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 May 2025/20.25.05 release that were added to our system this month:
1) Assignments – Retract feedback in bulk on the Submissions page
The Submissions page in the Assignments tool now aligns with Discussions and Quizzes, allowing instructors to retract feedback in bulk. This enhancement improves consistency and eliminates the need to use multiple tools for retraction tasks.
The bulk Retract Feedback option allows instructors to choose how many learners to retract published feedback from.
Selective retraction is also supported. Instructors can select users by checking the box next to their names and then clicking More Actions > Retract Feedback.
The More Actions > Retract All option retracts feedback for all users, regardless of which users are selected.

After clicking Retract All, instructors are notified of the number of evaluations to be retracted and must confirm by clicking Retract.

Previously, instructors could only retract feedback individually in the Assignments tool.
This feature implements the following PIE items:
- D1361 (Allow method to bulk unpublish dropbox feedback)
- D5593 (Retract Assignment Feedback in Bulk)
2) Quizzes – Improved quiz monitoring with Session IDs in Attempt Logs
This release introduces the new d2l.Tools.Quizzes.ShowSessionId (Org Unit) configuration variable, which allows administrators to control whether instructors can view the Session ID column in quiz attempt logs.
When enabled, instructors can use session IDs to discern when learners have multiple sessions within a quiz attempt, helping detect potential academic dishonesty.

3) Quizzes – Enhanced Learner Submission View
The quiz submission page now features a sleeker, modernized layout. The previous banner image has been replaced with a checkmark icon, along with other visual updates.


4) Groups – Export group enrollment data
Instructors can now export group enrollment data from the Groups tool for group-specific class lists and contact list creation.
A new Export button now appears in the Groups tool for users with the Manage Groups and Categories permission. Instructors can use this button to export group data to a CSV file. The exported content includes:
- Group category details
- Group names
- User enrollment information
- Enrollment dates
You can choose a specific group or all groups within a selected category to include in the export.
Previously, there was no built-in method to export group data or user enrollment dates from the Groups tool.


This feature implements the following PIE items:
- D295 (Export Groups: Export Group Enrolments and/or Statistics to a CSV spreadsheet)
- D9175 (Add times and dates of students enrolled in groups created)
This feature partially implements the following PIE items:
- D7413 (Viewing Group Category/Group Enrollments Quickly)
- D345 (Show all Group Categories (or more than one Group Category) on the main Groups page)
- D5236 (Printing Groups)
- D454 (Group Statistics: View the date and time students self-enrolled in a group)
5) Quick Eval – Evaluate learners across Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes
This release enables instructors to quickly iterate through their list of submissions in Quick Eval even if those submissions are sourced from different activity types or courses. For example, an instructor has activities to grade in Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes and has been assigned items that appear in Quick Eval Submissions. The instructor directly accesses each submission to evaluate the items instead of navigating back to Quick Eval and going into each item again.
Previously, instructors had to click into each submission to view the evaluation and then click Back to Quick Eval to go to the Submissions view and then find the next submission to evaluate. With this release instructors are redirected to the next evaluation as listed in the Quick Eval.

This feature implements the following PIE items:
- D5475 (Add a "Next Item" button when grading from Quick Eval)
- D8199 (Auto Advance to next item in Quick Eval)
6) Pulse – View recurring events
Pulse now displays recurring events from the Events tab. This ensures that any recurring events that an instructor creates using the Calendar tool properly displays in Pulse. Previously, recurring events did not display in Pulse.
7) Notifications – Unsubscribe from all
To improve user experience and reduce unwanted emails, notification emails from Brightspace now include an Unsubscribe link. Selecting the link opens a confirmation screen that allows users to opt out of email notifications, including instant and summary notifications.
Previously, users without login access could not unsubscribe unless they logged in to adjust their notification settings.

If you are interested in getting more information about these and all the May Continuous Delivery updates, refer to the Brightspace Platform May 2025/20.25.05 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
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