Academic Technology Updates for May 2025

IT News |

New updates are available in MyCourses! See below for details, and please contact helpdesk@ggc.edu if you encounter any problems or have questions.

IMPORTANT: MyCourses content and data removal – June 16, 2025

In accordance with the University System of Georgia approved policy on learning management system data and content retention, please review the course retention report.  Generally, any course from December 2019 or earlier will appear in the report. The courses included in the report are scheduled for removal beginning June 16, 2025. Please review the list carefully. 

Faculty are responsible for archiving content and data and ensuring any data required for accreditation or research activities is preserved.

Content or videos hosted by third party services, such as Kaltura, Turnitin, and Zoom, integrated with MyCourses are not subject to removal under the MyCourses data and content retention policy. However, content and videos hosted in third party services are subject to the retention and storage policies of these services.

Faculty must take action to archive MyCourses content and data prior to June 16, 2025.

Grades, assignment submissions, quiz results, and discussion posts that are archived and downloaded are considered FERPA protected data.  As such, this data should be managed as described in APM 10.9 Student Education Records Management and FERPA Policy.

MyCourses

Assignments – Retract feedback in bulk on the Submissions page | Updated

The Submissions page in the Assignments tool now aligns with Discussions and Quizzes, allowing instructors to retract feedback in bulk. This enhancement improves consistency and eliminates the need to use multiple tools for retraction tasks.

The bulk Retract Feedback option allows instructors to choose how many students to retract published feedback from.

Selective retraction is also supported. Instructors can select users by checking the box next to their names and then clicking More Actions > Retract Feedback.

The More Actions > Retract All option retracts feedback for all users, regardless of which users are selected.

Retract All option selected from More Actions menu in Submissions list.
Figure: From the Submissions page, click More Actions and select Retract All to remove published feedback in bulk.

After clicking Retract All, instructors are notified of the number of evaluations to be retracted and must confirm by clicking Retract.

Confirmation dialog to retract feedback for learners with Retract and Cancel buttons.
Figure: A confirmation dialog displays the number of students affected. Click Retract to proceed or Cancel to exit.

Previously, instructors could only retract feedback individually in the Assignments tool.

Microsoft Teams Course Connector – Create group-based teams and view recent message activity | New

This feature includes the following new functionality in the Microsoft Teams Course Connector:

  • Display message counts for teams
  • Create a team for each group in a group category and access the links to teams in the widget

Display message counts for teams

The Teams Course Connector widget now displays the number of new messages posted to each connected Microsoft Teams space. Message counts indicate the number of new messages posted to the team for the configured time span. Message counts are retrieved using the Current Team Message Count setting up to 24 hours. Instructors can view the message count for each team in the widget. They can choose to mute or unmute the message count using the drop-down option to the left of the message count.

Note: To retrieve the message count, the Course Connector must receive permission from Teams to count these messages. A consent message appears in the widget once this feature is enabled.

The message count consent link appears in Microsoft Teams
Figure: After the Teams Course Connector widget is configured to display message counts, users are prompted to give consent by clicking here in the dialog.
Course Connector widget showing Microsoft Teams messages and sections
Figure: View the message count for each team in Microsoft Teams from the Course Connector widget.

Create Teams by group category

Instructors can now streamline course organization by using the Create a Team option for groups in a group category option in the Teams Course Connector. When enabled, the Course Connector automatically creates a Microsoft Teams space for each group within a selected MyCourses group category. Instructors may select individual categories and Course Connector will create teams for each group within that category.

Instructors are assigned as owners of each team, and students who belong to multiple MyCourses groups are added to the corresponding teams. Group membership is synchronized periodically.

Once created, the list of linked teams appears in the Course Connector widget. Instructors and students can select a link to access the corresponding team directly.

Note: If a category is later unselected, the connected teams are retained unless they are removed according to the Course Cleaning Waiting Period policy. Re-selecting the category restarts synchronization.
Notifications – Unsubscribe from all | New

To improve user experience and reduce unwanted emails, notification emails from MyCourses now include an Unsubscribe link. Selecting the link opens a confirmation screen that allows users to opt out of email notifications, including instant and summary notifications.

Note: The Unsubscribe link does not require the user to enter MyCourses login credentials, which allows users without access to opt out directly.

Previously, users without login access could not unsubscribe unless they logged in to adjust their notification settings.

Brightspace confirmation message stating successful unsubscription from notifications and course update emails.
Figure: The Unsubscribe All Notifications confirmation page appears after clicking Unsubscribe in an email.

Note: If a user accidentally unsubscribes, they must log in to MyCourses to resubscribe to Notifications.

Groups – Export group enrollment data | New

Instructors can now export group enrollment data from the Groups tool to support easier attendance tracking, group-specific class lists, and contact list creation.

A new Export button now appears in the Groups tool. Instructors can use this button to export group data to a CSV file. The exported content includes:

  • Group category details
  • Group names
  • User enrollment information
  • Enrollment dates

You can choose a specific group or all groups within a selected category to include in the export.

Note: User details, such as First Name, Last Name, and Username, only appear if the user’s role has the appropriate User Information Privacy permissions to view user data.

Previously, there was no built-in method to export group data or user enrollment dates from the Groups tool.

Manage Groups page showing group list and highlighted Export button
Figure: From the Manage Groups page, click Export to download group data.
Export page with select category, select group dropdowns, and export button for groups
Figure: From the Export page, use the Select Category and Select Group drop-downs to choose the desired group set, then click Export to download group data.
Pulse App – View recurring events | New

Pulse now displays recurring events from the Events tab. This ensures that any recurring events that an instructor creates using the Calendar tool properly displays in Pulse. Previously, recurring events did not display in the Pulse app.

Quick Eval – Evaluate students across Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes | New

This release enables instructors to quickly iterate through their list of submissions in Quick Eval, even if those submissions are sourced from different activity types or courses. For example, an instructor has activities to grade in Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes and has been assigned items that appear in Quick Eval Submissions. The instructor directly accesses each submission to evaluate the items instead of navigating back to Quick Eval and going into each item again.

Previously, instructors had to click into each submission to view the evaluation and then click Back to Quick Eval to go to the Submissions view and then find the next submission to evaluate. With this release, instructors are redirected to the next evaluation as listed in the Quick Eval.

Important: This feature only works when the New Quiz Evaluation Experience is enabled.

Quick Eval activity open with forward and backward arrows to navigate between learners for evaluation.
Figure: From the Submissions view, select a submission and click on the linked student’s name. In the activity evaluation page, use the forward and backward arrows to toggle to the next or previous student to evaluate.
Quizzes – Enhanced Student Submission View | Updated

The quiz submission page now features a sleeker, modernized layout. The previous banner image has been replaced with a checkmark icon, along with other visual updates.

Submission confirmation message with clipboard and calendar.
Figure: The quiz submission page before this update.
Submission confirmation with timestamp and checkmark icon.
Figure: The quiz submission page after this update.
Quizzes – Improved quiz monitoring with Session IDs in Attempt Logs | New

Instructors can now use session IDs to discern when students have multiple sessions within a quiz attempt, helping detect potential academic dishonesty.

The Session ID column highlighted on the Attempt Logs page.
Figure: Check the Session ID column when viewing Attempt Logs > Detailed.

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