A round-up of all improvements and changes to the Buzz platform in versions v2.0.156 and v3.0.54, available on May 24, 2018.
Contents
Updates
In this release, we added a vertical content divider for Passage questions that students can adjust for readability.

Fixed issues
In this release, we updated assessments, so students can no longer start or retake an assessment if the current version of the assessment contains no questions.
New Buzz UI
During the summer of 2017, we released a new Buzz UI, giving you the same features and functionality with a cleaner, simpler user experience!
The release notes in this section pertain only to those using the new Buzz UI.
New Buzz UI updates
Buzz integrates with G Suite for easy collaboration!
Our G Suite integration enables:
- Easy creation of Google Drive documents in the Student app when completing a dropbox activity. Previously, if students wanted to submit an activity as a Google Doc, they had to create the document in their Google Drive, then open the activity in Buzz and search for that document to attach. Now they can create and submit all within Buzz.
- PDF snapshots of Google Drive submissions. When a student submits an activity as a Google Doc, Buzz creates a PDF snapshot that is available to both the student and the teacher. This way a record remains if the student makes changes to the document, or even if the Google Drive account is deactivated.
- Automatic permissions management. Google Docs makes collaboration and inline commenting easy, as long as all members have the correct permissions. With G Suite integration, Buzz automatically gives students (including students that are in the same group assignment) and teachers the correct permissions for easy collaboration. If, for any reason, permissions are not correctly granted, users will simply ask for permission using Google Drive.
- Automatic copies of Google Drive documents when duplicating activities. Teachers can include Google Drive documents as part of activities. If a colleague wants to duplicate the activity for their own use, they can easily copy the attached Google Drive document to their Google Drive for their own use.

G Suite integration is managed by Admins at your root domain. Once it is set up, it is inherited by all subdomains.
In order to set up your G Suite integration:
- Your domain Admin must create a Google service account.
- All users must have a current G Suite email attached to their profile (only the admin can edit these emails in Buzz).
- Your domain Admin must enable it in Domain Settings.
Learn more: How do I integrate G Suite to enable Google Drive collaboration?
Other updates
In this release, we also:
- Improved usability of the Search tool by adding hint text to the text input field, including how to search all domains for users and courses.

- Added a vertical content divider for Passage questions that students can adjust for readability.

- Made the following updates to assessments where bookmarking questions for review is enabled (Assessment editor > Settings > Advanced assessment options):
- Relabeled the Bookmark button to read Review.
- Added a filter allowing students to choose which questions they want to see.


New Buzz UI fixed issues
In this release, we:
- Updated assessments, so students can no longer start or retake an assessment if the current version of the assessment contains no questions.
- Resolved an issue with duplicating passage questions in a printed assessment.
- Resolved an issue with printed assessment answers.
- Fixed an issue where pressing enter key in an input field of the Course Settings dialog box would click the thumbnail image button.
- Fixed an issue where the user preferences screen inappropriately swapped LTI-privacy settings for hide email and hide name (one box was checked when it should have been the other and vice-versa).
- Updated the Activities tool, so that adding a choice activity now displays a success message and navigates to the newly added activity.
APIs
Updates in version 2018.05.23.3130. Learn more.
-
GetUserActivityStream
: NewActivityStreamType
options. These includeStudentEnrollmentBeganStudent
,StudentEnrollmentBeganTeacher
, andStudentEnrollmentBeganObserver
. -
GetSubmissionState
: Students can no longerstart
orretake
an assessment ifnoQuestions
are defined. This prevents a student for getting into a bad state when the course author has not added any questions to the assessment. -
Proxy
: Fixed an issue that prevented an administrator from proxying as one of their users if the user hadReadSection
permissions in a student enrollment from another domain. -
PutStudentSubmission
andGetStudentSubmission
: Fixed an issue where files may not successfully attach to an assignment if the file name contained unicode or non-ASCII characters.