What’s New in D2L V. 10.4.10

D2L Ignite ConferenceApril 24, 2015

Suzanne SchlangenKimberly Vossen

Karen Wenz

D2L Upgrade Dates

April 7, 2015QA upgraded to 10.4.10

April 14, 2015QA available for testing 10.4.10

• May 29-30, 2015Production will be upgraded to 10.4.10

Browser Support Lifecycle – Updates

• Apple Safari 5.1 – moved to Maintenance

• Internet Explorer 9 – moved to Maintenance

• Blackberry Playbook – moved to Unsupported

Changes to the User Experience

• New Font Setting: OpenDyslexic

• Core Changes—2 fixed issues

• HTML Editor interface changes:

– Insert table process

– Icon arrangement

– Browser’s native spell checker

• Last Name Sorting consistent across tools

• Return of the “Now” button

Account Settings – OpenDyslexic font

• Users can set the OpenDyslexic font from Account Settings tool in the personal menu

Core – Firefox drop-down lists (Fixed Issue)

• In Firefox, the values in the drop-down lists are no longer hidden

10.3 SP16 10.4.10

Core – Button Styles indicate active button (Fixed Issue)

• Button styles now clearly indicate the currently active button

10.3 SP16 10.4.10

HTML Editor – Upgrades

• Improved table insertion workflow (saves time when creating tables)

• Browsers’ native spell checker is enabled in the HTML Editor

HTML Editor – Upgrades continued

• Table menu is located before Equations

• Cut/Copy/Paste menus and after Undo/Redo menu

10.3 SP16

10.4.10

User Interface Improvements• Default Sort by Last Name

– Various tools with lists of users now sort by Last Name

• Removed Confusing Filters

– Tools with filters for course groups don’t display the option if groups aren’t being used in the course

“Now” Button has been Restored in the Date Selector for these tools:

• Blog

• Classlist

• Course Builder

• Discussions

• Dropbox

• Grades

• LOR

• Manage Dates

• News

• Quizzes

• Surveys

Teachers: What’s New for You

• Quizzes

• Discussions

• Content

• Import/Export/Copy Components

• Course Offering Info

• Grades

• Dropbox

• Assignment Grader

• Manage Files

• Manage Dates

• Intelligent Agents

• User Progress

Quizzes – Delete option from context menu

• Delete option was added to the individual content menu

• More Actions menu Delete option is for multiple quizzes

Quizzes – Auto Grade Repositioned

• Automatic Grade – Allow Attempt to be graded immediately upon completion option moved to the top of the page in the Assessment tab

10.3 SP16 10.4.10

Quizzes – Preview Random Question Sections

• Preview random section questions from the Properties tab by clicking the section name in the Quiz Questions area

Quizzes – Increased Answer Box Size

• Larger default size for answer boxes: – Short answer (SA) box

increased to 60 columns

– Long answer (LA) box increased to 80 columns

Quizzes – Spell Check disabled

• For Plain text boxes, the browser’s Spell Checker is disabled and the Spell Checker icon is hidden.

• For HTML text boxes, the browser’s Spell Checker is disabled and the HTML Editor’s Check Spelling icon is hidden.

Question Library – Imported Questions (Fixed Issue)

• In the Question Library, questions imported from another collection now retain their original sort order.

Question Library – Imported Section(Fixed Issue)

• In the Question Library, importing questions within sections now maintain their section parent.

10.3 SP16 10.4.10

Quizzes – Timing section in Restrictions

• The Timing section was reorganized and reworded

10.3 SP16 10.4.10

Quizzes – Timing section in Restrictions

• The Timing section was reorganized and reworded

10.3 SP16 10.4.10

Quizzes – Timing section in Special Access• In Restrictions, the Advanced Availability section was reworded Special Access

• On Special Access page, the Timing section was reorganized and reworded

10.3 SP16 10.4.10

Quizzes – Special Access in Inactive Courses (Fixed Issue)

• When a course is inactive or outside of the availability dates, instructors with appropriate permissions can now edit Special Access options for users (i.e. in quizzes, dropbox, and surveys)

10.3 SP16 10.4.10

Quizzes – Quiz Item Analysis

• 3 new statistics: standard deviation, discrimination index, and point biserial correlation

• Point Biserial only applies to: Multiple Choice & True/False (1 answer is 100%; others are 0%)

• Notes:

