New Features
Grade Settings
Authors now have the ability to incorporate commonly used LMS settings for grading individual assessments, assignments, and forums directly within Frost. This can be done while creating the actual content from the Management and Outline sections. Assessment, Assignment, and Forum components have been equipped to display these settings in Preview (Management, Outline, and LOR objects) categorized by separate filters, to better understand what is supported in Canvas versus D2L. Import, Export, and Deep Publish functions for Canvas packages (both LTI and Non-LTI) and Export of D2L LTI packages have been updated with the capability to support these settings in and out of Frost.
Support for importing Grade settings from D2L is planned in the next release. For more detailed information on the settings added, please refer to the articles created for Assessment, Assignment & Forums.
Custom Themes for Tenant
Admins for a tenant can now access the “Theme” tab under Building Blocks. In this context, “Basic” refers to the default themes provided by Frost, while “Custom” pertains to the custom themes uploaded for the Tenant. Clicking on “+Theme” enabled an Admin to upload a new custom theme. After uploading, the “Preview” option allows users to quickly see how the theme appears on Frost patterns and widgets. Marking a theme as “Default” ensures that all new courses will automatically use this theme going forward. Additionally, Patterns and Templates in Building Blocks will display content using this theme. If a theme has a non-zero “Course Usage”, it cannot be deleted or marked inactive. For more information on managing course themes for a tenant, refer to this article.
A sample theme package is provided for download. Users should ensure the file is in proper format. For additional guidance on theme creation refer to this article. In this release, the Course Usage count is non-clickable. Future releases will provide the ability to view course usage. Basic themes cannot be deleted or marked as inactive. In future releases, we will provide an option to mark basic themes inactive for the tenant, as needed.
Improvements
Preview of Assessment Instruction
Preview of Assessment Instruction is now supported in Designer and LOR. Additionally, the Assessment Description has been renamed to “Instructions”.
Support For Adding ‘mailto’ Links
Authors can now add email links to their content. This feature is enabled in all main editors under the Insert menu. It's also available through right-clicking and selecting the link option on the toolbar. To enable the “Link Email ID” option, the provided email address must be valid and selected. By selecting the desired text and using any of the methods mentioned above, users can choose “Edit link” and modify the email address. Once the link is saved, clicking it in Preview will open up the default mailbox for composing an email. For more information on inserting 'mailto' links, please refer to this article.
Advanced Editor Supported in Patterns
The full editor is now enabled in pattern management, both in building blocks and local management. Authors can now add rich text content and widgets inside patterns. Patterns that consist of widgets will be restricted from being used within another widget. For more help on enhanced pattern management, kindly refer to the help articles on global patterns and local patterns.
Page Organizer
The option previously called “Content Block” is now renamed as “Page Organizer” in the main Editor. This provides a quick snapshot of the complete content, and users can easily reorder or delete content from the Organizer to reflect changes in the main editor. User-friendly names have been added to help identify the content, widgets, patterns, and line breaks on the page. Thumbnails have been added next to the various content types on the page. Clicking on a content type from the Page Organizer will highlight the corresponding element on the page. To learn more about using the Page Organizer, refer to this article.
In this release, Page Organizer is available on the Content page (Designer & LOR) and Templates. In the next release, Page Organizer will be available in other areas where the main editor is integrated like Patterns, Widgets, Descriptions (Assessment, Assignment, Forum) & Content Fragment.
Course Coverage Report Enhancement
In the Course coverage report from the Designer, if multiple taxonomies were associated with a single node, all the taxonomies were grouped in a single row. With this release, each row will now map to a single taxonomy, making it easier to read and filter. For more information on generating course coverage reports, refer to this article.
Import-Export Enhancements
Assets unassociated with the project will not be a part of the exported package (IMSCC 1.2). Assessments, Assignments, and Forums authored using Advanced Editor are now supported in D2L export.
Other Enhancements
- Tagging a user is now optional when adding a comment in Designer.
- UI of Assessment management has been updated to prevent confusion between “View” & “Edit”.
- Icons of shared published folders across courses are now synchronized.
- The “Name of External Tool” field is now hidden from the External Tool modal popup.
- The LOR Document filter has been enhanced, with PDF added as a new filter.
- The questions module of the Assessment has been enhanced to display both cumulative scores and scores for individual questions for ease of use.