, and add comments to communicate with the class.

Brightspace Daylight - Optional course image banner on widget-based homepages | NewInstructors can now add a course image banner below the navigation bar on widget-based course homepages. The banner provides a venue to personalize the look and feel of course homepages and provide a connection between the course tile in the My Courses widget and the course homepage.



Administrators control the prominence of this feature in the Brightspace Daylight Experience. By default, the d2l.Tools.Homepages.Banner.EnabledByDefault configuration variable is turned off, indicating that instructors can opt in to using the banner image. If the configuration variable is turned on, instructors can remove the banner using an option on the Course Offering Information page.

Figure 70: When instructors are required to opt in to using the course banner, they must select the Display the image in a banner on the course homepage checkbox.

If the d2l.Tools.Homepages.Banner.EnabledByDefault configuration variable is turned on, instructors are required to set a banner for their courses. In the Course Offering Information dialog box, instructors can select the course image.

Figure 71: Instructors can choose a course banner image using the Course Offering Information box by clicking the More Options menu





On-Premise


Slight impact to administrators who can set the content image banner to optional or required.

The Brightspace Daylight Experience feature is now available to clients who turn on the d2l.system.BrightspaceDaylightExperience configuration variable.

Administrators can set the d2l.Tools.Homepages.Banner.EnabledByDefault configuration variable to require instructors to use a course image banner. By default, this variable is turned off.

Note that the maximum display size for the course image banner is 1230 by 200 pixels. Larger images and images with different aspect ratios are automatically resized appropriately.

You must have the Brightspace Daylight Experience configuration variable turned on before you can use this feature.

Administrators should consider turning on the image banner by default if instructors have requested increased personalization options in the Brightspace Daylight Experience.




Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to add a course image banner to their course homepage or review the banner if it is turned on by default.

If the d2l.Tools.Homepages.Banner.EnabledByDefault configuration variable remains turned off, instructors can select the Display the image in a banner on the course homepage checkbox on the Course Offering Information page.

If the d2l.Tools.Homepages.Banner.EnabledByDefault configuration variable is turned on, users can click the More Options menu on the course banner remove the course banner.

Note that the maximum display size for the course image banner is 1230 by 200 pixels. Larger images and images with different aspect ratios are automatically resized appropriately.

Instructors need the See Course Info and Change Course Image permissions to add, remove, or edit the course image banner.

Data Hub - Brightspace Data Sets | NewTo provide administrators with access to more comprehensive data, this release introduces a new type of data set to the Data Hub tool: Brightspace Data Sets. This new data set type consists of raw, user-level data from Brightspace Learning Environment, which grants administrators the flexibility to filter, aggregate, and transform the data according to their needs.

Specific benefits of Brightspace Data Sets include:

Gain access to raw, user-level dataUse the Data Hub UI or API to gain access to Brightspace Data Sets in CSV format.

Easily combine data setsBrightspace Data Sets are designed to work with each other. Import your data sets into a database to combine the data sets you need to create more complex data sets or reports.

Create custom aggregations and filtersImport your data sets into a database to filter and aggregate on the fields that answer your questions. You can always review the user-level data to fine-tune your results.



Generate data visualizations and reportsImport your data sets into a database to use with your favorite Business Intelligence (BI) tool or spreadsheet and create data visualizations.

Use your data for researchMine your data and combine with data from other systems for research to gain further insights.

Figure 72: Brightspace Data Sets in the Data Hub tool


Workflow Look and Feel


System Requirement Change Tool Change




Significant impact to administrators due to changes to system requirements and new data sets available from a new tab in the Data Hub.

Brightspace Data Sets are compatible with Brightspace 10.7+, and are available to existing Brightspace Insights clients and new Brightspace Core clients.

Brightspace Data Sets are CSV extracts of data from Brightspace Learning Environment, available in the following regions:

North America

EMEA

APAC

With Brightspace Data Sets, administrators download the complete historical data for the data extracts. However, there are the following exceptions:

There is a default system limit to return 150 million rows of the most recent data.

There are a few data sets where the data is limited to the last two calendar years (noted in the descriptions of the data sets).

Brightspace Data Sets are refreshed daily. During the enablement process, D2L sets up a scheduled task to generate the data sets, which refreshes the data.

Depends on the following microservices:

Authentication Service

Brightspace Data Platform

For eligibility questions, contact your D2L Account Manager.

For more information about Brightspace packages, browse to: https://www.d2l.com/en-eu/products/#packages (https://www.d2l.com/en-eu/products/#packages)


https://www.d2l.com/en-eu/products/#packages

https://www.d2l.com/en-eu/products/#packages



Significant impact to administrators due to new role permissions and configuration variables.

The ability to run Brightspace Data Sets is controlled by data set-specific permissions.

From Admin Tools > Roles and Permissions > Brightspace Data Sets, grant the permissions that correspond to the data set you want the user to be able to run. For example, to run the User Enrollments data set, grant the Can execute User Enrollments permission at the org level.

Brightspace Data Sets use the following configuration variables for performance tuning, visible only to D2L:

d2l.Tools.BrightspaceDataSets.BatchSize (Org) - Batch size to use for the Brightspace Data Sets queries. The default is 100,000.

d2l.Tools.BrightspaceDataSets.RowLimit (Org) - Maximum number of rows that any Brightspace Data Set outputs to a file. The default is 150,000,000.

d2l.Tools.BrightspaceDataSets.TruncateLimit (Org) - Limit of how many characters are exported for fields with no maximum length from the Brightspace Data Sets. The default is 1,000.

1. Ensure that the Data Hub tool is enabled.

2. From the Admin Tools menu, select Roles and Permissions, and grant the following Brightspace Data Sets permissions at the org level:

Can Access Brightspace Data Sets

Can Execute <data set name>. For example, to run the User Enrollments data set, grant the Can Execute User Enrollments permission.

For detailed information about Brightspace Data Sets, refer to the new Data Hub - Administrator Guide when it is released.

Document Conversion Service | NewTo improve the document viewing experience for users, this release introduces the Document Conversion Service. When documents are uploaded to the Content tool, Assignments tool, Brightspace Learning Repository, or Brightspace ePortfolio, the documents are converted to PDFs, which display inline in the tool or product. Previously, the DocumentBuilderService rendered documents as images at different zoom levels.





Moderate system requirement impact for administrators because of potential data residency issues.

The Document Conversion Service is automatically enabled for all new and existing clients hosted in Amazon Web Services™ (AWS) data centers, and is only available to these clients.

The Document Conversion Service is located in all AWS locations currently used by D2L.

The Document Conversion Service depends on the Authentication Service, located in AWS U.S. East (N. Virginia).

D2L recommends checking your organization’s policies regarding data residency, and consulting with your legal advisors.


Slight impact to instructors and learners due to the valid file types that can be uploaded.

Documents are converted during upload instead of during user access, which reduces wait times when serving documents to users.

Valid file types include: .ppt, .pps, .pptx, .ppsx, .doc, .docx, .rtf, .odt, .odp, .xls, .xlsx.

Converted documents display as inline PDFs in the tool or product. If an uploaded document is an invalid file type, it fails to convert and render in the tool or product.

When users download documents, they are saved in their native file formats.

N/A

HTML Editor - New Question Authoring experience | UpdatedThe HTML Editor tool now makes use of the updated Math Editor when instructors create quiz questions using the New Question Authoring experience. As a result, instructors can preview equations inline when creating quiz questions.





Figure 73: Updated Math Editor within New Question Authoring experience


Organization Wide Users Only


Slight impact to instructors who can now preview math equations within the HTML Editor tool when using the New Question Authoring experience.

n/a n/a

HTML Editor - Accessibility Checker | NewAn accessibility checker is now available within the HTML Editor for use within Content, Widgets, Quizzes, Assignments, Calendar, and any other tools where an instructor or student can access the HTML Editor.



The accessibility checker is available on the HTML Editor bar. After you add content to the HTML Editor, you can click the checker to ensure that the HTML page conforms to WCAG and Section 508 accessibility standards.

Figure 74: Click the accessibility checker to verify that the content you have added to the HTML Editor conforms to accessibility standards

The accessibility checker reviews content for the following items:

Use of paragraphs as headings

Sequential headings

Adjacent links

Ordered list structure

Unordered list structure

Contact ratio of text to background colors

Image ALT text

ALT text filename



Table Caption

Complex table summary

Table caption and summary

Table heading scope, markup, and headers



The checker indicates if there are no issues, or offers suggestions to fix identified accessibility issues.

Figure 75: If the accessibility checker does not find any issues in the HTML content, an message appears to indicate that the content conforms to accessibility rules

Figure 76: If the accessibility checker finds an issue, it indicates how the content does not meet guidelines and suggests a way to fix the issue



Note that the accessibility checker does not check multiple files at the same time, and does not check files that you have imported into a course. Also be aware that the accessibility checker is only available for HTML files in the HTML Editor; it does not check any other type of file, such as MS Word, PDF, PowerPoint, and so on.



Workflow


Slight impact to instructors and learners who create HTML content in Brightspace Learning Environment using HTML Editor due to the new ability to perform accessibility checks on their content.

N/A When users add content using the HTML Editor, the accessibility checker helps to meet WCAG and Section 508 compliance.

HTML Editor - Version updates for TinyMCE and the TinyMCE PowerPaste plugin | UpdatedThe versions of TinyMCE and the TinyMCE PowerPaste plugin used in the HTML Editor tool in Brightspace Learning Environment have been updated (to 4.5.3 and 2.1.10-115, respectively).





Slight impact to users due to fixes included in updated versions.

n/a For specific details on the fixes included with this update, see PRB0053120 and PRB0053695 in the Brightspace platform 10.7.0 Fixed Issues List.

For additional information, see the TinyMCE Changelog (https://www.tinymce.com/docs/changelog/).


https://www.tinymce.com/docs/changelog/

https://www.tinymce.com/docs/changelog/


Quizzes - Renamed Long Answer (LA) to Written Response (WR) | UpdatedIn the Quizzes tool, the Long Answer (LA) question type is now Written Response (WR). The question type was renamed to make the name more intuitive for administrators and instructors.

Figure 77: Written Response question type in the Question Library

Figure 78: Creating a Written Response question in the new quizzing experience



Figure 79: Creating a Written Response question in the old quizzing experience


Organization Wide


Slight impact to administrators and instructors due to the renamed Long Answer question type in the Quizzes tool.

The Written Response (WR) question type is a lang term change only.

Written Response (WR) displays in the old and new quizzing experience, with no opt-in or out option.

N/A



Brightspace Learning Environment 10.7.1Brightspace Data Platform - End-of-life of the ODBC Driver | RemovedD2L announces the end-of-life of the Brightspace Data Platform Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) driver. The ODBC driver allowed clients to create and run their own queries to access Brightspace event data in the Brightspace Data Platform. As of this release, the ODBC Driver is no longer available or supported.



Slight impact to Administrators due to the end-of-life of the Brightspace Data Platform ODBC driver.

N/A To uninstall the ODBC driver:

1. From a command prompt window, navigate to the folder where the driver is installed. For example, type: cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\BrightspaceDataPlatformODBCDriver"

2. Type: .\unistall.cmd

To access Brightspace event data, D2L offers the following:

Brightspace Insights

Data Hub tool

For more information contact your D2L Account Manager.

Brightspace platform - Removal of legacy Help tool | RemovedThe legacy system Help tool has been removed from the Brightspace platform. The link to the new Brightspace Help site was made available in Brightspace Learning Environment 10.6.9.





Slight impact to users due to the removal of the legacy Help tool.

If you previously had the legacy Help tool link on your navbar, it automatically changed to the new Brightspace Help link in Brightspace Learning Environment 10.6.9. If you had created your own links to the legacy Help, those links will no longer work.

The new Brightspace Help is a full website, external to Brightspace Learning Environment. It contains Continuous Delivery help resources for the suite of Brightspace products, microservices in the Brightspace Cloud, integrations, and Semester Start "frequently asked questions."

If you had your own links to the legacy Help, D2L recommends creating links to the new Brightspace Help site (https://documentation.brightspace.com).

You can also embed and customize help packages directly in your instance of Brightspace Learning Environment. See the Embedding and Customizing Brightspace Help Packages (https://community.brightspace.com/resources/documentation/help/help_package_instructions/embeddingandcustomizinghelppackagesadministratorguide) guide for more information.


https://community.brightspace.com/resources/documentation/help/help_package_instructions/embeddingandcustomizinghelppackagesadministratorguide



https://documentation.brightspace.com/

https://documentation.brightspace.com/


Copy Course Components - Copying final grade properties includes calculated and adjusted grades | UpdatedWhen you copy final grade items, the copy process includes properties from the calculated and adjusted final grade items. In the Copy Course Components tool, when you select Copy All to select everything in the course, all final grade properties are now copied. If you copy individual components, Final Calculated Grade and Final Adjusted Grade appear in the list of components to select.

Figure 80: Select the Final Adjusted Grade and Final Calculated Grade as part of the items you want to copy.





Slight impact to instructors who can now include calculated and adjusted final grades in the Copy Course Components workflow.

N/A N/A

Daylight Experience - Improved learner workflows and responsive dialog boxes | UpdatedSome important learner workflows have been improved in the Daylight Experience. The following components of the Insert Stuff dialog are now responsive: My Computer, Insert Link, and Enter Embed Code. The Add a File dialog (used in Assignments) is also responsive. This makes the core learner workflows of adding and submitting files easier on tablets or mobile devices.



Figure 81: Responsive mobile view of the Insert Link dialog box

The Brightspace Daylight Experience features are now optimized for production environments when using the Google Chrome or Apple Safari browsers. The core tools and workflows in Brightspace Learning Environment have been tested extensively on these two browsers. In the coming months, D2L will continue to make updates across the product suite that reflect Daylight design and will continue to optimize the Daylight Experience in other browser environments. Turning on Daylight does not modify your content or other settings in Brightspace. All workflows and features in the Brightspace Daylight experience are available on all supported browsers; however, D2L is continuing to optimize performance and improve page load times on browsers other than Chrome and Safari. If you turn on the Brightspace Daylight Experience to do some testing, you can turn off the configuration variable to restore your site to the original look and feel.


Users Only Workflow




Slight impact to users due to improvements to learner workflows and responsive behavior in dialog boxes.



Discussions - Allow instructors to post to all groups at once | NewInstructors can now post a discussion thread to all the associated groups/sections from a group discussion topic. If an instructor does not have access to all groups they have the option to post a thread to All groups/sections assigned to me.




Figure 82: Instructors can post discussion threads to all groups

Figure 83: Instructors can post to all groups/sections assigned to them





System Requirement Change Tool Change

Workflow


Slight impact to administrators due to a required configuration variable to make this feature available.

The configuration variable d2l.Tools.Discuss.EnableGroupFilteredTopics must be turned on for these features to be available. As of Brightspace Learning Environment 10.7.1, this variable is on by default.

In the Config Variable Browser, ensure that the Organization Value for d2l.Tools.Discuss.EnableGroupFilteredTopics is set to on, or no Organization Value is set.

Slight impact to instructors due to a change in workflow when posting to group discussion topics.

When posting to a group discussion topic, instructors have the option to post their thread to an individual group or all groups.

From a group discussion topic, click Start a New Thread and use the Post Thread to dropdown list to select an individual group or All Groups before posting.

Discussions - Default value for Discussions configuration variable | UpdatedThe default value of the configuration variable d2l.Tools.Discuss.EnableGroupFilteredTopics is changing from off to on. This variable controls whether discussion topics can contain group specific posts. Clients who do not want this feature available can edit the Org Value of the variable and set it to off. Changes to the configuration variable's default status do not affect Org Values that are already in place. If no Org Value is set, the default behavior for your organization changes after the 10.7.1 update is complete.







Slight impact to administrators due to the change in the default status of the configuration variable d2l.Tools.Discuss.EnableGroupFilteredTopics.

The d2l.Tools.Discuss.EnableGroupFilteredTopics variable determines if improvements to group discussions are available to instructors and learners. This variable changes the default value when creating group discussions to Create one topic with threads separated by group. This type of topic simplifies instructor workflows when navigating between group discussions, assessing discussion topics, and copying groups between courses.

For more information on improvements to group discussions see the Brightspace Platform 10.6.9 Release Notes https://community.brightspace.com/resources/documentation/release_notes/files/january_2017_release_notes/brightspace_platform_1069_release_notes.

If you want the improvements available to your users, ensure that the d2l.Tools.Discuss.EnableGroupFilteredTopics configuration variable does not have its Org Value set to off.

If you do not want the improvements available to your users, ensure that the d2l.Tools.Discuss.EnableGroupFilteredTopics configuration variable has the Org Value set to off.

HTML Editor - Improved paste functionality in Quizzes | UpdatedThe HTML Editor tool has improved paste functionality for the new quiz question authoring experience in the Quizzes tool. Administrators and instructors can copy content from external sources such as Microsoft Word and various HTML sources, and paste it as question or answer content in a quiz question, while retaining the formatting and images from the source location.



https://community.brightspace.com/resources/documentation/release_notes/files/january_2017_release_notes/brightspace_platform_1069_release_notes




Figure 84: New confirmation dialog box for pasting content into a quiz question


Tool Change


Slight impact to instructors and administrators due to improved paste functionality in HTML Editor in Quizzes.

A new confirmation dialog box now displays when you paste content into a quiz question.

The improved paste functionality is also available in the Email, Content, Announcements, and Discussions tools.

N/A

Brightspace Learning Environment 10.7.2Activity Feed - Available to all hosted clients | NewThe Activity Feed, which is a new course homepage widget for Brightspace Learning Environment, is now available to all hosted clients.

The Activity Feed provides a central location for instructors to post messages and links to course materials, web links, and files on Google Drive. It gives learners the ability to quickly access links to important materials, and comment on messages made by instructors and classmates.



Figure 85: Instructor view of the Activity Feed



Figure 86: Student view of the Activity Feed



Configuration Variable Organization Wide

Role Permissions


Slight impact to administrators due to a configuration variable that needs to be enabled, and having to map IMS roles to Brightspace Learning Environment roles.

Before this widget can be used, the configuration variable d2l.Tools.ActivityFeed.ShowWidget must be enabled. Features of the tool can be turned on for specific courses by adding override values in the Config Variable Browser. Administrators must access Admin Tools > IMS Configuration to map IMS roles to Brightspace Learning Environment roles.

Activity Feed is a service located in all supported D2L Amazon Web Services™ (AWS) locations:

U.S. East (N. Virginia)

Canada Central (Montreal)

EMEA (Ireland)

Sydney

Singapore

Client regions are determined by D2L and routed accordingly.

This feature is dependent on the Authentication Service, and Landlord Service.

1. In the Config Variable Browser, set the d2l.Tools.ActivityFeed.ShowWidget configuration variable to on.

2. From the Admin Tools menu, select IMS Configuration and map IMS roles to Brightspace Learning Environment roles. Brightspace Learning Environment roles for student, parent, and instructor must be mapped to the IMS roles for student, mentor, and instructor.

3. Add the Activity Feed widget to the default course homepage, or notify instructors that the widget is available for them to add to custom homepages.

Ensure that you have the appropriate permissions to enable these features by checking your organization’s policies regarding data residency, and by consulting with your legal advisors.




Slight impact to instructors due to the availability of a new widget.

n/a 1. Add the Activity Feed widget to a course homepage from Course Admin > Homepages.

2. Post messages and links to course materials.

Slight impact to learners due to the availability of a new widget.

n/a View messages and links posted by instructors, and add comments to communicate with the class.

Classlist - Hide flags in the classlist | NewInstructors can now hide flags in a classlist. All users who currently have the Has access to classlist permission can see and modify flags in a classlist.




Figure 87: Classlist - Instructor view with flags

Figure 88: Classlist - Student view without flags







Slight impact to instructors who can now hide flags in a classlist.

The View and Modify Flagged Status permission will be granted for all roles that currently have the Has access to the classlist permission.

Request that your administrator remove the View and Modify Flagged Status permission for the learner role if you do not want learners to see and modify flags in a classlist.

Slight impact to learners who load the classlist as they will not be able to see and modify flags in a classlist if the View and Modify Flagged Status permissions is not granted.

N/A N/A

Daylight Experience - The Brightspace Daylight Experience is now supported on all Browsers | UpdatedThe Brightspace Daylight Experience features are now optimized for production environments on all browsers. The core tools and workflows in Brightspace Learning Environment have been tested extensively with Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Internet Explorer 11 browsers.

In the coming months, D2L will continue to make updates across the product suite that reflect Daylight design. Turning on Daylight does not modify your content or other settings in Brightspace. All workflows and features in the Brightspace Daylight experience are available on all supported browsers. If you turn on the Brightspace Daylight Experience to do some testing, you can turn off the configuration setting to restore your site to the original look and feel.


Workflow




Slight impact to all users who are now able to use the Daylight Experience in a production environment optimized for the Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Internet Explorer 11 browsers.



Document Conversion Service - General availability to all clients | UpdatedAs of this release, the Document Conversion Service is now available to all D2L clients. Previously, the Document Conversion Service was only available to new and existing clients hosted in Amazon Web Services™ (AWS) data centers.





Moderate system requirement impact for administrators because of potential data residency issues.

When documents are uploaded to the Content tool, Assignments tool, Brightspace Learning Repository, or Brightspace ePortfolio, the documents are converted to PDFs, which display inline in the tool or product. This improves the document viewing experience for users. Previously, the DocumentBuilderService rendered documents as images at different zoom levels.

The Document Conversion Service is automatically enabled for all clients, and is located in all AWS locations currently used by D2L.

A call from the Brightspace platform is routed to the appropriate region based on its geographic location using the Amazon Route 53 DNS web service. Currently, Canadian servers are routed to Canada Central, Australian servers to Asia-Pacific, and all others default to U.S. East.

The Document Conversion Service depends on the Authentication Service, located in AWS U.S. East (N. Virginia).

D2L recommends checking your organization’s policies regarding data residency, and consulting with your legal advisors.


Slight impact to instructors and learners due to the valid file types that can be uploaded.

Documents are converted during upload instead of during user access, which reduces wait times when serving documents to users.

Valid file types include: .ppt, .pps, .pptx, .ppsx, .doc, .docx, .rtf, .odt, .odp, .xls, .xlsx.

Converted documents display as inline PDFs in the tool or product. If an uploaded document is an invalid file type, it fails to convert and render in the tool or product.

When users download documents, they are saved in their native file formats.

N/A



Grades - Grade exports include all group and section enrollments | UpdatedWhen exporting grades from the grade book, selecting the option to include group and section membership information now exports all group and section enrollment information for each learner. Multiple enrollments are exported as a comma-separated list within a cell. This allows for more detailed analysis of grade exports outside of Brightspace Learning Environment.




Slight impact to instructors and administrators who export grades from courses with multiple sections or groups due to availability of additional membership information in the CSV export.

Group and section membership export options are only available if the course you are working in contains groups or sections.

To view these options, the instructor role must have the option to Access all course groups/sections enabled under their role settings.

After selecting Export Grades from the Enter Grades page, select the option under User Details to include group or section details for each learner.



Lessons - Limited Availability | NewLessons is a new way for instructors and learners to experience the Content tool in Brightspace Learning Environment. It offers a simplified experience for organizing content, aligning to learning standards, managing the availability of course materials, and automatically scheduling content units as a pacing guideline. The ability to import from the Achievement Standards Network, and map content items to those standards, has been added. Instructors can also add their own materials from external sources, such as Google Drive, to supplement existing resources. To promote classroom engagement, the Lessons experience works with the Activity Feed, allowing instructors to easily post content materials to a course homepage. The Lessons experience is currently available to US clients only.

Figure 89: Instructor view of the new Lessons experience



Figure 90: Lessons standards coverage

Figure 91: Learner view of the new Lessons experience






Moderate impact to administrators due to required configuration variables, tool changes, and permissions to make this feature available.

To make the Lessons experience available in Brightspace Learning Environment, turn on the following configuration variables:

d2l.Tools.Content.IsLessonsEnabled

d2l.Tools.Content.UseLessonsExperience

d2l.System.Services.DocumentConversion.IsEnabled

The Document Conversion Service is located in AWS U.S. East (N. Virginia) and depends on the Authentication Service.

The Learning Outcomes tool must be turned on, and the Manage Outcomes permission is required to import standards from the Achievement Standards Network and to copy standard requirements between courses. This tool relies on the Learning Outcomes service (LOReS). LOReS is a regional service that is currently only available to clients in the US East region.

The Lessons experience is only available in US English as of Brightspace Learning Environment 10.7.2.

1. In the Config Variable Browser, ensure that the Organization Value for d2l.Tools.Content.IsLessonsEnabled is set to on.

2. Turn on d2l.Tools.Content.UseLessonsExperience for all courses to use the Lessons experience. To enable Lessons for individual courses, set override values in the d2l.Tools.Content.UseLessonsExperience configuration variable for the desired courses.

3. Turn on d2l.System.Services.DocumentConversion.IsEnabled to activate Document Conversion Service for your organization.

4. From the Admin Tools menu, select Organization Tools and turn on Learning Outcomes.

5. Grant the Manage Outcomes permission for the Learning Outcomes tool to roles responsible for importing standards and copying standards between courses.




Slight impact to instructors and learners due to the availability of the new Lessons experience.

N/A From the course navbar, select Content and observe the look of the Lessons experience.

SCORM - Simplified workflow when exiting SCORM objects | UpdatedIn the new SCORM solution, when users exit a SCORM object, they no longer need to carry out the additional step of navigating back to the Content tool in a course. Users are now taken back to Content automatically.

Tool Change Users Only

Workflow


Slight impact to users due to simplified workflow when exiting a SCORM object using the new SCORM solution.

Previously, when users exited a SCORM object in the new SCORM solution, they were taken to an LTI launch page and they had to use the Back button in their browser or the breadcrumbs in Brightspace Learning Environment to navigate back to Content. The additional step is no longer required.

N/A



Brightspace Learning Environment 10.7.3HTML Editor - HTML Editor is now improved for use with Brightspace Daylight Experience | UpdatedIn the HTML Editor tool, inserted images are now responsive by default. The HTML Editor tool now automatically applies maximum width to uploaded images that do not have dimensions specified. As a result, when a learner views content on a smaller device, such as a tablet or a phone, the images are correctly sized for the screen. This change only applies to new images uploaded using the HTML Editor tool; existing content is not modified by this change.

When you insert an image, the size, alignment, and global style are now aesthetically optimized. In addition, rounded corners that match the style of the Brightspace Daylight Experience are automatically applied to images.

Figure 92: The HTML Source Editor shows the metadata for an image with the max-width attribute set to 100%.


Users Only Workflow




Slight disruption to users who use HTML Editor to add images to their learning environment pages.

Availability: This feature is now available to clients who use the Brightspace Daylight Experience.

To enable: Before this widget can be used, the configuration variable D2l.system.BrightspaceDaylightExperience must be turned on.

Microservices Dependencies: N/A

Microservices Locations: N/A


HTML Editor - Paste from Microsoft Word | NewCurrently, every time a user copies and pastes any Microsoft Word content in to the HTML Editor, a pop-up window appears prompting the user to either select Remove Formatting or Keep Formatting of the pasted content.

Now, administrators can enable the new d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.PasteFormatting configuration variable to control how formatted content from Microsoft Word is pasted into the HTML Editor in Brightspace Learning Environment. From the configuration variable, administrators can choose one of three options:

Prompt - to display a prompt where users can select to keep or remove formatting of the pasted content (the current default)

Remove Formatting

Keep Formatting

The default value of this configuration variable is Keep Formatting.







Slight impact to administrators who can now enable a configuration variable.

Availability: This feature is now available to all clients.

To enable: In the d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.PasteFormatting configuration variable settings, select either Prompt, Remove Formatting, or Keep Formatting.

The default value is Keep Formatting.



To change the default behavior, in the Config Variable Browser, update the d2l.Tools.WYSIWYG.PasteFormatting configuration variable settings.

Slight impact to users due to change in workflow.

By default, when you copy and paste Microsoft Word content, the formatting of the pasted content is retained.

However, your administrator can change this default behavior to either display a prompt to choose whether formatting is retained or remove formatting.

N/A

HTML Editor - Unsaved changes prompt | NewIn the HTML Editor tool, when you make content changes and attempt to navigate away or close the browser or tab without saving your changes, a message prompts you to discard your changes or resume editing. This feature is deployed in the following locations:

Content > Create/edit an HTML file

Discussions (in reading view) > Post a discussion topic/reply to a discussion topic

Announcements > Create/edit announcements





Workflow


Slight impact to users due to change in workflow.

Availability: This feature is now available to all clients.

To enable: N/A



The message that is displayed, prompting you to discard your changes or resume editing, is dependent on the browser you use.

N/A

Learning Outcomes - Import and export standard alignments using bulk import and export tools - AWS Enabled | UpdatedStandard alignments are created in Lessons to link course materials, such as content, quizzes, discussions, and assignments, to learning standards. Bulk Course Create (BCC) and Bulk Course Export (BCE) packages can now be used to create and export course packages that contain existing standard alignments.






Slight impact to administrators due to required organization tools and microservices for this feature to be available.

Availability: Learning Outcomes is currently only available to clients in the US East region.

To enable: N/A

Microservices Dependencies: This feature depends on the LOReS Service.

Microservices Location(s): LOReS is a service in the following Amazon Web Services™ (AWS) locations:

• U.S. East (N. Virginia)

Client regions are determined by D2L to provide the best user experience and in accordance with data residency requirements.

Before administrators can use this feature, the Learning Outcomes tool must be turned on in Organization tools, the LOReS microservice must be available in the client's region, and users must have the Learning Outcomes permission to Manage Outcomes.


1. From the Admin Tools menu, select Organization Tools and turn on Learning Outcomes.

2. Grant the Manage Outcomes permission for the Learning Outcomes tool to roles responsible for importing standards and copying standards between courses.

3. Ensure that the LOReS microservice is available in your region.

For detailed information on data transmission, refer to the Microservices in the Brightspace Cloud guide at release.

Quizzes - Shuffle the order of questions | NewTo discourage cheating in quizzes, instructors can now shuffle the order of all questions in quizzes or specific groups of questions (sections) in quizzes. For example, an instructor could shuffle questions 1-10 in a quiz, or shuffle questions 3-10 (grouping those questions into a section) and retain the order of questions 1-2 at the start of the quiz.



When editing a quiz in the Quizzes tool, a new option to Shuffle order of questions at the quiz level displays in the Quiz Questions section. When creating a new section to group specific questions in a quiz, a new option to Shuffle order of questions in this section is visible in the Display Options section.

Figure 93: The new shuffle questions option in the Quizzes tool

Once the shuffle option is selected, a shuffle icon appears next to each affected question in the quiz.

Figure 94: The new shuffle icon for quiz questions




Workflow


Slight impact to instructors due to a new option when creating and editing quizzes.

Availability: to all clients.

To enable: N/A.

Microservices Dependencies: N/A.

Microservices Location(s): N/A.

By default, the shuffle option is not selected for quizzes and sections.

Shuffling the order of questions at the quiz level also shuffles the order of all sections in the quiz.

Shuffling the order of questions in a section also shuffles the order of all sections at the same section level. However, the setting does not propagate to child sections.

When a quiz contains shuffled questions and sections, each learner receives a quiz with a unique question order.

To shuffle all questions in a quiz:

1. Edit a quiz.

2. Under Quiz Questions, select the Shuffle order of questions at the quiz level option.

3. Save the quiz.

To shuffle specific questions in a quiz:

1. Edit a quiz and add a new quiz section.

2. Import a question pool into the new section and select questions to import.

3. For the new section, under Display Options, select the Shuffle order of questions in this section option.

3. Save the section.



Integrations 10.6.10URKUND Plagiarism Detector - URKUND Plagiarism Detector integration available | NewThe URKUND Plagiarism Detector integration is now available for Brightspace Learning Environment.

Figure 95: Instructor view of the URKUND integration



Figure 96: Submission detail information


Integration Organization Wide

Workflow




Slight impact to administrators due to a new configuration variable and permissions that must be set to use the URKUND integration.

The d2l.3rdParty.Urkund.ServiceUrl configuration variable must have an Org Value set and a remote plugin created for this integration to function.

Permissions must be set within the URKUND integration to determine which features are available to users.

Contact your D2L Account Manager to request URKUND contact details,the Launch Point URL, and LTI Secret to set up the URKUND integration. Direct all sales, support, and implementation questions to URKUND.

Slight impact to instructors due to the availability of URKUND Plagiarism Detector integration to be used with the Assignments tool.

n/a Access the URKUND integration from your course and set which assignment submission folders you want to use the plagiarism control feature. After learner submissions are processed, a score and report are available to access. For support assistance contact URKUND directly.

Slight impact to learners due to new workflow for accessing assignments analyzed for plagiarism using the URKUND integration.

n/a On the navbar, click URKUND to view your submissions that have been checked for plagiarism.

Integrations 10.6.11Virtual Classrooms and Video Assignments - Live Captioning Role available | NewVirtual Classrooms can have a user assigned to caption a meeting while it is in session. The captions are visible in live and recorded presentations for any users subscribed to view captions.



Integration Role Permissions

Tool Change Users Only


Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to designate a stenographer for Virtual Classrooms presentations.

n/a 1. To designate a stenographer select the Layout menu and choose Closed Captioning from the available options.

2. Pick from the available languages and click Take Ownership.

3. Text can then be entered and is visible to anyone viewing the captioning for the presentation.

Slight impact to learners due to the ability to view captions in live and recorded presentations.

n/a To view available captions, subscribe to closed captioning when accessing a presentation.

Virtual Classrooms and Video Assignments - Breakout rooms available in Virtual Classrooms Premium | NewTo quickly divide a class into smaller teams for isolated discussions, instructors can now create breakout rooms in Virtual Classrooms Premium.

Integration Tool Change



Users Only Workflow


Slight impact to Instructors due to change in workflow when using Virtual Classrooms Premium.

Instructors have the ability to start, monitor, and close breakout rooms.

