D2L 10.4 New Features Document - Lone Star College System• Discovery • ScreenCast • Howcast...

MY COURSES WIDGET

Course List Filter Users will now have the ability to filter which courses show on their My Courses widget based on their role in the course (faculty, observer, etc.).

10.4 New Version

Figure 1

• Filter classes based on role

CONTENT

Video Topics Videos are a key content type for instructors who want to add lectures and other multimedia content to their course(s). In 10.4, instructors can now create video topics directly in the Content tool. Video topics are listed in the modules with a Video icon to distinguish them from other types of files and link topics.

10.3 Old Version Figure 2

D2L 10.4 New Features Document

Updated: 4/21/15 of 16 LSC-Online


10.4 New Version

Figure 3

• Click Video or Audio from the New button to create videos in Content topics.

Video Uploads Users can upload video files by dragging and dropping them on to the upload target, or by browsing and selecting them from their computers.

Uploaded video files are played through the Media Elements video player. This is a 3rd party library which attempts to play video files using HTML 5, but falls back on Flash as an alternative. If a video file is not supported, an informative error message will display and users will have an option to download the file and play it locally.

10.4 New Version

NOTE: Currently an upload is limited to 1GB file size.

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Figure 4

• Upload target for video topics.

Web Videos Any web video can be used to create a video topic simply by pasting its HTML embed code in the Enter URL or Embed Code field. Additionally, by clicking on “What video sites can be embedded?” the Learning Environment provides shortcuts for some video websites that are frequently used by educators. This enables users to find and add videos by simply copying and pasting the URL of the video instead of the HTML embed code. The video’s title and author are also extracted where possible. The following sites were tested:

• YouTube™ • MIT

• Vimeo™ • National Geographic®

• Public Desire2Learn Capture Videos • SchoolTube

• Dailymotion • ScienceStage

• Discovery • ScreenCast

• Howcast • TeacherTube®

• Influxis • TED

• Khan Academy • Adobe TV

10.4 New Version

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Figure 5

• Embed Code and URL field for web video upload.

Add Capture Presentation to Course Content Previously, Capture presentations had to be inserted through HTML Editor’s Insert Stuff option. sIn 10.4, now there is a simplified process for adding a Capture presentation to a course. A Capture activity option is now available when users add New topics to course modules.

10.4 New Version

Figure 6

• Click to create new Capture course activity.

Add Audio Topics Workflow This change makes it easier to add audio topics to course content. It is now consistent with adding video topics. Learners can now listen to audio topics without having to download them first.

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10.4 New Version Figure 7

• The new Video or Audio option.

User Interface Improvements for Topics Previously, all information surrounding Activity Details, Learning Objectives, and Completion Summary displayed on content topic pages as three stacked, collapsible areas. In 10.4, these areas display as separate tabs.

10.3 Old Version

Figure 8

• In 10.3, Activity Details, Learning Objectives, and Completion Summary display as stacked,

collapsible areas.

10.4 New Version

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Figure 9

• In 10.4, Activity Details, Learning Objectives, and Completion Summary display in tabs.

File Management Options and Dialog Display Some instructors and instructional designers have raised concerns that drag and drop upload content topics creates disorganized course files areas because instructors don’t have the opportunity to specify where in the Manage Files tool the uploaded files should be stored. In 10.4, instructors can choose to receive a dialog prompt to specify a Course Files path each time they create Content topics via drag and drop. The prompt can be enabled or disabled from the dialog, or from the Show a prompt to choose a folder in Course Files check box in Content Settings. This ensures that instructors who are not interested in this file organization feature can continue to drag and drop files without disruption.

10.4 New Version Figure 10

• Course Files path dialog prompt.

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10.4 New Version

Figure 11

• Content Settings check box options for Drag and Drop Save Behavior.

The default path provided in the drag and drop prompt is the last selected path for that module. This makes the process of adding all files for a specific module to the same folder much faster. If instructors dismiss the prompt, the last selected path is used for all new files added to the module via drag and drop. If no folder was previously selected for a module, files are added to the root Course Files folder. Instructors can also access a module’s context menu and click Set Default Path to set a custom default path if they do not need a prompt each time they upload a topic to that module.

10.4 New Version

Figure 12

• Set Default Path from a module’s context menu.

Workflow Improvements Sometimes when instructors are working within the Content tool, they are required to navigate to another tool to complete a task. When this happens, the system automatically redirects instructors back to the Content tool once the task is complete so they can continue what they were previously doing. In 10.4, two interactions were updated to comply with this expected behavior:

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• Instructors who initiate the Dropbox evaluation workflow from the Completion Summary area at the bottom of a Dropbox activity are returned to the activity when they are done.

• Instructors who edit metadata related to a content topic from within the Content tool are returned to the Content tool when they are done.

Evaluating Dropbox Non-Submissions from Content In 10.3, instructors were given the option to evaluate a Dropbox folder non-submission or a system-external submission in the Dropbox, allowing them to grade users who did NOT have a submission or had non-electronic submissions. In 10.4, an identical workflow can now be initiated for Dropbox activities in the Content tool by clicking on the Dropbox, clicking on Completion Summary, and then clicking on the student’s name.

DROPBOXES

Dropbox Workflow Improvements In 10.4, instructors can now delete dropbox folders from their individual context menus or from the More Actions button.

