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What's New in Brightspace

Find out what's new in Brightspace
What's New

This page is the home for news and resources for teaching using D2L Brightspace. Throughout the term, we will add information about new features, upcoming workshops and more.

Winter 2024

Are you a student who requires help during an online exam?

If technical issues arise during an exam delivered in D2L Brightspace, for most problems, you should communicate with your instructor directly.

For technical problems, you can request technical support via help.torontomu.ca/ithelp (opens in new window)  (opens in new window) , under the "General IT Help" section. Submit a request through the "D2L Brightspace Exam Help Form".

Please note that the Help Desk and D2L Brightspace Exam Help are for technical issues only. Questions related to access to course content or exam schedules should be directed to your instructor.

Support for instructors preparing for online exams

The Brightspace support team has put together a collection of tips for preparing for online exams, including:

  • how to choose the best tool for your exam
  • tasks you should complete in advance
  • things you may need to do just prior to starting an exam

Fall 2023 course shells will expire on February 2nd. Course shells are set to end after the last appeals date for that term.

On the end date:

  • On the Shell End Date, there is a 24-hour processing period, during which the previous term's course shells may be unavailable. This is temporary.
  • Instructors will be switched to a read-only role called Instructor (RO), which will be retained for 2 years. This allows for ongoing (read-only) reference to the shell and some of the student activity data and grades*. 
  • All other users will lose access to the shell.
  • New users cannot be added to course shells after they have ended.

*Please note: Certain features of D2L will only apply to users who are currently 'active' in the course shell. For example, you cannot email students from a D2L shell and you cannot view the students' full Progress results if those students don't currently have access to the shell.

If you require a course shell extension to finalize INC grades, and you hold the instructor role in the shell, please email courses@torontomu.ca and include the course shell details (shell code, course code, section numbers(s)) and the reason for the extension.

We strongly recommend that all students enable push notifications in D2L, to ensure that they are well-informed about what is going on in their courses. In the past, there have been two options: SMS (text message) and email notifications. 

Unfortunately, many wireless providers are deprecating the service that D2L has been using for SMS notifications, and there have been frequent service disruptions, rendering these notifications unreliable. As of May 1, 2024, SMS push notifications will no longer be available from D2L Brightspace.

How can users get push notifications without SMS?

Email-based notifications are not going away, so users can still receive email notifications if subscribed.  Follow our instructions to enable email notfications.

What will happen to stored phone numbers after this?

Personal Data will be deleted once it is no longer needed to send notifications.

The Chat tool in Brightspace reached its end of life in Fall 2023, and is no longer available.

If you intended to have synchronous communication with or between students, please plan other methods of communication. There are a number of tools outside of D2L Brightspace that can be used.

While it may seem a little inconvenient, we strongly recommend that you check your web browser regularly for updates. Once a week is a good interval. It only takes a minute or two, and ensures that you are protected with the latest security updates and performance improvements.

As of January 2024, D2L Brightspace only works in the following browser versions (or newer):

  • Chrome 112+ (released March 2023)
  • Android Chrome 107+ (released October 2022)
  • macOS Safari 16+ (released September 2022)
  • iOS Safari 16+ (released September 2022)
  • Firefox 112+ (released April 2023)

Based on our support team's experience, whenever possible, it's best to use the latest version of either Chrome or Firefox, as we notice the most consistent experience with those browsers.

Also, remember to periodically clear your browser cache. This will improve performance.

Here is a collection of new documents and updated documents related to the use of D2L Brightspace at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Due to the changing nature of our teaching and learning practice, our resources are regularly updated.

We'll do our best to add links here!

Fall 2023

Request your course shells!

Before you head off for the Winter Break, it's a great idea to request your D2L course shells for the Winter 2024 term. This ensures that if you need to work on your courses over the break, the shells are already in place.

Keep in mind that if you do not see your Winter 2024 course sections in MyServiceHub yet, it is still possible to request a course shell by typing in the course code only (do not include the section #) in the request form, then you can add your student sections later. If you need to do this, we highly recommend adding a reminder to your calendar, as your students will not have appear in the Classlist until you add the section(s).

D2L support

Also, keep in mind that TMU's D2L support team is offline during the break, as Toronto Metropolitan University will be closed as of December 23, 2023 and will reopen on January 8, 2024.

If you require support during the break, we recommend that you consult the excellent instructions found on this website. In the top navigation, click on "Instructors", then find the instructions for the tool or task you need.

On January 8th, our team will be happy to respond to your emailed requests, and meet with you on Zoom, as needed.

Please note that as part of the university renaming process, the process for fetching your final grades from D2L Brightspace to MyServiceHub has changed slightly.

Previously, the column you wish to send to MyServiceHub would need to be renamed to "RAMSS Grade". This has changed, and you now need to rename that column to "TMU Final Grade". 

Also, the Grade Scheme should be "Letter Undergraduate" for undergrad and Chang courses, and "Letter Graduate" for grad courses.

