October 29, 2013

edX Studio

New Features

  • New video editing interface, enabling an enhanced workflow for adding timed transcripts to videos (BLD-238)

    When you enter a video URL in the Editing: Video dialog box, the system checks if a timed transcript for that video exists on edX, and if so, automatically associates the transcript with the video. If no transcript is found, you click Upload New Timed Transcript to locate and upload the .SRT file for the transcript.

    When there is an associated timed transcript, you can click Download to Edit to download a local copy of the .SRT file. You can then modify the transcript and upload the new file.

    For YouTube videos, you can also import a timed transcript from YouTube, overwriting the version of the transcript on edX with the version from YouTube.

    Backwards compatibility with the other transcript workflow is maintained with a tabbed interface.

Known Issues and Workarounds

  • Uploading a large number of files (STUD-813, STUD-837)

When you go to the Files & Uploads page, if your course has a large number of files, the Files & Uploads page can time out before it lists all the files. The page becomes unresponsive, and you cannot upload more files.

Workaround: To upload new files files when the Files & Uploads page is timing out, limit the number of files that appear on the Files & Uploads page by adding start and max parameters to the URL. For example, you can append the following parameters to the URL in your browser: https://studio.edge.edx.org/assets/organization.course-number.course-name/branch/block/course-name?start=5&max=15

This example tells the page to load a maximum of 10 files, starting with the 6th file. You can use other values as needed, as long as the list is not so long that the page does not load successfully. Note that file counts begin at 0, not 1, and that files are listed chronologically, with the most recent first.

Changes and Updates

The following changes are included in this release:

  • Because Course IDs are not case sensitive, all Course IDs must be unique regardless of capitalization. For example, you cannot have both edX101 and EdX101 as course IDs. (STUD-873)

edX Learning Management System

The following changes are included in this release:

  • The cheatsheet available when you are adding a new Wiki article is now accessible to screen readers. (LMS-1303)
  • In the Wiki, active links are now displayed as bold, and have additional text labels, to be accessible to screen readers. (LMS-1306)
  • In the Wiki, when you navigate through links with the Tab key, the active link is updated in the same was as when you hover over it with the mouse pointer. (LMS-1336)
  • Default Wiki permissions are updated so that only course staff can delete Wiki pages. (LMS-1355)
  • The Reset Password and Password Reset Confirmation pages are updated to use styles consistent with the system. (LMS-1357)
  • In certain situations, students received a 500 error when viewing the Progress page. This problem was resolved in a patch on October 23, 2013. (LMS-1367)
  • A visual indicator has been added to the video player to indicate which part of the video will play, when it is not the default. (BLD-391)
  • Forum views are updated to improve performance. (FOR-250)

Analytics

The following changes are included in this release:

  • Course exports are included with weekly data dumps delivered to university data representatives. (AN-57)