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the word update written on a chalk board

D2L (the company that owns Brightspace) uses Continuous Delivery to update our Brightspace system. The Continuous Delivery model gives us regular monthly updates allowing for incremental and easily integrated changes with no downtime required for our Brightspace system.

Our Continuous Delivery update occurs on the 4th Thursday of each month. D2L provides release notes to help users stay up-to-date with the changes.

Here are some of the updates in the October 2026/20.26.10 release were added to our system:

1) Work To Do Widget – View Course Work link

The Work To Do widget now includes a View Course Work link when accessed from a course homepage, giving learners access to all overdue and upcoming activities for that course. When a course has more than six activities, the new View Course Work link opens the Work To Do tool filtered to that course. This gives learners a complete view of their course-specific workload without requiring organization-level permissions.

Previously, learners with permission to view the widget only at the course offering level could see a maximum of six activities. The View All Work link, which opens activities across all courses, remains available only to users with organization-level permissions.

The Work To Do widget on a course homepage showing the new View Course Work link at the bottom.
The Work To Do widget now displays a View Course Work link when more than six activities are available in a course.

2) Work To Do Widget – View times for upcoming and overdue activities

The Work To Do widget now displays the specific time an activity is due or ends, along with associated availability dates, when learners hover over an activity date. Previously, the widget displayed only the date an activity was due or ended.

This update gives learners more precise deadline information, including when they work across different time zones.

The Work To Do widget showing a hover tooltip with the specific due time and availability start time for an overdue assignment.
The Work To Do widget displays the specific time an activity is due when a learner hovers over the date.

This feature implements the following PIE item:

  • D7980 (Show Date & Time in the Work To Do Widget)

If you are interested in getting more information about these and all the October Continuous Delivery updates, refer to the Brightspace Platform October 2026/20.26.10 Release Notes.

Additionally, refer to the Brightspace Release Notes for Continuous Delivery Releases, for details about current, past, and to preview upcoming continuous delivery updates.

Want more information?

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: image by geralt from Pixabay

Collection of four pronoun badges: two labeled 'she,' one labeled 'he,' and one labeled 'they.'

Wednesday, October 21st, is International Pronouns Day. International Pronouns Day is celebrated on the third Wednesday of October and seeks to make respecting, sharing, and educating about personal pronouns commonplace. Referring to people by the pronouns they determine for themselves is basic to human dignity. Being referred to by the wrong pronouns particularly affects transgender and gender nonconforming people. For more information about International Pronouns Day visit pronounsday.org.

ICYMI, read Bart’s “Yes, you should totally tell your students your pronouns” blog post.

Did you know, users have the option to indicate their pronouns in their Brightspace user profiles? Brightspace user profiles are visible to anyone who shares a course with a particular user, including students, instructors, administrators, etc.

The area under Account Settings, where you can set your pronouns
The area in your Account Settings, where you can set your pronouns
A user profile card with the pronouns displayed
A user profile card with the pronouns displayed
Classlist showing pronouns highlighted to the right of the name of a learner
Pronouns display in the 'Last Name, First Name' column of Classlist, to the right of the user's name, in parentheses. User name text is blue, pronoun text is grey.

Celebrate International Pronouns Day by entering your pronouns into Brightspace and invite your students to do the same.

If you are looking for a good pronoun primer on inclusive teaching, check out this Inclusive Teaching: Gender Pronouns and Teaching resource from the College of DuPage Library.

Also, check out name.pn if you or your students are looking for an easy way to share how you would like people to use your name. You can create a URL that links to information to help users get your preferred pronouns, title, and the pronunciation of your name correct.

Follow these steps to do it.

To enter your pronouns:

  1. From your Personal Menu click on Account Settings.
  2. Check the Allow others to see my pronouns box.
  3. Click on the Use different pronouns radio button and enter your pronouns.
  4. Click on Save and Close.

Want more information?

How to set your Pronouns
Navigate Brightspace Learning Environment - Account Settings – Learner (video)

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image Credit: "pronoun badges at State of the Map 2019" by Edward is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

D2L (the company that owns Brightspace) has announced an end-of-life for the Self Assessments tool. Self Assessments is a formative assessment tool that enables instructors to provide learners with a series of questions and immediate feedback for responses.

Road signs indicating the end, symbolizing the end of life for a software tool

The Self Assessment tool is a legacy tool with a limited set of features and functionalities. D2L has determined that the Self Assessments tool has a very low usage rate and has announced an end-of-life for the tool. The Self Assessments tool will no longer be available after May 2027. You can continue using it until then, but we recommend that you begin migrating your self assessments to Quizzes before that date.

