What’s New

Test/Quiz Question Generator and Quiz Question Converter

Brightspace Test/Quiz Question Generator

As the issue with the True/False questions is now fixed, we are making the Brightspace Test/Quiz Question Generator available to all faculty. After importing the quiz questions into a Brightspace Quiz or Question Library, it is imperative to double-check for the accuracy of the quiz questions you just imported using the Preview a Quiz option.

The Quiz Question Converter

There is one alternative to the Test/Quiz Question Generator, developed by D2L. To access this version, you will need to create a Brighspace Community account. The D2L version supports the same question types, except for the fill-in-the-blank one. More documentation on this is coming soon. Stay tuned!

Note: If you need assistance in verifying your quiz, please schedule an appointment with the DLE Team.

 

DLE Weekly Update: New “No Reply Brightspace” Email Address and Resources for Combined/Merged Courses

Only ONE Email Address used by All Brightspace Tools

We are happy to announce that we have now implemented a new email address (No Reply Brightspace <NoReply_Brightspace@algonquincollege.com>) used by ALL Brightspace tools that need to use an email address. The two email addresses that we are replacing are d2lsupport@algonquincollege.brightspace.com (used by Intelligent Agents and Assignments Submission receipts) and noreply@algonquincollege.brightspace.com (used when announcements and other notifications are being sent as emails). These two email addresses that we are replacing are owned by D2L and, if by mistake a user would have replied to these emails, no automatic reply was being received. This fact was creating some confusion among those users who were expecting an answer, falsely believing that their emails were being sent to the teachers or to Brightspace Support.

With the new email address that the DLE team is NOW able to monitor, there is an auto reply provided immediately, with feedback and links to resources that will help you either answer your questions or direct you to the right mailbox.

Note: We are encouraging you to check your Outlook address book and remove the old email addresses from the list of saved contacts.

Resources for Combined/Merged courses in Brightspace

We have put together a list of articles related to combined/merged courses, as many of you are using this type of courses for the first time this semester:

  1. If you are teaching multiple sections of the same course and are spending lots of time loading the same content to all your sections, please know that you have the option to combine or merge the sections.
    Note that in addition to combining/merging regular courses, it is possible to have all students from multiple program levels enrolled in one AllLevels program homeroom.
  2. Posting Announcements to Specific Sections in a Combined/Merged Course is possible. By doing this, you will limit the number of announcements that don’t apply to all your course sections and avoid creating confusion among students.
  3. When needing to restrict the course content to specific sections, you will have to use the release conditions outlined in the Distributing and Restricting Content to Specific Sections in a Combined/Merged Course article.
  4. When scheduling Zoom meetings from Tools/Zoom Classroom, you would want to avoid having all the events showing up in all your students’ calendars. Learn how to Restrict a Zoom Calendar Event to a Specific Course Section.
  5. If you would like to send an email or view the grades only for a specific section, Brightspace allows you to Sort the Classlist and Grades by Section.
  6. The most common question is about the possibility of having the same assignment or quiz available to different sections at different dates/times. You can accomplish this by using the Special Access options and setting up different start/end/due dates for different sections. These two KB articles show you How to Provide Special Sccess to a Quiz and How to Create Special Access for Assignments.

DLE Weekly Update: Zoom Update and Brightspace Tips

Zoom recordings of sessions that are scheduled through Brightspace via Tools > Zoom Classroom, and saved to the cloud, will no longer be automatically shared with the students in your Brightspace course.

To find out more about this Zoom update and a few Brightspace tips, please read this article.

DLE Weekly Update: Better Semester Rollover Process

Updated November 2nd, 2020

We are putting this process on hold for now. Deploying this new process had some unforeseen consequences that need to be addressed. Therefore, we reverted back to the old rollover process. This means that you will not see your Winter 2021 courses appear in Brightspace before the first week of December 2020 as per usual.

We will continue working on this much needed improvement, and we’re hoping to be able to have the process streamlined in time to deploy the Spring/Summer courses at the beginning of the Winter 2021 semester.

Stay tuned.

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This week a new Semester Rollover Process has been deployed, and Winter 2021 courses have been created in Brightspace. This new process works in two phases, this being the first phase, which allows us to create next semester’s courses one full semester in advance. The advantage is that you may start designing your courses earlier, using the actual course space, and therefore eliminating the need for you to request bridging spaces.

To find out more about this topic, please read the Better Semester Rollover Process article.

