While we are announcing this more than a year before it will officially become the default, this New Content Experience has actually already been available for some time. Until now, Instructors who wanted to use this view in their course had to email Brightspace Support for it to be enabled on a course-by-course basis. Starting today, Instructors and other course builders will have the ability to enable or disable this feature in each of their courses without having to contact Brightspace Support. Importantly, Instructors who prefer the Classic Content Experience will not lose that access to that view. Even after the default is changed starting with Fall 2027 courses, Instructors will still have the option to change their courses back to the Classic Content view whenever they wish. This option allows us to improve the overall usability of Brightspace courses, while continuing to allow Instructors to control how their course content is shown to students.

Over the past few weeks we have been updating existing Content guides for instructors and students聽and creating our New Content Experience Transition page聽to answer questions and share resources for the New Content Experience. We also have added new guides for features that are unique to this new Content view. We will share more updates on this throughout the year, and if anyone has any questions about this process, please reach out to Brightspace Support.

• Brightspace 鈥� Rubric Icon in Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes
• D2L Lumi Remix 鈥� Review in full-screen mode
• D2L Lumi Remix 鈥� Review side-by-side in split view
• D2L Lumi Study Support 鈥� Study Support settings included during course copy

Brightspace 鈥� Rubric Icon in Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes

Instructors can now identify which Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes include attached rubrics directly from activity pages, helping instructors and administrators quickly audit assessments, confirm rubric setup, and reduce configuration errors.

When a rubric is attached to an activity, a rubric icon appears beside the item in the Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes list pages. Written response questions in the Quiz Creation page also display a rubric indicator when a rubric is attached. Activities that include both rubrics and learning outcomes continue to display the rubric icon.

Figure: Rubric icon displayed beside assignment in Assignments list.

The rubric icon is informational only and does not link to the rubric, consistent with other informational icons such as release conditions and anonymous marking.

D2L Lumi Remix 鈥� Review in full-screen mode

A new full-screen option is available in . Users can now click聽View Fullscreen聽in the upper-right corner of the聽Modify Page Content With AI聽window to expand the review pane to full-screen mode. Iteration controls remain available and functional in full-screen mode.

In full-screen mode, an聽Exit Fullscreen option appears in the upper-right corner, allowing users to return to the standard Remix view at the same iteration. Previously, users could review changes only in the right pane.

Figure: The View Fullscreen聽option in the聽Modify Page Content with AI听飞颈苍诲辞飞.

Figure: Full-screen review mode with the聽Exit Fullscreen听辞辫迟颈辞苍.

D2L Lumi Remix 鈥� Review side-by-side in split view

Users can now review changes in using a split view. In full screen mode, users can click聽Compare in Split View to compare iterations side-by-side. Previously, users reviewed iterations individually and could not compare them side-by-side.

In split view, the source iteration appears on the left and the current iteration appears on the right so users can compare versions simultaneously. This workflow makes reviewing changes easier without switching between iterations. Users can click聽Return to Single View to return to the single-pane review.

Figure: The聽Compare in Split View聽option in Lumi Remix full screen mode.

Figure: Split view showing the source iteration on the left and the current iteration on the right with the聽Return to Single View听辞辫迟颈辞苍.

D2L Lumi Study Support 鈥� Study Support settings included during course copy

With this update, quiz configurations are included in course copy workflows. When a course is copied, quizzes with Study Support enabled retain their Study Support configuration in the destination course. This update reduces manual setup and helps administrators and instructors scale adaptive learning experiences across multiple courses.

Previously, quizzes copied to another course did not retain Lumi Study Support settings. Administrators and instructors had to manually re-enable Study Support for each quiz in the destination course.