The Quizzes tool has similar functionality to the Self Assessments tool. Instructors can set up a Quiz without a link to the Grade Book and not show any point values when learners take the Quiz. Refer to this Self Assessments vs. Quizzes blog post for a comparison between the Self Assessments tool and the Quizzes tool.

Follow this link for more information on the impact and transition plan for Self Assessments.

Want more information?

Intent to End-of-Life for Self Assessments
Self Assessments vs. Quizzes
Migrate Self Assessment Questions to Quizzes
Quizzes Tool

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: image by geralt from Pixabay

The midpoint of a semester tends to arrive without ceremony. By the time midterm grades come due, there is enough of the term behind us to feel its accumulated weight, and enough still ahead to keep the finish line at a distance.

I find it helps to treat midterm grades as information rather than obligation: they signal which students might benefit from outreach while there is still time to make a difference, and they offer early evidence of how a course is actually landing. When something isn't working as well as hoped, the midpoint still leaves time to adjust for the second half of the semester. And whatever the grades reveal, the patience faculty extend to their students is worth extending to themselves. Most of us are tired by October; that is less a failure than a predictable feature of the academic year.

In that spirit, CAT+FD's October programming continues through the month. Ongoing weekly gatherings remain on the schedule—Coffee & Chat, Walking Club, and the Faculty Writing Group on Mondays, and Quarter of Quiet on Wednesdays. Xavier faculty and staff can find current times on the CAT+FD Calendar.

Talking About AI

Prompt & Response: Faculty Discussions about AI

Input & Output: Staff Discussions about AI

AI Ready Webinar: AI as an Accessibility Tool

Workshops & Webinars

  • CAT Talk: Efficient Feedback, Tuesday, October 6, 3:00 PM (more info)
  • Mindful Check-in, Thursday, October 15, 11:00 AM (more info)
  • CAT Talk: Course Design for Accessibility, Tuesday, October 20, 3:00 PM (more info)
  • #LEX Advanced: Customize Your Course Homepage, Thursday, October 21, 3:00 PM (more info)

For New Faculty

  • Second-year Faculty Lunch: Advising at Xavier, Thursday, October 1, 11:30 AM (more info)
  • First-year Faculty Lunch: Culture of Teaching at an HBCU, Thursday, October 22, 11:30 AM (more info)

Turnitin is a tool that promotes academic integrity, streamlines grading and feedback, deters plagiarism, and improves student outcomes. Turnitin is integrated into our Brightspace system. Instructors typically create an Assignment submission folder with Turnitin enabled. When students submit their assignments they are checked for potential plagiarism. However, there may be situations where an instructor needs to submit a paper to be checked by Turnitin.

Turnitin - Quick Submit

The Quick Submit feature allows instructors to submit papers and receive Similarity Reports without creating an Assignment in their course. This is ideal for instructors who would like to use Turnitin to spot check submissions and have these papers in electronic format. Quick Submit SHOULD NOT be used if the instructor desires to have students submit their own papers or plans on using PeerMark (peer review assignment tool) or GradeMark (make comments on and assess student papers). Instructors should create an Assignment and enable Turnitin for the assignment instead.

Follow these steps to do it.

To use Quick Submit to submit a paper:

  1. Log in to your Turnitin account natively through www.turnitin.com.
  2. Activate Quick Submit by clicking on User Info from the top of the instructor homepage.
  3. On the preferences page, select yes from the activate Quick Submit drop-down menu. The Quick Submit tab will appear on the instructor homepage, making the Quick Submit inbox available for use.
  4. To start the upload process, click on the Submit button in the Quick Submit inbox and follow the instructions.

Want more information?

Activating Quick Submit
Quick Submit
Assignments and Turnitin
Interpreting the Similarity Report

Brightspace Tip #603: Simplify Assignment Collection
Brightspace Tip #498: Turnitin Feedback Studio
Brightspace Tip #122: Getting the Best out of Turnitin Feedback Studio
Turnitin Resources for Students

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

the word update written on a chalk board

D2L (the company that owns Brightspace) uses Continuous Delivery to update our Brightspace system. The Continuous Delivery model gives us regular monthly updates allowing for incremental and easily integrated changes with no downtime required for our Brightspace system.

Our Continuous Delivery update occurs on the 4th Thursday of each month. D2L provides release notes to help users stay up-to-date with the changes.

Here are some of the updates in the September 2026/20.26.09 release were added to our system:

1) Brightspace Editor – Additional heading options

To make creating accessible content easier, the Brightspace Editor now includes Heading 5 and Heading 6 in the Format drop-down menu. Previously, the menu only displayed Heading 1 through Heading 4, and instructors had to use keyboard shortcuts or the Source Code editor to apply the additional heading levels. This update ensures that instructors can easily apply all standard heading levels directly from the Format menu, supporting compliance with accessibility standards.