In the Virtual Classrooms Users pane, click the gear icon and select Breakout Rooms. Set the number of rooms, the time limit for the rooms, and if recording of rooms is available to learners.

Slight impact to Learners due to the availability of breakout rooms.

n/a An invitation to join a breakout room is received once the room settings are finalized by your instructor. In the dialog box click Yes to join the breakout room in a new browser tab.

Integrations 10.7.0IPSIS - Improved Logging | UpdatedTo help administrators troubleshoot errors more efficiently, IPSIS log messages have been improved to include the context in which the error occurred. Log messages are also now titled in a consistent manner so they are grouped in the error view. Additionally, when metadata is available in the log message, users can search and display the metadata in more detail.

Integration Look and Feel




Slight impact to administrators due to additional error information included in log messages.

When metadata is included in log messages, it displays in a Metadata section. It consists of all data points gathered from the original request, which might not display in the error message itself.

To view IPSIS log messages:

1. From the Admin Tools menu, select IPSIS Administration.

2. Select one of the log messages to see the error information.

Integrations 10.7.1IPSIS - Reactivate users | NewIPSIS administrators can now reactivate users that have been deactivated, that is, they can change an inactive user’s status back to active. Previously, a user’s status could only be set upon creation.

Additionally, the Standard SIS integration now considers the user’s status from the CSV file that administrators must generate. Previously, the user status column wasn't captured.

Integration Workflow




Slight impact to IPSIS administrators who now have the ability to change a user's status after it has been set at creation.

Now, when a deletePerson request deactivates a user, IPSIS provides the ability to change the user’s status back to active using a replacePerson request.

To interpret the user’s status information from the CSV file, a new translator was created: D2L.IM.IPSIS.LIS.RequestAdapters.PMS.Default.PersonRequestIsActiveTranslator. The translator is released as inactive and must be configured to become active.

To reactivate a user:

1. Since the user status does not match directly with a field from the LIS specification, you must implement an extension field on the replacePerson request to make use of this feature. See the IPSIS – Administrator Guide, when it is released, for more information on how to implement the extension field.

2. From the Admin Tools menu, select IPSIS Administration, and click the Configuration tab.

3. Within the LIS area, under Person Management, click Person - Replace.

4. In the Available Plug-ins area, select the D2L.IM.IPSIS.LIS.RequestAdapters.PMS.Default.PersonRequestIsActiveTranslator check box.

5. Click Add to Configuration. and ensure the sort order of the Active Plug-ins is correct (see the IPSIS - Administrator Guide for more information).

6. Click Save and Close.

IPSIS - Support for departments with upper org units | NewSome organizations want to have an org unit above the department level for purposes such as advanced reporting, custom login logic, or competency structures. For organizations that have a custom org unit above the department level, but below the top organization level, IPSIS now recognizes that org unit even if it was not created through IPSIS. Previously, IPSIS didn't recognize custom org units manually created between the organization level and the department level.



Integration Workflow


Slight impact to IPSIS administrators due to the ability for custom org units above the department level to be recognized.

Now, when the ReplaceDepartmentRequest call is processed, it does not remove custom org units above the department level, but recognizes them and leaves them intact.

A new handler has been added that preserves org structure above the department level: D2L.IM.IPSIS.Default.OrgUnits.Departments.Handlers.ReplaceDepartmentParentsNoUpdateLMSHandler. The handler is released as inactive and must be configured to become active.

To preserve org structure above the department level:

1. From the Admin Tools menu, select IPSIS Administration, and click the Configuration tab.

2. Within the IPSIS Platform area, under Org Unit, click Departments - Replace.

3. In the Available Plug-ins area, select the D2L.IM.IPSIS.Default.OrgUnits.Departments.Handlers.ReplaceDepartmentParentsNoUpdateLMSHandler check box.

4. Click Add to Configuration. and ensure the sort order of the Active Plug-ins is correct (see the IPSIS - Administrator Guide, when it is released, for more information).

5. Click Save and Close.

Activity Feed – Web link and Google Drive attachments | NewYou can now add stylized web links and Google Drive files to a post in Activity Feed.



Using the Attach Web Links picker, you can enter a web URL and title that is styled and formatted as a clickable attachment to the post. Using the Attach Google Drive File picker, you can select a file that is styled and formatted as a clickable attachment to the post. These links are included below the post rather than as a part of the inline text. After an external weblink or Google Drive file is attached, an icon appears indicating the type of attachment on the post.

1. Figure 97: Web Link and Google Drive icons appear as attachment options for an Activity Feed


Users Only




Slight impact to instructors who want to use web links or Google Drive attachments in activity feeds.

Google Drive attachments must originate from the instructor's personal Google Account. Before attaching the link, the instructor must ensure that the file has proper visibility permissions in Google Drive.

Navigate to a course homepage with Activity Feed widget available.

Click anywhere in the Create a post text box and type a message.

Do one or more of the following:

To attach a web link, click .

To attach a Google Drive file from your Google account,

click .

Virtual Classrooms and Video Assignments by YouSeeU

Virtual Classrooms by YouSeeU – New HTML5 client available for Virtual Classrooms | NewInstructors can now use the HTML5 version of the Virtual Classroom client in addition to the existing Flash version of the client. HTML5 is the now the recommended Virtual Classrooms client when using Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. HTML5 is not yet available in other browsers due to missing technical dependencies.

Integration System Requirement Change





Medium impact to administrators due to new recommended Virtual Classroom client.

HTML5 is the new default; however, you are still able to choose the Flash version of the client.

When an instructor launches a virtual meeting, selecting Enter Meeting Room (New & Improved) starts a HTML5 version of the Virtual Classroom client.

Selecting Enter Meeting Room continues to start a Flash version of the Virtual Classroom client.

