Author: eschudel

And now for our third, and final, “catch up with D2L monthly update changes” post:  July.  Moving forward, I’ll be posting monthly, about a week or so before the updates take place so you know what’s coming!

So, this month we will be seeing (will be, because the updates happen this Thursday/Friday…):

First, let’s catch-up from one leftover upgrade feature from June (we had to reset a few things to get this working!)

Groups – group enrollment single user member-specific

This is a really nice feature if you need to have groups that each contain just one student, for example if you want private discussion forums where individual students can post their personal journal entries.  And, if a new student enrols in the course, a group will be set up for that student automatically.

Looks like this:

• In the New Category area, under Enrolment type, choose Single user, member-specific groups

  
  

• If you wish each student to have her own discussion area (for example, if you want them to keep a private journal in the Discussions tool), select Set up discussion areas under Create Workspace and click Save

  
  

• Finish setting up your Discussion Forum and the Group Category and click Save.  You will now see that your Category has been set up with a Group for each individual student.

  

Now, for the updates for July:

Discussions – copy discussion thread replies

If you find yourself needing to copy a discussion thread from one Topic to another (for example, if a student started the thread in the wrong Topic), you can now also copy all replies within the thread as well.  Handy if there has been a bit of a discussion that you don’t want to lose.

Here’s what this option looks like when you choose Copy Thread:

Discussions – show Forum description in Topics

You can now choose to display your Forum description/instructions in Topic descriptions.  That way students can always see your instructions without you having to add them manually to each of the Forum’s Topic descriptions.

Here’s what this feature looks like:

The next upgrade post will be in August!

If you have any questions about these, or any other changes to D2L, contactdesupport@camosun.ca.

And here we go with our second post in the “catch up with D2L monthly update changes” series:  June

So, for June we saw the following changes:

Grades – automatically set the grade item score based on a rubric score

And another great change to the Rubrics tool – you can now use Rubrics you’ve attached to Grade Items to automatically add grades to your gradebook!  No more doubling up on effort.

Here’s how it works:

•  Go to the grading area for the Grade Item you’ve attached your rubric to
• Click Assessment for each student in turn
• Score your rubric and click Save and Record .  You will see the Grade column updated for the student.
• When you are finished grading the Grade Item, click Save and Close.

Groups – automatic creation of discussion topics

This may not apply to everyone, but now if you add a group (in the Groups tool) to a Group Category due to new students enrolling in the course, a discussion topic is automatically set up for that new group (if you have set up discussion topics for your Group initially).  Just a nice feature so you don’t have to remember to do this manually!

Groups – descriptive naming for discussion topics

A small change, and maybe not something you’d notice, but now when you create a group with discussion forums, the forums contain the name of the Group Category + “Group #”, meaning that the forums will be named for the Group Category with the Group’s number.

Here’s what it looks like:

• Create your Group Category, making sure to Set up discussion areas.  Click Save.
• Set up the Forum for your Discussion areas.  Click Create and Next.
• Click Done.
• Now, go to the Discussions Tool and find the Forum you created.  Note that the Topic Titles contain the title of your Group Category, with the Group #.

Overall, little changes, but all enhancing the D2L experience.

 If you have any questions about these, or any other changes to D2L, contactdesupport@camosun.ca.

Last week I told you a bit about the upgrade to D2L, which took place at the end of April.  Something else you should know is that Camosun College’s D2L will be going through monthly upgrades (called Continuous Delivery), and I will be bringing you news of what changes these upgrades will bring to you as they happen!

So, in a short series of posts, I will outline the main changes to D2L since the end of April.

First, here are the main changes from the May upgrade:

Rubrics in Discussions now transfer their scores into the Topic Score

I, personally, am excited about this new option.  What does it mean for you?  Well, if you use the D2L Rubrics tool to assess discussion postings, the overall grade in the rubric will now be automatically transferred into the Topic Score area for the discussion topic in question.   AND if you have your Topic connected to a Grade Item, you can publish that grade right to your Gradebook!

Here’s what it looks like:

• Click Topic Score to open the Rubric
• Select the scores on the Rubric and click Save and Close.
• Notice that the Rubric’s score now appears in the Topic Score area

And then, when you have completed assessing/scoring the Topic, you can select Publish to Grades and click Save and Close to export your grades to the Gradebook (if you have the Topic connected to a Grade Item).

Discussions calculation method addition – sum of post scores

This means that you now have the option of having all of a discussion posts’ scores added up for an entire Topic as the assessment for that Topic.

To find this, when editing the Topic, go to the Assessment tab and in the Select a calculation method drop-down, select Sum of post scores.

 If you have any questions about these, or any other changes to D2L, contact desupport@camosun.ca.

 

At the end of April, Camosun College’s D2L was upgraded to version 10.6.  Here are some of the highlights!  If you have any questions about the changes, contact us at desupport@camosun.ca

Note that there are also some exciting changes to the Rubrics tool which will be covered in a separate post at a later date.

Content

• Use Set a default path (from a Module’s drop-down menu) to set a default storage folder in Manage Files for any files you upload to that Module.
• When dragging and dropping files directly into a Module on the main Content page (i.e., not using the upload file box), you now have the option to Select a destination folder (in Manage Files) for your files.
• Use Add Video or Audio (under the New menu) to add a link to the URL (or Embed code) for a media piece which will then appear in the Module’s topic listing. NOTE: we still recommend that a media piece be embedded in a new Page so that you can include context around it.

Copy Course Components

• When selecting course components to copy from one course to another, select Include Associated Files to automatically copy files (saved in Manage Files) linked to the component in question.

Discussions

• There is now a bulk delete option for topics and forums (choose Delete under the More Actions menu).

Dropbox

• You can now track and restore deleted submissions (e.g., if an instructor accidentally deletes a student’s submission) from the Submission Log.
• You can now delete a Dropbox using a Dropbox’s context menu instead of just by selecting Delete in the More Actions menu.

Gradebook

• In the Enter Grades area, a closed eye now shows in the Final Calculated Grade column when the Final Calculated Grade is hidden/not released. Note that this feature is not available for Final Adjusted Grade (if the Final Calculated Grade is hidden, so is the Final Adjusted Grade).

Groups

• For the self-enrollment options:
  • A Self-enrollment expiry date option has been added, with the additional option to have D2L automatically enroll unenrolled students in groups after the set date.
  • Students can now see the names of students in the groups before they enroll by clicking on the Members column link.
  • Students can unenroll themselves from one group and enroll in another if they want to (before the expiry date, if one has been set).

HTML Editor

• The Paste from Word option has been removed from the HTML menu.  You can now copy and paste directly from Word.

News

• In the News Tool, under the More Actions menu, there is now a Restore function that you can use to recover deleted News items (as opposed to the Restore function in a News item’s drop-down menu which is to restore Dismissed items).

Quizzes

• You can now delete a Quiz using a Quiz’s context menu instead of just by selecting Delete in the More Actions menu.
• In the Restrictions tab, under Timing, Late behavior/submissions options have wording changes to clarify functions:
  • Quiz is flagged as late, but student can continue working.
  • Quiz is flagged as late, and student is prevented from making further changes.
  • Quiz is flagged as late, but student can continue working. Quiz will be automatically scored as zero after the specified time limit.
• In the Restrictions tab, if you have enabled Respondus Lockdown browser for the overall quiz, you are given the option for it to be NOT enabled for Special Access cases (in the Add Users to Special Access area).

This tutorial is designed for faculty who have previous experience using the Dropbox tool in D2L and will cover the steps involved when you wish to publish all student feedback for a Dropbox activity at one time.  For further information, please contact desupport@camosun.ca for assistance.

Steps

1. Go to the Dropbox tool in your course.
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This tutorial is designed for faculty who have previous experience using the HTML editor in D2L and will cover the steps involved with adding licensed library e-resource permalinks into the HTML editor. For the purposes of this tutorial, we will work in the Content tool.  For further information, please contact desupport@camosun.ca for assistance.

Thanks to Gwenda Bryan and Patsy Scott in the Camosun Library for helping me with this tutorial!!

Steps

1. Go to the Content tool in your course.
2. In the Table of Contents box, click on the title of the Module to which you wish to add your library resource links.
3. 
4. 
5. 
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7. Go to the Camosun Library website and search for the article you wish to link to in D2L. (For more information on permalinks, persistent links and stable URLs, go to the Camosun Library’s Libguides (http://camosun.ca.libguides.com/c.php?g=92275&p=1238057)
   1. If your licensed library e-resource has a permalink (or persistent link/stable URL) option:
      1. 
      2. 
   2. If your licensed library e-resource does NOT have a permalink option, contact Camosun Library staff for help.
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Things to remember

DO NOT use the Quicklink à URL option to add permalinks to the HTML editor in D2L.

It’s a good idea to test the link once you have Published or Saved as Draft to ensure that it works, and that it opens the page/document you wish it to open.