Improvements to Consistency in BOLT

With our October update at the end of this week, there will be numerous changes to BOLT in the language and workflows controlling visibility of items.

Here are the key changes:

1. Language used to denote an activity is not visible to a learner will be “Hidden” and noted with a consistent visibility icon. 
2. Differing visibility controls will change to a checkbox. 
3. Visibility controls will appear on the Restrictions tab. (This is a big change in Discussions!) 
4. Consistent ordering of activity and tool specific icons on activity list pages. 
5. Visibility icon switch in Content. 
6. TOC flyout will no longer allow changes to visibility. 
7. TOC completion method icon switch in Content. 
8. New activities will have Save, not Publish buttons (and will include the “hide from users” checkbox consistent with the other tools. 
9. Visibility controls in context menus (drop down menus) of modules and topics. 

For more information, please read on.

Visibility Controls: Differing controls will all change to be consistent

Here is an image that sums up the visibility control changes in BOLT after our October update at the end of the week. 

Changes to visibility controls in BOLT

Restrictions tab: The restrictions tab of affected tools will change. This is most noticeable in Discussions, with availability and locking options moving to the Restrictions tab from the Properties tab. 

Ordering of Activity Icons: Consistent ordering across tools

Activity icons will appear before tool specific icons. Special access will have one icon regardless of the type of special access, though the alt text for the icon will be different for each type (“Special access has been granted” and “Special access is required”).

Here is an image depicting the changes to the icons.

Content: Visibility Icon Switch

On the TOC, Draft/Published drop down for topics becomes a visibility icon and switch. Changing this switch will result in immediate change in visibility status! You will see confirmation messages when toggling the switch.

Visibility status appears when the topic isn’t visible, when in bulk edit mode, and when in edit-in-place mode. The control to modify visibility varies between these views:

The Draft/Published drop down for modules is replaced by a button switch. This is the same as topics; clicking the button will toggle visibility status immediately and you will see a confirmation message.

Toc Fly-out: Removal of ability to change visibility status

The ability to change the visibility of an item in the TOC fly-out will no longer be available, since the fly-out is for navigation and not editing.

Completion Method Icon Switch in Content

In Content, this was a static checkmark that appeared as students completed items. Now, this checkmark will be clickable, allowing instructors to change the completion method of the topic.

Completion Method toggle in Content

New Activities: Save, not Publish

On new activity forms, the Publish and Save as Draft buttons become Save and Close or Save buttons. The new “Hide from Users” checkbox will be included on the page to choose the visibility status of the activity instead. 

Visibilty Controls in Context Menus

“Hide from users” and “Make Visible to Users” is available in the context menu (drop down arrow menu) of teach content topic and module.

 

For more in-depth information, please check out the articles posted on the Brightspace Community site:

• https://community.brightspace.com/s/article/Activity-Visibility-Improvements-Part-1 
• https://community.brightspace.com/s/article/Activity-Visibility-Improvements-Part-2