References:

• Assignments 鈥� Group assignments now supported in Advanced Assessment
• Assignments 鈥� Improved error messages when uploading unsupported file types
• Grades 鈥� Improved navigation within the Enter Grades page
• Users 鈥� Improved filters by groups and sections

Assignments 鈥� Group assignments now supported in Advanced Assessment  

Group assignments are now supported in Advanced Assessment, enabling instructors to collaboratively evaluate groups of students in Brightspace using Co-Marking, Delegation, and Multi-Evaluator capabilities. This update leverages the existing Groups tool, allowing students to submit work as a team and receive shared feedback and grades through Advanced Assessment. 

The feature introduces the following key improvements: 

• Seamless group evaluation: instructors can allocate evaluators to groups rather than individuals. 
• Consistent experience: interface terminology and visuals have been updated to reflect group workflows: 
• References to Students are replaced with Groups, such as Allocate Evaluators to Groups. 
• Evaluation and feedback panel text reflects group-based workflows. 
• Improved workflow integrity: confirmation prompts prevent accidental evaluator setting loss when switching between group and individual assignments. 

To enable group assignments, instructors must first create groups in the Groups tool. This can be found by going to Course Admin > Groups. Then, when creating an assignment, they must select Group Assignment under Submission & Completion. 

Figure: Select Group Assignment under Assignment Type in the Submission & Completion settings to create a group-based assignment. 
 

To trigger the Advanced Assessment workflow, select evaluators in the Evaluation & Feedback dropdown section when creating an assignment.  

Figure: Click Select Evaluators under Evaluators in the Evaluation & Feedback settings to create an assignment. 

Additionally, the following changes were made in the Manage Allocations table: 

• New dropdown options are available to assign evaluators to groups. 
• Group member names are displayed in a separate pop-out. 

Figure: Use the Manage Allocations dialog to set a default evaluator allocation method and adjust group assignments. 
 

Figure: An example of group member names when viewed from the Manage Allocations dialog. 

When sections are enabled, a Sections filter appears in the Manage Allocations dialog. Instructors in the selected section display a small tag under their names to indicate the applied filter, and only groups containing students from the selected sections appear in the left-hand column. 

When switching between individual and group assignments after evaluator allocations are made, existing allocations are removed. A confirmation prompt appears to alert users. 

Assignments 鈥� Improved error messages when uploading unsupported file types 

Brightspace now provides clearer and more consistent error messages when students attempt to submit file assignments using unsupported file types. These improvements help students understand which file types are allowed and make it easier to correct submission issues. 

The updated messaging appears across assignment submission workflows and Activity Display Content pages using the New Content Experience, ensuring students receive appropriate guidance based on the context of their submission. 

Updated error messages for file submissions 

When a student attempts to upload a file with a restricted or unsupported file extension, Brightspace now displays more specific messages depending on the number of restricted file types configured for the assignment. 

Assignment submission page 

• If fewer than seven file types are restricted, students see a message listing the allowed file extensions, such as: 
  Your work could not be submitted. You can only submit files with the following file extensions: PDF, DOCX, or TXT. 
• If seven or more file types are restricted, students see a simplified message: 
  Your work could not be submitted. You can only submit files with allowed file extensions. 

Legacy content assignment submission page 

• If fewer than seven file types are restricted, students see a message listing the allowed file extensions. 
• If seven or more file types are restricted, students see a simplified message indicating that only allowed file extensions can be submitted. 

For file assignments, students can now also see the list of Allowed File Extensions. This list previously appeared only for File and Text assignments and is now available for File assignments as well. 

Improved feedback in Activity Display Content pages using the New Content Experience 

In Activity Display Content pages using the New Content Experience, students now receive clearer visual indicators when uploaded files are not allowed: 

• If a student uploads files with unsupported extensions, Activity Display identifies which uploaded files are not allowed. 
• If a file has no extension, or the file type cannot be detected, Activity Display notifies the student that the file type is unsupported. 
• If five or more files with unsupported extensions are uploaded, Activity Display displays a consolidated message indicating that multiple files are not allowed. 

