Originally published on internal 2U Confluence on 21 April 2022, appended on 9 August 2022
TL;DR:
We have just updated Studio’s course authoring experience for Text components inside of the course experience. Included below is a summary of the changes included in this update.
Release date: 4/21/22
Product owner: Marco Morales (Deactivated)
Formerly known as the HTML Component, the newly renamed Text Component includes updates that make it even easier to include text and images in your course content. The newly updated editor:
makes incorporating special characters and symbols easier,
adds undo / redo actions,
lets you author tables without going into HTML mode,
makes emoticons easy to include 💯
and more.
Updated Editor Overview
The visual above shows the updated Text component editor, with a new toolbar that starts with the new undo / redo actions, existing formatting options, text layout tools, as well as list and indentation controls. Additional details for the other tools are described below.
Adding Images
We have made it easier to reference existing files & uploads from your course in text components as shown in the visual below. You can search and sort all images as well as upload new images to your course as you are authoring a specific text component.
Table Tools
Another category of new tools we have added includes the addition of tables without needing to jump to the HTML editor. The table toolbar icon lets you drop in a table component, and selecting a given cell lets you create, remove, or adjust rows and columns.
Emoticons
You can now also easily add emoticons into your text content, a small but visually obvious way to break up long stretches of text content. You can see the emoticon library tool referenced below.
Special Characters
We have also introduced a way to include special characters into your text content, including mathematical and symbolic elements.
Full-Screen Editing Experience
This is useful when building blocks with a large amount of content.
Originally published on internal 2U Confluence on 15 April 2022
TL;DR:
Our new ORAs grading experience (internally known as Enhanced Staff Grader or ESG) will have a linked demo for all users on 4/18/2022. In this new on-platform grading experience one can easily preview common file types, assign rubric values, provide comments, and coordinate grading with all members of the course teams. In this demo, users will be able to preview the experience but will not be able to submit grades. On 5/2/2022, we will roll out the new grading experience to all users.
Release date: 5/2/2022
Product owner: Spencer Tiberi
What is it?
Key talking points for customers:
Is there anything a user needs to do to enable the feature?
Before full rollout on 5/2/2022, course teams may enable our new ORAs grading experience by reaching out to their partner support rep. To enable it for them, we simply need to flip the openresponseassessment.enhanced_staff_grader waffle flag for either their course run or the entire partner. Otherwise, the course teams will not need to do anything after 5/2/2022.
How does it connect to existing or future features?
This experience will work for both ORAs and Team ORAs!
Link(s) to additional details: https://2u-internal.atlassian.net/wiki/pages/createpage.action?spaceKey=PT&title=Partner%20Support%20Docs
Credits:Mat Carter (Deactivated) Nathan Sprenkle Ben Warzeski (Deactivated) Jansen Kantor Justin Lapierre (Deactivated) Leangseu Kim (Deactivated) Gabriel Weinberg (Deactivated)
Originally published on internal 2U Confluence on 7 April 2022
TL;DR:
Zoom integration is now available at the course level and if configured is available in the course navigation as the “Live” tab in the course navigation. Course teams can schedule and manage meetings and learners can see and attend those meetings from the Live area.
Release date: April 7th, 2022
Product owner: Aamir Ayub
What is it?
Zoom integration at course level has been delivered as part of this work. Course teams will be able to add LTI configurations for Zoom via the Pages & Resource area of Studio. Once configured, Zoom can be accessed in the Live tab as seen below.
Key talking points for customers:
Is there anything a user needs to do to enable the feature?
Course teams will need to enable Live app from the Live configuration card on Pages & Resources page in studio.
Course teams will need to contact their project coordinator to get PII sharing enabled for their course.
Once PII sharing is enabled, course teams can generate LTI credentials in the Zoom LTI Pro app using this procedure:
Create or log in to zoom account.
Install the Zoom LTI Pro app ( https://marketplace.zoom.us/apps/f8JUB3eeQv2lXsjKq5B2FA# ) from the marketplace in your account.
If you are using an institutional Zoom license, you may need to contact an administrator to have this application enabled for your license and use. They will be able to complete steps 3-6 and provide you the right LTI details.
Navigate to configurations of the LTI Pro app via the “Configure” option.
Click on “Create a new credential”.
LTI URL, LTI Key, LTI Secret will be auto-generated for you. Add these credentials to the “Live” app configuration interface, along with the email ID associated with your zoom account.
Add the string “instructor_email” to “Email or Employee Unique ID Attribute Name” configuration option.
Who will notice the change, and where (LMS/Studio)?
Course teams will see “Live” configuration card on Pages & Resources page in studio. Learners enrolled in the course will see “Live” tab in course navigation if Zoom has been configured for that course.
How does it connect to existing or future features?
We are planning to explore additional video-conferencing providers (ex: Big Blue Button) in the future.
Results:
We plan to monitor adoption and use of this feature across the edX catalog. We anticipate most usage will be in smaller degree or credit program courses. Features like these require educator planning, course design, and thus often take time to be adopted more broadly. In the future, synchronous learning tools like Zoom may also enable 2U product lines (ex: Bootcamps) to migrate some form of their existing learning experiences onto the Open edX platform.
