O artigo em português está aqui: [BROKEN LINK]Atualizações Da Nova Experiência De Conteúdo
El artículo en español se encuentra aquí: Actualizaciones A La Nueva Experiencia De Contenido
What is the New Content Experience?
The New Content Experience (also referred to as Lessons) is a streamlined content view that simplifies content creation and management for Instructors. Originally launched a few years ago, we are actively investing in maturing the New Content Experience to add functionality users are familiar with from Classic Content while keeping the ease-of-use benefits it offers to users. We continue to support both Classic Content and the New Content Experience as we invest in the new experience.
What has changed in the New Content Experience recently?
Recently we have been working on improving the Edit pages within the New Content Experience. The new Edit pages align Content editing with the recently released Assignment editing.
We have heard your feedback! One of the top requested items is setting Availability dates and Due Dates in the New Content Experience. The new Edit pages provide Instructors with the option to set content to be available to Learners between the start/end dates and set due dates that Learners can track in their upcoming work to do.
The new Edit pages were released as Early Availability in August 2021 (20.21.8) for Modules, HTML Topics, Weblinks, LTI Links, and Uploaded Files. Since August, we incrementally added additional topic types to use new Edit pages. As of May 2022 (20.22.5) we also have new Edit pages for SCORM, Media (audio/video), LOR (Learning Object Repository), Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive.
Image: New Edit page for HTML Topics
In addition to date support, the new Edit pages also introduce certain functionality specific to that type of content. SCORM topics now support changing the associated grade item. Media topics now support advanced editing capabilities (captions, cuts, chapters). Some topics support replacing the file, and some also include an embedded preview on the edit page to ensure the correct object was selected.
How do I enable these features?
The ability to see these new Edit pages is controlled by two configuration variables:
- d2l.Tools.Content.LessonsCreateExperienceOptIn
- On: Instructors see the new Edit page.
- On (Opt-In): Instructors may opt into or out of the new Edit page within a specific course at any time
- Off: Instructors will continue to see the current Edit page without the added functionality
- d2l.Tools.Content.NewExperienceDisplayDates
- On: Availability and Due Dates set in the new Edit pages are visible to users in New Content Experience and Learner Experience navigation
- Off: Users will be unable to view Availability and Due Dates added through the new Edit pages
Administrators can choose to enable these configuration variables at the organization level or more granularly at a Department or Course level.
Are the Edit pages complete, or are there other changes coming soon?
We are just finalizing the last changes to the Edit pages. The last two changes are:
- Adding support for changing the grade associations on LTI topics - previously only possible through Classic Content or on the LTI provider side.
- Adding a new Create/Edit page for Discussion topics from New Content Experience (this does not change the Create/Edit page used on the Discussions tool) - currently instructors can only set the title of the discussion through New Content, this will be adding the ability to set and manage the dates.
Both of these items bring continued added value to the new Edit pages and are also missing from the current Edit experience. Neither would prevent you from leveraging the new Edit pages today!
When will this be the default Edit Experience?
At this point, we are wrapping up work on the new Edit pages and it is time to enable these features for your organization. Administrators can update the configuration variable at a time best for your organization. It can be enabled for specific courses or departments to try out first before enabling for your entire organization.
In May 2022, release 20.22.05, the configuration variable d2l.Tools.Content.LessonsCreateExperienceOptIn was updated to ‘On (Opt-In)’, and d2l.Tools.Content.NewExperienceDisplayDates was updated to 'On'. This Opt-In value will display the new Edit pages to Instructors and the option to Opt-Out as desired. If they choose to Opt-Out, they will also have a chance to share feedback about why they are opting out of the feature.
Image: This is the Opt-In pulldown menu Instructors would see with the configuration in the ‘On (Opt-In)’ state
In December 2022, release 20.22.12, the configuration variable d2l.Tools.Content.LessonsCreateExperienceOptIn will be updated to ‘On’. This change will be applied to all sites and any instructors who had previously opted-out will now see the New Edit pages. Note, the configuration variables will remain until March 2023, release 20.23.3 for Administrators to adjust on an as-needed basis but is not recommended.
It is important to note that these changes have no impact to any courses using Classic Content
What is happening with Pacing Dates?
This new date functionality on the Edit pages replaces the previous Pacing Dates feature to avoid too many conflicting dates. Pacing Dates was a feature that provided suggested dates to start teaching content that was only instructor visible and did not control learner visibility of the topics. Additionally, Pacing functioned for Instructors only if their entire course was planned and structured before the course started.
We have found that the current state of Pacing Dates did not meet the requirements for what it was developed to address. We will revisit Pacing in the future after more User Research studies around what matters for Pacing a course and who should see the dates.
In January 2022, Pacing was used in less than 0.5% of active New Content Experience enabled courses. While this number is very low, we recognize that changing to the new date functionality may impact the pacing set-up in those active courses. Courses with existing Pacing Dates set were supported until the end of the school year for your organization. As of March 2023, Pacing Dates will no longer be supported in favour of using the availability dates and due dates on the new Edit pages.
Sharing your feedback
A key benefit of enabling this feature early is the ability for Instructors at your organization to share feedback directly with the team at D2L. If you are opting out, we encourage you to share your feedback on the new experience within the prompt that appears. This feedback is monitored and directly influences our user research and development planning.
If you have additional questions, please share them in the comments below.