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This month, we’re excited to share several important updates to enhance your teaching experience with our learning technologies. New features include:

  • Automatic Zero for Missing Submissions
  • End of Life SMS messaging for iCollege notifications
  • Updates to the Slim Announcement, Content Navigator, and Profile Card homepage widgets
  • Changes to iCollege instructor enrollments and student course access

See below for details, and please get in touch with help@gsu.edu if you encounter any problems or have questions.

 

Available July 26th

Automatic Zero for Missing Submissions

The Automatic Zero for missing submissions feature now allows you to automatically assigns a score of zero to unsubmitted student activities after the due date, saving you the hassle of manual entry and giving students a more accurate view of their grades. This new feature supports file and text-based assignments (both individual and group), quizzes, and LTI tools, provided they’re connected to a grade item. Automatic Zero can be enabled from the Calculation Options tab of your Gradebook Settings.

Screenshot of the gradebook setting that enabled automatic zeroes.

In the instructor’s view of the gradebook, an Automatic Zero will appear as a 0 with a dashed underline, and hovering over the score will display a tooltip that the grade was automatically applied by the system.

Screenshot of the icon that appears for a grade item that has received an automatic 0.

 

 

iCollege Text Notifications End on July 26th

Effective July 26th, SMS notifications will be no longer be available from iCollege. To ensure uninterrupted communication, and stay up-to-date on announcements and deadlines, please encourage students to transition to using the Brightspace Pulse app for push notifications. In addition to push notifications, the Pulse app provides an easy view of course calendars, assignments, grades, and announcements.

How to Install Brightspace Pulse on a Mobile Device

 

Available August 2nd

Student Access to iCollege Courses and Automated Instructor Unenrollments

Starting August 2nd the “Course is active” checkbox will be removed from Course Offering Information, and Instructors will automatically be unenrolled from courses based on their instructor assignments in banner. Please see our iCollege Course Access and Enrollment Updates blog post for more information.

Respondus Lockdown Browser for Chromebooks

Respondus LockDown Browser for Chromebooks will be available for all RLDB quizzes delivered in iCollege and supports both the Lockdown Browser and Respondus Monitor.

In order for students to begin using Repondus Lockdown Browser on their Chromebooks, they will first need to allow pop-ups for iCollege in the Chrome Browser. Instructions on how to do this can be found here:

https://support.respondus.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409604356123-D2L-Brightspace-Chromebook-Cannot-move-past-the-start-quiz-page

Widget Updates

You may have noticed the message “Action Required: Support for this widget is ending. For automated support to replace this widget, visit Custom Widget Replacement Support Service” on the Profile Card, Content Navigator, and Slim Announcement widgets. We want to assure you that we will be automatically updating all these widgets for you, requiring no action on your part.

Screenshot of the end of support notification on the Profile Card, Slim Announcement, and Content Navigator widgets.

Other News

Vevox for Polling and Class Engagement

With Vevox, a polling and class engagement tool, instructors can create real-time polling and word clouds, conduct interactive quizzing, and allow for anonymous Q&A, and more at no cost to your students!

Vevox is fully integrated into iCollege and its gradebook and also integrates with PowerPoint, MS Teams, and Office365 to make it an easy add-on to already existing course materials. Additionally, embedded data analytics make it easy to quickly assess both learning and student engagement.

To learn more about Vevox, visit https://www.vevox.com/features  or view the Vevox YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@Vevoxapp.   

You can request that this tool be enabled for your iCollege course(s) by completing this brief form, selecting “Other” as your option, and entering “Vevox” as the tool you would like to enable.