On October 17, 2019 myCourses will be updated by the vendor with the intention to improve the consistency of the terminology and work across the tools on myCourses.

We are sharing the vendor's documentation outlining the updates.

Technical Support

If you require technical support please contact:

Academic Technology Support
p. 585-475-7734
e. tlsupport@rit.edu
w. rit.edu/tls/contact ( Hours of Service and Live Chat )

Vendor Documentation

Summary

Presently, we have multiple terms to mean that an activity is not visible (inactive, draft, hidden). We also have 4 different controls and 4 different workflows to switch visibility.

Key changes that will affect specific tools include:

1. The language used to denote that an activity is not visible to a learner will become a single term: Hidden.
2. Similarly, the visibility icon (  ) for a hidden activity will appear consistently.
3. The different visibility form controls will be replaced by a simple checkbox.
4. The visibility form controls will appear consistently on the Restrictions tab.

There are other reasons for these changes:

1. To reduce the time and effort to teach, learn, and document workflows in Brightspace.
2. To work toward better consistency in the behavior of activity visibility, which will help user’s confidence in the system.

1. Visibility Controls

The language and method by which instructors make activities hidden or visible to students is different across the tools. This issue will be resolved in many tools.

Key Changes

1. The visibility control will use a checkbox with the same terminology of Hidden / Hidden from Users.
2. In Discussions, some visibility properties will move from the Properties tab to the Restrictions tab (see below).

2. Activity List Page Icons and Ordering

The instructor view of the list page of several tools will undergo changes related to the icons for activity restrictions.

One of the main drivers will be to ensure activity restrictions are indicated with consistent icons in a consistent order on all activity list pages. Currently, these properties appear in a different order and with different icons depending on the tool. With the improvements, where supported by the tool, the same icons will appear in the same order for all common restrictions.

Key Changes

1. All common activity icons appear before tool-specific icons.
2. Two Special Access icons have been combined into a single icon for simplicity.
3. All icons will be updated to Daylight versions (except the Bonus Grade item, for now).
4. The Exemptions icon will be new to the list pages.

2.1 Summary of Icon Changes in each Tool

2.2 Details of Icon Title Updates

This section details the previous and new icon alt-text for each of the affected tool list pages.
 

2.2.1 Assignments

2.2.2 Quizzes

2.2.3 Surveys

2.2.4 Grades

2.2.5 Discussions

In Discussions, the label beside each icon will be unchanged. The main changes will be to the ordering of the icons and introduction of Exemptions.

The following table shows the icons and labels, and the icon’s alt-text. The list has the new icon ordering.

3. Restrictions Tab

Across many tools, the Restrictions tab will be the place to control visibility status and availability dates for an activity.

The following table highlights the changes in each affected tool. The visual differences are shown in the next section.
 

3.1 Illustrations of Restrictions Tab Changes

The following sections illustrate the current and upcoming views of the Restrictions tab of the affected tools.

Before the update is on the left, After the update is on the right.

3.1.1 Quizzes

  3.1.2 Surveys

3.1.3 Grades

3.1.4 Discussions – Restrictions Tab

3.1.5 Discussions – Properties Tab

4. Individual and Bulk Hide/Unhide

A consistent workflow to hide and unhide activities will be available from the list pages of several tools. Users will be able to quickly change the visibility status from the list of activities without first having to edit the activity.
 

5. Content Tool

5.1 Switching Visibility Status

On the Table of Contents (TOC), the Draft/Published drop-down will become a visibility icon button and switch.
 
Before: Draft and Published via Drop-down
 
The switch of visibility status is saved immediately. Confirmation are given with toast messages: Set to Draft Successfully and Published Successfully.
 



After: Hidden and Visible via Visibility Switch
 
The drop-down with Draft and Published options will be replaced by a button icon. Clicking the button will replace it with the visibility switch.
With the visibility switch, a change in status will continue to be saved immediately. Confirmation will be given with updated toast messages: Hidden successfully and Made visible successfully.
 
The visibility status of a topic will appear when the topic is not visible, when the TOC is in bulk edit mode, or when a topic is in edit-in-place mode. That behavior won’t change – only the control to modify visibility status will change.
 

5.2 Module Visibility Switch

On the Table of Contents, the Draft/Published drop-down for modules will be replaced by a button icon. Clicking the button will replace it with the visibility switch. 

With the visibility switch, a change in status will continue to be saved immediately. Confirmation will be given with updated toast messages: Hidden successfully and Made visible successfully. 

Before: drop-down
 
Currently on the module-view page, the visibility status appears as a drop-down menu fro Draft/Published.

After: new clickable button

If the user doesn’t have permission to edit the visibility status, just the icon will appear. 
 

5.3 Table of Contents Fly-out

The ability to switch the visibility status of a topic or module from within the TOC fly-out will be removed. The fly-out is for navigation, not for editing. It is not good practice, and potentially confusing, to be able to edit a single property from the fly-out, while needing to edit other properties elsewhere.
 

5.4 Table of Contents Completion Method

The Completion Method icon in the TOC will become a button menu. This change will keep the familiar Completion Method while making it more functional:

1. By making the property more accessible.
2. When going into edit-in-place mode, the Completion Method icon won’t disappear from the right and suddenly become a drop-down menu below the ‘Add Description’ section.

If the user doesn’t have permission to edit the Completion Method, then the icon will be displayed and it won’t be a button menu.

Before: Non-interactive icon

After: Interactive button menu

5.5 Save Buttons on the New Activity Page

On many activity creation forms, the Publish and Save as Draft buttons will become Save and Close and Save buttons, and the new Hide from Users checkbox will be included on the page to choose a visibility status.

Here’s a list of the changes.

1. The Hide from Users checkbox control will appear under the title field of all activity creation pages.
2. The Publish button will be updated to Save and Close so that authors can still save and exit with one click.
3. The Save as Draft button will be updated to Save so that authors can still make incremental saves without exiting.

 There are two reasons for these changes:

1. The updated buttons and new checkbox align with the pattern used in other workflows, and better reflect the variety of reasons an instructor or course designer may want to hide an activity (not just because it is not yet ready to be published).
2. The button text remains the same regardless of the visibility state of the activity, and in doing so, the workflow is simple, consistent, and familiar. Previously, the text of the first button would switch between Publish and Revert to Draft; the second button text would switch between Save as Draft, Revert to Draft, and Save.

Before

After

5.6 Controlling Visibility in Context Menus

Hide from Users and Make Visible to Users is available in the context menu of each topic and module in the TOC and in the context menu of a Topic on the topic’s detail page. Below is an example of the new option in a module’s context menu.