Frost Designer
User Group Improvements
We’ve provided users with an improved UI. Previously, when 150 or more users were added to a group, the system used to take up to five minutes to create the group. Also, in the absence of an UI indication, it was difficult to track the group creation process.
With the improved performance, adding 150 or more users to a group now takes under one minute. The UI will now indicate users once the group gets added/updated successfully. Performance will be optimized, a large number of users can be added in a group in a significantly lesser amount of time.
Conflict Resolution in User Groups
A conflict arises when any user is added to a particular project, be it individually or via a group. Initially, in such a case, the system did not allow the user to proceed while editing the group or assigning a project to an existing group, and the user had to manually remove the conflicting users.
We’ve now provided the user with the ability to skip users when editing a group or assigning projects to a group. It means the conflict user will be removed from the group automatically. Users will be able to easily edit the group or assign projects to a group now, with a button click, hence saving effort and time.
HTML Import/Export
All the course components, including management objects and metadata, are now supported in HTML exports irrespective of whether they are associated with the TOC/Authored Content or not. Earlier, HTML export only supported export of elements that were used in authoring. Any non-utilized element was skipped in the export process. Now, not only will the TOC and authored content get exported out (and imported back), but also the unassociated assets/objects/elements will be available in the export package, and will render in the management section on importing the package. As a result, no data will be lost and the user will be able to use the same HTML package across many Frost instances.
Support of Additional Question Types in Canvas
Canvas is one of the most widely used LMS among our customer base. The following question types are now supported in Canvas Exports, both LTI and non-LTI:
- Essay (with feedback) in Canvas will map to open-ended with response in Frost
- Essay (without feedback) in Canvas will map to open-ended without response in Frost
- Fill in the blanks in Canvas will map to FIB in Frost
- Fill in multiple blanks in Canvas will map to FIB in Frost
- Matching in Canvas will map to FIB drop-down in Frost
With the addition of new question types, users will be able to author more question types in Frost to use it in Canvas, and vice versa. Thus, filling the import export gap completely.
Global Content Update across Reused Objects
We’ve provided users with an updated UI indication that will distinguish between objects that are LOR referenced but not edited locally and Objects that are LOR referenced and edited locally. Prior to this feature, any update in LOR did not reflect in Courses.
The new feature allows updates performed in LOR (directly or via publish or republish) to reflect in the courses where these objects are reused. When the reused content is edited locally, the local changes will be retained and will not take a direct update from LOR. With the new indication, users will be able to identify whether that object is LOR referenced or edited locally post reuse.
Support of Open-ended Questions in D2L Exports
This new feature will work as a first step towards reducing the import export gap in D2L packages. We’ve provided users with the support of open-ended questions in D2L Exports. Open-ended questions authored in Designer (both with and without response) maps to written response question type in D2L.
Users will be avoiding the data loss issue with this feature, and be able to author open-ended questions in Designer and render them in D2L.
Frost LOR (Learning Object Repository)
Download the Exported FCD Packages
We’ve provided users with the mechanism to download the FCD i.e. Frost Course Package from the learning object repository. Enabling the download option directly in LOR helps users to download the course in the available exportable format from the repository interface.
Users will be able to download the course packages directly instead of navigating to the admin module or designer module for downloading the exported package. This makes the process easy, saves time, and also maintains the consistency of the download functionality.
Thumbnail Integration for Resources
Users will be able to view the thumbnail for the resources, websites, documents and PDFs, thereby providing an enhanced user experience of the product(s).
Frost Align
Blackboard Goals XML
We’ve provided the ease of building learning outcomes/goals directly to Blackboard LMS by using the same taxonomies as in Align.
Users will be able to export any taxonomy from Align (Learning Outcomes, Goals, Standards, etc.) in XML format compatible with Blackboard, and, in turn, just have it uploaded to Blackboard to form the goals. This feature builds a direct connection between Align and Blackboard.
Frost Explore
Browse by Standards – Vertical Alignments
Users will be able to view the standards alignment with the resources/materials list. This feature enables linking lessons, skills and assessments together as a holistic experience, and helps educators prioritize, focus, reinforce and place learning in new contexts.
We’ve enabled users to view all standards related information in a single space. This helps with a better perspective, gives an understanding of student expectations standards, standards of the same degree, standards aligned with same skills across different degrees, and materials associated with the standards at every level.
Enhanced Resource Preview
We’ve provided users with a resource preview page that has all the information aligned to the resources such as standards, keywords and the previewable resources. This feature provides an enhanced user experience of the resource preview page where users will be able to view all the alignments in an organized way, with an added option to preview websites as well.
Additionally users can download, bookmark, share the resource with the students through the Google Classroom, and also preview the resources from the Student’s view – how it will be accessible to the students in Google Classroom.
Thumbnail Integration for Resources
Users will be able to view the thumbnail of the following resources, websites, documents and PDFs, thereby providing an enhanced user experience of the product(s).
Authoring a Lesson
We’ve provided our Explore users with the capability of authoring a lesson. Explore products will be able to give users an option to author or develop their own content in the form of lessons. In addition to browsing the resources, downloading the resources and sharing the resources in Google classroom through Explore. Users will now be able to author the resources as well. They will be able to add the content pages into the lesson, They will also have the capability of previewing the lesson, how it looks like before making it available in the Explore repository.