– Questions must be graded first to view these statistics (i.e. n/a displays)

– Only first attempts with scores between 0 – 100% on a question are included in that question’s statistics

Quizzes – Quizzes Reports

• 3 new statistics for Question Statistics & Question Details reports

• Standard deviation included in User Statistics report

Discussions – Assess Student from View Thread page

• In Reading View, Assess Student is available in the context menu of the learner’s name on the View Topic page

• Feature is not available in Grid view

Discussions – Default subscribe to this thread

• Ability to turn off “Subscribe to this thread” in Discussion Settings

• Allows users to limit discussion notifications

Discussions – Attach Image (Known Issue)

• When in Grid View, users may experience problems when attaching images to posts.

• Attachments are stored in temporary directories that may be removed.

Discussions – ‘More” quicklink added to thread

• On the View Topic page, the “more” link expands the full text of thread

• Instructors can read the full text of the thread rather than the small snippet of the start of the thread

Discussions – Reading Content

In Account Settings, new Reading Content option

• The default is unselected (i.e. cleared); when an user scrolls through a discussion page, it automatically marks posts as Read

• When it is selected, discussions will remain Unread when a user scrolls through a discussion page

Discussions – Deleting Forums and Topics

• Delete Forums and Topics page available from More Actions

Content - Viewing PDF in Content Viewer

• PDF documents are now viewed inline

• This feature is only available on supported desktop browsers(i.e. Firefox 36+, IE 11, Chrome newest)

• Links are clickable in PDFs

Content – Upcoming Events (Fixed Issue)

• In the Upcoming Events area in the Content tool, future events no longer appear under the Today section

Content Settings – Drag & Drop Save Behavior

• New Option for Drag and Drop in Content: “Show a prompt to choose folder in Course Files”

Content – User Interface improvement

• Tabs introduced in Content topics for Activity Details, Learning Objectives, andCompletion Summary information

Content – Import Course option

• In Content TOC, the Import/Export button renamed Import Course

• Import Course Package offers new visual process for importing a course file

Copy Course Components – Improved Workflow

• After homepages and navbars are copied with Copying All Components, they are set active by default

• Users no longer need to manually activate copied homepages and navbars

Import/Export/Copy Components PageBold Headings, Added Help Links & Rewording

10.3 SP16 10.4.10

Information entered into the Description field in the Course Offering Information box is now retained after clicking on the

Save button.

Course Offering Information(Fixed Issue)

Grades – Number Per Page Drop-down

• The Number Per Page drop-down list on the Enter Grades page was moved to the left of the page

Grades – Save and Close on Final Grades(Fixed Issue)

• On the Final Grades page, the Save and Close button has been added as an option

10.3 SP16 10.4.10

Grades – Identify Hidden Final Grades

• A ( ) closed eye icon displays beside unreleased final grades and an updated ( ) open eye icon displays beside released final grades in the Final Grade column

10.3 SP16 10.4.10

Dropbox – Delete option from context menu

• Delete option was added to the individual dropbox folder content menu • Different process to delete multiple dropbox folders

Dropbox and Turnitin(Fixed Issue)

• Dropbox folders with names longer than 100 characters are now correctly update with Turnitin.

Assignment Grader – New Version 2.3(Fixed Issues)

• App version 2.3 is available at iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/desire2learn-assignment-grader/id496587100

• Users must have iPad device running iOS 8.1 or later

• Incorporates defect fixes & incremental enhancements (there are no new features)

• Audio feedback recordings attached to graded submissions can be played back on iPad Air devices and in D2L Brightspace after synching

Assignment Grader (Known Issues)

• Holistic or Analytic text rubrics may not sync correctly with D2L Brightspace after a student is graded in Assignment Grader. In Assignment Grader, the student appears as “Graded” but the rubrics’ grades are not saved. Rubrics appear empty when synched back to D2L Brightspace.

• Annotations on graded student submissions are deleted when instructors log out of Assignment Grader before synching the grades back to D2L Brightspace.

• Instructors may not be able to annotate or grade supported file types in Assignment Grader after synching from D2L Brightspace.

Manage Files – Unzipping large files

• When unzipping a file large, a message displays that the operation is happening in the background

• When the file successfully unzips, a notification appears in the minibar

• Clicking the notification takes the user back to Manage Files in the course

Manage Files – Upload files (Known Issues)

• While a file is unzipping in a course, users may encounter a System.IO.Exception error when performing file operations (deleting, etc.) from the Manage Files page.

