Digication Development Update - 05/30/2025

Dear Digication Community,

Update: There will be a brief delay in releasing this feature: Ability to add and customize section name, module name, page name, and work title. All other features in our recent development update are being deployed the week of June 16, 2025.

In keeping with our commitment to providing a two-week notice in advance of any changes to our user interface, we would like to let you know about some upcoming UI, accessibility and feature improvements that will occur the week of June 16, 2025, and a list of recent accessibility improvements that have been implemented since our last report.

Ability for students to self-enroll in courses

Digication will support student self-enrollment for Kora Courses. When enabled, faculty will be able to choose to allow students to enroll themselves in a course during setup.

This feature will save time for faculty managing large groups of students as it eliminates the need to manually add students one by one. For students, it provides a quick and convenient way to join the appropriate courses, especially when they need to enroll by a deadline or as part of an assessment or advising requirement.

Ability to print ePortfolio pages

Digication users will be able to print ePortfolio pages while creating or editing an ePortfolio and when reviewing a student submission. This new option will include a preview and the ability to save the page as a PDF. It will make it easier for users to document their work, create offline records, or share pages outside the platform.

The print view will support content such as text, tables, images, embedded content, and files like Google Docs or Slides. For some embedded content, such as embedded videos, a preview or thumbnail may appear in place of the full item to provide a consistent and readable layout. To improve formatting and readability, pages will be printed in a simplified single-column layout. This feature will be available only on desktop devices.

Improved assessment view with assignment information panel

In the upcoming release, Digication will introduce a new assignment information panel in the submission view to provide quick access to assignment details during the assessment process.

This feature will be available to both students and faculty:

• Students will see the panel when they go to My Submissions and open any submission.
• Faculty will see the same panel when reviewing submissions through the Grade Book or during assessment.

The panel will display key information such as Assignment title and description, Prompt details, Availability details, Grading details, and Assessment-related information.

The interface will be responsive and optimized for all screen sizes.

By keeping assignment details and assessments side by side, this update will reduce the need to switch between different screens. Whether submitting work or reviewing it, users will have all the context they need in one convenient place.

New visibility indicator for submissions

In the upcoming release, Digication will introduce a new peer visibility setting and indicator to help students better manage and confirm the sharing status of their submitted work. When students visit My Submissions, they will see a new “Change Settings” dropdown menu with two options: 

• Share with peers 
• Private

Once a selection is made, the sharing status will be saved and clearly indicated on the submission page. If the submission is shared with peers, a visible icon and tooltip will appear stating “This work is shared with peers” next to each submission under the “My Assignments and Activities” section.

Previously, students had no direct method to confirm whether their submissions were correctly shared with peers after submission.. This change is designed to resolve this common issue reported by students.

Upcoming UI & Accessibility improvements

• Ability to add and customize section name, module name, page name, and work title.

Coming Soon: Ability to add and customize section name, module name, page name, and work title

After a brief delay, our upcoming update will introduce UI and accessibility improvements for Work pages. Users will be able to add and customize styles for work, section, module, and page names/titles, which enhance both the appearance and organization of their pages. Meaningful titles for sections and modules provide better context and make it easier to structure content effectively.

These improvements also enhance screen reader navigation as they clearly define the page structure. Moreover, generating unique page names helps users quickly differentiate between pages. This helps to improve accessibility for all users, including those who use screen readers.

The new feature improvement highlights the following functionalities:

• When you create a section or module, it will be given a default name (e.g., Section 1, Module 1).
• Newly created sections and modules will have their names hidden by default. You can choose to show or hide their names as needed. To update a section or module name, first select "Show name", then enter the new name in the input field.
• The Header Section now includes options to show or hide the Work Title.
• You have the option to display or hide the Page name in the first section of the Work page. 
• The header, sections, and modules will have a new Settings icon to customize styles such as font, size, color, background, images, etc., for work titles, section and module names, and page names.
• You can choose to apply your styling preferences to all new sections/modules or apply them to existing ones.
• Each page in a Work will now have a unique name generated by default. This name will be displayed in the first section below the navigation bar.
• You can edit the page name, change its visibility with the Show/Hide Page Name option, and customize its style using the settings icon.

