Vanderbilt University

A new tool called FeedbackFruits is now available in Vanderbilt’s Brightspace, giving faculty a new way to facilitate structured, interactive peer review activities directly within their courses. With FeedbackFruits, instructors can create peer review assignments that guide students through giving and receiving meaningful feedback. The tool is designed to support… Read More

Beginning with the Fall 2027 semester, Vanderbilt’s Brightspace site will be updating to feature a new default look and feel for course Content pages. The New Content Experience (formerly called Lessons View) is a more modern and intuitive design for the Content area of Brightspace courses. Since… Read More

As the summer continues on, there are several updates to Brightspace this month including updates to icons, Lumi Pro, and more. Below are some highlights of what to expect when the June update comes out later this week.   Brightspace – Rubric Icon in Assignments, Discussions,… Read More

This month there are several key updates to Brightspace tools. These updates bring new features to existing tools as well as expanding other tools’ capabilities. Assignments – Improved Assignments Submissions layout with accessibility enhancements Grades – Completion Status column removal and overdue comment update Quizzes – Improved Browse Question… Read More

April 2026: D2L Lumi Pro, a suite of Generative AI features integrated into Brightspace, is now available across Vanderbilt University. The Office of Learning Innovation is excited to announce that Lumi Pro, a generative AI feature within Brightspace, is now live at Vanderbilt University! The D2L Lumi Pro… Read More

This month there are several key updates to Brightspace tools. These updates bring new features to existing tools as well as expanding other tools’ capabilities.   Assignments – Group assignments now supported in Advanced Assessment Assignments – Improved error messages when uploading unsupported file types Grades – Improved navigation within… Read More

We’re excited to share an improvement coming to Brightspace at Vanderbilt University! Currently, there are a few select courses in Brightspace that allow users to sign up on their own via a self-registration process. These courses include offerings developed by AdvancED as well as other approved courses from various parts… Read More

As we begin 2026, there are several updates coming to Brightspace. Below are some highlights of what we can expect. Additionally, there’s a link to the full D2L Release Notes at the bottom of this post. Announcements – Images now appear in emailed Announcement notifications Assignments, Quick Eval… Read More

As we come to the end of 2025, there are still updates coming to Brightspace. This month’s update includes a big feature addition to the Creator+ toolset, two long-requested improvements, and other updates. These updates will go into effect with the December update to Brightspace that comes out overnight on… Read More

This month there are several updates to Brightspace that bring both new features and helpful quality of life updates to the platform. Below are highlights of this month’s update. For a link to the full release notes, refer to the References at the bottom of this post. Admin Tools… Read More

If you teach courses that utilize Brightspace Quizzes, you probably have thought about the best way to create a smooth, equitable, and fair testing environment for students. The Respondus LockDown Browser can help ensure that students are focused on their quiz or exam without unnecessary distractions or unapproved extra resources. The LockDown Browser is a downloadable software application that students install on their computer, iPad, or Chromebook that “locks down” their device for the duration of their testing time. This makes sure that students are focused on their assessment and are not distracted by other things on their device. Read More

Each month D2L (the company that makes Brightspace) releases updates to the platform. This month, there are several different updates to various parts of Brightspace. These are the highlights of what updates are coming to Brightspace this Friday.   Assignments Grades Quizzes Assignments — Annotation… Read More

This month, there are several important updates to Brightspace. We are highlighting two of those below: printing quizzes and an update to the Lessons View Content experience. For a list of all updates this month, please refer to the D2L Release Notes linked at the bottom.   Print Quizzes Functionality Added… Read More

This July there are several important updates coming to Brightspace. Below are the highlights of this month’s D2L release notes. For a link to the complete list of updates and releases, refer to the references section at the end of this post.     Assignments – Flexible… Read More

This month there are only a few important updates to Brightspace. Below are the highlights of this month’s updates and improvements. For a full list of updates from D2L, click the link in the References section at the bottom of this page.  Assignments – Retract feedback in bulk on the… Read More

This April, D2L brings several new updates and fixes to Brightspace. Below are some highlights of the updates users will see this month.    Quizzes – New Quiz Evaluation Experience   This month D2L brings a new and updated evaluation experience to quizzes. The new evaluation experience brings the interface of… Read More

Note: As of July 2025, the new quiz evaluation experience is the only option in Brightspace. As such, Instructors cannot switch back to the older interface any longer.   D2L, the company that makes Brightspace, has introduced a new update to the Quiz grading interface. As this update is released… Read More

