Recent Updates

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.

December 2024 Highlights

  • In Assignments, Discussions and Quizzes: A new ‘learner view of grade’ displays the grade scheme as quick reference for the instructor. For Quizzes, instructors must opt into the new evaluation experience to access this feature.
  • In Rubrics: The Criteria descriptions can now be up to 500 characters. (Previously, they had a 256-character limit.)

November 2024 Highlights

  • In Assignments: The Advanced Assessment workflow has been updated to ensure students are assigned to at least one evaluator.
  • In Brightspace Pulse: The Pulse app will be updated throughout the next two months to improve the user experience, including the mobile browser integration.
  • In Groups: Deleted individual groups and categories of groups can now be restored through the Groups tool Recycle Bin.

October 2024 Highlights

This release contains no features or changes for instructors and students.

September 2024 Highlights

  • In Quizzes: The new Quiz Evaluation Experience is available for instructors to try out when evaluating student quiz attempts.
  • In Quizzes: Instructors can attach rubrics to written response questions and score those responses with rubrics when using the new quiz evaluation experience.
  • In Quizzes: Students can review unscored rubrics for written response questions when taking a quiz and review rubrics with feedback after their instructor has graded their quiz attempt.

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