The Format menu displays Heading 1 through Heading 4.
The current Format drop-down menu showing only Heading 1 to Heading 4.

The Format menu displays Heading 1 through Heading 6.
The new Format drop-down menu showing Heading 1 to Heading 6.

This feature implements the following PIE item:

  • D13831 (Add H5 and H6 to 'format' dropdown)

2) Groups – Bulk edit group names and codes

To improve efficiency when managing large numbers of groups, the new Manage Groups experience now allows instructors to bulk edit group names and codes within a category. Previously, instructors had to select each group individually to edit its details. Instructors can now click Edit Group Names to update the names and codes for one, multiple, or all groups from a single interface, saving time and reducing administrative effort.

Group Category screen with multiple groups selected for editing.
On the Group Category page, instructors click Edit Group Names to edit one, multiple, or all groups.

Edit Group Names screen with fields for editing group names and group codes.
On Edit Group Names, instructors can edit the Group Name and Group Code for all groups.

3) Work To Do widget – Dismiss overdue items

To help learners better manage their workload, the Work To Do widget now allows users to dismiss overdue activities. Previously, overdue items remained on the list until completed or their due dates were removed, potentially cluttering lists for courses without end dates or those that remained active after completion.

Now, learners with the appropriate permission can select the X icon next to an overdue activity to remove it from their view. After dismissing an activity, an alert appears briefly with an Undo option, allowing learners to restore the activity if it was dismissed by mistake.

The Work To Do widget showing a dismiss icon next to an overdue activity.
Learners can now dismiss overdue items from the Work To Do widget by selecting the X.

The Work To Do widget showing an Undo option after an overdue activity is dismissed.
The Work To Do widget displays an Undo option after an overdue activity is dismissed.

This feature implements the following PIE item:

  • D12110 (Provide students the ability to dismiss overdue notifications from previous semester courses)

If you are interested in getting more information about this and all the September Continuous Delivery updates, refer to the Brightspace Platform September 2026/20.26.09 Release Notes.

Additionally, refer to the Brightspace Release Notes for Continuous Delivery Releases, for details about current, past, and to preview upcoming continuous delivery updates.

Want more information?

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: image by geralt from Pixabay

The Quizzes tool enables you to create and manage points-measured assessments. As part of your quantifiable assessment procedures, you can use quizzes to help evaluate students’ learning progress and learning outcomes.

question types

Quizzes are often thought to only be useful for quick knowledge checks. However, the Quizzes tool has eleven question types that allow you to test different levels of knowledge. The question types available in the Quizzes tool are:

  • True or False (T/F)
  • Multiple Choice (MC)
  • Multi-Select (M-S)
  • Written Response (WR)
  • Short Answer (SA)
  • Multi-Short Answer (MSA)
  • Fill in the Blanks (FIB)
  • Matching (MAT)
  • Ordering (ORD)
  • Arithmetic (2+2)
  • Significant Figures (x10)

What Question Type Should You Use?

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a model that is used to classify different levels of comprehension, starting with the lower levels such as remembering and understanding, and then moving upwards to create/evaluate. You should select question types according to what level of understanding you want to practice.

Information Technology Services at Algonquin College developed a resource that goes through in detail, matching question types to the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy they practice. The table below shows the question types they suggest for the level of Bloom's Taxonomy you want to practice:

TABLE 1: Mapping Bloom's Taxonomy to Brightspace Question Types
Bloom's Taxonomy Question Types
Create WR
Evaluate M-S, WR, MAT, and ORD
Analyze MC, M-S, and WR
Apply MC, WR, FIB, MAT, ORD, 2+2, and x10
Understand MC, M-S, SA, FIB, 2+2, and x10
Remember T/F, MC, M-S, SA, and FIB

The Centre for Innovation in Teaching and Learning at Memorial University of Newfoundland created a Question Types in Brightspace resource that explains the question types, highlights their strengths and challenges, provide some tips to consider when choosing to use a question type, including the average time to allot for each question item type.

Some question types have grading options associated with them. It may be helpful to review this Understanding Grading Options for Question Types article if you plan to use the Quizzes tool for your tests/exams.

ICYMI, follow these links to watch a recording of our Back to Basics: Tests and Quizzes and Beyond the Basics: Complex Tests in Brightspace training sessions.

Additionally, Reframing Bloom’s for the Age of AI: A White Paper for Future-Ready Educators introduces a reframed version of Bloom’s Taxonomy, updated for the age of AI, that emphasizes identity formation, interdisciplinary synthesis, and real-world impact.

Want more information?

