Brightspace update

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The June 2024 release is scheduled to be deployed on the evening of June 13th, 2024. Full release notes can be found here: https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/25983-june-2024-20-24-6.

Below we have outlined a few of the updates that we feel are most impactful. Please note that the Slim Announcement widget updates outlined in the release notes are currently being discussed with D2L. We expect to send a follow-up communication regarding this update once we have the full (and correct) information to share with Campus Administrators.

Assignments – Annotations update from Version 2023.4.0 to 2024.3.0:

 

This update fixes several defects (undocumented in release notes) within Annotations; in addition, the icons used in the several areas within Annotations have received minor updates. Included below are a few examples:

Current view on left, new view on right:

Here is another comparison, again, the current view is on the left and the new view is on the right:


With this update, we also wanted to highlight the following warning from D2L within the release notes: Safari browsers using versions older than version 15.4 are no longer supported for the Annotations software. This is currently a legacy browser. For more information, refer to Browser support.

 

Assignments – Google and Microsoft 365 options available in File Upload:

Faculty will find that the option to directly upload a file from Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive is now available when editing and evaluating an assignment. Users can upload a file by clicking File Upload, and then clicking Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive in the Add a File window.

Previously, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive files could only be added as link attachments.


Brightspace Editor – Updated storage location for feedback attachments in Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes:

When using Insert Stuff file picker to attach feedback, feedback files are now stored in a ‘Feedback Files’ location. This area is designated for storing learner feedback. As a result, Learners can now review feedback files from the Grades page, similar to how they can currently view attached Feedback Files.

Previously, Feedback Files added using Insert Stuff file picker were stored in Manage Files within the course.

Note: Only feedback added from the Overall Feedback field and the Completion Summarypage in Quizzes appears in Grades for learners.

Additionally, upon testing we found that unlike ‘Manage Files’ the new ‘Feedback Files’ location is not an area that can be navigated to from within a course – files are simply stored there and are accessible to Learners via the Grades.

Manage Dates – Bulk edit and offset dates for recurring Intelligent Agents | Updated:

With this update, users can edit multiple intelligent agents that had previously been set up with a recurring schedule. Users can also use Bulk Edit Dates to add or remove a new start or end date for Intelligent Agents, or use the Bulk Offset Dates to offset the start / end dates from the Manage Dates tool.

In our testing we found that it should be emphasized that this does not apply to agents that are set to just run one time. These agents will still need to be edited via the Intelligent Agent tool.

A note about Brightspace updates:

Brightspace uses a Continuous Delivery model for monthly updates and SUNY is part of “Wave 3” on the update schedule. Please see this Wave Schedule for the date range of when an update will be deployed:https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/1048-wave-schedule. Current, past and future release notes can also be located in the sidebar of this page.

DuckDuckGo’s new private way to use AI

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Anonymous access to popular AI models, including GPT-3.5, Claude 3, and open-source Llama 3 and Mixtral.

 

click on image to go to chat interface

 

 

 

‘DuckDuckGo AI Chat is an anonymous way to access popular AI chatbots – currently, Open AI’s GPT 3.5 Turbo, Anthropic’s Claude 3 Haiku, and two open-source models (Meta Llama 3 and Mistral’s Mixtral 8x7B), with more to come. This optional feature is free to use within a daily limit, and can easily be switched off.

  • Chats are private, anonymized by us, and are not used for any AI model training.
  • Find DuckDuckGo AI Chat at duck.ai, duckduckgo.com/chat, on your search results page under the Chat tab, or via the !ai and !chat bang shortcuts. They all take you to the same place.
  • Improvements are already on the way. Our roadmap includes adding more chat models and browser entry points. We’re also exploring a paid plan for access to higher daily usage limits and more advanced models.”

 

Read more here

Brightspace March updates

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As with the February Brightspace release, the March 2024 release is also on the smaller side, however, I did want to highlight 2 of the items in the update here. This release is scheduled to be deployed on the evening of March 14th, 2024. The full release notes can be found here: https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/25427-march-2024-20-24-3

The two features highlighted in this email do not require any updates to permissions or enabling of variables.

Brightspace Editor – Consistent link creation with the ability to choose link format:

 

Inserting a link into the Brightspace Editor opens the Add Link dialog, allowing users to determine if their links open in a new window (default) or in the current window, as well as to add text to their link. This provides users with a consistent workflow and control over how links respond in their content.

Add Link opens when inserting links with the context menu or with the keyboard shortcut ctrl+K or command+K:

Additionally, the dialog includes a new Insert Quicklink option, allowing for users to insert a Quicklink:

[Note: a quicklink is a link to another location in your course and it will not break if you copy it forward to other courses.]

The same Link, Text, and Open In options are displayed whether adding a Link or Quicklink, which helps ensure a consistent link creation workflow:

Finally – this feature updates the icons shown in the Insert Quicklink menu so that they all have the same visual style.

In summary, previously, adding links had different field options and behaviors based on how the link was being added to the course. This updates makes the adding link menus consistent across all areas where this can be done.

I encourage you to read the full release notes for this specific update, located here: https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/25427-march-2024-20-24-3#brightspace-editor-consistent-link-creation-with-the-ability-to-choose-link-format-updated

Quizzes – Improved experience for generating quiz reports:

This release introduces a better experience for instructors when running and exporting quiz reports with large amounts of data:


  1.  As an instructor, select a Quiz inManage Quizzes> Statistics.
  2. Select one of the tabs on the top of the page:3. After selecting the desired tab, click either Export option (CSV or Excel)

Upon doing this, a new window appears with a message indicating that the report is being generated:

4. When the report is done being generated, users will be alerted via the Bell icon. Clicking the alert will bring them to the screen to download the report.

Previously, clicking either export button would open a new window and depending on the size of the report, it could hang, freeze or even time-out altogether. This new method of report generation prevents this from happening.

A note about Brightspace updates:

Brightspace uses a Continuous Delivery model for monthly updates and SUNY is part of “Wave 3” on the update schedule. Please see this Wave Schedule for the date range of when an update will be deployed: https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/1048-wave-schedule. Current, past and future release notes can also be located in the sidebar of this page.