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February 2026 D2L Brightspace Release
Effective February 19, 2026, new and updated features within D2L Brightspace are available to Instructors as part of the monthly update.
Release highlights include updates to Assignments, Class Progress, D2L Brightspace, Grades, and Surveys. Review the additional resources to learn more.
Assignments
Group assignments are now supported when co-marking Assignment submissions
With the February 2026 release, group assignments are now supported after selecting evaluators for an Assignment. For instance:
- Assign evaluators to groups using Co-Marking, Delegation, or Multi-Evaluator workflows.
- Groups referenced in labels and prompts in the screens.
- Switching between individual and group assignment type is disabled after submissions are made.
- Grades sync to the grade book the same as before; individual overrides remain possible from Grades.
Note: Select Evaluators is an existing option in an assignment under the 'Evaluation and Feedback' section.
Figure: Use the Manage Allocations dialog to set a default evaluator allocation method and adjust group assignments.
Create assignments from Groups now directs to the Create Assignments page
With the February 2026 release, when creating a group assignment from the Groups tool, instructors are directed to the create assignment page. It's the same page as if they'd navigated directly to Assignments. Once Group Assignments have been created, instructors are redirected back to Manage Groups.
Figure: The assignment creation page from the Group Assignment workflow.
Improved messages when configuring Custom File Types for an assignment
With the February 2026 release, when instructors set Allowable File Extensions to Custom File Types during assignment creation, D2L Brightspace now requires at least one file extension to be entered before the assignment can be saved.
If the field is left blank, D2L Brightspace displays an inline message and prevents the assignment from being saved. This improvement helps instructors avoid invalid assignment configurations and reduces submission issues for students.
Note: These changes improve messaging only and do not alter which file types are allowed for an assignment.
Figure: Assignment page displays "File extension required" message when Custom File Types is selected without specifying allowable file extension(s).
Class Progress
User Progress for Content charts now loads asynchronously
With the February 2026 release, the completion progress bars for the Content Completed and Content Visited charts now load as instructors scroll down the Class Progress page. Progress details appear for each student as they come into view, allowing the page to continue loading smoothly regardless of the number of students or content objects being calculated.
This change should be minimal to instructors, reducing previous instances of page timeouts on the Class Progress page.
Figure: Content Completed progress bar charts load asynchronously (spinning circle icon may display for up to a second) in Class Progress.
D2L Brightspace
Redesigned filters for sections and groups
With the February 2026 release, redesigned filters for sections and groups are now available across multiple tools, including Assignments, Grades, Classlist, Quizzes, Discussions, and more. This improvement:
- Replaces the previous combined "View By" menu by introducing two separate filter menus, one for sections and one for groups
- Improves scalability for courses with many groups per category
- Allows for selecting groups across categories.
Notes:
- After selecting an option or clearing a selection in the menu, remember to click the Apply button to apply the change (like we do now).
- If groups or sections do not exist in the course, the corresponding filter menu does not display on the tool pages (just like the "view by" menu does not display now).
Figure: The previous View By dropdown menu with the default User menu applied.
Figure: The redesigned Groups filter with one group selected in a category. (Remember to click Apply to apply the change.)
Grades
Improved navigation on the Enter Grades page
With the February 2026 release, the Enter Grades page now offers improved horizontal navigation, making it easier to work with large grade books. Now, instructors can use navigation arrows on either side of the grade book (along with the existing scroll bar at the bottom of the grid) to navigate across grade columns.
Improved navigation on the Enter Grades page includes:
- Left and right arrows to scroll across grade columns.
- Bottom grade scroll bar remains available.
- Drop-down menus now display properly above other fields.
Figure: Left and right arrows to scroll horizontally and view additional grade columns on the Enter Grades page.
Surveys
CSV and Excel survey reports now generate asynchronously
With the February 2026 release, CSV and Excel survey reports are now generated in the background, and instructors receive a notification when the reports are ready for download.
Both CSV and Excel options are generated reports in the background, while the HTML option continues to be generated on the page. All report types are affected: Summary Report and Individual Attempts.
Instructors are notified when the report is available to download via the Notifications icon, indicated by a dot on the Update Alerts icon on the minibar. Select the icon and select the report link to navigate to the page to download it.
Figure: A confirmation message while the report is being generated.
Figure: A minibar update alert notifies when the report is available to download.
Additional Resources