Changes and Updates in elearn Version 10.5

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1 Changes and Updates in elearn Version 10.5 This information sheet outlines some of the new features included in this upgrade. General Improvements All tools now lists learners by last name (A-Z) by default when they load, making the tool behaviour consistent across the platform. This feature affects the following tools: Attendance, Classlist, Content Completion Summary, Discussions, Dropbox bulk downloads, , Enroll Users, eportfolio, Grades, Groups, Intelligent Agents, Manage Sections, Pager, Quizzes, Sections, and Survey. Performance improvements were made to the course selector to increase the load speed of courses that users are enrolled in. The Now button has returned to Classlist, Discussions, Dropbox, Grades, Manage Dates, News, Quizzes and Surveys when setting start/end/due dates in these tools. Content Updates have been made to the user interface for improved user experience, including the addition of next and previous buttons, a welcome message for first time users, consolidated topic information (specifically improving the information around activity details, learning objectives and completion summaries for individual content topics) and viewing PDF files inline. File Organization in Content/Manage Files Instructors can now choose to receive a dialog prompt to specify a Course Files path each time they create Content topics via drag-anddrop to improve organization in the Manage Files tool. 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. Instructors can also set the default path for file storage in each module. Additionally, if you use Manage Files, to bulk upload many files through a ZIP file, the unzipping process now occurs in the background, allowing you to move freely throughout the system while the unzipping completes. A notification in the black minibar will signal the unzipping process has completed.

2 HTML Editor The HTML editor, which is present throughout the system, has seen some minor changes, in that the Table menu is now before the Equations menu, and the Cut/Copy/Paste menu is now after the Undo/Redo menu. Web addresses (URLs) are now automatically turned into links when typed or pasted into the editor. Browser spell checkers now works in conjunction with the existing spell checker in the HTML Editor. HTML Editor Before: HTML Editor in version 10.5: Creating Tables in the HTML Editor The HTML Editor s table manipulation controls are 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. Import/Export/Copy Components When courses are copied from one shell to another, the existing active homepage and navbar are automatically made active (visible to users) in the new course shell. This feature results from D2L user feedback. Discussions There have been a few improvements to the readability of discussions, in addition to the return of Grid View. Scanning discussion threads previously only gave the reader a small section of the post, forcing them to click through to read the entire post. Now the user can see more or less using the more/less toggle.

3 Improvements to the Discussions Tool Instructors can now assess all discussion contributions from within a thread in a discussion. You can access this ability via the drop down menu in the post. Instructors can maintain forums and topics more efficiently with the ability to delete multiple items at one time. Previously, the Subscribe to this thread check box was selected by default when a user created or replied to a discussion post. With no control over how to limit notifications to discussions of interest, users potentially received an abundance of notifications. In this new version subscribe to thread is unchecked by default and users can choose to subscribe or not. Improved Statistics for Read Discussions Previously, the Read status of discussion posts by instructors and students automatically tracked during the page loading process for all discussion posts. This often resulted in inaccurate data, making it difficult for users to track the posts they hadn t read, and produced inaccurate statistics on the number of posts read. Now, posts that are positioned on users screens to be read are marked as read as the user scrolls through them, ensuring a more reliable tracking process. Students and instructors can trust that they won't miss an important post due to it getting marked read before they could read it, and instructors can be more confident that students have actually read the number of posts reported in Statistics. Dropbox The workflow for deleting Dropbox folders from the main Dropbox Folders page now aligns with other tools. Instructors can now delete Dropbox folders from their individual action button menu or from the More Actions button. User Progress Instructors can now introduce additional information in the User Progress report. This information can include a box plot of the class grade distribution for graded items and display a predicted potential final grade range as minimum and maximum final grade. Banner ID (Org Defined ID) in elearn can now be displayed as part of the User Progress report as well. Dropbox submissions are now directly accessible through User Progress. Quizzes In addition to two larger improvements to the quiz tool in elearn, there have been several smaller improvements including increasing the size of long answer response boxes, clarifying the automatic rounding rules and the ability to preview random sections within a quiz.

4 Quiz Timer The Time Remaining clock in a quiz now displays seconds as well as minutes and hours to provide better information to users taking a quiz. The clock also subtly flashes for the following times: If a quiz is set for more than an hour long, the clock flashes when there are 10 minutes remaining. If a quiz is set for less than an hour long, the clock flashes when there are 5 minutes remaining. Regardless of the set timer, the clock flashes when there is 1 minute remaining. If the quiz uses an unenforced time limit and displays a clock, the timer ticks upwards instead of downwards to indicate how much time has been spent. Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) alerts are also available for non-visual users. Quiz Restrictions Tab The Timing section in the Restrictions tab now displays when creating and editing quizzes. Changes include reorganizing the order of form fields and re-labelling form fields to be more descriptive and accurate. Quiz Reporting Features Additional standard statistical values are calculated and available to instructors. For individual questions, the following statistics are available: standard deviation, discrimination index, and point biserial correlation coefficient can be seen within statistics. For individual users, standard deviation and existing class average is viewable. 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. eportfolio Dialog improvements were made for adding users when sharing items and creating sharing groups to address existing usability issues.

5 With this upgrade there has also been a consolidation of the two different user accounts here at the college. address that was used for internal communication in elearn (and was accessed via the tool in elearn) has now been discontinued. Any you send within elearn (e.g., via the Classlist tool) will now be sent directly to users at address. Note: The elearn tool will still be available so that users can reference older correspondence they had received, but no new will be accessible via this tool. As before, you can access address through a number of different means: 1. Login directly at: 2. Click the link in MoCoMotion: 3. Use the new Outlook Web Access (OWA) widget which can be found on the My Home page in elearn (the landing page after you log into elearn) which will open your webmail access in a new tab/window in your browser: Note: You can also connect account to the Outlook Desktop Application ( helpdesk@mohawkcollege.ca for assistance) or to the app that handles on your smartphone, be it an iphone, Android Device or a Blackberry (more info on this at Faculty with questions regarding this elearn upgrade should contact a member of the Centre for Teaching and Learning Team