Attention eClass Users,

Please be aware that in June 2019, we will be performing a major version upgrade to eClass. This upgrade will introduce a variety of bug fixes and feature improvements across the site.

The upgrade will require a full system outage, which has been scheduled for Saturday, June 22nd 2019 from 12:00AM until Sunday June 23rd at 11:59PM (48 hours).

The main system features that will change in the new version of eClass are listed below:

Highlights

• Quiz question banks now have tagging functionality enabled. Instructors can create tags when editing questions, filter by tags when working in the question bank, and add random question sets to quizzes based on tags.

Quiz Improvements

• Instructors can now add file type restrictions to Essay questions.
  
• Instructors can now embed files as feedback when manually grading quiz questions.
  

Assignment Improvements

• A link to ‘View all submissions’ has been added as a return path within the PDF grading screen.
• Clicking ‘Next page’ within the assignment grading interface will now reset scrolling to the top of the next page.
• All dates/times in eClass assignment activities can now be set to the nearest minute.
• The assignment grading rubric overlay has now been re-sized.

Miscellaneous Changes

• Badges can now be used as criteria for achieving other badges.
  
• Choice activity: Students are now informed of how their selected choice will be displayed within the course (unless the results table is already being shown to them).
• SCORM activity: Instructors can now enable a setting to force users to begin a new attempt when entering the SCORM activity.
• Instructors in non-credit courses can now bulk-delete self-enrollments.
• Glossary activity: Users can now link directly to individual glossary entries.
• The default gradebook export format has been changed to a plain text .csv file.
• Various known issues have been resolved.
• The ability to orphan course topics has been re-enabled.

Please also note that the following features have been deprecated and will no longer be available in the new version of eClass:

• Kaltura Media - Kaltura media plugins have been removed from eClass and it will no longer be possible to add new Kaltura content via the HTML editor. Links to existing Kaltura media will still function in the system.
  
• iClicker Regristration Activity - this plugin is no longer available as iClickers are no longer supported.
• Respondus Lockdown Browser Block - this plugin is no longer available as RLDB is no longer supported.

This list of features may be subject to change before the upgrade takes place. We will be providing training and support materials to prepare users for major changes as the upgrade date draws closer.

If you have any questions about this upgrade, please contact us at eclass@ualberta.ca. Also, if you are interested in testing the latest features coming to eClass and have not yet signed up to be involved in User Acceptance Testing (UAT), please contact us for more information.

Regards,
IST eClass Support