2016 Fall BOLT Combined Request Available in MyHusky

If you would like to combine courses for the 2016 Fall semester, please complete the BOLT Combine Course Request Form via the Faculty Center in MyHusky (PeopleSoft). Once you access the Faculty Center, you will find a tab titled 'BOLT Combined Request'.

For directions on how to do this, you can watch the Course Combine Request Video Tutorial or view the Course Combine Request Documentation PDF.

Deadline: June 1^st, 2016
NOTE: Requests must still be completed by the given deadline. Requests after the deadline will only be accepted if there is a schedule change or new instructor hire.

Lecture/Lab Sections Reminder: If you teach a lecture course with multiple labs but do not have access to all lab sections, submit a request to Chaya Merrell by email. For more information, please see the Semester Start Information module in the BOLT Help Course.

Looking Forward: BIG Improvements Coming to BOLT May 20

After in-depth testing and analysis, Brightspace identified key terminology to update and improve the user experience within BOLT. Updates will be display only; the tools will continue to function exactly the same as they do now.

Based on the results of the testing, the terms changing in BOLT are:

• News to Announcements
• Dropbox to Assignments
• New to Upload / Create
• Add Existing Activities to Existing Activities

Again, please note these are language term changes and that functionality will remain the same. 

For more information on the changes and for ways we plan to support your transition, follow the jump cut...

Updates to Discussions, Content, and the HTML Editor

With the update to 10.5.7 on March 18th, several tools will see improvements.

Discussions

Previously, when navigating using the browser's back button from within a discussion thread, previously set filters would not be remembered so you would have to navigate again to find the relevant discussion thread.

Now, when navigating using the browser's back button from within a discussion thread, previously set filters at the topic level are remembered so you don't lose your place.

Content

Status Change Indicator

Previously, when the status of a content topic was changed from draft to published or vice versa, the visual indicator did not update immediately in all cases for the user who was making the changes, even though it updated for the users the content applied to.

Now, when the status of a content topic is changed between draft and published, the visual display updates immediately for the user applying the change.

No Broken Links from Opening PDFs

Previously, when you opened a PDF file in Content, a broken link error was generated. 

Now, when you open a PDF file in Content, a broken link error is not generated.

HTML Editor

Font Display

Previously, when you changed the font or font family of text in the HTML Editor, the fonts were not displayed accurately.

Now, when you change the font or font family of text in the HTML Editor, the fonts are recognized accurately and display properly.

Paste Button

Previously, on the Edit HTML File page, clicking the paste button displayed an error message stating that the browser doesn't support paste.

The paste button has since been removed from the HTML Editor so the error message no longer displays.

Updates to Calendar on March 18

With the update to 10.5.7 on March 18th, the Calendar tool will see several improvements.

No Multiple Events in Course Schedule

Previously, when you added a date to a dropbox folder, such as a due date, start date, or end date, an associated calendar event may have appeared in the course schedule multiple times.

Now, when you add a date to a dropbox folder, only one associated calendar event appears in the course schedule.

To reproduce this fix:
1. In a course, go to Content.
2. Click New > New Dropbox.
3. Enter a title and click Publish.
4. On the Activity Details tab, click Add dates and restrictions....
5. Click Add due date and enter a date.
6. Click Update.
7. Navigate to the course schedule and observe that there is only one calendar event for the due date you added in step #5.

Linked Module Descriptions Display Only Once in Calendar Events

In some cases, when a calendar event was linked to a content module or other tool item, the description of the module appeared twice.

Now, when a calendar event is linked to a content module or other tool item, the description of the module only appears once in Calendar, as expected.

To reproduce this fix:

1. Add a description to a content module.

2. Create a new calendar event and link it to the module.

3. Observe that the description only appears once in the calendar event.

Keyboard Navigation in Mini Calendar

In some cases, the mini-calendar in the sidebar of the Calendar tool did not respond to keyboard navigation as expected. The mini-calendar was not included in the tab key order, causing usability issues. If you successfully selected the mini-calendar, moving between days in the mini-calendar using keyboard navigation did not progress as expected.

Now, the mini-calendar in the Calendar tool better responds to keyboard navigation and usability is improved.

To reproduce this fix:

4. In Calendar, press Tab on your keyboard to shift the focus in the tool.

5. Observe that the mini-calendar receives the focus at the expected point in the tab key order cycle.

6. With the focus on the mini-calendar, press Tab on your keyboard to shift the focus to the next day in the calendar.

7. Observe that the focus shifts to the expected date.

(If you are in Day view, pressing Enter after shifting the focus changes the Day view to that date.)

New feature: Export quiz event log of all quiz attempts

Previously, instructors were able to view the event log of individual attempts to look for patterns or cheating.

Now, the Export Event Logs button on the Grade Quiz page enables instructors to export the quiz event log of all quiz attempts made by students of a quiz to a Comma Separated Value (CSV) file for offline analysis. The IP address of all students' actions is included in the event log.

This feature will be available March 18th when the version 10.5.7 update occurs.

To use this feature:

1. Go to Coursework > Grades
2. Click the drop down arrow beside the name of a quiz with attempts.
3. Select Grade.
4. Click the new Export Event Logs button and download the CSV file.

5. The CSV file will contain event log data for all attempts on the quiz. You can compare IP addresses for events that occurred during students' attempts.