Academic Technology Updates for May 2022

We have new updates for MyCourses, Pulse, Kaltura, and Zoom this month! See below for details, and please contact helpdesk@ggc.edu if you encounter any problems or have questions.

Note for Upcoming Semester

Fall 2022 courses will be available in MyCourses on June 6th, 2022.

MyCourses

Accessibility Improvements

The default font and color stylings have been updated for improved accessibility.

Before image showing the old font color visible in the My Courses widget. After image showing the new font color visible in the My Courses widget.

Figure: Before and after showing the updated font color visible in the My Courses widget. 

After image showing the new font color visible in text and inline links.Before image showing the old font color visible in text and inline links.

Figure: Before and after showing the updated font color visible in text and inline links. 

HTML Editor

This feature implements a new and improved context link menu in Brightspace Editor. The new menu has the same functionality as before – enabling users to highlight text and create a link, edit the link, remove the link, and preview the link – but now also enables support for previewing quicklinks that contain replace strings while editing their HTML. The new formatting context menu continues to allow users to highlight text within the editor and apply formatting or create links.

New HTML Content link menu

Figure: The new Content link menu.

New HTML formatting context menu

Figure: The new formatting context menu.

Brightspace Pulse App

@mention Push Notifications

Instructors can now use @mention push notifications to direct a message to Learners using Pulse.

@mention subscription alert in Brightspace Pulse

Figure: @mention subscription alert in the Brightspace Pulse app.

Updates and Subscriptions

In the Brightspace Pulse app, the Updates and Subscriptions tab is now aligned to show the same items as the Alert Bell and Discussions in MyCourses.

Update alerts in MyCourses Update alerts in Brightspace Pulse app

Figure: Update alerts in MyCourses versus the Brightspace Pulse app.

Kaltura

Kaltura Training Opportunity

Kaltura is hosting a D2L/Brightspace Essentials webinar on Tuesday, June 14th at 10:00 am ET. We would like to invite faculty and staff who are new to Kaltura to join us for this intro session.

To register for the webinar, please visit the Kaltura Registration Page.

Zoom

Zoom Training Opportunities

Our Learning Management Support Specialist, Rachele Byrd, is hosting a MyCourses: Teaching with Zoom training on Thursday, June 2nd at 2:00 pm.

We encourage faculty to join to prepare for the transition from Blackboard Collaborate. To learn more about this training opportunity, please visit the IT Services Event Page.

Another Zoom training, Zoom: Getting Started with the Basics, will be held on Tuesday, June 7th at 2:00 pm.

To learn more about this training opportunity, please visit the IT Services Event Page.

To check out last month’s updates, please read Academic Technology Updates for April 2022!