Brightspace includes an email messaging tool that allows instructors to compose and send messages to individual students, groups, and to the entire Classlist. Brightspace does not receive email.
Within Brightspace, you can email students in your classes from the Classlist or by using the Email Tool. The primary difference is that the Email tool is a general composition interface, while emailing from the Classlist is a course-specific filtering tool. Clicking "Email" anywhere in Brightspace launches the Email tool. Sending email from the Classlist provides faster class roster population and has student privacy features.
Email Settings
You can update your Email Settings to automatically get a backup of your sent mail delivered to your personal email. From the Email Options you can:
Automatically send a copy of all outgoing email messages to yourself
Add an email signature to all email messages
The Account Settings option.Email Options on the Email Settings page.
NOTE: Our University Communications Department has an email signature template you can use to create an email signature that has the University seal.
Sent Mail
Email you send within Brightspace goes to your Sent Mail folder. To view email you sent in Brightspace, simply click the Message Alerts (envelope) icon in the minibar, select Email, and click the Sent Mail button located above or to the right of the compose new message area.
The Email option of the Message Alerts icon.The Compose New Message page of the Email tool, with the Sent Mail button highlighted.
NOTE: The Sent Mail folder allows you to confirm email was sent. Additionally, you can update your email settings and have Brightspace automatically send a copy of all outgoing email messages to you.
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.
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 2026/20.26.05 release that were added to our system this month:
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.
The assignment submission page after this update.
This feature implements the following PIE item:
D13434 (Remove unnecessary scrolling from the Assignment submission page where Turnitin is enabled)
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.
Before state of the Browse Question Library Import dialog, where instructors select questions and use the Import to choose placement in the quiz (top, bottom, or a specific section) from the dropdown.New state of the Browse Question Library Import dialog for a quiz with no sections, displaying the import placement options.New state of the Browse Question Library Import dialog, where the Import to Section button allows placement into specific sections.
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.
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 ClasslistThe 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.
Classlist page highlighting the Learner has Accommodations iconLearners 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.
An example of how Accommodations set for a learner in Classlist will show up in the Special Access for a quiz
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.
Did you know Special Access is an option available in the Quizzes tool that allows the instructor to grant learners special accommodations?
Special Access allows the instructor to assign specific learners a different set of quiz availability dates, late submission properties, and/or time limits. The instructor can change Start, End, and Due dates; the "Recommended Time Limit" and "Enforced Time Limit" timing settings; and the number of attempts allowed for a quiz to provide allowances for different needs of learners.
Add Special Access in the Quiz Creation Experience
Special Access options in Quizzes
Select Allow selected users special access to this quiz if you want to give certain students different submission options from the rest of the class.
Select Allow only users with special access to see this quiz if only certain students are allowed to see this quiz.
Click Add Users to Special Access to select students who will get the special access.
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.
Thursday, May 21st, is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). GAAD aims to get you talking, thinking, and learning about digital access/inclusion and people with different abilities and talents.
Accessibility is about everyone. It is extremely important for students with disabilities to have access to accessible course content.
Video Notes is a built-in media recording tool in Brightspace that allows instructors and learners to record short videos with a webcam. This makes it easy to personalize the learning experience with short, video-based feedback, comments, or instructions. Video Notes can be added where video attachments are supported and when the Brightspace Editor’s Insert Stuff option is available.
People who are deaf or hard of hearing rely on captions and subtitles to understand video content. But there are a lot of other great reasons for using captions. For example, you may have some learners who choose not to use the sound or they cannot use it without disturbing those around them. You may have some learners who are not native in your language or who have trouble understanding you. Closed captions and subtitles will allow these individuals to receive your message and understand it.
Did you know you can generate automatic closed captions for newly created Video Notes AND you have the ability to manually add or edit closed captions for all previously recorded Video Notes?
Always verify your automatic captions. Automatically generated text often lacks punctuation and struggles with technical jargon, resulting in a "wall of text" that is difficult to follow. Inaccurate captions don't just hinder accessibility; they create a confusing experience for all viewers. Before you share your video, do a quick pass to correct misspellings and add basic sentence structure—it makes a world of difference for viewer comprehension.
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.
Thursday, May 21st, is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). GAAD aims to get you talking, thinking, and learning about digital access/inclusion and people with different abilities and talents.
Accessibility is about everyone. It is extremely important for students with disabilities to have access to accessible course content. This includes having access to accessible email.
In a series of accessibility related blog posts, I provide suggestions on how you can make small changes to make your materials accessible. This is the eighth tip in my series of accessibility related blog posts and it focuses on email.
Accessible emails ensure that everyone, including people using assistive technologies like screen readers or visual aids, can read and interact with your messages. Many of the same accessibility principles for content creation also apply to email.
Key Accessibility Best Practices
To make sure your emails are fully inclusive, follow these design and formatting rules:
Formatting: Break content into short paragraphs and use built-in heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2) to help users scan your email.
Font and Size: Use legible, sans-serif fonts (like Arial, Calibri, or Helvetica) at 12pt or larger. Avoid using italics or complex decorative fonts.
