Students and Instructors
- CourseLink’s minimum for supported browser versions increases every January and July. The January update increases the minimum supported browser versions to:
- Chrome 129
- Edge 129
- Safari 18
- Firefox 130
- Chrome 94
- Edge 94
- Safari 15
- Firefox 92
- Chrome 67
- Edge 80
- Safari 12
- Firefox 67
Brightspace Pulse – Learners land on the org unit homepage when Custom Login Logic is used
Our CourseLink instance has Custom Login Logic set up, and learners who tap on the Pulse Homepage button are now directed to their custom org homepage instead of the default landing page. This matches existing CourseLink behavior when the user taps the My Home button.
Previously, the Pulse homepage directed users to the main org homepage and not their custom org homepage.
Instructors Only
Bongo – New and updated features for Bongo
Also known as Video Assignments or Virtual Classroom, Bongo is partnered with D2L to provide access to a video-driven platform that provides face-to-face classroom experiences, including live discussions, office hours, video-based training, and online assessments. With this update, the following new and updated Bongo features are available:
New Configuration Experience for individual and group assignments
The configuration experience for assignments now includes an improved workflow that recognizes step-by-step options. This new experience provides wider parity with the previously-available Question and Answer assignment type. For more information about the new configuration experience for individual and group assignments, refer to Bongo Release Notes.
New Show/Hide instructor feedback before evaluation feature
When configuring an individual, group, or question and answer assignment, a new option enables you to hide or show instructor feedback before evaluation. This option is enabled by default, which matches the previous behavior where text and video comments from the instructor are immediately available to the learner. If the instructor turns off the option, learners cannot see the instructor’s text or video comments until the evaluation has been published to the learner.
For more information about the new ability to show or hide instructor feedback before evaluating the grade item, refer to Bongo Release Notes.
Bongo now recognizes and supports course sections from CourseLink
When sections are used:
- Learners can only do peer reviews on learners within the same section.
- Learners are grouped into automatically-formed groups and learner-formed groups with learners within the same section.
- Instructors who are included in a section can only see learners from their own section when viewing the assignment overview or group management screens.
- Instructors who are not included in a section can filter the assignment overview screen by different sections, and the learners are labeled with their section on the group management screen.
For more information about support for course sections from the LMS, refer to Bongo Release Notes.
Peer review is Opt-in
When creating a new assignment, the Peer Review option is now disabled by default. Previously, Peer Review was enabled by default.
Note: The default setting change applies only to newly created assignments, not copies or existing assignments.
Updated user interface on the D2L Quicklink process
The CourseLink Quicklinks for Video Assignments and Virtual Classroom more closely match the experience in Bongo. It is now possible to directly copy assignments during the Quicklink process, and there is a new quick search that you can use when linking an existing assignment or meeting.
For more information about the updated Quicklink interface, refer to Bongo Release Notes.
Improved Score Adjustment experience in the Question and Answer Smart Scoring feature
The instructor experience when modifying a Question and Answer Smart Score result now more clearly conveys the updated score and allows instructors to make multiple changes before saving or publishing the new score.
For more information about the improved Score Adjustment experience, refer to Bongo Release Notes.
Consistent Evaluation – Dropbox and Discussion evaluations now synchronized with Grade Book
The individual scores and feedback from Dropbox and Discussion grade items are now synchronized with the grade book using the Update button regardless of whether a change was made. The Update button in Dropbox and Discussions evaluations is always available to update, even when no changes were made. This feature also enables instructors to verify that the information between the grade book and the Dropbox or Discussion tool is properly synchronized.
Previously, In CourseLink, when an instructor evaluated an assignment, discussion, or quiz using a rubric and saved it as a draft, then added feedback directly in the grade book and saved, the feedback did not sync back to the evaluation page when the instructor clicked Update.
Homepage Widget Expansion Pack – Updates to the Visual Table of Contents widget
The Visual Table of Contents widget is updated to provide users with improved language management, configuration, and usability experience. This update resolves the issue where widget images do not appear in Firefox or other browsers that disable third-party cookies by default.
New default module or unit image settings
As of this release, if no image is present in the module description or specified by the Course configuration settings, the Table of Contents widget uses the course image as the default image for all displayed modules. Previously, the default image for all modules or units was always an image of a mountain unless otherwise specified.
New View all modules option and Widget Preview dialog
If the course has more than twelve modules or units, users can click View all modules to open the Widget Preview dialog to view all modules.
Previously, the widget used pagination to display any modules or units over twelve.
New module description option functionality
Users can now click Show Description (?) to view module or unit descriptions.
Previously, when a user clicked an information icon, the module or unit card flipped to display the description on the back of the card.
New hide modules or units experience
Users can now hide modules from the Actions > Configure this widget > Course Settings tab.
Rubrics – Streamline grading with minimum or maximum score for ungraded rubric criteria
This feature updates the instructor workflow of evaluating a rubric and providing feedback to learners. Now, instructors can quickly assess all ungraded Rubric criteria and then go back through to add feedback where necessary. To provide a more streamlined experience for instructors using analytical type rubrics for assessments in the Consistent Evaluation experience for dropbox, discussions, and written response quiz questions, the instructor can automatically set ungraded levels to a minimum or maximum value.
From a drop-down beside the rubric name in each assessment pop-out, or from a context menu in Consistent Evaluation, there are two options:
- Set Ungraded to [top rubric level name]: where all ungraded levels within this rubric are set to the maximum value using the top level of the rubric.
- Set Ungraded to [lowest rubric level name]: where all ungraded levels within this rubric are set to the minimum value using the bottom level of the rubric.
When an instructor selects an option, a confirmation dialog appears to advise of the bulk action and provides an option to undo the update.
Previously, instructors were required to click individual criteria, which, for large rubrics was a time-consuming task involving many clicks to set the rubric score to 100%.
Contact
If you have any questions about the updates, please contact CourseLink Support at:
courselink@uoguelph.ca
519-824-4120 ext. 56939