Finding help during an online exam

If technical issues arise during an exam delivered in D2L Brightspace, for most problems, you should communicate with your instructor directly, or for technical problems, you can request technical support via help.torontomu.ca/ithelp (opens in new window) , under the "General IT Help" section. Submit a request through the "D2L Brightspace Exam Help Form".

Please note that the Help Desk and D2L Brightspace Exam Help are for technical issues only. Questions related to access to course content or exam schedules should be directed to your instructor.

Preparing for online exams

The Brightspace support team has put together a collection of tips for preparing for online exams, including things you can do in advance and the things you may need to do just prior to starting an exam.

Have a question about your Brightspace course, or not sure where to find a resource? Drop in to chat with our team! 

Every Wednesday between 2pm - 3pm for the Fall 2023 term, members of the TMU D2L Support team are available to answer general questions about D2L Brightspace for Instructors and Staff Members. You will be required to login to your TMU Zoom Account with SSO to join the session.

Please note that if you would like to discuss a confidential topic, such as grading or your specific assessment setup, a one-on-one meeting with our team would be more appropriate. In these situations, contact courses@torontomu.ca with your question and availability to schedule an individual meeting. 

Spring/Summer 2023 course shells will expire on October 2nd. Course shells are set to end after the last appeals date for that term.

On the end date:

  • On the Shell End Date, there is a 24-hour processing period, during which the previous term's course shells may be unavailable. This is temporary.
  • Instructors will be switched to a read-only role called Instructor (RO), which will be retained for 2 years. This allows for ongoing reference to the shell and some of the student activity data and grades*. 
  • All other users will lose access to the shell.
  • New users cannot be added to course shells after they have ended.

*Please note: Certain features of D2L will only apply to users who are currently 'active' in the course shell. For example, you cannot email students from a D2L shell and you cannot view the students' full Progress results if those students don't currently have access to the shell.

If you require a course shell extension to finalize INC grades, and you hold the instructor role in the shell, please email courses@torontomu.ca and include the course shell details (shell code, course code, section numbers(s)) and the reason for the extension.

Spring/Summer 2023

As of July 27, 2023, D2L will be permanently removing the Grace Period as an option in the Brightspace quiz settings. 

If you have manually set a grace period on your upcoming quizzes, students who take the quiz before July 27 will have a grace period and the ones that take it after July 27 will not.

If you have a quiz that starts on or before July 27th, and ends on or after July 28th:
To ensure that all students have the same amount of time to complete and submit the quiz, please edit the quiz before the start date and set the grace period to 0 minutes.

Some exciting changes to the Quizzes tool are happening as a part of our monthly D2L Brightspace updates on the evening of Thursday, July 27.

These include:

  • The ability to create synchronous quizzes, which auto-submit at the end of the time limit.
  • The ability to set asynchronous quizzes to auto-submit at the end of the time limit.
  • Removal of the grace period.
  • Students can show/hide the clock and view quiz information without leaving the quiz.
  • 5-minute countdown timer prior to the start of synchronous quizzes.
  • 5-minute and 1-minute warning messages prior to auto-submission of quiz attempts.

The interface for creating and editing Quizzes in D2L Brightspace has changed!

D2L has updated the create/edit quiz interface, to match the create/edit assignments interface. This ensures that it’s easier for those who are new to Brightspace to use. 

This will take a little adjustment for experienced users to adapt to, but you can find all of the same settings in the new interface. 

When you go to Assessment > Quizzes and either create a new quiz, or edit an existing quiz, here’s what you’ll see:

  1. The main panel contains the bare essentials for creating a quiz. For most quizzes, you will also need to adjust a few other settings.
  2. The side panel contains expandable panels where you can find more settings. Click on the panel name to expand it. Many of the default settings will be fine for your quiz, but you will probably need to set start/end dates, adjust timing, add special access students, etc.
  3. The bottom panel is where you will save your work and make the quiz visible.

Winter 2023 course shells will expire on June 15th/16th. Course shells are set to end after the last appeals date for that term.

On the end date:

  • On the Shell End Date, there is a 24-hour processing period, during which the previous term's course shells are unavailable. This is temporary.
  • Instructors will be switched to a read-only role called Instructor (RO), which will be retained for 2 years. This allows for ongoing reference to the shell and some of the student activity data and grades*. 
  • All other users will lose access to the shell.
  • New users are not added to course shells after they have ended.

*Please note: Certain features of D2L will only apply to users who are currently 'active' in the course shell. For example, you cannot email students from a D2L shell and you cannot view the students' full Progress results if those students don't currently have access to the shell.

If you require a course shell extension to finalize INC grades, and you hold the instructor role in the shell, please email courses@torontomu.ca and include the course shell details (shell code, course code, section numbers(s)) and the reason for the extension.

Are you new to Brightspace at Toronto Metropolitan University?

The best place to start is our Getting Started section!

 

View the latest video tutorials and webinars 

Find all of our D2L Brightspace video tutorials and webinars on our Brightspace Stream Page