Understanding Quizzes in Brightspace
Quiz Question Types
Question Types in Brightspace
Understanding Grading Options for Question Types
Brightspace Tip #608: Test/Quiz Question Generator
Quizzes FAQ: Hot tips and workarounds
Quizzes Tool for Instructors (video tutorials)
Back to Basics: Tests and Quizzes (workshop recording)
Beyond the Basics: Complex Tests in Brightspace (workshop recording)

View all the Brightspace training recaps
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Continuous Delivery release notes
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Do you want your students to take a quiz or test online? Do you have a test that you normally administer on paper and you don’t want to retype all the questions into Brightspace? Learning and Teaching Services at Algonquin College developed a Test/Quiz Question Generator that provides an easy way of creating a collection of questions that can be imported into Brightspace.

the word test written in chalk on a chalkboard

Quiz questions have to be in a special format in order to be imported into Brightspace. The Test/Quiz Question Generator allows you to reformat your questions and it will create a CSV file that can be imported into Brightspace.

Additionally, the Brightspace Community developed a Quiz Question Converter that you can use to add a bank of questions to the Quiz Question Library. One benefit of using the Quiz Question Converter is that you can add feedback and hints to the quiz questions you are importing into Brightspace. Therefore saving you time in importing quiz questions with feedback and hints into Brightspace.

Want more information?

Test/Quiz Question Generator (Algonquin College)
Quiz Question Converter (Brightspace Community)

About Quizzes
Quizzes, Surveys, and Question Libraries
Question Types and When to Use Them
Understanding Grading Options for Question Types
Use Quiz Results Displays to Show Quiz Results

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: image by geralt from Pixabay

Engage Students Using Awards in Brightspace [45:59]

Thanks to those of you who attended our "Engage Students Using Awards in Brightspace" workshop. This workshop, the 6th in our #LEX Advanced series, helps you to build on the skills you learned in the #LearnEverywhereXULA course and will help you to design a course that will engage and motivate your learners.

NOTE: This is a repeat of a workshop from 2021; however, as you know, Brightspace is a constantly evolving system, and this workshop is a refresher for those who previously attended and brings users up to date with changes/improvements to the Awards tool.

In case you missed the training session or if you attended the training session and want to recap what was covered, a copy of the workshop recording and resources referenced in the workshop are available. You can find the workshop recording and other resources in support of the workshop on the CAT+FD wiki.

Additionally, if you did not get the opportunity to earn a digital badge for participating in the workshop, it's not too late to earn that badge. We have a corresponding “Awards & Badges” module in the #LearnEverywhereXULA (#LEX) course that you can complete to earn a digital badge for this topic. The badge will count towards your #LEX Advanced certification.

Instructors can grant quiz accommodations to learners through the Classlist tool. Instructors can assign accommodations to specific learners that apply across ALL quizzes instead of applying them on a quiz-by-quiz basis. The accommodations option allows the instructor to give the learner more time to complete quizzes at the course level.

The Edit Accommodations option in the Classlist
The Edit Accommodations option in the Classlist

The Edit Accommodations dialog box
The Edit Accommodations dialog box

Once granted, the accommodations apply to all quiz activities in a course for that learner. The additional time can be applied in terms of quiz time multipliers (for example, 1.5 x quiz time) or +minutes (for example, an additional 30 minutes) on every quiz in a course.

Accommodations for Instructors:

  • An icon appears next to the learner’s name in the Classlist to indicate that the learner has an accommodation.
  • Instructors can filter the Classlist by Accommodations.
  • Instructors can also Print or Email a list of users with accommodations by adding the filter to those pages.

Accommodations for learners:

  • An icon appears next to learners’ own names in the Classlist to indicate they have an accommodation. To view accommodation details, learners can click My Accommodations from their learner context menu.
  • When commencing a quiz, the accommodation icon appears next to a learner’s quiz time to indicate that their accommodation has been applied. If a learner’s time accommodation has been overridden by a quiz-specific special access, this icon does not appear.

Example of a Classlist page highlighting the Learner has Accommodations icon
Classlist page highlighting the Learner has Accommodations icon

Example of accommodations reflected in the quiz's time allowed.
Learners can see accommodations reflected in the time allowed when taking quiz

Quiz-specific special access can overwrite an accommodation for any user on a quiz-by-quiz basis. When you overwrite an accommodation and then click Save, a warning describing the impact of overwriting the accommodation appears. Accommodations set for learners in Classlist are displayed in the Special Access for the quiz.

Accommodations indicator in Special Access
An example of how Accommodations set for a learner in Classlist will show up in the Special Access for a quiz

Want more information?

Set Up Brightspace Accommodations by Learner for All Quizzes
Brightspace Tip #606: Quizzes – Special Access
Quizzes FAQ: Hot tips and workarounds
Brightspace Tip #254: Tests and Quizzes
Resources for the Quizzes Tool

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.