Recent Accessibility improvements

September 

• Now, screen readers will announce, "Move prompt <number> by using Up/Down arrows," and after moving, they will announce "Prompt moved from <index1> to <index2>."
• Added unique labels to move prompt buttons. Now, each button includes the prompt number (e.g., "Move prompt <prompt number>").
• Added labels for assignment type radio buttons to announce their checked/unchecked state.
• Improved thumbnail image selection accessibility in the assignment header area. Screen readers now announce the selected icon, confirm when an image is uploaded through the unsplash/file picker, and use improved alt text.
• Improved usability for embedding links by automatically adding "https://" when the protocol is missing in the URL. Previously, users had to manually include it for the embed button to work.
• Improved clarity on how to start an assignment. It's now updated to provide a more intuitive experience.
• Improved accessibility for recording audio/video features. The "Start" and "Stop" buttons are now clearly labeled, are keyboard-accessible, show success notifications, are auto-focused, and are read by screen readers.
• Improved accessibility for the text editor toolbar. Buttons with additional options, such as lists, are now correctly announced as "groups" instead of "dialogs" by screen readers.
• Fixed focus issues in JAWS where interaction with assignments would shift focus to the top of the page. Now, the focus remains on newly added modules or prompt content.
• Added notifications and screen reader announcements for outcome creation and selection.

October

• When multiple prompt modules are used, to avoid each getting the same label, we have improved accessibility by labeling "Embed" buttons as "Add content: Embed to <module name>/<prompt instruction>."
• The link text has been updated to "To create new assignments, open Digication in a new tab", replacing the previous "Click here" label in the External tool menu.
• Added alerts and screen reader announcements for file uploads. When a file is uploaded from the file picker, My Files, or Unsplash, screen readers will announce it.

December

• Improved navigation for screen reader users in the assignment create/edit page. A visually hidden heading has been added for prompts and templates. The tab order has also been improved to better-use arrow keys to navigate within sections.

January

• Previously, equation announcements were skipped by screen readers. Now, equations will be announced in read mode, and in edit mode, they will be announced when you tab through them.

February

• Added first name and last name as row headers to improve cell identification by screen readers for tables on pages like People, Courses, etc. Earlier, all cells were identified using only the column header.
• Added an alt tag to the system logo, now including "<school name> logo" for better accessibility.
• Fixed missing form labels on the homepage. All "Show Current" dropdowns now have labels.
• Updated the page title format in Work pages to display the page name first, followed by the Workname, to have unique page titles.
• Improved the announcement of auto-saving messages by screen readers. Earlier, this announcement was sometimes missed due to conflicting alerts or because user inputs were prioritized over alerts.
• Improved auto-saving announcements for flows like adding new work, existing work, creating work, and adding as a template. Previously, these were missed by screenreaders due to conflicting alerts or user input prioritization.

March

• An option was added to set a column as a row header in the table module. By default, the first column is used, but users can change it using the "Set Column as Header" option in table edit.
• Labels in the Edit Module/Section sidebar settings have been changed to text labels, which were previously identified as buttons.
• Fixed the issue where camera access was required for audio recordings. Now, only microphone permission is needed when recording audio.
• Fixed issue where the Header Section settings menu could not be accessed on iPads after unlocking, due to disappearing menu buttons.
• Fixed default navigation color contrast issue in some ePortfolios by adding missing styles for nav modules.

April

• Fixed issue where the add content to page/Conversations/a11y buttons would sometimes not respond when positioned near section speed dial buttons.
• Added ARIA labels for page/content view checkboxes in the Organizer tool to improve screen reader accessibility.

May

• Added loading animation to program and ePortfolio submissions to prevent blank screens during load times.
• Fixed issue preventing ePortfolio Admins and Publishers from submitting to assignments when shared through Kora Courses; submission menu now appears as expected.

Kind Regards,
Your Friends at Digication