by D2L CONTENT DISCUSSIONS STUDENT CHANGES August, 2015 New Name, Same System!

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1 by D2L August, 2015 = New Name, Same System! CONTENT Update Description Visual Reference Add video and audio directly to the Content module. Drag-n-drop content now lets you choose where to store the background file in the manager. Easily copy associated files when you copy only selected objects in your course. DISCUSSIONS Update Description Assess students directly from the Discussion Thread list. Delete multiple discussion forums or topics. Visual Reference Scroll Spy marks your discussion posts read as you scroll down the page. Expand or minimize the discussion thread display with new more or less options. STUDENT CHANGES Update Description Visual Reference New eportfolio is available for students to organize and reflect on learning across all courses taken. Overdue assignments now show in the calendar. The Faculty Toolbox has step-by-step guides and video tutorials. It is accessible at

2 Brightspace by D2L UPDATES LSC-Online QUIZZES Update Description Visual Reference Allow attempt to be set as graded immediately upon completion is now at the top of the Assessment tab in the Quiz settings. Options for late submissions have new names. New item analysis and quiz reports are available. TURNITIN Update Description Visual Reference Copying courses with Turnitin-enabled Dropboxes will now copy the Turnitin options. Turnitin originality check options in the Dropbox settings will now be located on their own tab. COURSE WORKFLOW Update Description Visual Reference On home page you can now filter your course list view by your role (faculty, observer, student). After starting a task from the content page, once done you are returned to the content page. D2L Assignment Grader app can now hide old courses. COMING SOON! Turnitin Peermark integrated with the Dropbox tool. A new badging feature. Based on LSC faculty feedback... A new (optional) faculty home page. Some tool names will be updated to more intuitive names. The Faculty Toolbox has step-by-step guides and video tutorials. It is accessible at

3 Assignment Grader... 2 Status Sorting... 2 Calendar... 2 Late Assignments... 2 Content... 3 Video Topics... 3 Video Uploads... 4 Web Videos... 4 Add Capture Presentation to Course Content... 5 Add Audio Topics Workflow... 6 User Interface Improvements for Topics... 7 File Management Options and Dialog Display... 7 Workflow Improvements... 9 Evaluating Dropbox Non-Submissions from Content... 9 Copying Associated Files... 9 Discussions... 9 Scroll Spy... 9 Usability Improvements Ratings in Reading View are Retained in Grid View Bulk Delete Forums and Topics Assessing Students Dropboxes Dropbox Workflow Improvements Tracking Deleted Submissions Changes to Turnitin Options Edit Course Manage Dates - Select Specific Tools Homepage New Faculty Homepage Course List Filter HTML Editor Improved Table Selection Menu Options Rearranged Enable a Browser s Spell Checker Quizzes Quiz Item Analysis Updated: 7/30/15 Page 1 of 19 LSC-Online

4 Quiz Reports Increased Answer Box Size Repositioned Properties on the Assessment Tab Improved Ability to Preview Questions in a Random Section Special Access Override IP Restriction Timing Restrictions ASSIGNMENT GRADER Status Sorting An update to Assignment Grader will allow dropbox folders to be sorted based on graded/ungraded status prior to a sync with the D2L being performed. CALENDAR Late Assignments An actionable list of overdue assignments will be provided to students. Page 2 of 19

5 CONTENT Video Topics Videos are a key content type for instructors who want to add lectures and other multimedia content to their course(s). In the updated version, instructors can now create video topics directly in the Content tool. Video topics are listed in the modules with a Video icon to distinguish them from other types of files and link topics. Old Version Figure 1 Figure 2 Click Video or Audio from the New button to create videos in Content topics. Page 3 of 19

6 Video Uploads Users can upload video files by dragging and dropping them on to the upload target, or by browsing and selecting them from their computers. NOTE: Currently an upload is limited to 1GB file size. Uploaded video files are played through the Media Elements video player. This is a 3 rd party library which attempts to play video files using HTML 5, but falls back on Flash as an alternative. If a video file is not supported, an informative error message will display and users will have an option to download the file and play it locally. Figure 3 Upload target for video topics. Web Videos Any web video can be used to create a video topic simply by pasting its HTML embed code in the Enter URL or Embed Code field. Additionally, by clicking on What video sites can be embedded? the Learning Environment provides shortcuts for some video websites that are frequently used by educators. This enables users to find and add videos by simply copying and pasting the URL of the video instead of the HTML embed code. The video s title and author are also extracted where possible. The following sites were tested: YouTube Howcast SchoolTube Vimeo Influxis ScienceStage Public Desire2Learn Capture Videos Khan Academy ScreenCast Dailymotion MIT TeacherTube Discovery National Geographic TED Adobe TV Page 4 of 19