• If an invalid or corrupted zip file is uploaded to the Manage Files page, users may receive a system error when they attempt to unzip it.

Manage Dates – Specific Tools default

• The Filter Option no longer selects all available tools by default when selecting the Specific Tools option

Intelligent Agents – Bulk Edit Status

• The Agent List page now has Enable and Disable options

• Users can update an agent’s status or bulk update agents’ statuses

User Progress Improvements –Information Settings

• Information Setting section controls the visibility of MaxFinal & Min Final for a course

• If this option is selected, the final grades will display on the Grades Progress page

• If this option is unselected (i.e. cleared), the final grades will not display on the Grades Progress page

User Progress Improvements –Dropbox Progress

• Individual dropbox submissions can be viewed immediately after the student submitted to the dropbox

Admins: What’s New for You

• CVB settings

• Permission settings

• Course Updater tool

• Admin tools

• Role-restricted custom link for Navbar

Config Variable Browser Settings

• d2l.Tools.DocumentViewers.CustomPdfRendererEnabled

• d2l.Preferences.TurnOffAutoMarkRead

• d2l.Tools.Discuss.User.ThreadSubscribeOption

• d2l.Tools.Content.ShowManageFilePathDialog

• d2l.Tools.Quizzing.ShowSpellCheckerInAttempts

Viewing PDF documents in Content

• PDF documents are now viewed inline.

• This feature is only available on supported desktop browsers.

• By default, the new d2l.Tools.DocumentViewers.CustomPdfRendererEnabledconfiguration variable is turned ON.

Discussions - Scroll Spy - New

d2l.Preferences.TurnOffAutoMarkRead

• Config Variable is set at the Org level.

• When turned OFF, discussions will be marked as Read when student scrolls through Discussions.

• When turned ON, discussions will remain unread when student scrolls through Discussions.

Discussions - Administer default subscriptions to threads - New

• Config Variable Browser Setting: d2l.Tools.Discuss.User.ThreadSubscribeOption configuration variable is turned ON by default.

• When the variable is turned ON, the check box is populated by default.

• When the variable is turned OFF, the check box is cleared by default.

Content - File Management Options and Dialog Display d2l.Tools.Content.ShowManageFilePathDialog

When this setting is turned on, this dialog box is displayed when dragging and dropping a file into Content.

Quizzes - Spell Check disabled

d2l.Tools.Quizzing.ShowSpellCheckerInAttempts.

• Config Variable can be set at the Org level or the Course level.

• When turned OFF, spell checker will not check for spelling errors in quiz short and long answer questions.

• When turned ON, spell checker will find spelling errors in quiz short and long answer questions.

Permissions

Discussions – Teacher role permission

• Delete and Restore Forums and Topics at course level

User Privacy – Teacher role permission

• See Username

Discussion - Bulk edit forums and topicsDelete and Restore Forums and Topics permission needs to be turned ON for

teachers to delete multiple Forums and Topics at one time.

Course Updater Tool - New• Search for

courses using:

– Semester

– Department

– Active Status

– Start Date Range

– End Date Range

• Modify the:

– Start Date

– End Date

– Active Status

Course Updater Tool

Turn on the Course Updater in the Organization Tools.

User Progress Improvements

If the See Username permission is on at the course level, the teacher can see the Username in the User Progress Tool.

Navigation – Conditionally release navbar links based

on role.

• Admins can now set a conditional release on navbar links.

• The new Availability option is Limit to Specific Roles on the Custom Links page.

The Minibar’s 'Advanced Search' within the 'Select a Course' dropdown throw an error.

Config Variable Browser’s left pane scrolls back to the top after a variable on left is clicked

Fixes and Improvements

• Final grade formulas are now successfully copied when using the batch course copy process.

• Improvements to the service for course copy and bulk course copy has been made to alleviate deadlocks when copying quizzes and question libraries.

• Holding Tank: Database performance improvements

• When mapping a large number (example, 3000 courses) of Maple T.A. courses, the user may experience slow response issues.

User Progress Name in a course.

• When the User Progress tool is displayed on the course navbar, the name of the tool can be changed.

Firefox and Widgets

• When using Firefox, users are no longer silently removed from their Role Switch selection and returned to their original role without notification.

Email – New Contact

• Add Contact name has changed to New Contact in the Address Book.

Questions?