Link(s) to additional details: https://2u-internal.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PROD/pages/8917534 (Spec Memo)
Credits: Thanks to the Infinity team for discovery, development, and testing features in this milestone, Jon F for UI/UX design and Marco Morales (Deactivated) for guidance and support.
Originally published on internal 2U Confluence on 17 February 2022
TL;DR:
Programs and Masters’s degree teams will now be able to integrate zoom into their edX program pages/degree portals. edX administrators can configure zoom so that these teams can schedule and manage meetings and learners can see and attend those meetings, in-platform.
Release date: Feb 17th, 2022
Product owner: Aamir Ayub
What is it?
Zoom integration at the program level has been delivered as part of this work. edX administrators can configure zoom for program + Master’s teams. Once configured, zoom can be accessed in the Live tab as seen below.
Key talking points for customers:
Is there anything a user needs to do to enable the feature?
Program teams will need to contact their partner support team in order to configure zoom. They will need to provide LTI integration credentials from the zoom LTI pro app which can be generated as follows:
Create or log in to zoom account.
Install the Zoom LTI Pro app ( https://marketplace.zoom.us/apps/f8JUB3eeQv2lXsjKq5B2FA# ) from the marketplace in your account.
If you are using an institutional Zoom license, you may need to contact an administrator to have this application enabled for your license and use. They will be able to complete steps 3-6 and provide you the right LTI details to share with the partner support team.
Navigate to configurations of the LTI Pro app via the “Configure” option.
Click on “Create a new credential”.
LTI URL, LTI Key, LTI Secret will be auto-generated for you and will be used in the next steps.
Add the following in the “Approved Domains” section:
For programs - add “https://edx.org ” and “https://courses.edx.org ”
For Master’s degrees - add “https://masters.edx.org”
Who will notice the change, and where (LMS/Studio)?
Learners enrolled in programs will see the new program progress page “Live” tab once Zoom has been enabled by edx administrators for their program.
How does it connect to existing or future features?
We are planning to have Zoom integration at the course level in the near future. It would be configurable in the “Live” configuration card on the “Pages and Resources” page (similar to configuring Discussions, Teams, etc.). Once configured and enabled, Zoom would appear in a “Live” tab similar to the “Course”, “Progress”, “Discussion” tabs in a course. More details to be shared on this effort soon!
Results:
We hope to enable this functionality for any Master’s using edX’s portal pages and existing off-platform video conferencing providers. Further adoption of this tool across programs will be explored with the help of our learning + partner success teams.
Link(s) to additional details: https://2u-internal.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PROD/pages/8914914 (Spec Memo)
Credits: Thanks to the Infinity team (Mehak Nasir (Deactivated) , Ahtisham Shahid , Asad Azam (Deactivated) , Awais Ansari , Awais Jibran (Deactivated) , Saad Yousaf ) for discovery, development, and testing features in this milestone and Marco Morales (Deactivated) for guidance and support.
Originally published on internal 2U Confluence on 17 February 2022
TL;DR:
Programs and Masters’s degree teams will now be able to integrate third-party discussion tools into their edX program pages / degree portals. The edX team can configure Yellowdig, Inscribe, EdDiscuss, or Piazza to be used in these new platform areas as a way to embed in-platform discussion communities, especially in situations where partners are already relying on a third-party integration.
Release date: Feb 17th, 2022
Product owner: Aamir Ayub
What is it?
Third-party discussion tools integration at the program level and visual updates to the program progress page have been delivered as part of this work. edX administrators can configure these for program + Master’s teams. Below you can see a visual example of the new Community tab which appears if a discussion integration is configured. Integration options include Inscribe, Piazza, YellowDig, and Ed Discuss.
For program progress pages, we have also made adjustments to page styling to move configured pathways to their own area instead of being forced into a sidebar on the page. This is particularly helpful for programs with many pathways configured as the new Pathways page helps improve readability.
Key talking points for customers:
Is there anything a user needs to do to enable the feature?
Program teams will need to contact edx staff in order to configure their discussion integrations at the program level. Depending on the provider partners may need to provide specific LTI details, but once the configuration request exists this can be enabled on program or degree portal areas.
Who will notice the change, and where (LMS/Studio)?
Program learners will see the new program progress page “Community” area once it has been enabled by edx staff.
How does it connect to existing or future features?
We are planning to have Zoom integration at the program and degree level in the near future. Once configured and enabled, Zoom would appear in a “Live” tab on these pages similar to the “Community” tab experience. More details to be shared on this effort soon!
Results:
We hope to enable this functionality for any Master’s using edX’s portal pages and existing off-platform discussion providers. Further adoption of this tool across programs will be explored with the help of our learning + partner success teams.
Link(s) to additional details: https://2u-internal.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PROD/pages/8914914 (Spec Memo)
Credits: Thanks to Infinity team (Mehak Nasir (Deactivated) , Ahtisham Shahid , Asad Azam (Deactivated) , Awais Ansari , Awais Jibran (Deactivated) , Saad Yousaf ) for discovery, development and testing features in this milestone. Also, thanks for Jon F for providing the UX design.