This content was published: January 6, 2023. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
Quarterly Updates for Winter 2023
Posted by Andy Freed | Start the discussion
We have a few updates to share with you about updates to the online learning ecosystem. The most notable is the addition of new video tools for students in the Kaltura/My Media section. Also, we’ve launched new training sessions, and stipends are available for PT faculty.
D2L Brightspace
LTI integrations
Integrations with Zoom, Kaltura, Ally, Lumen, Hypothesis, and VoiceThread have all been updated to the latest LTI protocol, which improves security and functionality.
Unfortunately, in both Zoom and Kaltura, you’ll notice the info doesn’t fill the whole page. This issue should be fixed in the January update at the end of the month.
Preview – New Quiz Experience
New Quiz Experience is coming this spring or summer. It attempts to make the quiz creation experience similar to the new Assignments experience. We’ll have more information as we approach the release date.
Availability Dates Default
You can now set default values for new activities so every new assignment or discussion has the settings you want. This will not change existing activities but could be useful for setting up a new course.
Kaltura/My Media
Kaltura My Media for students
Students are now able to use Kaltura’s MyMedia to capture, upload and embed videos. While this is a soft rollout, it will open up opportunities for new and different types of assessment.
We’ve even put together this nifty video tool comparison for you to see which option may best meet your and your students’ needs.
Kaltura updated to LTI 1.3
There are some slight labeling changes/workflow changes with Kaltura just completed shown below.
- Kaltura LTI 1.3 Quick Link label change.
- Kaltura LTI 1.3 Insert Stuff label change. The MyMedia icon is gone, and the language now says Embed Kaltura Media (Insert Stuff)
Zoom
Upgraded integration
Over the break, we improved the integration with Zoom to use the new LTI 1.3 protocol which is more secure and will offer more functionality in the future. Unfortunately, due to a bug, some tools will have a smaller view frame until a fix is released in late January.
Personal Meeting Rooms and security
Be judicious in your use of personal meeting rooms. The link for a personal meeting room is persistent, so anyone who has the link will have that link even when they are no longer your student. Personal Meeting rooms can be great for office hours and impromptu meetings, and paired with a waiting room, prevents privacy violations like mixing students from different courses.
When scheduling lectures, please avoid using personal meeting rooms. Both the meetings and the recordings may expose student information.
Zoom “Human” avatars
Zoom has added an option to create your own personal avatar in client version 5.13. I think it’s weird, but mostly because I’m not thrilled with the one I created. Maybe it’ll work for students who don’t want to be on camera or expose their background but still want to have some presence in your meeting.
Hypothes.is
Reading Groups
Integration has been updated to make use of D2L’s native groups functionality and Hypothesis’ reading assignments to facilitate reading groups.
More training
We still have training opportunities available for using Hypothes.is. PT faculty are even eligible for a stipend for winter term for attending training and trying out Hypothesis.
About Andy Freed
I'm the Director of Learning Technology & Innovation (LTI!), where I oversee our infrastructure, technical support, and online student services teams. I've been with the College since 2001 and have worked in several positions, from tech... more »
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