Releases

This month there are several big and small updates coming to Brightspace. Below is a breakdown of some of the main changes and updates you can expect. These updates should roll out to Vanderbilt’s Brightspace overnight Thursday, July 9 into Friday, July 10. Additionally, it was just announced that the… 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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