Integrations 10.7.2IPSIS - Plug and Play Administration | NewA new configuration user interface for the Integration Pack for Student Information Systems (IPSIS) is now available for use with the Brightspace platform. The new interface still uses the existing IPSIS framework, but is streamlined to be more intuitive and easier to navigate. For new IPSIS configurations, IPSIS administrators choose between proven default configurations and follow a straightforward setup that provides the same flexibility as the existing IPSIS integration but is greatly simplified. Existing IPSIS configurations must still be managed through the original IPSIS dashboard, and will not be migrated at this time. The Error Log and Audit Log environments are still accessed through the original IPSIS dashboard as well.

The features and improvements in the new user interface include the following:

The incorporation of proven default configurations means that IPSIS administrators no longer need to export or import prior IPSIS configurations to use as a starting point.

Straightforward questions replace complex management of translators and handlers. This eliminates the need for manual verification of problematic plugin lists when contacting D2L support personnel.

IPSIS now supports multiple source systems, and each source system can have its own configuration, based on the selected default.

A new IPSIS landing page displays all IPSIS configurations for an organization, both new and existing.

Default configurations for LIS 2.0 and Standard CSV are included.



Figure 98: The new IPSIS landing page for both new and existing configurations



Figure 99: The new IPSIS configuration interface

Global Change Integration

Workflow




Moderate impact to IPSIS administrators due to the new user interface.

The default configurations are stored in the Content Delivery Network (CDN).

The new configuration interface supports new integrations only and does not allow for migrations from existing source systems.

Existing IPSIS implementations, and the Error and Audit Logs still make use of the original IPSIS dashboard.

Support for mobile devices is not available in this release.

To access the new landing page, click the Admin Tools menu and select IPSIS Administration.

To make use of the new configuration interface for a new SIS integration, contact your D2L Account Manager.

Integrations 10.7.3Brightspace® App Finder - Update and delete listings from Instructor Feedback form | UpdatedThe Brightspace App Finder's Instructor Feedback form allows instructors to provide suggestions, and request more information on specific applications. The Instructor Feedback form has been improved to allow administrators to delete listings that have been addressed, and make notes on existing listings.


Users Only Workflow

Integration




Slight impact to administrators due to change in workflow when accessing Instructor Feedback in the Brightspace App Finder.

Availability: Available to all clients

To enable: N/A


Microservices Location(s): N/A

1. From the Brightspace App Finder, click Administrator, and select Instructor Feedback.

2. View the application requests that instructors in your organization have submitted.

3. Delete listings that have been addressed and add notes to listings that are still open.

IPSIS - Support for OneRoster v1.1 - AWS Enabled | NewIntegration Pack for Student Information Systems (IPSIS) now supports the IMS OneRoster v1.1 specification. There is a new OneRoster configuration option in the new IPSIS user interface to simplify integration with this SIS provider. The specification standardizes the secure sharing of class rosters and related data between a student information system (SIS) and the Brightspace platform. D2L is certified to support both CSV and REST data exchange.

Additionally, the IPSIS Service has been added to support this functionality.

Integration




Slight impact to IPSIS administrators due to the addition of support for the OneRoster v1.1 specification.

The Brightspace platform is IMS Global Certified in the following conformance certifications:

OneRoster v1.1 CSV Rostering Import Bulk

OneRoster v1.1 CSV Rostering Import Delta

OneRoster v1.1 REST Data Consumer Rostering Core

For CSV integrations, support for the OneRoster v1.1 specification lets administrators upload a OneRoster 1.1 compliant package that contains the required roster related data (including schools, classes, users, and enrollments) and see the imported results in the Brightspace platform. The new IPSIS user interface allows administrators to upload a package by drag-and-drop.

For REST integrations, support for the OneRoster v1.1 specification lets administrators schedule data to be pulled from their SIS to populate the required roster related data (including schools, classes, users, and enrollments) in the Brightspace platform. The new IPSIS user interface includes a schedule to allow administrators to configure the time of day when the data pulls occur.

The IPSIS Service:

Availability: The IPSIS Service, and thereby the new OneRoster configuration option, is available to clients in the US, EU, and Australia regions.

To integrate OneRoster with the Brightspace platform, you must be using a OneRoster-compliant SIS.

Additionally, you must use the new IPSIS user interface to set up and perform your SIS integration with OneRoster. During setup, from the SIS Provider drop-down, select OneRoster - Generic.

For more information on the OneRoster 1.1 specification, see https://www.imsglobal.org/activity/onerosterlis (https://www.imsglobal.org/activity/onerosterlis).

For detailed information on data transmission for the IPSIS Service, refer to the Microservices in the Brightspace Cloud guide at release.


https://www.imsglobal.org/activity/onerosterlis

https://www.imsglobal.org/activity/onerosterlis


To enable: N/A

Microservices Dependencies: This feature is dependent on the Authentication Service and Landlord Service.

Microservices Location(s): The IPSIS Service is located in the US East (N. Virginia) region.



Brightspace Platform 10.5.0 to 10.6.2 Release NotesAbout D2L

About D2LA global leader in EdTech, D2L is the creator of Brightspace, the world’s first integrated learning platform.

The company partners with thought-leading organizations to improve learning through data-driven technology that helps deliver a personalized experience to every learner, regardless of geography or ability. D2L’s open and extensible platform is used by more than 1,100 clients and almost 15 million individual learners in higher education, K–12, healthcare, government, and the enterprise sector—including Fortune 1000 companies.

The company has operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil, and Singapore. www.brightspace.com (http://www.brightspace.com) | www.D2L.com (http://www.d2l.com)

Contact Us

Phone: 1.519.772.0325 (Worldwide)

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Brightspace Platform 10.5.0 to 10.6.2 Release NotesAbout D2L

© 2017 D2L Corporation.

The D2L family of companies includes D2L Corporation, D2L Ltd, D2L Australia Pty Ltd, D2L Europe Ltd, D2L Asia Pte Ltd, and D2L Brasil Soluções de Tecnologia para Educação Ltda.

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