iLearn

Groups: Bulk Enroll/Unenroll Users by CSV File Import

Instructors can now bulk enroll or unenroll learners in groups using a CSV file in the Groups tool. A new Import button open a guided workflow with formatting instructions. Each CSV line must represent one enroll or unenroll action for a current course learner. For more information, please visit the D2L release notes.

Assignments: Bulk Retract Feedback

The Submissions page in the Assignments tool now supports bulk feedback retraction, aligning with Discussions and Quizzes for consistency. Instructors can:

• Retract feedback in bulk for all or selected learners.
  1. Check the box next to individual learners, then select Retract Feedback.
  2. Or select More Actions > Retract All to retract feedback for all learners.

• Receive a confirmation prompt with the number of evaluations before finalizing retraction.

Groups: Export Group Enrollment Data

The Groups tool now includes an Export button allowing group enrollment data to be exported to a CSV file. The export includes category details, group names, user enrollments, and enrollment dates, with the option to export specific groups or all groups within a category.

Quick Eval: Evaluate Learners across Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes

This release streamlines grading in Quick Eval by allowing instructors to move directly to the next submission across different activity types and courses without returning to the main Quick Eval page. This eliminates extra navigation and speeds up the evaluation process. For more information, please visit the D2L release notes.

Assignments: Update to assignment annotations software version 

The annotation tool in Assignments has been updated to the latest version improving accessibility, text formatting, and stability. This update fixes issues with screen reader compatibility, cursor behavior, and text formatting in annotations.  

Grades: Access Quiz Feedback  

Learners can now view quiz attempt feedback directly from the Grades page, making it easier to access their results. They can still review feedback in the Quizzes tool if preferred.

Quizzes: Add Rubrics to Written Response Questions 

With the implementation of the New Quiz Experience, instructors now have a more streamlined and efficient grading workflow. This update also allows them to add rubrics to written response questions.

• Watch this tutorial [3:36] for setting up rubrics in written response quiz questions. 
• For additional information about the new quiz evaluation experience and planned updates, refer to the Release of the new quiz evaluation experience blog post. 

 

Awards: View Certificate ID 

Learners can view the Certificate ID when sharing their awards.   
For learners: 

• Certificate ID appears under the recipient’s name on the Public Award page. 
• Certificate ID is included in the Share My Award and Award pop-up windows on the My Award page. 
• The Credential ID field in LinkedIn is automatically populated. 
• The Certificate ID is included when exporting digital credentials. 

For instructors: 

• Certificate ID is visible in the Award pop-up window on the Classlist Award page

Awards: Option to enter Issue Date when manually issuing awards 

Instructors now have greater flexibility when issuing awards with the addition of the Issue Date field in the Issue Award dialog. They can manually enter a date, enabling them to backdate awards if necessary. By default, the Issue Date is set to the current date. 

Brightspace Editor – Updated Accessibility Checker icon

This release updates the Accessibility Checker icon in Brightspace Editor to improve user recognition and understanding.

Figure: The updated Accessibility Checker icon is now a human figure within a circle, replacing the eye symbol with a check mark for better clarity.

Figure: The previous Accessibility Checker icon of an eye and checkmark.

Creator+ – New Authoring Tools Menu in Brightspace Editor

Insert Elements, Practices, and Layouts have been relocated from Other Insert Options (+) to the new dedicated Authoring Tools menu   in Brightspace Editor. This update improves the visibility, organization, and usability of Creator+ tools, delivering a more streamlined and efficient experience.

Figure: Use the new dedicated Authoring Tools menu in Brightspace Editor to access the Creator+ tools and H5P Interactives.

Portfolio – Find evidence easily with improved searchability

Users can now find evidence more easily in the Portfolio tool with improved filtering and sorting options. The enhanced searchability offers the ability to use a Date filter when searching for evidence, sorting either by a preset date range or a custom date range.

Previously, users could only search for evidence using the Evidence Status, Class Category (if available), and School Category (if available) filters in Portfolio.

Figure: Click Filters and select a preset or custom date range.

Rubrics – The Criteria descriptions limit increased to 500 characters

To support larger criteria descriptions, administrators and instructors can now add up to 500 characters to the description of the criteria when creating and editing rubrics. This new limit provides more context about learning expectations.

Full descriptions of criteria are available in the Learner view.

For instructors, when evaluating, up to three lines are displayed. To display the complete text, they must click more.

Note: This change applies only to new rubric items created or edited after this release. Existing rubrics retain their original 256-character limit unless manually updated.

Figure: Click more to display the complete text for the rubric description. Jan. 2025

Groups: Restore Groups and Categories

A new Recycle Bin feature is now available in the Groups tool, allowing instructors to restore individual groups or entire group categories within a course offering. When a group is restored, any existing enrollments and lockers (if applicable) are reinstated. Additionally, activities associated with the restored groups, such as discussions or assignments, can be recovered separately through their respective restore pages.

Note: Groups and categories deleted before November 15, 2024, will not appear in the Groups Recycle Bin. This feature only applies to deletions made after this date.

Figure: Click Recycle Bin to view the deleted groups and group categories.

Figure: Select the check box for a group or group category and click Restore.

Assignments: Update to assignment annotations PSPDFKit

The unsupported Bookmarks tool has been removed from annotations to prevent confusion. This update also resolves existing issues and helps prevent future ones related to outdated PSPDFKit software. Previously, instructors could add bookmarks, but they were not retained after refreshing the page.

Figure: Before this update, instructors could click Bookmarks to add bookmarks to pages of a PDF. However, these bookmarks were not saved

Figure: After this update, Bookmarks is removed.

Discussions 

There are new deletion and restoration workflows for group-restricted discussions. When a user deletes a group, the associated activities, including discussions, are also deleted. These discussions cannot be restored unless their associated group is restored first. Once the group has been restored, associated discussions can be restored using the Discussions restore workflow.  

• The following are new Reading View improvements for students.  
• The Start New Thread button is duplicated at the bottom of the page when viewing a topic, eliminating the need to scroll back to the top of the page. 
• The Add Attachments section is opened by default when creating a new post or new topic. Previously learners had to open the section manually to add attachments. 
• The Add Attachments section is wider on screen when learners create a new thread. 

Data Hub 

New columns have been added to the following Brightspace Data Sets: 

• Quiz User Answers 
• Release Condition Objects
• Survey User Answers 

Grades

The sort component for learner names in Grade book Mastery View is updated to improve consistency with other areas of Brightspace and to resolve minor visual issues with the previous sort functionality. Instructors can now sort learner names in any of the following orders: 

• Last name alphabetically  
• Last name reverse-alphabetically 
• First name alphabetically 
• First name reverse-alphabetically