2021 Release Notes

  • Updated

September 2021

Canvas: Select Single Group Set Per Topic

  • Group sets and groups sync automatically with Harmonize
  • Instructors can select a single group set to use per topic
  • Filter discussion view by individual groups
  • Students will only see posts from other students within their group
  • Items of Note:
    • This feature requires LTI 1.3 to function.
    • It will require the use of the Canvas API and requires an additional Developer Key to be installed with read-only permissions.

Directional Support

  • Harmonize now offers Right-to-Left Text & Left to Right Language input when creating a post or adding a comment.

August 2021

Group Sets and Groups in Blackboard

  • Group sets and groups sync automatically with Harmonize
  • Instructors can select a single group set to use per topic
  • Filter discussion view by individual groups
  • Students will only see posts from other students within their group
  • Items of Note:

Annotation Updates

  • Drawing is now allowed outside of the image boundary
  • Pressure sensitivity is now supported when using a touch sensitive device such as Apple Pencil or Wacom tablet
  • Eraser functionality has been added to the freehand drawing tool
  • You may now restrict the straight line tool to 45 degree angle increments by holding the shift key

July 2021

Improved Commenting UI

  • When adding comments to a post in a discussion, we have added shortcuts for including richer content such as embedded links, video recordings or even polls. Just click on one of the icons to begin adding content to your comments

Standalone Polling

June 2021

Polling in Discussions or as a Standalone Resource

  • Get feedback and insight on a question quickly and quantifiable by using polling within Harmonize
  • Assess where your students are in their learning, understand takeaways or stimulate the discussion by adding a poll
  • Polling
  • Polling-1

Individual Q&A Topics

  • Add an individual Q&A Topic to a module to target specific questions for the material
  • Q&A Boards

Communication Center Available in All LMSs

Groups in Blackboard

  • Using Harmonize LTI 1.3, Blackboard users can now set discussions to group-level visibility

Updates to Recording Video & Audio

  • Controls have been simplified to make recording more intuitive for all users
  • harmonize_video_recording

May 2021

Canvas: Harmonize Communication Center

  • Access all of the Harmonize products from one central location
  • View Discussion Topics, the Q&A Board, Chat or view your Profile & Notification Settings
  • If you select Harmonize from the left hand navigation (Canvas Only) it will display the new Communication Center
  • CommunicationCenter-1

Enabling/Disabling Course Q&A Board

  • The Q&A Board will be enabled by default
  • Instructors can easily enable or disable the Q&A Board
  • If a board was disabled and questions and answers were added, then the board will be re-enabled and the questions and answers will persist.
  • EnableQ&A

Control Topic Display on Harmonize Topic List Page

  • If the instructor has added a discussion topic to a module or page, they may not want the Topic to appear on the Harmonize Discussion page of topics.
  • A new setting on the edit topic screen allows the Instructor to choose to show or hide the topic on the Harmonize discussion page.
  • harmonizeDiscussionPage

Permanently Delete a Post or Comment

  • Instructors always had the option to delete a post or comment created by a student, but Harmonize displayed the post or comment to the Instructor with a note that it was administratively deleted.
  • Now after deleting a post or comment, Instructors have the option to permanently delete the post or comment and not have it visible to the instructor.
  • PermanetlyDelete

Course Question & Answer Board

  • Looking for an answer to a specific question? Need help? Utilize the new question & answer feature to do that and more, now part of Harmonize.
    • Instructors can mark a response as the Best Answer
    • Search for a question or answer by keywords to easily find solutions
    • Filter to find the Best Answer, unread questions or questions that do not have a Best Answer
    • Easily find questions that you flagged for follow up
    • Endorse a question or answer
  • Q&A Boards

Adding Harmonize Resources to Courses

  • Adding Harmonize resources to a module or page (Canvas), is now even easier.
  • A new wizard is now available to help you choose the best mode of communication for your module - Discussion, Q&A or Chat.

Institution-Wide Support Listing

  • Add your Institution's course & technical support contact to assist Instructors and Students get to the right place to help answer questions or issues in a timely manner.

Set a Default Language for Closed Captioning

  • Instructors can set the default language when auto-captioning recorded or uploaded video files.

Download All Attachments

  • Instructors can now download all attachments in a Topic, into a zip file, named by student

March 2021

Chat Push Notifications

  • Never miss a chat message!
  • Students & Instructors can now opt in to receive push notifications to their devices.
  • Note: This currently only works on Desktop and Android devices

Canvas: Add Harmonize Topics to a Page

  • Harmonize Topics can now be added to a Canvas Page, by using the plug icon.

Access Activity Directly from a User's Profile

  • We have added another way to view student's activity.
  • Click on their name and click Activity

February 2021

Student Facilitation

  • Students engage more in peer facilitated discussion
  • Peer modeling
  • Keep discussion focused
  • Advance and deepen discussion.
  • Provide opportunity for all voices to be heard.
  • Leave participants challenged and willing to engage in follow-up conversations
  • Setting Up Student Facilitators In Your Discussion
  • StudentFacilitator

January 2021

Participation Auto Grading

  • Take Milestone's to the next step with Auto-Participation Grading by having Harmonize assign credit to a student simply by completing the assigned tasks
  • Participation grading is done without the Instructor's intervention saving time in the grading process
  • ParticipationGrade

Other Updates

  • Support for HEIC (iPhone file type) image uploads
  • Harmonize Chat email notifications for unread chat messages

Release Notes from Previous Years

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