7 Figure 4 Embed Code and URL field for web video upload. Add Capture Presentation to Course Content Previously, Capture presentations had to be inserted through HTML Editor s Insert Stuff option. In the updated version, there is a simplified process for adding a Capture presentation to a course. A Capture activity option is now available when users add New topics to course modules. Figure 5 Click to create new Capture course activity. Page 5 of 19

8 Add Audio Topics Workflow This change makes it easier to add audio topics to course content. It is now consistent with adding video topics. Learners can now listen to audio topics without having to download them first. Figure 6 The new Video or Audio option. Page 6 of 19

9 User Interface Improvements for Content Topics Previously, all information surrounding Activity Details, Learning Objectives, and Completion Summary displayed on content topic pages as three stacked, collapsible areas. In the updated version, these areas display as separate tabs. Old Version Figure 7 In the old version, Activity Details, Learning Objectives, and Completion Summary display as stacked, collapsible areas. Figure 8 In the updated version, Activity Details, Learning Objectives, and Completion Summary display in tabs. File Management Options and Dialog Display Some instructors and instructional designers have raised concerns that drag and drop upload content topics creates disorganized course files areas because instructors don t have the opportunity to specify where in the Manage Files tool the uploaded files should be stored. In the updated version, instructors can choose to receive a dialog prompt to specify a Course Files path each time they create Content topics via drag and drop. The prompt can be enabled or disabled from the dialog, or from the Show a prompt to choose a folder in Course Files check box in Content Settings. This ensures that instructors who are not interested in this file organization feature can continue to drag and drop files without disruption. Page 7 of 19

10 Figure 9 Course Files path dialog prompt. Figure 10 Content Settings check box options for Drag and Drop Save Behavior. The default path provided in the drag and drop prompt is the last selected path for that module. This makes the process of adding all files for a specific module to the same folder much faster. If instructors dismiss the prompt, the last selected path is used for all new files added to the module via drag and drop. If no folder was previously selected for a module, files are added to the root Course Files folder. Instructors can also access a module s context menu and click Set Default Path to set a custom default path if they do not need a prompt each time they upload a topic to that module. Page 8 of 19

11 Figure 11 Set Default Path from a module s context menu. Workflow Improvements Sometimes when instructors are working within the Content tool, they are required to navigate to another tool to complete a task. When this happens, the system automatically redirects instructors back to the Content tool once the task is complete so they can continue what they were previously doing. In the updated version, two interactions were updated to comply with this expected behavior: Instructors who initiate the Dropbox evaluation workflow from the Completion Summary area at the bottom of a Dropbox activity are returned to the activity when they are done. Instructors who edit metadata related to a content topic from within the Content tool are returned to the Content tool when they are done. Evaluating Dropbox Non-Submissions from Content Previously, instructors were given the option to evaluate a Dropbox folder non-submission or a system-external submission in the Dropbox, allowing them to grade users who did NOT have a submission or had non-electronic submissions. In the updated version, an identical workflow can now be initiated for Dropbox activities in the Content tool by clicking on the Dropbox, clicking on Completion Summary, and then clicking on the student s name. Copying Associated Files Copying content will also copy the associated course files, so links between content and files will not get broken. DISCUSSIONS Scroll Spy Previously, tracking the Read status of discussion posts by instructors and students was done manually, and automatically set during page load of all discussion posts. This often resulted in inaccurate data, making it difficult for users to track the posts they hadn t read, and inaccurate statistics on the number of posts read. Page 9 of 19

12 In the updated version, posts that are positioned on users screen to be read are marked as read as they scroll through them, ensuring a more reliable tracking process. Students and instructors can trust that they won t miss an important post due to getting marked Read before they could read it. Instructors can be more confident that students have actually read the number of posts reported in Statistics. Usability Improvements Previously, scanning discussion threads within a topic only displayed a small snippet of text at the start of the thread, and only clicking into the thread revealed the full text. In the updated version, it is possible to expand the full text of the root post of the thread in the topic view by clicking More, and collapse it again by clicking Less. Figure 12 Ratings in Reading View are Retained in Grid View You can now use the Up Vote/Down Vote rating scheme and Up Vote Only rating scheme in grid view, and the scores will be retained when you switch views. Page 10 of 19

13 Bulk Delete Forums and Topics Clicking on the More Actions button and choosing Delete allows users to maintain forums and topics more efficiently by giving them the ability to delete multiple items. Figure 13 The new checkbox list in Delete Forums and Topics. Assessing Students You are now able to assess a student directly from the Discussion Thread list (topic view), allowing you to evaluate a user without leaving the thread. Also, the ability to assess a student from a single post within the reading view. Figure 14 Page 11 of 19

