Overview
As of June 2, 2018, Minnesota State D2L Brightspace learning environment migrated to D2L’s cloud hosting services, and moved onto D2L’s continuous delivery (CD) model. On D2L’s CD model, we receive monthly updates for our Minnesota State D2L Brightspace sites. Check out the D2L Brightspace Update Schedule available at the D2L Brightspace public webpage.
After each upgrade, these new and updated features will be available in D2L Brightspace.
- Starred (
) items are feature or changes that students and sometimes instructors will experience.
- Remaining items are features that will be available to instructors only.
Assignments
Evaluations are now synchronized with the grade book (January 2025)
- When instructors evaluate student work in Assignments and press the Update button, the scores and feedback are now synchronized with the grade book even if no change was made.
Update to annotations toolbar (April 2025)
- Some issues were fixed in the Annotations toolbar. Additionally, several buttons had tooltips removed and the Search button no longer highlights when selected.
Add bulk feedback to student assessments (April 2025)
- Instructors can now add bulk feedback to student assessments for selected students or all students at once.
Retract bulk feedback for student assessments (May 2025)
- Instructors can now retract published feedback in bulk for selected students or all students at once.
Awards
Certificate ID displays for earned awards (March 2025)
- An earned award’s Certificate ID now displays in the Awards tool for students and instructors.
Option to enter Issue Date when manually issuing awards (March 2025)
- Instructors can now enter an issue date when manually issuing awards to students.
Replacement strings for award issuer first and last names on certificate templates (June 2025)
- The issuer’s first and last name can now be added to certificate templates for awards. Note: Replace strings are added to PDF certificate templates, such as in Adobe Acrobat. The issuer's name appears on manually issued awards after June 19, 2025.
Bongo Video Assignments & Virtual Classrooms
New and updated features for Bongo free version (January 2025)
- As of November 7, 2024, the following new and updated Bongo features are available:
- New Configuration Experience for individual assignments
- New Show/Hide instructor feedback before evaluation feature
- Peer review is now Opt-in
- Updated user interface on the D2L Quicklink process
Brightspace Learning Environment
Updated versions of supported browsers in D2L Brightspace (January 2025)
- In D2L Brightspace, the minimum supported browser versions have been updated. It’s recommended that you use the latest version of your browser.
Brightspace Pulse
Recurring events are now display in the Pulse app (May 2025)
- Recurring calendar events now display on the Upcoming > Events tab in the Pulse app.
Content
New Content HTML Templates available when creating a new file (June 2025)
- 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 affect existing content files.)
Discussions
Evaluations are better synchronized with the grade book (January 2025)
- When instructors evaluate student work in Discussions and press the Update button, the scores and feedback are better synchronized with the grade book even if no change was made.
Add bulk feedback to student assessments (April 2025)
- Instructors can now add bulk feedback to student assessments for selected students or all students at once.
Grades
Access Quiz Feedback from the Grades page (April 2025)
- Students can access their quiz attempt feedback from the Grades tool. Students can continue to access their quiz attempt feedback from the Quizzes tool.
Groups
Export group enrollment data to CSV (May 2025)
- Instructors can export group enrollments data to a CSV file using the new Export button.
HTML Editor
Updated Accessibility Checker icon (February 2025)
- The Accessibility Checker icon has been updated to a human figure within a circle for better clarify.
Path detection warning when copying an object that has a path outside the current course (March 2025)
- Instructors may notice a warning when copying and pasting an object (such as an image) to a different course. This warning is to notify the instructor and recommend the object be inserted into the HTML Editor using the toolbar options.
Media Library
Updated user interface for the Media Library tool (April 2025)
- Some buttons have been renamed or moved on the page in the Media Library, but the same functionality exists for students and instructors.
Notifications
Unsubscribe from all notifications via email (May 2025)
- Students and instructors can use the new subscribe link in a notification email to unsubscribe from all of their own Brightspace email notifications.
Quizzes
Filter quiz statistics by section or group (February 2025)
- Instructors can now filter quiz statistics by sections or groups.
All question types supported in the new quiz evaluation experience (March 2025)
- All question types are now supported in the new quiz evaluation experience for instructors.
New Quiz Evaluation Experience is still available and its upcoming timeline (April 2025)
- Instructors can still try out the New Quiz Evaluation Experience (leave on or opt-out) when grading student quiz attempts. Starting in the May 2025 release, the new experience will be the only experience and an opt-out option will no longer be available.
Enhanced quiz submission view banner (May 2025)
- After a student takes an attempt on a quiz, the quiz submission view banner has been updated.
New Quiz Evaluation Experience is the only experience and can no longer opt-out (May 2025)
- The New Quiz Evaluation Experience is now the only experience when accessing student quiz attempts. Instructors can no longer opt-out of the new experience.
Rubrics
Set minimum or maximum score for ungraded rubric criteria (January 2025)
- 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).
Add rubric level range visual for analytic rubrics (March 2025)
- For instructors and students, a level point range has been added to better clarify analytic rubrics.