New Content Experience vs. New Learner Experience

Jaymi.W.61

Hello Brightspace Community,

We are currently using the New Content Experience (NCE) for all of our courses, but we are interested in turning on the New Learner Experience (NLE).

We really like NLE, particularly the arrows to navigate through content, the more visible tracking and knowing where they left off, and general ease of use.

However, we have identified a few downsides. Some are unique to our circumstance and some exist in NCE, they're just not as front and center as in NLE.

I was wondering if anyone has experience with both NCE and NLE (or even just NLE) and if you have any feedback - pros/cons?

Thank you!

Jaymi

Jennifer.W.973

Here are the main issues I've found with NLE:

• instructors may not be aware that the student view is completely different from their view
• "view as student" is not completely accurate and still shows hidden pages to the instructor even though students can't actually see them
• it's too easy for students to miss the description area (which used to be the Launch Unit button but is now just the title of the folder) and some instructors put a lot of content into those descriptions because the pages look the same as regular HTML pages
• if instructors only use the description area and don't add actual content items, then students get an "Oops! this unit is empty" message
• most students using phones just use the Pulse app anyway so the mobile-friendly aspect looks odd when viewing it on a computer screen (and like D2L is incorrectly detecting your computer as a phone)
• no search function
• the biggest drawback is the lack of Ally alternative formats, especially with the new Title II regulations coming into effect in 2026

The NCE has pop-up notifications when new content is released when conditions are met, which is a nice feature that neither classic nor NLE have. NCE seems to have more updates than NLE, and we have to remind instructors that those updates are only for their view and not the students' view. For example, NCE got a new search function this month, but NLE did not.