DLE Weekly Update: Hot Topics

Brightspace Tips – Answers to Common Questions this past Week

How do I share My Mediasite presentations in my Brightspace courses? You created a presentation and you have it available in My Mediasite, but how do you insert it in Brightspace and make it available to your learners? This article describes the steps you need to know. You will need to use the Insert Stuff tool available under Content (Create a file option), and also available when you create/edit an Announcement.

How to I copy a quiz/exam/assignment between two courses? Use the Course Copy process and, rather then copying everything, use the Select Course Components and choose the Brightspace activity you need to copy over.

Is there any way to start a Zoom classroom with pre-assigned break out rooms? Yes, but ONLY if students have Zoom accounts (through https://zoom.us), and they are logged into their account in order to be assigned to the breakout rooms correctly. Follow this instructions on pre-assigning participants to breakout rooms.
Note: Students must use their Algonquin email address when they create the Zoom Basic accounts.
Here are some recommendations to get your students in the habit of signing into Zoom:

  • Inform students that they will need to create a Zoom account and log into Zoom to access future meetings.
  • Edit upcoming meetings so that Only authenticated users can access them (it’s a checkbox when editing the meeting).
  • Give students an extra 5-10 minutes to get into your next meeting – they will inevitably run into difficulties and some may not have created an account.
  • The main thing is the communication piece. We’d recommend something like this: “To join this session, please see the Getting Started section of this Library guide, to create a free Zoom Basic account using your college email address. Accounts will be used to make group work easier in each session. You will not be able to access future class meetings without a Zoom account.

How do I allow one student an alternate time restriction for a quiz? Use the special access options when you need to provide students with alternate time restrictions, alternate attempt limits, or alternate due dates.

Important! Extending the availability of a quiz, by changing the quiz start/end dates, does not give the student more time. If you have students who need a longer time to complete a quiz, when using one of the Special Access options, make sure you change the amount of time your students are allowed to take (the Recommended Time Limit or the Enforced Time Limit).

Did you know?

Did you know that Brightspace has a Chat tool that allows you and your learners to have a real-time discussion? You can use the Chat tool to brainstorm ideas, hold a question and answer period, have a debate or discussion, or organize a remote study group. As opposed to other collaboration tools, such as Discussions, Chat conversations occur in real-time.
There are two types of chats:

  • Personal chats – visible only to users who you have added to the chat’s participants list. Great for when you need to schedule private conversations.
  • General (course) chats – visible to everyone enrolled in your course. Use one during an online exam, when students need a quick way to ask you questions. As the general chat is visible to the entire class, it may be beneficial in case that the answer needs to be visible to all your students.

Notes:

  • The Chat Tool is available to you from Tools/Course Admin/Chat. Once you create a chat, you link to it from a Content area, by going to Existing Activities/Chat option.
  • A personal chat will be visible to all students, but accessible only to students added as members.
  • If you need to avoid having the link to the personal chat visible in your course, go to Tools/Course Admin/Chat and click on the name of a personal chat. From the browser’s address bar, copy the URL and send it to your student by email, along with the date and time set up for the appointment.

Brightspace Support for Students

Do your students have any issues with their Brightspace courses? Please refer them to the ITS Support Team (5555@algonquincollege.com).

Digital Learning Environment Weekly Update: New Name for Our Weekly Updates

New Name, Same Great Content

With the addition of a number of new tools that have been integrated with Brightspace in the last few months, our LMS Weekly Update has been renamed to Digital Learning Environment (DLE) Weekly Update, in order to accurately represent our support for you.

What’s New in Brightspace: September Release

Assignments – The new Assignment creation experience now has Special Access options

The June Brightspace release included a new assignment create and edit experience, that will eventually replace the current Assignment tool. As of today, the Special Access options are available to you, when using this new assignment view. You can use Special Access rules in a Assignment to provide students with alternate time restrictions, attempt limits, or different due dates.

Class/User Progress – Include Pulse activity in usage data: Learner activity data is now captured more accurately through the addition of a new system usage metric. Previously, Pulse usage was not tracked, and learners who accessed their courses through the app were misrepresented as having low engagement and could not access conditionally released content.

  • Class Progress has a new System Access performance indicator, which displays the number of times each student has accessed the system through the LMS website or Pulse in the last 30 days. You can add System Access to the Class Progress dashboard by clicking Settings.
  • User Progress has a new System Access History section, which displays the number of times the student has accessed the system through the LMS website or Pulse in the last 30 days. You can select System Access History to display in the User Progress report by clicking Settings.

