Brightspace Course Chat Removal:

January 20, 2024

With the January 2024 update, D2L will disable its course chat feature. Course chat is a lesser used feature, whose capabilities have been surpassed by third party communication tools, and rendered redundant by Brightspace’s own Instant Message and Discussion features.

Faculty and Instructors with concerns should contact the IT TLS team via the Service Desk for a consultation about alternative chat tools.

 

Brightspace Support Enhancement:

December 29, 2023

URI and D2L are excited to introduce an improved end user support experience through the introduction of the Brightspace Virtual Assistant. The Virtual Assistant will function alongside the existing 24/7 Chat support for the Spring 2024 semester, after which the 24/7 chat will be shut off.

Virtual Assistant will continue to provide the same 24/7 access to D2L support agents that we have today, but with the following added benefits:

1. Providing users with direct access to URI support resources via the Virtual Assistant.
2. Intelligent searching of support documentation will get needed resources to URI faculty and students faster.
3. No loss of 24/7, Live agent support

Stay tuned for more information about and documentation of this exciting enhancement!

 

Brightspace Enhancements:

December 29, 2023 – 5-7am

Course Announcements
– A global setting change will be made in Brightspace that adjusts course announcement deliveries – starting December 29 all course announcements will be sent automatically to the URI emails on the course class list.

Public Award Sharing
-A global setting change will be made that will allow users to publicly share Awards earned in Brightspace

Security Enhancements
-Access changes will be made to Guest Lecturer and Read only roles to protect student data

Role Promotions
-Access changes will be made to the Collaborator, TA Plus, and Section TA roles that enhance the instructors ability to control who has access to their Brightspace courses

TA Mapping
-Changes will be made to the mapping of TA roles between eCampus and Brightspace

Office Hours
TLS will be hosting open Zoom office hours at the following dates and times to discuss any of these changes:

November: 8th, 17th (noon)

December: 5th (9am), 21st (2pm)

January: 24th (9am)

February: 9th (noon)

 

 

Texting Error

Sep 2023: The error with texting in Top Hat was resolved.

Respondus Lockdown Browser (LDB) installed in Quinn 215

Sep 2023 – IT is installing LDB on some campus computer labs so that faculty may check them out to secure and run in-person exams. Learn more at the Respondus service page.

Respondus Monitor

Sep 2023 – IT is launching a small pilot to test Respondus Monitor for securing online remote exams. Learn more at the Respondus service page.

Panopto Folder Error

July 2023 – The bug with adding Panopto folders to Brightspace courses was resolved.

New Quiz User Experience

June 2023: Reminder that the new end-user quiz experience is being made permanent in Brightspace in July, 2023. Read more here.