14 DROPBOXES Dropbox Workflow Improvements In the updated version, instructors can now delete dropbox folders from their individual context menus or from the More Actions button. Old Version Figure 15 View of dropbox context menu in current version. Figure 16 View of dropbox context menu in update. Tracking Deleted Submissions Added ability to track deleted submissions. Page 12 of 19

15 Changes to Turnitin Options Turnitin options on the dropbox page will be located on their own tab. Peermark will become integrated with the dropbox tool. Copying courses with Turnitin-enabled dropboxes will copy the Turnitin options. EDIT COURSE Manage Dates - Select Specific Tools In the updated version, when users manage dates and want to do so for specific tools, the platform no longer selects all available tools by default when they select the Specific Tools option. This saves users time clearing checkboxes for tools they don t want to change dates for. Figure 17 Tools are no longer all selected by default. HOMEPAGE New Faculty Homepage A new faculty homepage will be available, but will not be released until a later date after further testing. Course List Filter Users will now have the ability to filter which courses show on their My Courses widget based on their role in the course (faculty, observer, etc.). Figure 18 Filter classes based on role Page 13 of 19

16 HTML EDITOR Improved Table Selection The HTML Editor s table manipulation controls were improved so that users can insert a table by expanding a fly out to select their table size using a visual grid. Previously, users opened a dialog box and entered the number of rows and columns they wanted to have. Menu Options Rearranged The Table menu is now located before Equations, and the Cut/Copy/Paste menus appear after the Undo/Redo menu. Font style controls were also separated to allow them to wrap separately when the HTML Editor is used in a narrower view. Figure 19 Redesigned HTML Editor Table menu, and rearranged menu options. Enable a Browser s Spell Checker In supported browsers, the native Spell Checker now works with Learning Environment s HTML Editor, while maintaining the HTML Editor s Spell Checker. Misspelled words are now underlined in text fields. Old Version Figure 20 Previously, the browser s Spell Checker did not underline misspelled words. Page 14 of 19

17 Figure 21 Now, the browser s Spell Checker underlines misspelled words. QUIZZES Quiz Item Analysis To assist instructors in evaluating how well students perform on quiz questions after they are submitted for evaluation, additional statistics are now available in the Quizzes tool. In the updated version, standard deviation, discrimination index, and point biserial correlation coefficient can be seen within statistics. User Stats includes the standard deviation and existing class average for the overall quiz. Question Stats now include standard deviation, discrimination index, and point biserial per question, along with the standard deviation and existing class average for the overall quiz. Question Details now includes standard deviation, discrimination index, and average grade achieved per question. Page 15 of 19

18 Quiz Reports Question Statistics and Question Details reports offer the option to include the three new statistics (standard deviation, discrimination index, and point biserial correlation). The User Statistics report can include standard deviation along with the class average. Figure 22 New statistics in a Question Details report. Increased Answer Box Size Previously, long and short answers boxes in quizzes defaulted to 40 columns. Users indicated that these text boxes were too small and they often had to manually re-adjust the answer boxes to a larger size. In the updated version, the short answer box size has been increased to 60 columns and the long answer box to 80 columns. Page 16 of 19

19 Old Version Figure 23 Previous default sizes of long and short answer boxes. Figure 24 New default sizes of long and short answer boxes. Repositioned Properties on the Assessment Tab The Automatic Grade Allow attempt to be set as graded immediately upon completion option has been relocated in the Assessment tab when creating or editing a quiz. Previously, the positioning of this option caused some users to miss it when configuring or editing quizzes. In the updated version, the option has been moved to the top of the page so that it is immediately noticeable and less likely to be missed by users when configuring or editing quizzes. Page 17 of 19

20 Old Version Figure 25 Previous Quizzes Assessment tab. Figure 26 New Quizzes Assessment tab. Improved Ability to Preview Questions in a Random Section Previously, previewing quizzes with random sections was difficult and unintuitive. Now, instructors just need to click on the section name in the Quiz Questions area of the Edit Quiz page to review all random questions assigned to that section. Page 18 of 19

21 Figure 27 Ability to preview random sections in Quizzes Special Access Override Special Access will now allow instructors to explicitly indicate that certain users do not have require Respondus. IP Restriction Multiple IP restrictions can be added to a quiz. Timing Restrictions In the updated version, the choices for what happens when a student runs out of time on a quiz have been more clearly explained. Figure 28 Under late behavior, if in the past you have used: Normal submission then you would choose the first option Late limit then you would choose the second option Auto-Submit then you would choose the third option. Page 19 of 19