Improved validation when configuring Custom File Types in Assignment Creation 

When instructors set Allowable File Extensions to Custom File Types during assignment creation, Brightspace now requires at least one file extension to be entered before the assignment can be saved.  

If the field is left blank, Brightspace displays a clear inline error message and prevents the assignment from being saved. This improvement helps instructors avoid invalid assignment configurations and reduces submission issues for students. 

Figure: New Assignment page displaying a validation error when Custom File Types is selected without specifying at least one allowable file extension. 

Grades 鈥� Improved navigation within the Enter Grades page 

The Enter Grades page now offers improved horizontal navigation, making it easier to work with large gradebooks. Instead of relying on a horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the page, instructors can use navigation arrows on either side of the gradebook, along with a scroll bar at the bottom of the grid, to navigate across grade columns. 

This update also improves how dropdown menus behave, preventing them from appearing underneath other fields such as usernames. 

Figure: Use the left and right arrows to scroll horizontally and view additional grade columns in the Enter Grades table. 

Previously, horizontal navigation relied on a scroll bar at the bottom of the page, which was not always visible unless users scrolled down.   

Users 鈥� Improved filters by groups and sections 

With this release, user filters across multiple tools are updated to display Groups and Sections in separate dropdowns, improving navigation and scalability for courses. 

Previously, the View By filter combined groups and sections into a single dropdown. In courses with many groups or sections, this resulted in long, difficult-to-navigate lists. 

Figure: The previous View By filter shown in Classlist. 

Figure: The redesigned filter shown in Classlist. 

Figure: The redesigned filter shown in Enter Grades. 

Figure: The redesigned filter shown in Manage Special Access. 

The updated filter is available in the following areas: 

• Assignments: 
  • Filtering by users on the Manage Evaluators and Manage Special Access pages 
  • Filtering by users on the submissions page, and observed submissions page 
• Attendance: 
  • Filtering by users when viewing and entering attendance data 
• Class Progress: 
  • Filtering by users 
• Classic Content: 
  • Filtering by users on the Completion Summary tab 
  • Filtering by users on the Content Reports pages 
• Classlist: 
  • Filtering by users 
  • Emailing and filtering by users 
• Competencies: 
  • Filtering by users when grading an activity 
  • Filtering by users when viewing competencies, or viewing rubrics statistics 
• Discussions: 
  • Filtering by users on the Statistics page 
  • Filtering by users when viewing Topics 
  • Filtering by users when assessing Topics 
• Grades: 
  • Filtering by users on the Export Grades page 
  • Filtering by users on the Enter Grades pages 
  • Filtering by users on the Statistics page 
• Quizzes: 
  • Filtering by users on the Manage Special Access page 
  • Filtering by users on the Statistics page
• Surveys:
  • Filtering by users on the Statistics page 

References: 

Note: For-credit courses are not included in Brightspace Discover. For those official courses, all enrollments still have to be done in YES. For more information on what courses are suitable for self-registration through Discover, please review the Brightspace Acceptable Use Policy. 

Brightspace Discover is a built-in course catalog that allows 汤头条 faculty, staff, and students to browse available courses and enroll directly within Brightspace. Instead of navigating multiple links or registration pages, Discover puts everything in one place. 

Specifically, the new Discover experience offers several key benefits: 

• Easier to Find Courses: Discover presents courses in a searchable, filterable catalog. You can quickly browse by keyword or availability to find what you need.

• Clear Course Information Up Front: Each course listing includes a description and relevant details, so you know what the course is about before enrolling.

• Faster Self-Enrollment: When a course is open for self-enrollment, you can join it with just a click鈥攏o extra steps or separate registration forms. 

• A More Consistent Brightspace Experience: Because Discover is built directly into Brightspace, the process feels seamless and familiar, whether you鈥檙e accessing it on a computer or mobile device. 

As we move away from the older self-registration system, Brightspace Discover will become the way to locate and self-enroll in eligible courses. This transition helps ensure a more modern, reliable, and user-friendly experience for everyone at 汤头条. We encourage you to explore  the next time you鈥檙e looking for an interesting course for your own learning journey. 

