Monthly Releases

In order to provide a more consistent experience, with the October system updates, there have been some great changes to the language, interface controls and workflows.

Changes in the Content Area

• The Published/Draft button in the top right corner of a module is now an visibility icon switch, indicating either Visible or Hidden.
• The Hide From Users and Make Visible to Users options are available in the context menu for individual content items

Changes around restrictions for Assignments, Quizzes, Grade Items and Discussions

• Date controls (start date, end date and due date*) are now consistently found on the Restrictions tab for each tool (*Discussions and Grade Items do not have due dates currently)
• A Hide from users checkbox is found on the Restrictions tab under each activity heading.
• In Quizzes, Discussions and Grades, you can now hide or show individual items by clicking the chevron next to an item.
• Quizzes and Grades can also be hidden in bulk from the More Actions button at the top of the page.

Note: Please note that none of these changes apply to Rubrics at this time.

Change in Gradebook

• The Grade All option accessed via the grade column chevron is now Enter Grades. This may affect your grading workflow, although if you are grading work that has been submitted via Brightspace , we would strongly recommend the Quick Eval grading workflow instead.

Intelligent Agents – Email attachments

• You can now add attachments to automated email messages when creating and editing intelligent agents. The intelligent agent email template contains an Attachments area that enables you to upload local files, select from available course files, or record audio. November release will allow users to embed images directly in Intelligent Agent emails.
  Click here to learn how to use Intelligent Agents in Brightspace.

Did you know?

• Quiz feedback: as our LMS support team had helped many teachers set up quiz submission views over the past week, as there was the need for the students to review the results for their practice quizzes, you might want to learn how to do it. The default quiz settings show only the overall grade, and nothing else. In order to release more information to students (i.e. questions, correct/incorrect answers, class averages, etc.) you need to either edit the default submission view or set up an additional submission view.
  Click here to learn how to set up submission views.

The August system updates to Brightspace bring improvements to the Quiz and Email Tools.

Updated Quiz Builder Experience

The Quiz Builder introduces a new workflow for adding, editing, reordering, and deleting quiz content in the Quiz Tool. It will save you time by streamlining the screens and work flows for building and arranging quiz content. You can use the new Quiz Builder experience by clicking Add/Edit Questions on the quiz Properties tab when creating or editing a quiz.
When you start adding questions to a quiz, you will be presented with two options:

• Add: allows you to create new quiz questions, sections or question pools
• Import: used to bring in questions from your Question Library or to upload a file with your questions.

Click here to learn how to create a quiz.

Add Images to Emails

When composing an email, now you have the option to select Insert Image to add pictures. Once you insert an image in the body of an email, it will display within the email for the recipient, but it will also be attached to the email. Click here to review how to send an email to your entire class.

Internet Explorer NO longer Supported

Starting January 2020, you can no longer access Brightspace using Microsoft Internet Explorer. When you attempt to login to Brightspace using IE, an unsupported page, with links to download supported browsers, will appear.

New Brightspace Support Hours

Beginning August 19th, Brightspace Support will be available from 8:00 a.m to 8:00 p.m., Monday to Thursday, and 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Friday. Employees can book an appointment here, walk in to C123, call 613-727-472 ext. 6943, or email brightspace@algonquincollege.com for support.

This month’s updates to Brightspace will take place on July 19th and will bring a few improvements to the Assignment and Survey Tools.

Brightspace Assignment Tool

• A new “Edit Categories” button will be available on the “Assignments” page, accessible from the “Activities” menu on a course navigation bar. This new button will allow you to easily group assignments under categories. The assignments without a category will be displayed under the “No Category” area. Note that the assignments’ categories are different than the grades’ categories.
• An “Eraser” tool will be available when using the assignment annotations.
• Click here to learn more about the Assignment Tool in Brightspace.

Brightspace Survey Tool

• A few renamed buttons on the Surveys page will improve the learners’ experience (“Save Responses”changes to “Submit Survey”, “Save” button changes to “Save Responses” and a new “Back to Questions” button will be displayed when attempting to submit a survey with unanswered questions).
• While taking an anonymous survey, an alert will appear at the top of the survey, indicating that the survey is anonymous and the learners names will not be tied to their submissions.
• Click here to learn more about the Survey Tool in Brightspace.

Turnitin Maintenance this Saturday

Turnitin will take an 8 hour maintenance window on Saturday July 13, 2019 from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Did you Know?

If you need access to the previous “LMS Weekly Update” notices you can find them on the Brightspace website.

This month updates to Brightspace include a few minor changes:

Quizzes: Arithmetic and significant figures questions now round up from .5

Arithmetic and Significant Figures questions in quizzes now round up from .5 by default. Previously these types of questions were rounded down from .5. Note: Past quiz attempt scores are not affected by this change.

Click here to watch an overview of question types in Brightspace.

Discussions: Save feedback in draft state when associated with rubrics

This feature provides instructors the option to save feedback as a draft on discussions associated with rubrics before publishing it to learners. Now, when instructors add feedback for discussions with rubrics, the Save Draft and Publish buttons display. This feature extends existing Save Draft and Publish options available in other assessment tools to discussions that are only associated with a rubric.

Quick Eval: Improvements to Quick Eval list

A Draft icon now displays in Quick Eval for discussion posts that have feedback in draft status. Learn more about Quick Eval here.

Issue: Upload files/Insert Stuff dialog opens in a new un-clickable tab

When Google Chrome 75.0.3770.90 is used when uploading files to Brightspace (using Upload files or Insert Stuff), an un-clickable tab opens. The solution is to update your Chrome browser. Click here for instructions.

You may have noticed some changes to Brightspace this week, in particular to the Assignment feature.

As part of its continuous improvement model, January’s Brightspace enhancements and fixes include the following items:

Improvements to Assignments List View

Instructors can now see information on the assignment name, the number of learners who have completed the assignment, the number of learners who have been evaluated, the number of learners who have had feedback published, and the due date. This allows instructors to quickly determine what assignments they need to evaluate, how far along they are with their evaluations, and if they have published the evaluations.

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