As the Spring semester is well underway, there have been a few updates that have come out in January and February of this year. Below is a list of highlights of recent changes that are now available in Vanderbilt’s Brightspace. To see the full list of updates from D2L, please… Read More

As the end of 2024 is upon us, D2L has a few important updates to Brightspace to round out the year. These updates will come out on Friday, December 13.  These updates are in addition to the big Creator+ update we launched a few weeks ago. For more information about… Read More

This November there are a couple of small updates that can be expected to arrive this week. In addition to these updates as part of the regular monthly update from D2L (the company that makes Brightspace), there’s also another big update we’ll be announcing next week.  Groups – Restore groups… Read More

During September and October, D2L released several new features for Brightspace. Below are a few highlights of important updates that are now available in Brightspace.  Assignments – Update to assignment annotations toolbar As part of the September update, the unsupported Bookmarks tool is disabled and the Bookmarks option in annotations… Read More

Each fall, many instructors contact the Educational Technology team with various requests for support related to their Brightspace courses. In an effort to bring greater visibility to the types of services the EdTech team provides to Vanderbilt instructors, we want to highlight some of the most common requests we get… Read More

This August D2L is bringing several important updates to Brightspace. Below are a selection of the updates that should be most impactful to Vanderbilt faculty and students.    Assignments – Assessment workflows enhanced Advanced Assessments help instructors and administrators to better manage courses with large class sizes and multiple evaluators,… Read More

The July 2024 update to Brightspace will roll out later this week once it’s released by D2L (the company that makes Brightspace). As part of this update, the following new features and changes will be included. Note that since this update has not been implemented at the time of publishing… Read More

The recent updates to Brightspace that came out in May and June brought several improvements to the platform. Read below to see what updates you should find in Brightspace now.  Assignments – Annotations update The Assignment Annotations tool has been updated by fixing several defects and updating the icons used… Read More

Photo by: Susan Urmy One of the most commonly used tools in Brightspace is the Quizzes tool. Whether they are used for basic formative assessments, unit tests, or midterm/final exams, Quizzes can be a useful assessment tool in Brightspace. As part of our On-Demand Resources, we have… Read More

This month there are a few different updates coming to Brightspace that bring some subtle but important quality of life changes. As always, remember that this is a preview of upcoming releases, but things may change before the update is officially implemented by D2L at the end of this week. … Read More

This month, our Spotlight on Instructional Technology takes a look at some of the various integrated tools you can use with and in Brightspace. Integrated tools are third-party tools that are not part of Brightspace but can either connect into the platform and/or work independently from it. These tools build… Read More

This time of year many instructors are sitting up Assignments in Brightspace for a variety of uses. While many people know the basics of what you can do with Assignments, there are important options that some instructors may not know about. Below are some resources that we think would be… Read More

The Spring 2024 semester is just getting started, and Brightspace is rolling out a few new updates later this week. Here are the highlights of the January update, along with one minor change that has been made after being made available in December.  Awards – Export achievements as digital credentials… Read More

As we wrap up 2023, there are a few new updates coming to Brightspace this month. These updates will be rolling out at the end of this week. If you have questions about any of these updates, please contact our Brightspace and Instructional Technology Support team at brightspace@vanderbilt.edu.  Announcements… Read More

This time of year, many people on campus are counting down the days to the end of the semester. Before we get to that end point, however, there are plenty of things instructors have to do. One of the most popular topics of questions we get this time of year… Read More

Each month D2L releases updates for Brightspace. The November 2023 release will come out later this week, but we want to highlight upcoming changes and improvements to the platform. If you have questions about any of these upcoming changes, or any other questions about Brightspace, feel free to… Read More

Over the last few months, Brightspace has updated and expanded options that impact timing for quizzes. While we have outlined each of these in our regular release notes, we wanted to also have a summary post to show all the changes made to quiz timing settings and how they work. Read More

The September update to Brightspace has a few minor updates to behind the scenes aspects of Brightspace, but there are also a couple of important updates to Quiz Timings.  Quizzes – Quiz Timing Improvements featuring Synchronous Quizzes This release updates the Quiz Creation experience for instructors and learners by adding… Read More

In April of this year, Turnitin released an update to their product that reviewed submitted papers and presented their determination of how much of a paper was written by AI. As we outlined at that time, many people had important concerns and questions about this new tool,… Read More

