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, new and updated features will be available in D2L Brightspace.
- Starred (
) items are feature or changes that impact students and sometimes instructors.
- Remaining items are features or changes that impact instructors only.
Announcements
In-line images display in emailed announcements (January 2026)
- When instructors adds an in-line image in an announcement, the image is now included in the body of the email for any notification email or emailed copy of that announcement. Note: This update applies only to images. Videos embedded in announcements are not included in emailed announcements.
Assignments
Improvements for assistive technology users in Assignments (January 2026)
- For instructors using assistive technologies, several improvements were made to the Assignments tool. On the Submissions page in Assignments, the drop-down menus for submissions, feedback, and results per page now include accessible labels.
Group Assignments can now be assessed when co-marking Assignment submissions (February 2026)
- For instructors who co-mark assignment submissions, Group Assignments can now be assessed in the workflow (such as delegation and multi-evaluator).
Creating assignments from Groups now redirects to the Assignments page (February 2026)
- When creating a group assignment from the Groups tool, instructors are directed to the Create Assignments page, as if they had navigated directed to Assignments.
Improved messages when configuring Custom File Types for an assignment (February 2026)
- When instructors set the Allowable File Extension to Custom File Types during assignment creation, it's now a required field to reduce submission issues for students. Messaging displays on the page when the assignment page is being saved if the Custom File Types field is empty.
Brightspace Pulse
Review Due, Start, and End dates on content in the Pulse app (January 2026)
- In the Brightspace Pulse app (December 5, 2025 release), an enhancement brings due dates, start dates, and end dates for content topics within the course's Content tab. This feature is available when using the Pulse app version 2.2511.0.1003200 on Android or 2.2512.898 on Apple (or later versions).
Classlist
Export Classlist details to CSV and improved print output (January 2026)
- The Classlist tool now includes a new Export button that allows instructors a quick way to download student Classlist details to a CSV file, such as to review the Classlist offline. Additionally, improvements were made to the existing Print option in the Classlist that now displays more information, including pronouns and details about the course in the printout.
Class Progress
User Progress for Content charts now loads asynchronously (February 2026)
- The completion progress bar charts for Content Completion or Content Visited now load as instructors scroll down the User Progress page (in the Class Progress tool). This change should reduce previous instances of page timeouts on the User Progress page.
D2L Brightspace (overall)
Redesigned filters for sections and groups (February 2026)
- Across multiple tool pages (such as Classlist and Grades), the sections and groups filters are now two separate menus instead of the previously combined menu. In the sections and groups filter menus, instructors can select an option or clear the selection, and then select the Apply button to apply the change.
Grades
Improved navigation on the Enter Grades page (February 2026)
- On the Grades > 'Enter Grades' page, instructors can use the new left and right navigation arrows to navigate across the grade columns. Note: The bottom scroll bar is still available for scrolling the grade book.
Quick Eval
Improvements for assistive technology users in Quick Eval (January 2026)
- For instructors using assistive technologies, several improvements were made to the Quick Eval tool. These improvements are: (1) the number of search results returned is read aloud by assistive technology in the Submissions view in Quick Eval, and (2) the status messages that show the number of search results are now accessible to screen readers in the Activities view in Quick Eval.
Quizzes
Restrict quiz to lock each attempt to a single D2L Brightspace login session (January 2026)
- If enabled for a quiz, instructors can now require students to complete a quiz attempt within a single D2L Brightspace login session. When the session restriction option is enabled, students cannot resume the quiz attempt using another browser or device. If interested in this feature, instructors should contact their local D2L Campus Site Admin.
Surveys
CSV and Excel survey reports now generate asynchronously (February 2026)
- Both CSV and Excel survey reports now generate in the background, and instructors receive a notification when the reports are ready for download via the minibar Update Alerts icon. Note the HTML report option continues to generate on the page.