Attention eClass Users,

Please be aware that in June 2023, we will be performing a major version upgrade to eClass. This release includes a complete overhaul of the look and feel of the site as well as a wide variety of feature improvements.

This version is a major milestone for our LMS provider, Moodle, as it delivers a fresh, contemporary user interface that redefines the course experience while making the existing features and functional enhancements more intuitive to use.

Watch a video preview of the new eClass interface here.

Some of the main system features that will change in the new version of eClass are listed below. Instructors should also review this list of specific highlights that may impact their course creation and delivery.

Usability and Visual Changes

• The sitewide interface has been updated with a new modern look & feel.
• A course index has been added to replace the navigation column on the left hand side of the site. This index provides navigation to course sections, indicates activity restriction information, and completion tracking details. Instructors can also now use the course index to easily highlight and move content items or entire sections. 
• The mechanism for creating and moving sections while editing courses has been improved. 
• A new searchable timeline block has been added to each user’s dashboard, underneath the course overview. This block displays upcoming, time-sensitive information for students from across all of their courses.
• Course Calendars have been overhauled to improve usability.
• The Database activity has been overhauled to improve usability.
• The Label resource has been renamed to ‘Text and media area’.

Question Bank Improvements

• A versioning system has been added to questions to track changes and view editing history.
• Questions can now be switched to a draft status to prevent them from being used in any quizzes.
• The question bank now displays ‘last used’ and ‘last modified’ columns, as well as 2 basic question statistics: facility index and discrimination index. These values allow instructors to quickly identify any questions that are statistical outliers that should be reviewed. 
• Question names can now be edited in place and bulk question changes are now possible.
• Students now receive a more prominent warning if they attempt to submit a quiz containing unanswered questions.
• Instructors now see a question’s text, specific feedback, and correct answers when scores are overridden during manual grading.
• Completing the manual grading of essay questions now triggers an alert for students.
• A new workflow for printing quizzes has been added.

Miscellaneous Changes

• An alternative version of the certificate plugin will be released.
• Repairs will be made to course questions banks where CLOZE questions have become corrupt and/or are not functioning correctly.
• Instructors will now be able to see student ID numbers when viewing student lists on the participants, grades, and groups pages.
• A new block type allows instructors to nest multiple blocks within a single one.

Please note that this list of features may be subject to change before the upgrade takes place. 

Also be aware that the following features or tools in eClass are being deprecated during this outage:

• The PDF Annotation tool will be removed.
• After the upgrade, videos can no longer be uploaded via Stream2. Existing Stream2 videos will continue to function. Users should use the YuJa enterprise video platform instead. 

Since this new version of eClass brings in such widespread changes, we are releasing our User Acceptance Testing site earlier than usual on February 17th, 2023. Accessing UAT provides users an opportunity to experience the new look and feel of the site and experiment with new features in advance of the full release.

We will be contacting UAT participants directly with access instructions so if you have not yet signed up to be a UAT participant, please contact us at eclass@ualberta.ca. Please note that UAT participation is currently limited to Faculty and Staff at the U of A.

If you have any questions about this upgrade please let us know.

Regards,
IST eClass Support