• Announcements 鈥� Images now appear in emailed Announcement notifications
• Assignments, Quick Eval 鈥� Improved usability for assistive technology users
• Classlist 鈥� Export Classlist details to CSV and improved Print output

Announcements 鈥� Images now appear in emailed Announcement notifications

When instructors create an announcement (or administrators create a global announcement) which includes in-line images, any instant notification or emailed copy of that announcement now includes those images in the body of the email. Previously, only images added as file attachments to the announcement were included with the notification email, and in-line images were not shown. 

Note: This update applies only to images. Videos embedded in announcements are not included in emailed announcement notifications. 

This change ensures that learners who rely on email notifications can see the same visual content that appears in the original announcement, helping them notice important information that may have previously been missed when images were omitted from the email version. 

Assignments, Quick Eval 鈥� Improved usability for assistive technology users 

As part of their ongoing commitment to accessibility and inclusive design, with this release, D2L has made several updates to enhance the experience for users relying on assistive technologies. 

• The Submissions page in Assignments: The dropdown menus for submissions, feedback, and results per page now include accessible labels. Previously, these menus only had titles, which some screen readers could miss. This change ensures that all users can access and understand these controls.

• The Submissions view in Quick Eval: The number of search results returned is now read aloud by assistive technology, making it easier for users to understand the scope of their results. 

 

Figure: Quick Eval interface displaying filtered submission results, with the number of returned results now read aloud. 
 

• The Activities view in Quick Eval: The status messages that show the number of search results are now accessible to screen readers, improving clarity and usability for all users.

Figure: Quick Eval interface showing filtered activity results based on a search query, with the number of returned results now read aloud. 
 

Classlist 鈥� Export Classlist details to CSV and improved Print output

Note: The Classlist export feature has currently been disabled by D2L. This feature is scheduled to be reenabled at a future date. 

The Classlist tool now includes a new option that allows instructors to export Classlist details to a CSV file. The new Export button provides a quick way to download all users, or a selected subset of users, along with the same details that are visible in the Classlist view. This update makes it easier for instructors to use Classlist information for administrative or offline processes outside of Brightspace.

Figure: A new Export button appears on the Classlist page. 

Enhancements to Print functionality

This release also includes improvements to the existing Print option in the Classlist. Printed Classlists now display additional information, including pronouns for users (when visible in the Classlist) and details about which course the printout originated from. These enhancements provide more complete context when Classlists are printed for in-person workflows or record keeping.

References:

• Assignments 鈥� Update to Group Assignment evaluation email option
• Awards 鈥� Control notifications for Awards earned
• Content – Using D2L Lumi to Generate Practice Questions
• Discussions 鈥� Enforce timely learner engagement with first post due dates
• Quizzes 鈥� Zero point quiz questions

Assignments 鈥� Update to Group Assignment evaluation email option

This release introduces enhancements to the Email Group button in Group Assignment Evaluation. Previously, the Email Group button appeared even in groups with no users, which caused confusion.

If a group has no members, the Email Group button no longer appears. The button now displays only when it is actionable, reducing confusion and improving interface clarity. This update enhances the overall experience by aligning with accessibility and usability best practices, ensuring that only relevant options are shown to users.
 

Figure: The Email Group button in Group Assignment Evaluation before this update if a group has no members.

Figure: The Email Group button no longer appears in Group Assignment Evaluation after this update if a group has no members.

Awards 鈥� Control notifications for Awards earned

In response to continued feedback for more flexibility with Awards, administrators can now control which courses trigger the pop-up notification when a user is issued a certificate or badge. By default, this variable is ON, meaning the pop-up notification will be shown to users when they earn an Award. If an instructor would like Awards in their course to not have this display pop-up, please contact 汤头条 Brightspace Support to adjust this setting for your course.