Each month there are regular updates to the Brightspace platform. Below are the highlights of the August 2023 release notes.  Announcements – Pin announcements to top of Announcement widget With this release, instructors can now pin announcements to the top of the Announcement Widget, allowing important information to… Read More

Over the last two months, there have been several important updates to Brightspace. Here is a summary of recent changes.  Assignments – Availability dates are now on by default Recent improvements to the Assignments tool’s availability dates allow Instructors to have greater control over the access… Read More

There have been a few important updates to Brightspace in the last two months, so we wanted to spotlight them here. If you have any questions about these updates, or anything else Brightspace related, be sure to contact the Brightspace and Instructional Technology Support team.  Awards –… Read More

Effective August 16, 2023, Vanderbilt has disabled Turnitin’s AI detection tool. To read more about why this decision was made, refer to this newer blog post.   Beginning on 4/4/2023, faculty who use Turnitin now have access to an additional tool – Artificial Intelligence… Read More

There have been a few new updates to Brightspace over the last couple of months that we would like to share with you. If you have any questions about any of these changes, or anything else concerning Brightspace and Instructional Technology, please feel free to reach out to the… Read More

If you are new to teaching at Vanderbilt, I hope you got to attend the CFT’s new faculty orientation called Teaching at Vanderbilt (TAV). It’s always a wonderful opportunity to get to know new faces and learn some tips for success at Vanderbilt.  I did a session at TAV this… Read More

As we begin another fall semester, there are several updates coming to Brightspace this month.  Assignments – Access new shortcuts to undo and redo PDF annotations on evaluations Previously, the only way to remove PDF annotations in Assignments was to use the eraser tool or delete the selection. Read More

Summer months are usually when we see the biggest updates from Brightspace and D2L. This summer is shaping up for some good updates across different areas of the platform. Assignments – Save time by copying assignments to other courses you teach Instructors who teach several courses are now… Read More

May Brightspace Updates This time of year there are not many updates to Brightspace, but there are a couple that we want to point out to users. One is going to be a big help to students and instructors alike, and the other is an interesting new option for those… Read More

In a recent article, Inside Higher Ed described the results of a new survey highlighting a few of the biggest challenges instructors have faced during remote and online teaching over the last two years. You can find the article here: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/03/23/survey-views-pandemic-learning-overwhelmingly-negative   According to this survey, labs, group… Read More

Wintertime is not known for big changes to Brightspace, but there have been a few updates over the beginning of this semester that we wanted to update users on.    Updated Brightspace Branding D2L, the parent company of Brightspace, recently updated its logo and company branding. Read More

In 2018, Vanderbilt added a way for Brightspace users to set their personal pronouns in their Brightspace profile. While this was a good option at the time, this was only viewable when users went to someone else’s profile. As of February 2022, Brightspace is rolling out a new… Read More

There are several highlights from the most recent Brightspace updates, and today we want to focus on three things that will be most helpful to Brightspace users. Links to the full release notes are available at the end of this post.  Assignments – New Assignment Creation Experience Universally… Read More

The CFT first published a guide on considering how to work with wireless devices in the classroom in 2010. Given the rapidly changing digital landscape since then, this guide has been updated to better consider and account for the changes in how personal electronic devices are used, and how widespread they have become. It considers how personal electronic… Read More

There are several highlights from the most recent Brightspace update, and today we want to focus on four things that will be most helpful to Brightspace users. A link to the full release notes is available at the end of this post.    Preview Activity in Evaluation mode… Read More

Here are the highlights from recent Brightspace updates. A link to the full release notes is available at the end of this post.    Assignments – Restricting file extensions for submissions It’s now possible for instructors to restrict the types of files they accept for Assignments… Read More

As we near the beginning of a new semester, many of us are thinking about how we can make space in our classrooms to learn about our students’ needs. In higher education, the question of how we can support students coming back to campus after mostly online experiences is a… Read More

If you are new to teaching at Vanderbilt, I hope you got to attend the CFT’s new faculty orientation called Teaching at Vanderbilt (TAV). It’s always a wonderful opportunity to get to know new faces and learn some tips for success at Vanderbilt.  I did a session at TAV… Read More

There have been several updates to Brightspace over the summer, so we wanted to share with you the highlights of new things you can find in Brightspace starting this month. While these are just the highlights, we will link to the full release notes at the end of… Read More

Written by Jenny Park, August 2021 My name is Jenny Park, and I am a new instructional technologist at the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching. My colleagues and I recently attended the annual D2L Fusion Conference, which focuses on how to maximize the use and support for… Read More

