UA Learning Technologies

Powerful new features enhance D2L version 8.2

The University’s course management system, Desire 2 Learn (D2L), is being upgraded and the changes should make it even more useful and easy to use for instructors and their students.

It has been over 18 months since our last upgrade (version 8.1) and we are excited to take advantage of new features and functionality.

Version 8.2 does basically two things:

• First – it implements a streamlined and more consistent user interface that requires less time to complete tasks, less training to master and improves consistency between tools. Many of these changes were necessary to improve compliance with mandatory Americans with Disabilities Act standards and screen readers.
• Second – it incorporates many new features which allow for greater instructional effectiveness.

The interface changes consist of new icons and a restructuring of screen layouts to accommodate new features. Everything that you were used to is still present but the icons may look different or be in a different location.

Your course data is safe

Courses will function as they did prior to the upgrade date and no data from current or previous semesters is lost.

Here’s a preview of three of the more frequently used D2L tools.

Content

The Content tool is like the index or table of course materials and activities. This is where links are made to Web pages you have created, Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, movies or audio files, Web sites, quizzes and others.

The most significant differences from the old version are in the View Content vs. Manage Content options. New features include:

Collapsible Content Map: Users can now expand and collapse modules and sub-modules in the content map. This eliminates scrolling issues in the later weeks of the course.

Custom Content Page: Instructors can now display any Web page to students when they access the Content tool (e.g. the page could present a syllabus, highlight specific content, outline weekly tasks, etc.)

Instructor Access to Feedback: (optional) Instructors can now view student comments about content.

Learner Statistics: The system now tracks which topics each learner has accessed and how long they spend on each topic and makes these statistics available to instructors.

Discussions

The Discussions tool is a place where participants can read and author text messages, as well as attach and share files (photos, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.) Instructors can create restricted discussions, view student participation statistics at a glance and grade messages. Students can rate messages. Students and instructors can search, flag and print messages.

Messages continue to be organized within topics and forums like the old version, but now have a different appearance and some new features:

Rating: Instructors can allow participants to rate messages using a five-star system. This rating feature can be used as a mechanism for peer-to-peer assessment.

Assessment: Instructors and TAs can now grade individual student messages. Scores automatically appear in the Grades tool where they may be included in calculations of a student’s final grade. This is similar to grading files in the Dropbox.

Locking: Messages in a locked forum or topic can be read, but no one can post or edit new messages.

New Reading View: Participants can now view the full text of all messages on a single page, rather than viewing one message at a time. The new view makes it easier to read a conversation with fewer mouse clicks.

Grades

The Grades tool allows you to create an online grade book. Items in the grade book can be tied to other D2L tools such as the Dropbox and Quizzes so that a grade entered in one of these tools is automatically updated in the grade book. Question items from the Quizzes tool such as multiple-choice, true/false, matching, ordering, etc. can be set to be graded automatically and be exported/transferred to the grade book.

The new version of the Grades tool is different in several ways:

Spreadsheet-Style Grade Entry: A new spreadsheet-style interface allows instructors to enter grades for all students and all grade items from a single page using only the keyboard, making it much faster to record grades.

Create Grade Items from a Spreadsheet/CSV File: Instructors can now enter grades into a spreadsheet and import the spreadsheet into D2L without configuring the grade book ahead of time. The grade book now creates new grade items based on the columns in the import file.

Setup Wizard: Instructors can now use a step-by-step wizard to configure the grade book. The wizard guides users through the setup process and presents the most important options in a logical order.

Improved Multi-edit: Instructors can now more easily edit multiple grade items or categories simultaneously.

Email Students: Instructors can now email students directly from the grade book, enabling them to take immediate action if a problem is identified or a reward is earned.

Improved Student View: The student view of the grade book has been redesigned to resemble a report card, making it easier for students to interpret their results.

For more info

More detailed “How To” instructions will be found in the D2L help pages.