MyLA-Summer-2021.02.05 Release Notes

MyLA-Summer-2021.02.05 Release Notes

Overview

This release includes bug fixes to the Resources Accessed view as well as console errors in the UI and a security fix.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where access events did not display for the first week of the class. The events included are now inclusive of all the weeks selected on the slider.
• Fixed console errors related to Material UI and D3.
• Fixed a potential security issue by moving collectstatic out of Dockerfile.

Configuration & Operations Changes

• None

MyLA Summer 2021 Release (2021.02.04)

MyLA-Summer-2021.02.04 Release Notes

Overview

This release includes a revision of the events query to use the UDP expanded events table and a fix to Resources Accessed counts of file accesses.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue with the counts that displayed on the bars for each file or video in the Resources Accessed chart.

Configuration & Operations Changes

• Rewrite the BigQuery events query in the cron to use the expanded events table in the UDP. See the U-M custom queries for details: https://github.com/tl-its-umich-edu/my-learning-analytics/wiki/Deploy:-Institution-Architectures
• Note: When upgrading, U-M noticed an issue with material-ui which upgraded to 4.12.0 because of the minor version match. This resulted in the header colors not being applied. 4.12.1 released the next day seemed to fix this but we aren't sure why. We plan to have a better fix for this in the future. If you see this issue you maybe have to change the version of material-ui in package.json and rebuild.

MyLA Spring 2021 Second Release (2021.02.03)

MyLA-Spring-2021.02.03 Release Notes

Overview

This release includes minor configuration updates and an upgrade to Django.

Fixes

• Code fix for backward compatibility of SameSite for Django prior to 3.1.
• Fixed an issue with the LTI auto-configuration to allow LTI to work together with backend and/or SAML login methods.

Configuration & Operations Changes

• Upgrade from Django 3.1.7 to Django 3.1.8.
• Upgrade Django-registration from 3.1 to 3.1.2.

Note: If your institution does NOT have Canvas on a "vanity URL" and your MyLA environment has the following two configurations:

    "SESSION_COOKIE_SAMESITE": null,
    "CSRF_COOKIE_SAMESITE": null,

Then those configurations either need to be removed (which will pick up the default) or changed to

    "SESSION_COOKIE_SAMESITE": "None",
    "CSRF_COOKIE_SAMESITE": "None",

MyLA Spring 2021 First Release (2021.02.02)

MyLA-Spring-2021.02.02 Release Notes

Michigan did not deploy this release. If you do deploy, change the setting below. Otherwise, simply deploy the next release (2021.02.03) which should be available early May 2021.

These are the defaults:

    "SESSION_COOKIE_SAMESITE": null,
    "CSRF_COOKIE_SAMESITE": null,

They need to be set to:

    "SESSION_COOKIE_SAMESITE": "None",
    "CSRF_COOKIE_SAMESITE": "None",

Overview

This release includes a UI fix in Assignment Planning and an upgrade to Django.

Fixes

Assignments that have been submitted and graded but have not had grades posted will display as “Pending Grade” in the Assignment Planning view.

Configuration & Operations Changes

Upgrade the application framework to Django 3.1.7.

MyLA Winter 2021 Second Release (2021.02.01)

MyLA-Winter-2021.02.01 Release Notes

Overview

This release includes new functionality that allows MyLA administrators to add a Qualtrics survey within MyLA to collect student feedback. It also includes modifications to configurations to support hosting by Unizin and at other institutions.

New & Improved

Student Pop-Up Survey

A student survey can be added to MyLA to collect feedback within MyLA. This feature allows administrators to add a button to the MyLA header that students can click to open a pop-up window with a Qualtrics survey. The survey can be set up to collect not only student responses but also information about the survey respondent, including the user ID, user name, course ID, and MyLA view they are on when they submit the survey.

Note: This has only been tested using Qualtrics, not other survey mechanisms.

The steps below detail how to add a student survey using Django Administration

1. Create a survey in Qualtrics. Optionally add some or all of the following fields as embedded data: userID, userName, courseID, view. None of these fields are required.
2. Go to Constance > Config in the Django administration page.
3. Set up the text that will display on the button in the MyLA header to open the survey in the SURVEY_TEXT field. The default text is “Take Survey.”
4. Paste the URL to the Qualtrics survey in the SURVEY_URL field. Note that if this field is blank, the survey button will not display in MyLA.
5. Click Save to update the settings.

User Interface

• The logged in user name that displays in the profile avatar displays the first and last name instead of the user name. If no first and last name is available, the username will display.
• The text and lines have been better aligned for the scores (goal, current, max) on the Assignment Planning grade goal bar.
• On the Assignment Planning view, the text has been updated on the My Minimum Goal field to read “Scores no longer match course goal” when students set assignment goals that do not add up to their course goal.

Fixes

• The MyLA cron job will run without error when courses that have a start date but no end date in a term that has an end date but no start date. MyLA will use the course start date and term end date to calculate course dates.

Configuration & Operations Changes

• The sample env_sample.json has been updated

• Extra comma removed from line 228
• Domain-specific Canvas URLs have been changed from to generic Canvas URLs
• UM-specific event queries have been removed

• Database parameters have been refactored to be params under "MYSQL" and "DATA_WAREHOUSE" objects, as shown in env_sample.json file.
• Add optional support for learning record stores other than BigQuery. Check out the newly added "LRS" object, as shown in env_sample.json file.
• The configuration option LTI_CONFIG_DISABLE_DEPLOYMENT_ID_VALIDATION (default false) was added, which will disable deployment id validation if true.
• The default URL for the Assignment Planning view documentation has been updated to URL_VIEW_ASSIGNMENT_PLANNING=https://its.umich.edu/academics-research/teaching-learning/my-learning-analytics/support/assignment-planning-goals
• Set up Survey/Feedback link

MyLA Winter 2021 First Release (2021.01.01)

MyLA-Winter-2021.01.01 Release Notes

Overview

This release includes a new version of the Assignment Planning view that allows students to set course and assignment goals. It also includes accessibility and usability improvements.

New & Improved

Accessibility

• Alternate text for screen readers has been added to describe the bar chart on the Resources Accessed view and the histogram on the Grade Distribution view.
• Improvements have been made to allow for keyboard accessibility in the MyLA page header and within Resources Accessed bar chart and list of assignments in the Assignment Planning view.
• Improved page consistency for better accessibility with screen readers.
• The color contrast on chart labels and ticks as well as between viewed and unviewed items on the Resources Accessed view has been improved for easier readability.
• The color contrast on the histogram labels and ticks on the Grade Distribution view has been improved for easier readability.

Assignment Planning: new version

The new Assignment Planning view allows students to set course and assignment goals as well as to view the list of course assignments and their relative impact on the course grade. Students are not required to set a course goal, but if they do, MyLA will calculate scores for individual upcoming assignments required to meet that goal. Students can also set goals at the level of individual assignments.

• A minimum goal field has been added for students to set a course goal. Setting a goal calculates default scores for all ungraded assignments.
• Filters have been added to allow students to filter the assignment list by type, name, and graded/ungraded status.

Administration

• In the Django administration screen, deleting a course shows a summary of the data to be deleted rather than listing all rows of the data.

Fixes

• Courses added to MyLA for future terms are loaded correctly and do not impact the cron job data update.
• The MyLA LTI launch works correctly for users with no SIS ID in a Canvas course.

Configuration & Operations Changes

• Code and database updates (see requirements.txt for more information)
• Node version 14
• LTI configuration wiki documentation has been updated.
• LTI configuration by URL is now supported.
• Michigan is using the new Assignment Planning view (allows setting grade goals) as the default. Part of this process includes migrating users from the previous Assignment Planning v1 to the new Assignment Planning. You may want to also make this change for your installation. An admin will need to make the change. It's likely that MyLA will eventually remove Assignment Planning v1 in a future release, focusing development on the new view. The steps below detail how to enable the new Assignment Planning view:

1. Set the configuration in the JSON for VIEWS_DISABLED to the following. This will disable the v1 view.
   "VIEWS_DISABLED": ["show_assignment_planning_v1"],

2. Run these SQL commands on the database to switch everyone who had the v1 view enabled to the new, and disable the v1.

UPDATE course_view_option set show_assignment_planning=1 where show_assignment_planning_v1=1;
UPDATE course_view_option set show_assignment_planning_v1=0;

Admins can still enable the v1 view in the admin interface if desired after this, but instructors will not be able to see or enable it.

MyLA Fall 2020 Second Release (2020.03.02)

Overview

This release includes improvements in usability and accessibility, in the resources event data process, and administrative configurations. It also includes minor fixes to warning messages and cron resilience.

New & Improved

General

• Logout link will no longer display in the user’s profile menu when MyLA is set up as an LTI.

Accessibility

• Alt-text was added to the image on the informational page that displays when MyLA has been added to a course but the data has not yet been initially populated.

Resources Accessed

• Updated the cron process to get resources accessed event data from the start of the course rather than from the date/time at which MyLA is enabled for the course.

Administration

• Django login can be explicitly enabled via configuration. Alternatively, it will only be enabled if no other AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS are available in the settings.
• TODO: Add comments from #1060 (comment)
• LTI 1.3 documentation has been improved. It includes information on the new key generation program for MyLA that can be run via the Django management tool.

Fixes

• Improved the error message that displays when an instructor uses the Canvas Student View to access MyLA.
• Improved the warning message for non-teacher roles that displays after MyLA has been turned on but before the data has been initially loaded for the course.
• Added code to prevent errors from occurring if a course is added to MyLA during the time the cron job is running to update data.

Configuration & Operations Changes

• Code and database updates (see requirements.tx for more information)
  • Node-sass 4.14.1

MyLA Fall 2020 Initial Release (2020.03.01)

MyLA-Fall-2020.03.01 Release Notes

Overview

This release includes a redesigned LTI that auto provisions the tool, addition of an instructor view, as well as additional improvements and bug fixes. Load testing was also done for this release.

New & Improved

LTI & Instructor View

This version of MyLA allows it to be added to Canvas as an LTI for instructors to add to their Canvas courses. An instructor view of the course home page has been added to allow users with the Teacher role in a course to preview, enable, and disable the MyLA visualizations for their course. Here is more info on LTI configurations

General

1. A new page was added that displays for the instructor when MyLA has been added to a course but the data has not yet populated.
2. A new icon was added for the in-tool links in Canvas.
3. Added information links to the course home page for each view.

Resources Accessed

1. Kaltura events were added to this view. These display as video files in the list.

Administration

1. An Academic Terms table was added to allow Django administrators to manage the term start & end dates. These dates default to the Canvas terms, but can be edited if necessary in MyLA.
2. Added a global disable for views that are still in development or testing status, such as the new assignment planning view.
   The option to set in the env.json
   "VIEWS_DISABLED": ["show_assignment_planning"]
3. This option won’t show the view to instructors/students, admins can access it and shows as an option in course view page

Fixes

1. A fix was added to prevent errors in the case where a course is deleted, but the cron is not run before a user tries to access the deleted course.
2. Improved the error message that displays when the course has no assignments or all assignments have no point value.

Configuration & Operations Changes

1. Code and database updates (see requirements.txt for more information)
2. Python 3.8
3. Django 3.0.8
4. Convert script to convert database from latin1 to utf8mb4, future tables should also be created in this format.
5. Locally we have also modified our MySQL database config to be STRICT_TRANS_TABLES,NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION

Resources ETL has been optimized to use a daily delta approach.

Myla Spring/Summer Release

2020.02.01

Address current score line off screen w/ no score (#958)

Winter 2020 bug Fix release

https://github.com/tl-its-umich-edu/my-learning-analytics/projects/15