The bSpace team is pleased to announce a new release of bSpace, made available to the Berkeley campus on June 19th.

With the 2.6 version, bSpace users will benefit from a new email tool, called Messages, and several improvements to the user interface (UI) and functionality of some key bSpace tools.  
Messages
With this new release, the bSpace team discontinued its support of the Mailtool,* which had proved unreliable for our users over the course of the last couple of semesters. In its place, we have added Messages. Listed here are Messages’ key features:

• Like Mailtool, Messages enables users, i.e., instructors, GSIs and students, to send messages to bSpace site members.
• In addition, Messages stores sent and received messages (in a way that Mailtool did not), thereby creating a personal archive for you.
• Finally, on the Home page, if you enable the Messages tool, you will see updates indicating when you have received a new message (much like the Forums tool).

* Mailtool will no longer be offered as a new tool, but will remain available in sites in which it already exists
through summer 2009.  

UI and functionality improvements to tools
Of the improvements bSpace, these are among the most significant:

Gateway and Welcome pages:

• Login and logout buttons made more pronounced
• Assistance to those with failed login attempts
• Links at bottom updated
• Worsksite setup changed to Site Setup

View Site As:

• Instructors, Head GSIs, and site Maintainers can now view their site from the perspective of other site members such as students, members, etc.

Email Archive:

• Site ID number no longer appears beneath the email alias for your site.

Gradebook:

• Ability to add multiple items at the same time
• Gradebook Items in “All Grades” view are sorted by date and alphabetically

Quiz & Survey:

• Ability to create a quiz/survey quickly through “QuickCreate” button
• Ability to edit published assessments and re-grade submissions