We are happy to announce a new batch of features and fixes for the SuiteC collaboration tools:
Whiteboards
While we had initially planned to retire the SuiteC Whiteboard tool, it had a lot of fans, so we’ve brought it back! Users can once again collaborate on Whiteboards directly from SuiteC, and publish them to the Asset Library. Whiteboards can be enabled in all bCourses sites under Settings > Navigation. See this knowledge base article for more detailed instructions: How do I enable the SuiteC tools in bCourses?
Impact Studio
The Impact Studio provides visualizations about students' contributions to a course and how students interact with each other's contributions. This tool fosters a sense of community and provides a space to more easily find collaborators for group projects. For access to the Impact Studio, email bcourseshelp@berkeley.edu
Section Siloing
Large courses, or anyone who wants more control over how students engage with the SuiteC tools can now enable Section Siloing, so that students can only interact with students enrolled in the same section. For example, when this setting is enabled, students can only see assets contributed to the Asset Library, and collaborate on whiteboards with students in the same section.
To enable Section siloing:
- Navigate to the Asset Library
- Select “Manage Assets”
- Check “Students can only access assets created by others enrolled in the same sections.”
Note that many Berkeley courses have primary and secondary sections. If you wish to use this feature, it may be necessary to modify the sections linked to your course site.
Group Filtering
Instructors and students can now filter the Asset Library to discover assets created by members of a specific Canvas group. To use group filtering, navigate to the Asset Library, click the down arrow in the search field to open advanced search, and select a group from the new group drop-down menu. Note that this menu will only appear in courses using the Canvas Groups feature.