10.3 Old Version

Figure 13

• View of dropbox context menu in 10.3.

10.4 New Version

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Figure 14

• View of dropbox context menu in 10.4.

GRADES

Repositioned “# Per Page” Drop-Down List for Grades In 10.4, the option of increasing the number of users displayed on the page is more apparent for instructors. Previously, instructors frequently missed this control in large grade books because finding it required left-to-right scrolling.

10.4 New Version

Figure 15

• # per page drop-down list shifted to the left.

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D2L 10.4 New Features Document MANAGE DATES Manage Dates - Select Specific Tools In 10.4, when users manage dates and want to do so for specific tools, the platform no longer selects all available tools by default when they select the Specific Tools option. This saves users time clearing checkboxes for tools they don’t want to change dates for.

10.4 New Version

Figure 16

• Tools are no longer all selected by default.

DISCUSSIONS

Scroll Spy Previously, tracking the Read status of discussion posts by instructors and students was done manually, and automatically set during page load of all discussion posts. This often resulted in inaccurate data, making it difficult for users to track the posts they hadn’t read, and inaccurate statistics on the number of posts read. In 10.4, posts that are positioned on users screen to be read are marked as read as they scroll through them, ensuring a more reliable tracking process. Students and instructors can trust that they won’t miss an important post due to getting marked Read before they could read it. Instructors can be more confident that students have actually read the number of posts reported in Statistics.

Usability Improvements Previously, scanning discussion threads within a topic only displayed a small snippet of text at the start of the thread, and only clicking into the thread revealed the full text. In 10.4, it is possible to expand the full text of the root post of the thread in the topic view by clicking More, and collapse it again by clicking Less.

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10.4 New Version

Figure 17

Ratings in Reading View are Retained in Grid View You can now use the Up Vote/Down Vote rating scheme and Up Vote Only rating scheme in grid view, and the scores will be retained when you switch views.

Bulk Delete Forums and Topics This change allows users to maintain forums and topics more efficiently by giving them the ability to delete multiple items.

10.4 New Version

Figure 18

• The new checkbox list in Delete Forums and Topics.

QUIZZES

Quiz Item Analysis To assist instructors in evaluating how well students perform on quiz questions after they are submitted for evaluation, additional statistics are now available in the Quizzes tool. In 10.4, standard deviation, discrimination index, and point biserial correlation coefficient can be seen within statistics.

• User Stats includes the standard deviation and existing class average for the overall quiz. • Question Stats now include standard deviation, discrimination index, and point biserial per question,

along with the standard deviation and existing class average for the overall quiz.

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• Question Details now includes standard deviation, discrimination index, and average grade achieved per question.

Quizzes Reports Question Statistics and Question Details reports offer the option to include the three new statistics (standard deviation, discrimination index, and point biserial correlation). The User Statistics report can include standard deviation along with the class average.

10.4 New Version

Figure 19

• New statistics in a Question Details report.

Quizzes - Increased Answer Box Size Previously, long and short answers boxes in quizzes defaulted to 40 columns. Users indicated that these text boxes were too small and they often had to manually re-adjust the answer boxes to a larger size.

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D2L 10.4 New Features Document In 10.4, the short answer box size has been increased to 60 columns and the long answer box to 80 columns.

10.3 Old Version

Figure 20

• Previous default sizes of long and short answer boxes.

10.4 New Version

Figure 21

• New default sizes of long and short answer boxes.

Quizzes - Repositioned Properties on the Assessment Tab The Automatic Grade – Allow attempt to be set as graded immediately upon completion option has been relocated in the Assessment tab when creating or editing a quiz. Previously, the positioning of this option caused some users to miss it when configuring or editing quizzes. In 10.4, the option has been moved to the top of the page so that it is immediately noticeable and less likely to be missed by users when configuring or editing quizzes.

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10.3 Old Version

Figure 22

• Previous Quizzes Assessment tab.

10.4 New Version

Figure 23

• New Quizzes Assessment tab.

Quizzes – Improved Ability to Preview Questions in a Random Section Previously, previewing quizzes with random sections was difficult and unintuitive. Now, instructors just need to click on the section name in the Quiz Questions area of the Edit Quiz page to review all random questions assigned to the quiz.

10.4 New Version

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Figure 24

• Ability to preview random sections in Quizzes

HTML EDITOR

Improved Table Selection The HTML Editor’s table manipulation controls were improved so that users can insert a table by expanding a fly out to select their table size using a visual grid. Previously, users opened a dialog box and entered the number of rows and columns they wanted to have.

Menu Options Rearranged The Table menu is now located before Equations, and the Cut/Copy/Paste menus appear after the Undo/Redo menu. Font style controls were also separated to allow them to wrap separately when the HTML Editor is used in a narrower view.

10.4 New Version

Figure 25

• Redesigned HTML Editor Table menu, and rearranged menu options.

Enable a Browser’s Spell Checker In supported browsers, the native Spell Checker now works with Learning Environment’s HTML Editor, while maintaining the HTML Editor’s Spell Checker. Misspelled words are now underlined in text fields.

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10.3 Old Version

Figure 26

• Previously, the browser’s Spell Checker did not underline misspelled words.

10.4 New Version

Figure 27

• Now, the browser’s Spell Checker underlines misspelled words.

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D2L 10.4 New Features Document - Lone Star College System• Discovery • ScreenCast • Howcast...

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