My Mediasite

As you already know, My Mediasite is a new tool in Brightspace, with a simple interface that allows you to create, record, share, and publish your presentations easily. Mediasite hosts these videos and also has a Brightspace integration that allows you to embed video content directly within your courses.

Whenever you or your students are prompted for the user name and password when you are asked to sign in to access Mediasite content, make sure you use your Algonquin College user name and NOT the full email address.

ZOOM Tips

  • Please remind your students that the Zoom calendar events in their courses (notifications automatically added in the courses’ calendars when you schedule Zoom meetings) are NOT necessarily supposed to match the schedule on their timetables.
  • When creating recurring Zoom meetings, before saving the meetings, make sure that there is only one day of the week checked off (assuming that you are giving a lecture only once a week). As the week day when you set up the meetings gets automatically checked off, there have been situations when two week days were checked off by mistake, and this creates confusion among students.

Multiple Ways to find Answers to your Questions:

  • Book Online Appointments with our Team. You will notice that, the booking form and the emails confirming the appointments, now have a different name : Digital Learning Environment (DLE) Support
  • Email our DLE Team at brightspace@algonquincollege.com. After emailing us, you will receive an automatic reply with your case number.
  • Access our Digital Learning Environment Knowledge Base (DLEKB).

LMS Weekly Update: The Discover self-enrollment tool and other system enhancements

The Discover self-enrollment tool

As a new school year begins, we are pleased to announce the deployment of the Discover self-enrollment tool in Brightspace. This tool allows our students to self-enroll in various offerings like courses, spaces and resources that will help make their journey at Algonquin College a success.

Starting today, you will see a new Discover link on the Brightspace homepage navigation menu.

My Mediasite available in Brightspace

My Mediasite is a new tool, replacing TechSmith Relay, with a simple interface that allows you to create, record, share, and publish your presentations easily. Mediasite will host these videos and also has a Brightspace integration that allows you to embed video content directly within your courses. View help guides, tips, tricks and advice on our new LTS webpage, and sign up for info sessions and training sessions.

August system release

This month’s system release brings a few enhancements to the system:

Assignments – Copy assignment option
You now have the option to select the Copy Assignment option, in the drop-down menu for an existing assignment, to quickly create new assignments within a course.

This feature copies all settings of an existing assignment, except the associated grade item and Turnitin settings.

Checklists – Copy a checklist
Now you can now perform copy actions for checklists. You can copy a whole checklist, a checklist category (including all items within it), or individual items in a checklist.

Classlist – User experience changes
When adding users to a classlist (Tools/Classlist/Add Participants) search results now include users who are currently enrolled in the course. Previously, enrolled users were not displayed in these search results, suggesting that the user might not exist in the system. On the search results page, an icon displays beside an enrolled user’s name, indicating their enrollment status.

Grades – Unrelease all final grades
Grades features a new workflow to quickly undo the release of final grades for a course. You can easily select Unrelease All from the Final Grades drop-down menu.

Notifications – Deleted content links to message
Notifications for content that is subsequently hidden/deleted/conditionally released are now removed from the Brightspace notifications area on the minibar. Notifications that arrive via email or in Brightspace Pulse push notifications, now provide a link to the Course Table of Contents, with a message that states ‘Item not available’. Previously, clicking the link created a ‘404 Not Authorized error’.

Question Library – Attach files in “written response” type of questions
When creating a written response question, now you can allow learners to upload files in their answers and include embedded images. Learners can also record audio or video responses when answering written response question types.

Quizzes – User experience updates for editing quizzes with attempts
To improve the user experience for instructors who edit quizzes with previous attempts by learners, the following updates have been made:

  • Points for past quiz attempts are no longer modified when edits are made that affect the overall points and/or the grading calculations for a quiz. A learner’s grade on previous quiz attempts must now be changed directly by the instructor using the ‘Update All Attempts’ workflow. Previously, the points for all past quiz attempts were modified automatically, which could alter a learner’s grade unexpectedly.
  • Warning messages now appear when editing a quiz question with previous attempts, to clearly communicate to instructors that editing quiz questions does not affect the content or automatically change the score of learners’ past attempts.

Online Faculty Brightspace Support (Monday to Friday, from 8 am to 5 pm)

When emailing us your requests, we would appreciate if you could ensure that all information relevant to your issue is provided. For example:

  • The complete course code, including semester and section number (20F_ABC1234_010).
  • The user’s first name and last name (ideally user name, too), when asking us to add users to courses.
  • For merged courses’ requests, specify if you need to keep the individual sections available or not.
  • When asking to have coordinator access to a program, include list of all courses (codes and section numbers).