Figure: Notification presented to a user when they are issued an Award.

Note: This update does not change the existing functionality. If no action is taken, users will continue to receive the pop-up notification when an Award is issued. Changing the new configuration variable to OFF will prevent the pop-up notification from appearing for users within that course.

Content – Using D2L Lumi to Generate Practice Questions

Beginning this month, Instructors and other users with the ability to create content in Brightspace can use D2L Lumi to generate Practice Questions. These Practice Questions are part of the Creator+ toolset that was launched in November 2024. Using Lumi and Creator+, course builders can use existing course content to generate practice questions for students to engage with. Note that these practice questions only exist on pages in the Content section of a course and do not connect to Quizzes or another evaluation tool. Practice Questions are designed to be formative assessments that students interact with during their review of course materials. 

Figure: Example of the review screen shown to Instructors or course builders when inserting Lumi generated practice questions. 

Important note: Lumi is a generative AI product. As such, users should always review output for accuracy before inserting it into a course. D2L has built Lumi so that it only references information from content in your course or that you provide it, so it will not access the internet or any prior training data to generate content. Having said that, Instructors and other course builders are responsible for any information added to a course, so always review output from Lumi before adding it to a course.

To learn how to use Lumi Practice Questions in your course today, please refer to our guide on this topic. 

Discussions 鈥� Enforce timely learner engagement with first post due dates

To ensure timely learner participation, instructors can now specify a due date for the first post in a discussion topic. This supports course pacing, institutional policies, and consistent expectations for learner engagement. This mirrors the behavior of Assignments and Quizzes, making the course experience more consistent and predictable.

Previously, instructors could not set due dates for initial discussion posts, which made it difficult to assess timely engagement or enforce deadlines. This update improves grading accuracy, simplifies compliance with participation policies, and supports smoother course migrations from learning management systems that already include this functionality.

The first post due date follows the same behavior as Assignments and Quizzes:

• Due dates must be between the start and end dates of the discussion topic.
• Availability types (for example, Hidden, Visible with access restricted, Visible with submission restricted) are still respected.

Additional improvements include:

• Calendar tool integration: If Add availability dates to Calendar is selected, the first post due date appears in the calendar.
• Grading: Discussion due dates support automatic zero grading.
• Other enhancements:
  • In Manage Dates, first post due dates are visible and editable.
  • In the Discussion List, due dates appear next to each topic.
  • In the New Content Experience, Overdue and Late indicators appear when deadlines are missed. Classic content will continue to show the due date on the content topic.
  • In Quick Eval and Consistent Evaluation, first post due dates appear in evaluation workflows.
  • In the Work to Do widget, due dates appear.

Figure: Instructor view of a discussion topic with a first post due date.

Figure: Student view of a discussion topic with a first post due date in the New Content Experience.

Figure: Instructor view of completion status of a discussion post in the New Content Experience.

Quizzes 鈥� Zero point quiz questions

Instructors can now assign 0 (zero) points to a quiz question to collect non-graded information, for example, feedback or personal input. Previously, instructors were restricted from entering zero points for quiz questions.

This feature eliminates the need for workarounds such as assigning 0.01 points or manually adjusting scores after submission. Instructors can enter zero points in the points field for any question type within the quiz, ensuring that these questions do not contribute to the quiz’s total points. This feature is especially useful for gathering additional information from learners during a quiz or for implementing an “Honesty Code” question at the beginning of the quiz.

Figure: Example of a quiz question displaying a statement on academic integrity with answer options for True and False, and the points field set to zero.

References:

• Admin Tools 鈥� Enhanced user experience
• Announcements 鈥� Email a copy of an announcement to your Classlist
• Assignments 鈥� Advanced Assessment now shows when an evaluation has no designated evaluator
• Brightspace 鈥� Progress bar for uploading files
• Grades 鈥� Bulk edit now supports excluding items from final grade

Admin Tools 鈥� Enhanced user experience

For those users who have access to the Admin Tools menu, this month鈥檚 update brings a new look and feel to the menu. To improve administrator workflows, this release enhances the Admin Tools menu by providing Administrators with:

• A single column display
• Search and auto-complete functionality
• Pin and save tool functionality
• Alphabetized pinned items

The new Admin Tools menu tool also pins the following tools as a default:

• Courses
• External Learning Tools
• Homepage Management
• Navigation & Themes
• Org Unit Editor
• Organization Files
• Roles and Permissions
• Users

Previously, administrators could not search, filter, or pin tools in the Admin Tools menu.

Figure: Before this update, the Admin Tools menu displayed all tools in a single window, often requiring administrators to use Ctrl+F to search for and locate items.
 

Figure: The new Admin Tools menu allows Administrators to quickly search for tools, pin them to the Pinned tab, or review the All tab for a categorized list of tools for easy access.

Announcements 鈥� Email a copy of an announcement to your Classlist

In response to many requests over time, when Instructors create a new announcement in a Course Offering, they can now choose to send a copy to all users in their Classlist as an email, sent as if from the instructor themselves.

In the user interface for creating or editing an announcement, a new Send Email Copy checkbox now appears when an instructor creates or edits an announcement.

When an instructor selects the new checkbox, the system emails the content of the announcement to all users in the Classlist on publishing.

Users who are not subscribed to receive a notification for announcements will also receive an email, ensuring that important information contained within the announcement is delivered to every learner.

For announcements scheduled to publish at a later date, clicking the Send Email Copy checkbox emails the copy to users in the Classlist at the time that the announcement is published.

Assignments 鈥� Advanced Assessment now shows when an evaluation has no designated evaluator

A new alert in the assignments evaluation user interface now notifies instructors when an evaluation currently has no evaluator assigned, so they can quickly identify the problem and take steps to assign a new evaluator.

This update helps prevent unexpected evaluation errors and improves clarity, especially for institutions with large enrollments and multiple sections.

Previously, if an instructor used Advanced Assessment features to delegate evaluation to a user who later became unenrolled from a course, there was no way to identify which submissions needed to be assigned a new evaluator. Learner submissions could remain unevaluated for extended periods of time, causing confusion and errors.

Example of a warning message when an assignment has no assigned evaluator.
Figure: An example of a warning message when an assignment has no assigned evaluator.

Brightspace 鈥� Progress bar for uploading files

With this release, Brightspace improves visual consistency and accessibility by updating progress bar indicators across several tools. These improvements enhance support for screen readers and assistive technologies.

Visual indicators have been updated in the following areas:

• New Content Experience 鈥� Upload a file
• Quizzes 鈥� Add Existing Question
• Import Quiz Questions 鈥� Upload a file
• Quiz Study Support 鈥� Check if the quiz meets the study support requirements
• Generate Question 鈥� Choose a file to generate a question
• Content Uploader 鈥� Upload a file
• Manage Groups 鈥� Export progress bar
• Upload File (Classic Content) 鈥� Upload a file

Figure: An example of the progress bar updating as a user adds a module to the Table of Contents in D2L Brightspace, indicating the step-by-step progress.

Grades 鈥� Bulk edit now supports excluding items from final grade

Instructors can now use the Exclude from Final column when bulk editing grade items in the Grades tool. Selecting this option excludes the grade item from the final grade calculation. Previously, this setting was only available when editing individual grade items. This enhancement helps instructors manage large grade books more efficiently by allowing them to update multiple items at once.

Note: This option is only available in courses using the Points grading system. Courses using Weighted or Formula grading systems can exclude items by assigning a weight of 0 or excluding them from the formula, respectively.

Figure: In the Bulk Edit Items and Categories page, select Exclude from Final for each item to omit from the final grade.

Reference:

It鈥檚 important to break down what the LockDown Browser is and is not. It is a custom browser that students install and launch from Brightspace when they take a quiz or exam. When students use the LockDown Browser to take a Brightspace quiz or exam, this software prevents them from accessing any other websites, apps or programs, clipboard functions, printing, or screen recording or screenshot programs on their device. It works with Windows and Mac computers, iPads, and Chromebooks. It does not require the use of a webcam, as it does not monitor students through video. It also does not monitor what students do outside of their assessment time. Students launch the LockDown Browser from the Start Quiz page in Brightspace, and when they complete the quiz or exam, the program closes, and they return to Brightspace. The LockDown Browser is also flexible enough to let instructors allow limited access to tools like a calculator or specific webpages, if they choose. As you can see below, students using the LockDown Browser still see the same quiz design and layout as they would within Brightspace directly.

Figure: The student view of a Brightspace quiz in the Respondus LockDown Browser.

In a time when there are countless distractions for students, using a tool like the Respondus LockDown Browser helps students focus on the task at hand and helps instructors accurately measure student assessment. If you are an instructor who wants to learn how to enable the LockDown Browser for a quiz in your course, please refer to our online instructor guide for more information. If you are a student who is required to use the LockDown Browser on a quiz or exam, you can refer to our student guide on how to install this tool. If you have any other questions about the Respondus LockDown Browser, or anything else related to Brightspace, feel free to contact our Brightspace Support Team today.

• Assignments
• Grades
• Quizzes

Assignments 鈥� Annotation availability awareness enhancements in assignment creation 

Annotations are only supported for File and File or Text Assignment Types. They are not supported for Text, Observed, or On Paper Assignment types. In response to requests from instructors for clearer indicators of which types of assignments support Annotations, we鈥檝e enhanced the assignment creation experience with better tool tips, visual cues, and on-screen guidance. To this end, a new informational tool tip now appears beside the existing Annotations check box in the interface for creating assignments. When you hover over the new information ( ? ) button, a tool tip displays Annotation Tools help. 

Figure: New Annotation Tools help tool tip. 

Clicking the information ( ? ) button opens a pop-up window that explains what the Annotations tool does, and which types of assignments you can use it with. The text in the new window is as follows: 

Additionally, to make it easier to immediately understand whether you can use Annotations on an assignment, the Annotations check box now appears disabled (grayed out) for non-file type assignments, such as Text, Observed, or On Paper assignments. 

Figure: Visual cues indicate when Annotation Tools are not available for an assignment type. 

When you cannot enable Annotations for an assignment because the type is Text, On paper, or Observed in person, hovering over the Annotations check box displays the following message: Annotation settings are locked for submissions that are not files. 

Figure: New on-screen guidance shows when Annotation settings are locked because the assignment type is not File or File or Text. 

When you cannot enable Annotations for an assignment because learners already made submissions while the setting was disabled, hovering over the Annotations check box displays the following message: Annotation settings are locked after submissions are received. 

Figure: New on-screen guidance shows when Annotation settings are locked because learners made submissions for the assignment while Annotations were disabled. 

Assignments 鈥� Improved assignment type selection interface 

A usability improvement makes it easier to select the correct assignment type when you create an assignment. Previously, instructors used radio buttons to specify whether an assignment was for a Group or an Individual. 

Figure: Previous interface showing radio buttons for selecting Assignment Type. 

Starting with the October Brightspace update, a new drop-down menu for selecting the Assignment Type modernizes the interface and lays the groundwork for future enhancements to the Assignments tool. 

Figure: New drop-down menu for selecting Assignment Type. 

Figure: New drop-down menu with Individual Assignment Type selected. 

Grades 鈥� Comments and Assessments column always visible to learners 

Learners can now always see the Comments and Assessments column in Grades, ensuring that feedback and links to assessments are consistently visible. The column is no longer conditionally displayed, supporting additional links from tools such as Rubrics, Assignments, and Quizzes. This update supports future enhancements that add information to learner feedback in Grades. Previously, the column only appeared when a grade item included feedback. 