Use Color Mindfully: Ensure there is high contrast between your text color and background. Never rely solely on color to convey information.
Hyperlinks: Write descriptive link text (e.g., use "Read the Accessible Email Guide" instead of "Click Here").
Avoid Tables for Layout: Tables should be avoided when you want to simply format other content (i.e., just to line things up neatly.)
Alt Text for Images: Always add descriptive alternative text for any images so screen readers can describe the visuals. Avoid sending "image-only" attachments, as they are unreadable to assistive software.
Send Email Within Brightspace
Email sent within Brightspace is sent using the Email tool. Within the Brightspace Email tool, you will use the Brightspace Editor to compose the body of your email. The Brightspace Editor has a built-in accessibility checker that makes it easy to check for issues or offer suggestions to fix identified accessibility issues.
Email with the Brightspace Editor's Accessibility Checker icon highlighted.The Brightspace Editor's Accessibility Checker icon is highlighted in this Intelligent Agent's email message with a pop up window showing no accessibility issues detected.
You will remove significant barriers for users of assistive technology if you take these suggestions into consideration when creating email. An added bonus is that if you create your emails with accessibility in mind you will be ahead of the game in the event you do have a student who requires the use of assistive technology.
Thursday, May 21st, is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). GAAD aims to get you talking, thinking, and learning about digital access/inclusion and people with different abilities and talents.
Accessibility is about everyone. It is extremely important for students with disabilities to have access to accessible course content.
The Brightspace Editor has a built-in accessibility checker that makes it easy to check for issues or offer suggestions to fix identified accessibility issues.
Follow these steps to do it.
To check for accessibility issues:
After you add content to the Brightspace Editor, click the accessibility checker icon.
The checker indicates if the content is free of accessibility issues, or offers suggestions to fix them.
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.
A new feature of Respondus LockDown Browser / Respondus Monitor is the ability to record the learner from different angles. This feature is aimed at increasing exam integrity by allowing instructors to view a student's workspace, keyboard, and screen, reducing unpermitted resource use.
Respondus Monitor now supports a second camera, providing an additional video angle during exams. This added visibility is designed to deter the use of unapproved resources and give instructors greater control over exam security.
This feature allows the use of two cameras for exams using Respondus Monitor: the primary webcam plus a camera from a mobile device (phone, tablet). The second device must be able to scan a QR code. When this setting is enabled by the instructor, the learner will be prompted to set up a second camera.
Post-Exam Review
Once the exam is submitted, the instructor can view up to three videos synchronously with the proctoring results: frontal webcam, second camera, and screen recording.
Key Requirements for Students
Mobile Device: Students must have a smartphone or tablet with a working camera.
Connection: Students will need to scan a QR code displayed on their computer screen during the startup sequence to sync the camera on their mobile device (i.e., the second camera).
App/Browser: Students do not need a separate app; when they scan the QR code with their mobile device, it opens a secure web-based recorder in their mobile browser (Safari on iOS 18+ or Chrome on Android).
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.
Brightspace, our Learning Management System (LMS), is designed with accessibility in mind. However, it is the responsibility of the instructor and/or course designer to ensure their course content is formatted using best practices for accessibility; including the use of good heading structure, text formatting, contrast and color, descriptive links, alternative text, tables, lists, etc.
I am writing a series of accessibility related blog posts that will provide suggestions on how you can make small changes when creating course content to make it accessible. This is the seventh tip in my series of accessibility related blog posts and it focuses on tables.
A table is a means of arranging information into rows and columns. Tables are very useful for displaying data in an organized manner. Your course schedule and office hours are examples where formatting this information in a table could make it more accessible.
Example of a Brightspace course page with an accessible table
Tables should be avoided when you want to simply format other content (i.e., just to line things up neatly.) Using tables just for layout purposes is not the best practice for accessibility and may make it nearly impossible for people who use assistive technologies to access the information. If you do choose to use a table to layout text on the page, make sure you lay it out so it will make sense when read from left to right. Text-to-speech software by default will read the information in a table left to right, cell by cell, and row by row.
This video shows how a screen reader reads information in tables. There is an example of a good and a bad table layout. The video demonstrates how reading order AND the information in the columns are important considerations when creating accessible tables.
In the bad example in the video, the use of the dash and abbreviations for the months can be confusing when read by a screen reader. The abbreviated months would have been less confusing if the year had been included. The use of 1,2,3 in the "Week" column in the bad example can be confusing as well. A better option is to use Week 1, Week 2, Week 3 in the respective column.
When creating tables, read your table left to right, top to bottom (never repeating a cell). Does it make sense? Keep in mind that a screen reader will read tables in this way. If it doesn't make sense, you should reorganize the table so that it makes sense when read left to right, top to bottom without repeating a cell.
Consider these examples of accessible tables:
The tables, in the examples above, make sense when read left to right, top to bottom, without repeating a cell.
Follow these tips when creating tables to make them accessible:
Do not use tabs or spaces to create tables. It may look like a table; however it will not be recognized as a table and can be confusing when read by assistive technologies.
