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<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\nD2L (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.<\/p>\n
Our Continuous Delivery update occurs on the 4th Thursday of each month. D2L provides release notes<\/a> to help users stay up-to-date with the changes.<\/p>\n Here are some of the updates in the December 2025\/20.25.12 release that were added to our system this month:<\/p>\n This release introduces enhancements to the Email Group<\/strong> button in Group Assignment Evaluation.<\/p>\n If a group has no members, or if the users in the group do not have an internal D2L email set up or an external email linked, the Email Group<\/strong> button no longer appears. The button now displays only when it is actionable, reducing confusion and improving interface clarity.<\/p>\n This update enhances the overall experience by aligning with accessibility and usability best practices, ensuring that only relevant options are shown to users.<\/p>\n Previously, the Email Group<\/strong> button appeared even in groups with no users, which caused confusion.<\/p>\n To ensure timely learner participation, instructors can now specify a due date for the first post in a discussion topic. This supports course pacing, institutional policies, and consistent expectations for learner engagement. This mirrors the behavior of Assignments and Quizzes, making the course experience more consistent and predictable.<\/p>\n Previously, instructors could not set due dates for initial discussion posts, which made it difficult to assess timely engagement or enforce deadlines. This update improves grading accuracy, simplifies compliance with participation policies, and supports smoother course migrations from learning management systems that already include this functionality.<\/p>\n The first post due date follows the same behavior as Assignments and Quizzes:<\/p>\n Additional improvements include:<\/p>\n Note:<\/strong> Discussion due dates must fall within the topic's availability window to appear in the calendar and trigger notifications.<\/p>\n This feature implements the following PIE item:<\/p>\n To support the ongoing expansion of the Groups tool, all group deletion workflows are now processed asynchronously to reduce timeouts and errors.<\/p>\n Previously, when deleting groups within Brightspace, the web request would sometimes time out when there were too many groups to process.<\/p>\n When a user initiates a deletion, the background process deletes all groups, categories, and their associated activities. While processing, groups and categories appear in the recycling bin indicating that deletion is in progress, and the Restore<\/strong> option is not available. The Restore<\/strong> option becomes available only after the deletion is completed, which may take a few minutes.<\/p>\n This feature applies to all group deletion methods, including via the Manage Groups<\/strong> page, Org Unit Editor, SIS integrations such as Banner or IPSIS, or API deletion routes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Instructors can now assign 0 (zero) points to a quiz question to collect non-graded information, for example, feedback or personal input.<\/p>\n This feature eliminates the need for workarounds such as assigning 0.01 points or manually adjusting scores after submission. Instructors can enter zero points in the points field for any question type within the quiz, ensuring that these questions do not contribute to the quiz's total points. This feature is especially useful for gathering additional information from learners during a quiz or for implementing an \"Honesty Code\" question at the beginning of the quiz.<\/p>\n Previously, instructors were restricted from entering zero points for quiz questions.<\/p>\n This feature implements the following PIE item:<\/p>\n If you are interested in getting more information about these and all the December Continuous Delivery updates, refer to the Brightspace Platform December 2025\/20.25.12 Release Notes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Additionally, refer to the Brightspace Release Notes for Continuous Delivery Releases<\/a>, for details about current, past, and to preview upcoming continuous delivery updates.<\/p>\n View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes<\/a> 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>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Image credit: image<\/a> by geralt from Pixabay<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1) Assignments \u2013 Group Assignment evaluation email enhancements<\/h3>\n
![\"Email](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/group-assignment-evaluation-email-before.png?resize=625%2C331\")
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<\/a>2) Discussions \u2013 Enforce timely learner engagement with first post due dates<\/h3>\n
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3) Groups \u2013 Group deletions now processed via background job<\/h3>\n
4) Quizzes \u2013 Zero point quiz questions<\/h3>\n
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Want more information?<\/h2>\n
\nInstructors Quick Start Tutorial<\/a>
\nBrightspace Known Issues<\/a>
\nRequest a sandbox course<\/a>
\nSign-up for Brightspace training sessions<\/a>
\nYou can find Brightspace help<\/a> at D2L's website.
\nJoin the Brightspace Community<\/a>.
\nTry these Brightspace How-To documents<\/a>.
\nVisit our Brightspace FAQs<\/a> for additional Brightspace information
\nor schedule a one-on-one session<\/a>, email<\/a>, or
\ncall Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.<\/p>\n