My name is Jenny, and I am a new instructional technologist at the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching. My colleagues and I recently attended the annual D2L Fusion Conference, which focuses on how to maximize the use and support for the Brightspace platform. I had the opportunity to attend sessions… Read More

By Michael Coley, Fall 2021 Over the month of July, the Brightspace Support team had the opportunity to attend the 2021 D2L Fusion Conference. While this annual conference usually is held in locations across North America each summer, for the past two summers it has been all… Read More

For many of us at Vanderbilt, August is the busiest month of the year. That is certainly true for us here at Brightspace support at the CFT! And to get ready for our return to campus in August, we have new guides and resources, new faces, and a new expanded… Read More

The Brightspace team normally provides support to the Vanderbilt campus Sunday through Friday, usually from 7am to 11pm. In particular over the last year at Vanderbilt, we have been proud to step up to the challenges of remote and online teaching and offer expanded hours and services.  For the next… Read More

During the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters, the Brightspace Team held drop-in hours each Thursday to allow faculty to meet with our team and discuss any questions they had about using the Brightspace platform. We’ve wrapped up our final drop-in session for the spring, and we’ll be dedicating our… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Updated video and audio player To improve accessibility and create a consistent user experience, a… Read More

Brightspace’s November update included a new feature that many faculty may find useful. When students are allowed more than 1 attempt for a Brightspace quiz, instructors may now choose to have students only retake the questions they answered incorrectly. To enable this option, navigate to your quiz settings and choose… Read More

As instructors give assignments, quizzes and discussions, there are some key grading setup elements to check before opening these activities to students. Start with the Gradebook If you intend to use the Brightspace gradebook, then I would start with this setup. Step 1: How do I set up my… Read More

Have you been wondering about recording your live class meetings? We have several new guides available on our On-Demand Resources page that will walk you through some commonly asked questions. Should I record my live class meeting? New! How can I record and share my… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Assignments – Additional functionality in the new assignment creation experience Add special access conditions to assignments. Read More

Click tracking refers to the ability that both instructors and students have in Brightspace to see where students have clicked within a course. This tool can be very useful for students trying to track their own progress in a course and for instructors evaluating their own course design and learning… Read More

Join our partners from Turnitin on Wednesday August 12th at 2 PM for a training session catered toward online teaching. In this session, we’ll be reviewing the many ways Turnitin can help facilitate learning and assessment in online spaces. This workshop is open to all Vanderbilt faculty, staff, and teaching… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Assignments – New create and edit experience The create and edit Assignments page has an updated… Read More

by Stacey M. Johnson, Assistant Director for Educational Technology If you will be teaching online, how do you plan to convert your course plan into a clean, easy-to-follow Brightspace course? The course plan or syllabus is the blueprint of your course, but now you have to construct the virtual structure… Read More

If you are using the Quizzes tool in Brightspace to conduct some end-of-semester assessment in your course, the CFT is here to help. With input from the support team, our ever-growing On-Demand Resources page also features a troubleshooting guide that you can use to navigate common questions. Check out… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Assignments – Video Note recordings have expanded time limit In Assignment submission folders, students can now… Read More

by CFT assistant director, Stacey M. Johnson Faculty, are you thinking about how to develop online assessments of student learning in a hurry? At Vanderbilt most courses meet face-to-face, but with campus closed through the end of the spring 2020 semester, we are all rethinking assessments. The CFT has resources… Read More

If the speed of video processing is a problem… Video isn’t always necessary or even the best tool for the job. Lots of other technologies are just plain more accessible to everyone but especially to students on unreliable wifi. Read our blog post about low-bandwidth alternatives to video… Read More

by CFT assistant director, Stacey M. Johnson Video-based tools (like Zoom and Virtual Classroom, the two video conferencing tools available in Brightspace, or Kaltura Media, the video creation and storage tool) can be very useful for recreating the classroom experience in an online format. However, some faculty and students might… Read More

by CFT assistant director, Stacey M. Johnson With both Zoom and Virtual Classroom available in Brightspace for live video conferencing, many faculty will be moving their face-to-face classes online in a very literal sense, doing similar activities as usual that happen to be conducted video conferencing. However, for some… Read More

by CFT assistant director, Stacey M. Johnson Accessibility in an online environment is essential. All students should be included and valued as our campus transitions to remote teaching through the end of the semester. Some Brightspace tools that will help are: If you will be creating recorded lectures or other… Read More

by CFT assistant director, Stacey M. Johnson Faculty, are you thinking about how to put some of your course content online in a hurry? Perhaps to deal with unexpected events? At Vanderbilt most of our courses meet face-to-face, however, if you find that you need to make adjustments in… Read More

