CAT FooD

1) Assignments – Publisher selection dropdown locks after learners begin an activity

After learner submissions begin, instructors can no longer change the Publishers setting on the assignment creation page. Locking the Publishers setting after submissions begin ensures that publishing rules remain clear and predictable during evaluation and publishing workflows. Changing publisher rules after activity is underway can affect who can publish evaluations and may result in conflicts that require additional intervention. This update provides a smoother, more reliable evaluation and publishing experience.

Important: To change the publisher selection after the dropdown locks, instructors must recreate the assignment and ask learners to resubmit. To avoid this scenario, review publisher selections during course setup and before the assignment is available to learners. For assignments that use Advanced Assessment, confirm which publishers can publish evaluator evaluations before submissions or evaluations begin.

Instructors can use start dates or hide assignments until the required configuration is complete. After submissions or evaluations begin, instructors can still add, update, enroll, or unenroll publishers. Only the publisher selection dropdown is locked.

Previously, instructors could change the Publishers configuration after receiving submissions.

2) Discussions – Anonymous Discussion posts are visible when assessing learners and viewing statistics

With this update, instructors with the See Anonymous Post Author permission can view anonymous posts when assessing individual learners in Discussions. Anonymous posts display an Anonymous post label to indicate that the learner posted anonymously.

Previously, instructors with the See Anonymous Post Author permission could reveal a learner's name on an anonymous discussion post, but they could not see anonymous posts when assessing learners or view discussion statistics that included anonymous posts.

Instructors without the See Anonymous Post Author permission continue to be unable to assess anonymous posts.

Discussion statistics now include anonymous post counts for roles with permission to see anonymous post author information. Statistics include counts only for anonymous posts created after this feature is introduced.

3) Groups – Increased limit for groups per category (200 to 1000)

Categories that allow instructors to specify the number of groups now support up to 1,000 groups. Single-user, member-specific enrollment type groups also support up to 1,000 groups per category.

This update makes it easier to create larger group sets in high-enrollment courses.

The 1000-group limit applies to all group creation methods and cannot be exceeded. This includes creating groups on the Manage Groups page, creating groups using the API, and automatically creating groups when enrollment capacity increases.

Previously, instructors could create up to 200 groups per category.

This feature implements the following PIE items:

• D888 (Ability to create more than 200 groups in one Group Category)
• D6824 (Max number of groups per category)

1) Brightspace – Rubric Icon in Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes

Instructors can now identify which Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes include attached rubrics directly from list pages, helping instructors and administrators quickly audit assessments, confirm rubric setup, and reduce configuration errors.

When a rubric is attached to an activity, a rubric icon appears beside the item in the Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes list pages. Written response questions in the Quiz Creation page also display a rubric indicator when a rubric is attached. Activities that include both rubrics and learning outcomes continue to display the rubric icon.

The rubric icon is informational only and does not link to the rubric, consistent with other informational icons such as release conditions and anonymous marking.

This feature implements the following PIE item:

• D5453 (Rubric Used on Assignment or Discussion Indicator Symbol)

1) Assignments – Improved Assignments Submissions layout with accessibility enhancements

D2L refined the Assignments Submissions page by improving the layout in both standard and wide views, reducing the need for horizontal scrolling, and creating a cleaner, more consistent experience. All recent accessibility improvements remain in place.

This change improves the visibility of key information, such as submission dates and learner names, making the page easier to review.

Previously, the page layout with a long file could make it difficult to view key information without scrolling, especially when additional columns, such as Turnitin Similarity Report, were enabled.

This feature implements the following PIE item:

• D13434 (Remove unnecessary scrolling from the Assignment submission page where Turnitin is enabled)

2) Quizzes – Improved Browse Question Library Import button styling and behavior

This update improves the consistency and usability of the Import options in Browse Question Library.

Available import options vary depending on whether the quiz contains sections:

• The main Import action remains a button for quizzes with no sections.
• The Import to Section option is now a separate button for quizzes with sections.

This change makes actions more visible and easier to access. Previously, the Import option appeared as a split button with multiple actions in a dropdown.