Add Row and Column Headers to tables to distinguish the heading text from the data area of the table. Screen readers read simple tables efficiently when the column or row headers are clearly defined.
Repeat Row Headers if the table spans more than one page. Tables that are contained on multiple pages should have the header row repeated on each page.
When you use tables for the presentation of data, summarize the table to aid reader comprehension. This helps all students to know the high points of a table.
Break up complex tables (nested tables and merged or split cells inside of tables) into a series of simple tables. Simple tables are more usable for everyone.
The information in each cell should make sense if read without the column heading. For example, instead of entering 1, 2, 3, in a "Chapter" column you should enter Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, in the cells to make it clearer when read by a screen reader.
When applying structure to documents and web content, you should use the appropriate built-in formatting structure tools to do so. Doing so will make content accessible to everyone, including users of assistive technology.
Creating tables in MS Word:
On the Insert tab choose Insert Table and select the appropriate number of rows and columns for your table.
Select the header row in the table and press the right mouse button. A Table Properties window will open.
Select the Row tab and check the box next to Repeat as header row at the top of each page. Press Enter key or Ok button. This header row will be repeated at top of each page.
Creating tables in PowerPoint:
Use the Insert Table function in the Slide layout, select the appropriate number of rows and columns for your table.
Alternatively you can insert a table:
From the Insert tab, click the Table command.
A drop-down menu containing a grid of squares will appear. Hover the mouse over the grid to select the number of columns and rows in the table.
Place your cursor in the text area where you would like to insert the table.
Click the insert/edit table function and select the appropriate number of rows and columns for your table to begin adding a table in the text area.
To create column headers:
Highlight the entire row that you want to mark up as a table header. Alternatively you can put your cursor in one of the cells you want to mark up as a table header.
Then click on the drop-down menu next to the Table icon in the toolbar.
Choose Cell and then Cell Properties. The Cell properties window will pop-up.
In the Cell type field, click on the drop-down list and select Header cell.
Click Save. You will know you have successfully changed the row to table headers because the look of the table cells will change.
Repeat for each cell that is a column header.
You will remove significant barriers for users of assistive technology if you take these suggestions into consideration when creating course content. An added bonus is that if you include properly structured tables when creating your course content you will be ahead of the game in the event you do have a student who requires the use of assistive technology. Remember a properly structured table is good design and can benefit everyone.
Brightspace, our Learning Management System (LMS), is designed with accessibility in mind. However, it is the responsibility of the instructor and/or course designer to ensure their course content is formatted using best practices for accessibility; including the use of good heading structure, text formatting, contrast and color, descriptive links, alternative text, tables, lists, etc.
I am writing a series of accessibility related blog posts that will provide suggestions on how you can make small changes when creating course content to make it accessible. This is the sixth tip in my series of accessibility related blog posts and it focuses on lists.
A list is a set of items that share a purpose and/or have common characteristics. Lists are great from an accessibility standpoint because they provide structured order to content in a linear fashion.
Properly structured lists help to identify order and hierarchy in documents and web content. Lists that are properly formatted allow all users, especially those using assistive technology, to identify and navigate through a related group of items. List items that are not properly formed or grouped may not be translated properly by assistive technology.
Bulleted (unordered) lists should be used when there is no order of sequence or importance. Numbered (ordered) lists suggest a progression or sequence.
Example of a Brightspace course page with a bulleted (unordered) listExample of a Brightspace course page with a numbered (ordered) list
Compound lists contain multiple levels of classification. For example, a compound home improvement list would have items organized by category (e.g. electrical, hardware, flooring, plumbing.) With compound lists, relationships are shown visually using indents and different item markers (i.e., bullets, numbers, letters, etc.).
Compound lists may be difficult for visual users to decipher if the visual cues are insufficient. Also, compound lists may be disorienting for nonvisual users. Use a simple list structure whenever possible.
As with headings, lists should be used correctly and for the right purposes. Lists should never be used for merely indenting or other layout purposes.
When lists are formatted using asterisks, hyphens or images to create the look of bullets in a document, users of assistive technology are not able to detect the hierarchical structure and relationship of the list items. You should never rely on indentation to provide a visual list, use the proper structure instead.
Lists should be created using the built-in tools for ordered (numbered) and unordered (bulleted) lists. Without using these tools, a list is not really a list, which makes the content more difficult for assistive technology users to fully understand.
Creating lists in MS Word and PowerPoint:
Select the text that you want to add bullets or numbering to.
On the Home tab, under Paragraph, select the appropriate bullet from the list.
Creating lists in Google Docs and Slides:
On your computer, open a document or presentation in Google Docs or Slides
Click a page or slide where you want to add a list
In the toolbar, choose a list type. If you don't see the option, click More ...
Start typing your text for the list
Creating lists in the Brightspace Editor:
In the Brightspace Editor, select the text that you want to add bullets or numbering to
Select the Bulleted List or Numbered List button
You will remove significant barriers for users of assistive technology if you take these suggestions into consideration when creating course content. An added bonus is that if you include properly structured lists when creating your course content you will be ahead of the game in the event you do have a student who requires the use of assistive technology.
