New Features & Updates

Discussions 

There are new deletion and restoration workflows for group-restricted discussions. When a user deletes a group, the associated activities, including discussions, are also deleted. These discussions cannot be restored unless their associated group is restored first. Once the group has been restored, associated discussions can be restored using the Discussions restore workflow.  

• The following are new Reading View improvements for students.  
• The Start New Thread button is duplicated at the bottom of the page when viewing a topic, eliminating the need to scroll back to the top of the page. 
• The Add Attachments section is opened by default when creating a new post or new topic. Previously learners had to open the section manually to add attachments. 
• The Add Attachments section is wider on screen when learners create a new thread. 

Data Hub 
New columns have been added to the following Brightspace Data Sets: 

• Quiz User Answers 
• Release Condition Objects
• Survey User Answers 

Grades   

The sort component for learner names in Grade book Mastery View is updated to improve consistency with other areas of Brightspace and to resolve minor visual issues with the previous sort functionality. Instructors can now sort learner names in any of the following orders: 

• Last name alphabetically  
• Last name reverse-alphabetically 
• First name alphabetically 
• First name reverse-alphabetically  

Creator + 
Creator+ Practices are now data-enabled. When an instructor using Creator+ inserts a Practice into a Content topic, D2L collects data about that Practice, including the question type and date of creation. Data can be retrieved from a Brightspace Data Set. 
This release also includes changes to the interface of several Practice types to improve usability and responsiveness. 

Data Hub 
This release adds two new Brightspace Data Sets (BDS) so that data about LTI tool deployments and registrations is accessible to clients. 
The LTI Advantage Deployment Audit BDS logs details about each time a user creates, updates, or deletes an LTI deployment. It includes historical data back to October 2019. 
The LTI Advantage Registration Audit BDS logs details about each time a user creates, updates, or deletes a registration. It includes historical data back to June 2019.

Grades   
The Mastery View is available when a course has Learning Outcomes enabled. The scroll bar at the bottom of the page has been replaced with left and right arrows at the top of the Mastery View table. The arrow navigation ensures the Mastery View experience is more consistent with the scrolling navigation experience in Grade book. 

Assignments 
Assignment annotations icons have a new look while their functions remain the   same. These include the following icons: Line, Drawing, Page Mode and Thumbnails.  
Another newly added feature is an option to directly upload a file from Google Drive™. Instructors can do this when editing and evaluating an assignment by selecting the File Upload button. Students can upload a file for submission by selecting Add a file and then choosing Google Drive.  
 
In-Product Feedback 
A new in-product feedback feature is now available in iLearn as a method to allow users to provide their feedback. Administrators, instructors, and students may receive a small survey prompt in iLearn. The in-product feedback asks users for ratings on one to two questions. These questions ask about users’ experience with iLearn as a whole, their experience meeting goals in iLearn, or their experience in a particular workflow. 

Awards
To improve security when issuing certificates, instructors can now use a new replacement string field when creating their certificate templates to add an automatically-generated numeric ID. This ID uniquely identifies the issued award, which can be verified using the new Brightspace API. The feature introduces a new replacement string {CertificateID} that instructors can add to their PDF templates. A unique ID is generated and populated into the replacement string {CertificateID} on an ongoing basis when released.

Grades
Feedback files are now available in Grades for Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions. This feature allows instructors to ensure that learners can easily review feedback from the Grades tool. Instructor feedback added in Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions is now visible to learners under Grades.

Learning Outcomes
This feature adds learning outcomes assessment into the evaluation interface of group assignments. Instructors can now assess learning outcomes aligned directly to group assignments or through rubric alignments. Instructors can also apply a learning outcome score while evaluating a group assignment. All members of an assessed group receive the same learning outcomes score, ensuring consistency and fairness in the evaluation process.

Learning Outcomes
To facilitate the bulk creation of outcomes and standards at the program or course level in Brightspace, instructors can use a downloadable CSV template to create an input file. They can replace the example data in the template with their own standards or learning outcomes, and then import the CSV file into Brightspace. Previously, it was only possible to bulk import standards from the Achievement Standards Network (ASN).

Discussions
Instructors' attached files now appear in the Attached Files section for each learner's discussion evaluation. Learners can view attached file feedback when viewing their evaluated discussion topic.

Instructors can view all attached files by clicking on the learner's name and selecting Discussions. Learners can view all attached files by clicking on Discussions in Class Progress. Instructors and learners can view all attached discussion evaluation files in the Class Progress tool.

Brightspace editor
Inserting a link into Brightspace Editor opens the Add Link dialog which allows users to determine if their links open in a new window (set as the default) or in the current window. The text box in the Add Link dialog also allows users to add text to their link. This provides users with a consistent workflow and control over how links respond in their content. Additionally, the dialog includes a new Insert Quicklink option, allowing users to easily insert a quicklink. When using Insert Stuff > Insert Link or Insert Quicklink > Link, the same Link, Text, and Open In options are displayed ensuring consistent link creation.

Quizzes
There is now a better experience for instructors when running and exporting quiz reports with large amounts of data. To avoid time-out failures and screen freezing, the following report types now run asynchronously:

• Attempt Details
• Question Statistics
• Question Details
• User Statistics
• User Attempts

When reports are ready for downloading, Brightspace generates a notification that instructors can access from the bell icon in the navbar.

Branded Footer on main page 
A Powered by D2L Brightspace footer now appears on select pages in Brightspace. These pages include homepages and Insights Portal Dashboard. 

Data Hub  
New columns added to Course Copy Log and LTI Links Brightspace data sets. 

Question Library  
The question mark (?) icon that appears next to questions in Question Library is removed to prevent visual clutter. However, the folder icon that appears in Question Library next to each section remains. 

Assignments & Discussions 
There is an improved tooltip for reporting evaluation errors, which now reads "There is one or more errors in the information entered" rather than "There are invalid grades on this page". The tooltip appears when a user enters over 300,000 characters into the Overall Feedback field or enters an invalid grade into the Grade field. 

Awards  
Students can now export their earned awards in a standards-compliant format using the new Export Digital Credential option. This feature allows the download of certificates or badges as an industry-standard Open Badges 2.0 compliant Badge for their own record keeping or sharing.  

Brightspace Editor 
The Insert Stuff > My Computer file picker now allows instructors to drag and drop file uploads from the user’s computer. 

Quizzes  
Written response questions remain as pending evaluation until being manually graded. If a written response question is not graded, the status shows a pending evaluation message for the learner view. In the learner view, learners always see the message "This question has not been graded" until the instructor grades the question.