Multiple Ways to find Answers to your Brightspace Questions:


 

LMS Weekly Update: Getting Ready for the Fall Semester

My Mediasite available in Brightspace on Tuesday, August 25th

My Mediasite is a new tool, replacing TechSmith Relay, with a simple interface that allows you to create, record, share, and publish your presentations easily. Mediasite will host these videos and also has a Brightspace integration that allows you to embed video content directly within your courses. Attend one of the information sessions offered by LTS, to learn about the main features of My Mediasite, what type of learning content you might create with it, and have a chance to ask questions about possible ways in which it could be used. Stay tuned for more details and documentation in the next week.

Course Copier vs Instructor

As our Support Team receives every week a large number of requests to add users to Brightspace courses, we would like to provide some help and avoid the need of sending back emails asking you to clarify the request.

Ask us to use the Course Copier role when adding faculty to previously taught courses (new instructors or faculty taking over a new course, with the purpose of familiarizing with the content or copying it).

Users with the course copier role in a course:

  • Have read-only access to all course content and NO access to students grades and assignments, protecting the integrity of the course and students’ privacy.
  • Can copy content over to their own courses, where they have instructor access.
  • Can export course components, with the purpose of importing them into their own courses.
  • Note: There are times when YOU need to add other teachers to your courses (without asking our help), with the intention of having them perform a course copy or export some content. Instead of adding them with the instructor role, please use the course copier role. Don’t forget to remove them from the course once the copy is completed.

Ask us to use the Instructor role:

  • When a Coordinator/Chair needs access to students’ grades or their assignments/quizzes.
  • When there is an urgent need to add a faculty to a course, with the purpose of teaching it (note that the instructor still needs to be scheduled in Genesis, even if the urgent access was given in Brightspace).
  • When a coordinator needs to load content for a new part time instructor, and requires the ability to add new content or modify existing one.
  • When, from any reason, an user needs to have access to the gradebook or students’ work (discussion boards, assignments files, etc).

Question of the Week – How do I transfer content in between courses?

Course Copy

  • Read the Course Copy article in our KB, for Step-by-step instructions describing how to copy the entire course content or only some components
  • Avoid copying the announcements, as you might end up having them sent as emails to students in the destination course, depending on the availability of the course. We recommend using the Select Components button, and uncheck the Announcements option.

Export/Import Course Components Process

  • Read the Export Course Components article, for step-by-step instructions on exporting content.
  • Read the Import Course Components article, for step-by-step instructions on importing content. This option can also be used when importing a zip file containing test banks from publishers.

Reminder: New Assignment Create and Edit Experience

The June Brightspace release introduced a new assignment create and edit experience, available across all your courses, on an opt-in/opt-out basis.

  • Access here the Knowledge Base article for instructions on how to turn it off or on.
  • Access here the Knowledge Base article for on overview of the benefits and limitations of the new assignment experience in its current state.

 

LMS Weekly Update: Summer News

Reminder: Turnitin Mappings to be reset on August 21, 2020

Please take a moment today to schedule a reminder for yourself to export the content you wish to keep before August 21st, 2020. If you have any questions or need assistance, please email brightspace@algonquincollege.com, with the subject line “Turnitin Export”.

Instructions on How to Export/Import your QuickMarks and Rubrics:

Reminder: New Assignment Create and Edit Experience

The June Brightspace release introduced a new assignment create and edit experience, available across all your courses, on an opt-in/opt-out basis.

  • Access here the Knowledge Base article for instructions on how to turn it off or on.
  • Access here the Knowledge Base article for on overview of the benefits and limitations of the new assignment experience in its current state.

The Release Conditions option will be added next week, followed by the Special Access next month.

Pinned Tab in the My Courses Widget

Any courses pinned, using the waffle icon, will now show on the Pinned tab in the My Courses widget, allowing you to more easily navigate to your most frequent courses.

New Evolve Link for Elsevier

We are happy to inform you that content acquired through Elsevier can now be added to the LMS by using the Evolve link External Learning Tool. You can add this link by navigating to your Course Content > Existing Activities > External Learning Tool and choosing the Evolve link from the list, or by following the instructions that came with the content you purchased from Elsevier.

