This month there are a few important updates coming to our Brightspace environment. Below are some of the highlights of the release notes published by D2L (the company that makes Brightspace).
- Brightspace Editor – Additional heading options
- Groups – Bulk edit group names and codes
- New Content Experience – Removing the Preview as a Student option
- Self Assessments – End of Life notice for Self Assessment tool
Brightspace Editor – Additional heading options
To make creating accessible content easier, the Brightspace Editor now includes Heading 5 and Heading 6 in the Format drop-down menu. Previously, the menu only displayed Heading 1 through Heading 4, and instructors and course builders had to use keyboard shortcuts or the Source Code editor to apply the additional heading levels. This update ensures that instructors can easily apply all standard heading levels directly from the Format menu, supporting compliance with accessibility standards.
Figure: The current Format drop-down menu showing only Heading 1 to Heading 4.
Figure: The new Format drop-down menu showing Heading 1 to Heading 6.
Groups – Bulk edit group names and codes
To improve efficiency when managing large numbers of groups, the new Manage Groups experience launched in July now allows instructors to bulk edit group names and codes within a category. Previously, instructors had to select each group individually to edit its details. Instructors can now click Edit Group Names to update the names and codes for one, multiple, or all groups from a single interface, saving time and reducing administrative effort.
Figure: On the Group Category page, instructors click Edit Group Names to edit one, multiple, or all groups.
Figure: On Edit Group Names, instructors can edit the Group Name and Group Code for all groups.
New Content Experience – Removing the Preview as a Student option
To provide a more accurate representation of the student experience, the Preview as a Student option is removed from the New Content Experience. Previously, the Preview as a Student option was available in Content, but it did not accurately reflect the student experience. This preview had several limitations. For example, it did not correctly apply availability dates and release conditions, and it displayed the instructor view instead of the student view for Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions.
Figure: The Preview as a Student option previously appeared in the Settings menu in the New Content Experience.
Figure: The Preview as a Student option is no longer available in the Course options menu in the New Content Experience.
To view your course from a student’s perspective, use one of the following supported options:
- Role Switch: From your user profile, use the “View as…” feature to switch to a student role.
- Impersonate: Impersonate a Pseudostudent to experience the course exactly as a student does across all supported tools.
While each option has its own considerations, both provide a more accurate representation of the student experience than the previous Preview as a Student option.
Self Assessments – End of Life notice for Self Assessment tool
Beginning with this months release, D2L (the company that makes Brightspace) has announced that the Self Assessment tool in Brightspace will be removed after the May 2027 update. The Self Assessment tool is similar to Quizzes in that students can take an interactive assessment in Brightspace and receive feedback on their answers. The issue with Self Assessments is that they are very limited compared to quizzes, primarily that no data is saved after a student completes a Self Assessment, so there’s no way for a student or instructor to review past attempts. The recommendation from D2L is to move these activities to the Quizzes tool, and starting in January 2027, there will be a tool available to migrate existing Self Assessments to Quizzes. For more information on this transition, here are two resources from D2L: