Recent Updates

Report any D2L Brightspace issues to the MinnState IT service desk.

October 2026

No new or updated features

September 2026

Release highlights include updates to Content, Groups, HTML Editor, and Self Assessments for instructors, as well as updates to Widgets for students.

In Self Assessments, a banner displays to instructors noting D2L’s upcoming removal of the Self Assessments tool in May 2027. Learn more about the expected timeline for Self Assessments and how instructors can copy Self Assessment questions to Quizzes in D2L Brightspace.

August 2026

In Quizzes, students can use the new question annotation tools when taking a quiz.

  • These question annotation tools allow the student to (1) bookmark a question to flag it for their review and (2) apply strikethrough formatting on a question’s answer options to help narrow their choices!
  • The bookmark icon is available for any question. However, the strikethrough icon for answer options is only available for multiple choice, multi-select, and true or false questions.
  • The question annotation tools are only available while taking the quiz. The tools and the markup are not included in the student’s quiz submissions.

Instructors can choose to turn off the students’ access to the question annotation tools on a quiz-by-quiz basis. To turn off for a quiz, select the new ‘Hide question annotation tools’ checkbox when creating or editing the quiz.

July 2026

In Groups, instructors can try out the new Manage Groups experience from the Groups tool.

  • This option helps instructors manage their course groups in Brightspace more efficiently.
  • From the Groups tool, expand the fly-down menu and select ‘Turn it on’ to try out the new Manage Groups experience. Opt in or opt out at any time within your course.

Learn more about creating and managing groups in D2L Brightspace.

June 2026

In Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes: A new rubric informational icon displays to instructors on the Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes tool pages when the learning activity (or written response quiz question) has a rubric attached to it. When editing a quiz, the same rubric icon displays next to any written response question with an attached rubric.

  • This feature improvement is to provide an instructor with a way to quickly check that a rubric has been attached to the assignment, discussion, or written response quiz question within the quiz.
  • Note: The new rubric icon does not display when a rubric is attached to: (1) a written response question within a question pool in a quiz, or (2) an independent grade item (not associated with a learning activity) in Grades.

Learn more about attaching rubrics to assignments, discussions, and quizzes (written response questions).

May 2026

  • In Content: A reminder that the New Content Experience is the new experience for all courses (including development and sandbox), except past ISRS semester courses. Spring 2026 and prior semester courses still use the Classic Content experience. Learn more about the New Content Experience.
  • In Grades: When automatic zero grading is enabled by the instructor in grade book settings, “This activity is past due” displays to a student when they have missed the due date for an activity. Learn more about Automatic zero grading when students missed activity due dates.
  • In Tools (from Course Admin page): Six legacy course tools will be turned off by default, but instructors can turn back on to use. These legacy tools are Course Builder, FAQ, Glossary, Instructional Design Wizard, Learning Activity Library, and Links. Learn more about Reviewing course tools in D2L Brightspace.

April 2026

  • In Quizzes: Improvements have been made when evaluating a student’s attempt at a quiz, including a new Incorrect filter to view only questions the student answered incorrectly or did not respond to. Additionally, the question feedback field now displays a single line and automatically expands when an instructor enters additional comments.
  • KA 645 for students
  • KA 646 for instructors

March 2026

  • In Awards: Instructors can now enter more detailed information in award text fields (name, description, criteria and evidence) that support increased character limits.
  • In Classlist: A new Export button is available to instructors to optionally export Classlist details to a CSV file, making it easier to review the Classlist information offline.
  • In D2L Brightspace (overall): The minimum supported browser versions have been updated.
  • KA 639 for students
  • KA 638 for instructors

February 2026

  • In D2L Brightspace (overall): The sections and groups menus have been redesigned across multiple tools, including Classlist, Grades and more. Two separate filter menus, one for sections and one for groups, replace the previous combined “view by” menu.
  • In Grades: Instructors can now use the navigation arrows on either side of the ‘Enter Grades’ page to navigate across grade columns.
  • In Surveys: When instructors export survey reports using CSV or Excel options, they now generate in the background. Instructors are notified when the report is available to download, indicated by a dot on the Update Alerts icon on the minibar.
  • KA 632 for students
  • KA 633 for instructors

January 2026

  • In Announcements: When instructors have in-line images in an announcement, those images are now included in the body of emails (such as announcement notifications or an emailed copy of an announcement).
  • In Brightspace Pulse app: Start, due and end dates can now be reviewed by students from a course’s Content tab in the Brightspace Pulse app. When pressing the three-dot icon on a content topic, students can review the availability dates.
  • KA 627 for students
  • KA 628 for instructors

December 2025

  • In Content: When replacing an existing SCORM package in Content, instructors now have a manage version option. Instructors can now publish a new version, revert to a different version or download a version package.
  • In Discussions: Instructors can now set one due date on a discussion topic. The due date displays under the discussion topic’s title. This due date applies to all the student’s posts (threads and replies) in the discussion. (Note the due date does not specify two separate dates for the original thread and reply.)
  • From the Import Components > View Import History > View Import Log, instructors can now filter messages to better identify during course package imports. ​
  • In Quizzes: Instructors can now assign 0 (zero) points to a quiz question when creating or editing it, such as to collect non-graded information like feedback or personal input from students.
  • KA 528 for students
  • KA 529 for instructors

November 2025

  • In Announcements: Instructors can now email a copy of an announcement to everyone in their Classlist using the new ‘Send Email Copy’ check box when creating or editing announcements.
  • In Content: The default font size is now 24 for newly created HTML topics in Content. Note that this change does not affect existing content or courses with a different default font size in Content > Settings.
  • In D2L Brightspace: When instructors or students upload a file, the upload progress bar has been improved for visual consistency and accessibility.
  • In Grades: Instructors can now use the ‘Exclude from Final Grade Calculation’ column when bulk editing grade items and categories to omit them from the final grade calculation. This new column is only available in courses using the Points grading system, since Weighted and Formula grading systems have alternative methods to exclude items from the final grade.
  • KA 479 for students
  • KA 480 for instructors

October 2025

  • In Assignments: When creating or editing assignments – new annotation tooltips and an updated assignment type menu.
  • In Grades: The Comments and Assessments column is now always available to Students to review overall feedback and links to assessments.
  • In Media Library: Students and Instructors can now upload additional file types and organize them into folders.
  • In Quizzes: Instructors may now decide to hide points for all questions when student’s take a quiz, such as for formative assessments.
  • KA 457 for students
  • KA 458 for instructors

September 2025

No notable updates

August 2025

  • In Groups: Instructors can now enroll more than 200 students per group in a category. The new enrollment limit is 3,000 students per group. As usual, the students must be enrolled in the current course.
  • In Quizzes: Instructors now have a simple way to print a quiz for students to complete offline. The new Print Quiz page also provides instructors the option to print the quiz with the answer key (in-line with the questions). Instructors may have the option to print different versions of the quiz (if they use randomization or shuffle options in their quiz).

July 2025 Highlights

  • In Assignments: Instructors can setup a new “file or text submission” assignment to allow a student to submit one or both in a single submission.
  • In D2L Brightspace: The minimum supported browser versions have been updated.
  • In Groups: Instructors can now bulk enroll or bulk unenroll students in existing groups using a CSV or TXT file.
  • In Quizzes: Instructors can now reopen a student’s submitted quiz attempt and the student can continue their attempt.
  • In Rubrics: Instructors can reset rubric scoring (while keeping any entered feedback) using the new Clear Selections option.

June 2025 Highlights

  • In Awards: The issuer’s first and last name may now display on certificates for awards. Note: Replace strings are added to PDF certificate templates, such as in Adobe Acrobat. The issuer’s name (if added to templates) appears on manually issued awards after June 19, 2025.
  • In Content: When creating a new HTML file as an instructor, 11 new templates are available in the ‘Select a Document Template’ menu. These include new accordions and tabs templates. (Note: This does not alter existing content pages.)

May 2025 Highlights

  • In Assignments: Instructors can now retract published feedback in bulk for selected students or for all students at once.
  • In Groups: Instructors can export group enrollments data to a CSV file using the new Export button.
  • In Notifications: From a notification email, you can unsubscribe from all Brightspace email notifications using the new unsubscribe link.
  • In Quizzes: The New Quiz Evaluation Experience is now the only experience for instructors when grading quiz attempts. Instructors can no longer opt-out of the new experience.

April 2025 Highlights

  • In Assignments and Discussions: Instructors can now add bulk feedback to student assessments for selected students or all students at once.
  • In Grades: Students can access their quiz attempt feedback from the Grades tool. Students can continue to access their quiz attempt feedback from the Quizzes tool.
  • In Media Library: Some buttons have been renamed or moved on the page in the Media Library, but the same functionality exists for students and instructors.

March 2025 Highlights

  • In Awards: Instructors can now enter an issue date when manually issuing awards to students.
  • In HTML Editor: Instructors may notice a warning when copying and pasting an image to a different course. This warning is to notify the instructor and recommends the object be inserted into the HTML Editor using the toolbar options.
  • In Quizzes: All question types are now supported in the new quiz evaluation experience for instructors.
  • In Rubrics: For instructors and students, a level point range has been added to better clarify analytic rubrics.

February 2025 Highlights

  • In HTML Editor: The accessibility checker icon has been updated to a human figure within a circle for better clarity.
  • In Quizzes: Instructors can now filter quiz statistics by a section or a group.

January 2025 Highlights

  • In D2L Brightspace, the minimum supported browser versions have been updated.
  • In Rubrics, instructors can quickly set ungraded levels for rubric criteria to a minimum or maximum value. This is available for analytical type rubrics in assignments, discussions and written response quiz questions (new evaluation experience).
  • In Widgets, the ‘Office 365’ widget has been renamed to ‘Microsoft 365’ in D2L Brightspace.

Report any D2L Brightspace issues to the MinnState IT service desk.