A word on External Publishers and Brightspace

If you are looking to acquire content from an external publisher that offers an integration with Brightspace, please contact us before purchasing your content. Each publisher has to go through a security vetting process before their integration can be deployed. If you purchase content before contacting us, you run the risk of not being able to deploy the content that you already paid for. Vetting a new integration and deploying it to Brightspace can typically take a few months.

Brightspace Satisfaction Survey

The Brightspace satisfaction survey is coming, but it’s also changing. Since the response rate of the previous survey was very low, we are looking at ways to simplify the survey and boost the response rate. This survey is for you and will be used to make Brightspace and the Brightspace support better. I am interested in hearing from you: What would you like to see in this survey? How can we make you want to provide feedback? Is there a better way to get your feedback and comments on Brightspace than the survey model? I am open to anything – please let me know by emailing me at marchem@algonquincollege.com

Digital Learning Environment Knowledge Base (DLEKB)

Do you have a quick Brightspace question and support is closed? We have recently launched our knowledge base providing you with articles based on your most frequently asked questions.
This knowledge base does not replace our support team, who is still available to provide the assistance you require through brightspace@algonquincollege.com. Our goal for this is to augment our ability to easily get you what you need, when you need it.

Faculty PD

LTS will be offering several Brightspace sessions in the next couple of weeks.

 

LMS Weekly Update: Summer Updates

Question of the Week – Quizzes in Brightspace

We have made a summary of our documentation on quizzes, hoping that this will provide you with a quicker answer before you set up an appointment with one of our LMS Faculty Support Team members:

  • All you need to know about Brightspace Quizzes – Learn about the recommended workflow to create quizzes, find short answers to common questions (how to create a practice quiz, regrade students’ submissions, or how to hide the grades and print a quiz).
  • Ways to provide Quiz Feedback to your learners – There are multiple ways of providing quiz feedback to your students, and also different ways of accessing the feedback. Learn about the overall, attempt or question type of feedback.

Q. While taking an exam, if the screen freezes, or there is a short moment of no Internet connection, how will my students and I deal with this situation?

A. Once the problem is fixed, students will need to login again to Brightspace, access your course and click on the exam link. They will be allowed to continue the exam from where they left off, as answers are automatically saved, but the quiz timing will still go on while the student is out of the quiz. If they won’t be able to continue that quiz attempt, in an “one attempt” quiz situation, they will need to contact you, the teacher, and you will need allow them a second attempt, using the Special Access options, OR to reset the current attempt and allow them to retake it.

Update on Video Note – NEW!

In a continued effort to support learner engagement and connection, D2L is happy to announce that the 30-minute Video Note extension will remain permanent, with a default limit of 30 minutes and 1 GB uploads.

What is a Video Note?

A Video Note allows a simple way to record video using your computer’s webcam and instantly publish it in your courses. You may find this feature helpful when you want to personalize your course interactions or improve engagement with your students. Watch this video for a short overview on a Brightspace Video Note and read the documentation from D2L on how to use Video Notes in your courses.

Fall 2020 Courses in Brightspace

Shells for Fall 2020 courses will be made available to you around August 10th. The 20F courses availability will be advertised in the LMS Weekly Update email for that week.

Meanwhile, if you would like to start developing 20F course content and learn more about some of the tools in Brightspace, please send us an email at brightspace@algonquincollege.com and ask for a development course (please include the code/name for the course you are developing). Development courses in Brightspace are identified by an “X” in the course code/name. For instance, all development courses created this year (2020) start with 20X.

Brightspace Refresher

Need some tips and reminders on how to use Brightspace effectively? Get a refresher on how to upload and organize content, how to communicate with your learners, how to create and deploy assessment activities and how to configure the grades page for you and your students. Register for the sessions offered by LTS, by visiting their Faculty PD offerings.

Reminder: New Assignment Create and Edit Experience

The June Brightspace release includes a new assignment create and edit experience. This will be available to faculty immediately across all courses, on an opt-in/opt-out basis, providing an early opportunity to test and provide feedback ahead of the summer vacation.

  • Access here the Knowledge Base article for instructions on how to turn it off or on.
  • Access here the Knowledge Base article for on overview of the benefits and limitations of the new assignment experience in its current state.

Reminder: Turnitin Mappings to be reset on August 21, 2020

Please take a moment today to schedule a reminder for yourself to export the content you wish to keep before August 21st, 2020. If you have any questions or need assistance, please email brightspace@algonquincollege.com, with the subject line “Turnitin Export”.

Instructions on How to Export/Import your QuickMarks and Rubrics: