Brightspace Quizzes now save automatically.

November 1, 2018February 24, 2023 Ari Crossby

New: Auto-Save for Brightspace Quizzes

You’ve always been told to advise your students to save every quiz question as they finish it, and Save All Responses before submitting. This was to make sure that in-progress quizzes would be saved if a student was interrupted mid-quiz.

As of October 2018, it’s no longer necessary to need to manually save answers when taking a quiz. Quiz responses will now be saved as students complete each question. See below for images showing the old version (with Save button) versus the new, including what it will look like when a question auto-saves.

The old Brightspace quiz question interface, with Save button and disk icon (showing that the question is saved).

The new Brightspace quiz question interface, without Save button, with the "Saving/Saved" message highlighted.

Instructor Note: The quiz event log will show whenever a question is automatically saved, including an updated character count for Written Response questions.

Other Updates

No More Save Button

The “Save” and “Save All Responses” buttons at the bottom of a Quiz screen have been removed. The “Go to Submit Quiz” button is now called “Submit Quiz.”

There will still be a submission confirmation screen, after clicking “Submit Quiz,” that prompts students to submit the quiz when they’re ready.

Auto-Save Works Differently for Written Response Questions

If a Written Response question shows the format bar (also known as the HTML Editor), student responses will not be automatically saved as they type. To make sure that the answer is being saved as they work, students must click anywhere outside the text entry field to prompt the “Saving…/Saved” message to appear at the top right.

Other question types, or Written Response questions with the format bar disabled, will auto-save approximately every 30 seconds.

Internet Connection Status Notifications

Brightspace will now display a notification if the student loses their internet connection while taking a quiz.

a red-bordered notification box that reads "Internet connection lost. Trying to reconnect..."

Students will also see a notification when the connection is restored, at which point Brightspace will automatically save any unsaved answers.

A green-bordered notification that reads "Internet connection restored! Saving all answers..."

Instructor Note: The quiz log will record when a lost connection is restored.

Question is Still “Saving…”

If a student has answered a question and it seems to be stuck on “Saving…” for a very long time, they should double-check their internet connection. If they seem to be connected, they should continue writing their quiz. Any unsaved answers will be saved when they either move between pages, or go to submit the quiz.

Recommendations for Writing Quizzes

As always, we generally recommend using a wired internet connection, if possible. This greatly reduces the chances of losing an internet connection in the middle of a quiz.

If a student is writing a quiz from a mobile device like a phone or tablet, it’s best to access the quiz from Assessments > Quizzes, rather than from Course Materials > Content. This will provide more room on the screen for quiz questions. If possible, a desktop or laptop computer is best for taking quizzes, as these devices offer the best experience.

Updating Your Course Materials

If you’ve been advising your students to save each question as they go, please update those instructions in your courses to account for these updates. You can also just link to the student support page for these changes, which outline the new auto-save function and other new features now active in Brightspace quizzes. Click here, or access the link below, to see the student update.

https://iweb.langara.ca/lts/news/brightspace-quizzes-now-save-automatically/

Do you or someone you know use classroom polling or another type of student response system (SRS) at Langara?

October 23, 2018February 24, 2023 Ari Crossby

The Education Technology department wants to know how many instructors at Langara use a student response system, or SRS. Examples of popular SRS are iClicker desktop or cloud, Top Hat, Turning Point, Socrative, Quizziz, Poll Everywhere, etc. If you do not use a SRS but you know of someone who does, please kindly forward the link to this announcement.

Marianne Gianacopoulos, and Nimmy Nelson are guiding this review of the use of student response systems (SRS) across the college.

If you currently use a SRS, do you mind answering a few short questions via the below survey link? We want to gather information on numbers of users and types of SRS programs currently in use. If you previously answered a survey sent specifically to you, please disregard this request. We already have your information. Please click on the following link:

https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/FZXDB6Z

Thank you. We appreciate your taking the time and for your participation. Access to the survey will close as of November 15^th.

New look and name for D2L: Welcome to Brightspace!

October 11, 2017March 13, 2024 Ari Crossby

On Tuesday December 19, 2017, you are going to see a new look and a new name for D2L.

In line with other institutio

ns, we will now be referring to our learning management system (LMS) as Brightspace by D2L. This switch makes sense as D2L is the name of the company based in Kitchener, Ontario, while their LMS is named Brightspace.

In December, along with the name-change, you will notice a new look and feel with a clean and modern layout. New fonts, icons, colours and a simpler navigation design mean that courses will adapt to different screen sizes and look equally good on different devices. This is known as ‘responsive design’ and it will make the user experience more engaging for our students as they will easily be able to access Brightspace from a desktop, laptop, tablet or phone.

Some of the key visual changes include:

– A simplified navigation design that looks equally good on screens of any size;

– A consistent, cleaner and more modern design using new fonts, icons and colours;

– A new ‘My Courses’ widget featuring rich photography in a responsive tile-based layout;

– A new image library with over 3000 images to choose from for your tiles.

Even though Brightspace will look different to you and your students after December 19, your workflows will remain the same. Tools such as Assignments, Quizzes, Discussion Forums will work the way you expect them to.

If you have any questions about the upcoming changes, please contact your EdTech team: edtech@langara.ca

Introducing MediaSpace: Langara’s Streaming Video Platform

September 15, 2017February 24, 2023 Ari Crossby

All faculty and students now have access to MediaSpace (by Kaltura), a YouTube-like video portal that lets you create, upload and share video and audio. Amongst other things, you can use MediaSpace to create video lectures, curate playlists of existing content from YouTube, or provide an online space for students to upload coursework or video/audio assignments.

By default all content you upload to MediaSpace is private and can only be viewed by you. You can choose to share content with others, or make it public. Video and audio files are stored in the cloud on secure servers at UBC and content can easily be embedded in Brightspace or iWeb/Courseweb.

We know that our students expect us to provide them with an inclusive, engaging and accessible learning environment in order to maximize their chances of academic success. MediaSpace is an important piece of the puzzle in that respect. The platform enables instructors to easily incorporate video in face-to-face classroom teaching, or in a mixed-mode or fully online course. We are excited about new features such as interactive quizzing and closed captioning, and look forward to working with you to make the most of MediaSpace in your teaching.

MediaSpace can be accessed by all Langara staff and students at https://mediaspace.langara.ca You will need to login using your Langara Computer User ID and Password in order to upload content to your MyMedia (your personal MediaSpace library of video/audio content).

To learn more about MediaSpace and how you and your students can use it, come along to our Information Session on Wednesday September 27, 12:30-13:30 in L342.

You can sign up for this session here.

The EdTech Instructor Gathering (December 2016)

January 16, 2017February 24, 2023 Ari Crossby

Back in December twenty-four hardy souls braved the snow and ice to attend Ed Tech’s Instructor Gathering, one of our best turnouts yet. The broad theme of the event was tech tools and practices that benefit learning and each session proved a valuable mix of knowledge sharing and practical tips.

Socrative: A Free Alternative to iClicker and Top Hat

September 28, 2016February 24, 2023 Ari Crossby

The following is a guest post from Fulton Tom and Bryan Breguet, Economics Department:

Many instructors are now using audience response systems such as iClicker or Top Hat to engage students in their classrooms. These user-friendly systems allow instructors to administer interactive activities such as quizzes and receive immediate student feedback. The caveat, however, is that they are far from being free. Both iClicker and Top Hat charge students a subscription fee. While the fee is not a big expense, it adds to the already rising cost of post-secondary educat Open Education Resources - CC Licensed ion. Should we really expect students to pay tuition fees and buy textbooks and then to pay a subscription fee so that they can take the quizzes? We believe that more instructors should be aware of Socrative.

D2L Updates

September 12, 2016February 24, 2023 Ari Crossby

Welcome back to a new semester. D2L has made some changes to the names of tools and added a My Media tool, as well as new features for the Grades, Groups, Quizzes and Discussions tools.

Tool name changes:

Former Name	Updated Name
Dropbox	Assignments
News	Announcements
Pager	Instant Messages
Edit Course	Course Admin
In Content, New	Upload/Create
In Content, Add Existing Activities	Existing Activities

If you refer to any of the tools within your course materials, you will need to update the language.

For example, if you have instructions in your course outline for students to submit assignments to “Dropbox,” you will need to edit it to read “Assignments tool.”

Do more with video: Four great features of the new Kaltura

June 8, 2016March 13, 2024 Ari Crossby

Kaltura (Langara’s multimedia streaming platform) is about to be upgraded. As well as continuing to provide an easily accessible way for instructors and students to upload video and audio content to D2L courses, Kaltura is introducing a number of new features. Here we highlight four that we are excited about – and we hope you will be too.

1. Kaltura MediaSpace

It has always been possible to upload videos to Kaltura in D2L. However, instructors have been asking us for a while whether there is a more user-friendly and visually appealing way to search, watch, upload and share their videos. Kaltura MediaSpace will bring a YouTube-like video portal to Langara with granular user controls over the management of videos, screencasts, audio and other content, including student content. All data is stored in Canada on UBC’s servers and all content uploaded to MediaSpace is private by default.

2. Closed Captioning

The Canadian Association of the Deaf have long advocated for the high quality captioning of all video for accessibility purposes. Closed captions in Kaltura are not a new feature – they have been available for a while. The upgraded version enables all users to upload SRT and other closed caption files rather than have Ed Tech do this for you. We are also currently evaluating the use of external video captioning services that integrate with Kaltura.

3. CaptureSpace

At Langara ‘Video Screen Capture’ (i.e Screencasting) is very popular with instructors who use it for a variety of purposes – whether that be providing audio and visual feedback on papers to students in the LEAP program, assisting a flipped classroom model or creating software walk-throughs. Up to now we have recommended and supported instructors in the use of a tool called Screencast-o-matic that we subscribe to for creating video screen captures. The upgraded version of Kaltura brings a new application called CaptureSpace that will be available to download for Windows and Mac computers. CaptureSpace allows you to capture your screen, screen and webcam, webcam only or voice. It also integrates nicely with Microsoft Powerpoint so allows instructors (and students) to easily create slides with narration.

4. Interactive Video Quizzing

Have we saved the best until last? The interactive video quizzing feature in the new Kaltura enables the embedding of multi-choice questions at any point in a video. This is a great way to improve engagement, interactivity and assess understanding. This feature will be available later in the year.

For more information on the Kaltura upgrade please contact Julian, Heidi or Ari in Ed Tech (edtech@langara.ca).