The Vanderbilt Center for Teaching released a comprehensive guide to Teaching with Blogs. Brightspace users on campus will be interested to know that a blog tool is included in every Brightspace course, and can be used to support student learning inside of the secure course management environment. How can Students… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Assignments – Streamlined access to inline feedback To streamline access to assignment feedback, learners can… Read More

Do your students need extra help with Brightspace? The CFT has resources available for students as well as instructors! New guides for students are released regularly and can be found here, including our brand new guide on submitting large video files in Brightspace.    Students are also welcome… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Assignments – “New” Assignment Submissions Column and Page On the Assignments page, instructors now have a… Read More

The end of the semester is coming up quickly! Is your Brightspace gradebook set up correctly? While you are certainly not required to use the Brightspace Grades tool to track your students’ grades, it can be a big help. Especially if you are using Brightspace to collect assignments or giving… Read More

There are times when Brightspace may give you an error message when attempting to upload a file or accessing content. Here are some general troubleshooting steps that have proven to correct most of these issues: 1) Use Google Chrome as your browser – it has proven to be most compatible… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Assignments – Letter grading available Grade Schemes can now be used by instructors to evaluate assignments… Read More

by Stacey M. Johnson, Assistant Director If you are interested in making your Brightspace course more accessible to your students with disabilities, we have a few resources that you might find useful.  First, read through the CFT Teaching Guide on Creating Accessible Learning Environments.  This will provide great background… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Assignments – Grades entered in Assignments and Grade Book are synchronized When an instructor enters a… Read More

Up until now, documents in Brightspace could only be annotated by utilizing the GradeMark function of the TurnItIn tool.  Brightspace has now rolled out a new optional annotation tool that is built directly into the Assignment tool. For an overview of the tool and how it can be utilized, refer… Read More

Harvested Repositories in the Learning Object Repository (LOR) are now available and a corresponding link has now been added to the Brightspace dashboard Navbar.  The LOR contains a number of repositories that can access harvested data from external databases. For information on accessing, searching for, and using material from these… Read More

From June 11th through 14th, Brightspace Support will only be offered at the following times: 6/11 – 7 am to 3 pm 6/12 – 7 am to 3 pm 6/13 – 7 am to 4 pm 6/14 – 7 am to 2 pm If you have any questions, please contact… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Brightspace Support is dedicated to educating the campus on new updates that can improve the learning… Read More

Brightspace Support will not be offered on Monday, May 27th, due to the Memorial Day holiday.  Any received messages will be returned on Tuesday, May 28th.  Thank you!… Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Discussions – Save feedback in draft state This feature provides instructors the option to save feedback… Read More

On May 9th and 10th, Brightspace Support will begin at 9 am instead of 7 am.  Regular support hours will resume on May 13th.  If you have any questions, please contact Brightspace Support at brightspace@vanderbilt.edu. Read More

In June 2018, Kaltura released their own video creation tool called Kaltura Capture.  At that time, Kaltura also announced that their previous tool called CaptureSpace Lite would be going away in June 2019.  Therefore as of June 1st, 2019, CaptureSpace Lite will no longer be available in the Brightspace Kaltura… Read More

On May 2nd and 3rd, Brightspace Support will begin at 9 am instead of 7 am.  Regular support hours will resume on May 6th.  If you have any questions, please contact Brightspace Support at brightspace@vanderbilt.edu. Read More

Due to the expected heavy traffic in metro Nashville on April 25th and 26th from NFL Draft festivities, Brightspace Support will be amending its in-office hours for these days.  They are as follows: April 25th: Drop in support will be offered as normal from 10 am to Noon.  No in… Read More

On March 1, 2019, Brightspace e-mail support will begin at 9:00 am (instead of 7:00 am).  If you have any questions, please contact us at brightspace@vanderbilt.edu. Read More

On February 15th, 18th, 19th, and 20th, Brightspace Support will begin at 9 am instead of 7 am.  Regular support hours will resume on February 21st.  If you have any questions, please contact Brightspace Support at brightspace@vanderbilt.edu. Read More

Every month, Brightspace will release new features and updates. You can get a comprehensive view of the updates here, but this blog post will give you a quick overview of what’s new on Brightspace! Groups – Create new submission types The new On paper and Observed in person submission types… Read More