Figure: Comments and Assessments column now appears consistently to learners in Grades. 

Quizzes 鈥� Hide Quiz Question Points 

Instructors can now hide the point value for quiz questions to ensure learners focus on all questions equally, without the risk of inferring the number of correct answers based on point value. Previously, point values for quiz questions were always visible to learners. 

The new feature helps with the following: 

• Avoiding Hints in Multi-Select and Written Response Questions – Hiding point values prevents learners from guessing the number of expected answers based on the score, promoting a more consistent effort across all question types. 

• Diagnostic Assessments – This option is beneficial for assessments like subject knowledge audits or start-of-term baseline knowledge checks, where the purpose is to gauge understanding rather than focus on scoring. 

• Encouraging Equal Effort Across Questions – By hiding point values, learners are less likely to prioritize certain questions over others based on points. Hiding point values ensures a balanced effort and enables the inclusion of control or bonus questions without indicating their significance. 

The new option is available within the Timing & Display section when creating or editing a quiz.  

Figure: From the Edit Quiz page, under Timing & Display, select Hide question point values to prevent learners from seeing individual question scores. 

Quizzes 鈥� Improved visibility for insufficient question pools 

With this release, instructors can now see a status indicator when a question pool has insufficient questions, allowing them to resolve the issue before learners begin a quiz attempt. 

If a quiz attempts to draw more questions than are available in a question pool (for example, 12 questions requested but only 10 available), the interface now displays a warning indicator. Previously, no visual indicators identified when question pools contained too few questions, and these could be imported or copied without warning. 

This update adds visual warnings in the following areas: 

• The Grading view: If learners have already completed a quiz containing an affected pool, messaging displays in the grading evaluation experience. 

Figure: When grading a quiz, an error message appears indicating the question pool is exhausted. Instructors can review answer selections and enter a grade or feedback. 

• The Manage Quizzes page: A status indicator flags quizzes with insufficient question pools. 

Figure: On the Manage Quizzes page, a red warning icon appears beside a quiz name. Instructors can review quiz settings to resolve the issue. 

• The Edit Quiz page (Quiz Builder): A warning icon appears directly on the affected question pool.  

Figure: The Edit Quiz page displays a Question Pool with an error state, labeled Invalid Question Pool. 

• The Course Import and Course Copy workflows: Validation now prevents importing or copying pools with an insufficient number of questions. 

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 Print Quizzes Functionality Added

This month, D2L adds a long requested feature to Brightspace – printing quizzes. With this update, Instructors will be able to select a Print option via the dropdown list of options for each quiz. This will allow Instructors to create different versions of the quiz with shuffled questions, select what formatting options are listed on the quiz, and print an Answer Key. For more information on this update, please review the video below and our new Printing Brightspace Quizzes guide. 

Update to Lessons View Display and Student Experience

This month also brings several new updates to the Lessons View formatting of the Content section of any Brightspace course. For more information on what the Lessons View content view is, please refer to our “What is Lessons View?” help page. With this update, the following improvements come to courses with Lessons View enabled:

1. Better display of student completion progress
   • Students can now track the completion of content topics within a module by viewing a progress indicator next to each topic. This feature brings several improvements to help students easily identify remaining topics in a module. The updates include:
     • Check marks for completed items.
     • Fractional summary of the learner鈥檚 progress for each content module.
     • Due dates are now displayed on a single line, with a tooltip appearing on hover for additional details.
       
        
2. Unlimited levels of depth for content units and and folders
   • This allows Instructors or course designers to add as many nested units and folders as they wish to a course. While this does give more freedom to the course design process, we do encourage keeping in mind that more nested units and folders may be more confusing to students. 
      
3. Updated look and feel to Lessons View
   • This update brings a new, more condensed view to courses with Lessons View. This allows more text and navigational content to be visible on one page while still keeping the more stylish look and feel found in courses with Lessons View enabled. 
     

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