D2L is Reheating PIE!
admin
We have some exciting news to share about PIE!
Get all the details on what this means for your PIE submissions and how you can voice what's top of mind at your place of Teaching and Learning from the following article describing the first key milestone on the journey.
Comments
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What about the ideas with status "Not planned"? Like individual feedback on group assignments? Should we just forget about those, or are new comments still considered?
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@Ulf.M.583 thank you for this question! The Ideas in "Not planned" status will be archived for future reference as investments change. At this moment, we will not be considering comments on Ideas in the "Not planned" status. Please check out the link below showing a filtered view of the Ideas in the "Feedback Review Window" status and open for comments to flag value and interest.
https://desire2learn.brightidea.com/ideas/boards?status_filter%5B0%5D=Feedback%20Review%20Window
Thanks!
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Thank you for this exciting news about PIE; glad to finally see some new life being directed this way!
Will this "reheating" also include updates to how D2L manages/processes idea statuses? As just a few examples, there have been recent PIE items marked as "released" according to the release notes, but not updated in PIE (ex. D6218). There's also at least one case where the PIE item is marked as "Not planned", but was actually implemented and released in June 2025 (ex. D2237).
Having better communication and up-to-date statuses would be much appreciated and I think really help encourage people to submit more ideas. My experience with PIE has always been discouraging as I feel I submit great ideas and they get stuck "In Review" for years with no sign that they've been seen or discussed.
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Hi Matthew,
Thank you so much for your comment and enthusiasm for this coming enhancement - we are excited as well!
To answer your question - yes. In fact, the way in which we manage PIE and triage Ideas (with a goal of clearly "closing the loop") is one of two big focuses of this "re-heat" initiative. The second is a focus on what goes into PIE, aiming for the true "pie in the sky" ideas, as opposed to feature enhancements and bug/defect reports which have often found their way into current PIE.
We are confident that with the new, simplified workflow of the coming "re-heated" PIE experience will allow for D2L to keep everyone informed with where Ideas fall in regard with today's strategy and direction. We have heard that "being told 'no' is better than being told nothing at all," so with that, we are committing to being clear when we are not planning to address an Idea at this time. We've also been working on changes to internal processes to help us become more consistent in the kinds of details and rationale shared for status change and the expectations around time to respond to idea submissions.
Post-Fusion, you can expect to see more updates to our Community documentation on new PIE processes to help document and communicate these changes in greater detail.
Thank you again for your feedback, and please keep it coming, as it is incredibly valuable in helping us ensure we are building the best experience.
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I understand the value of decluttering the PIE. I do. There’s just so much content that it becomes unmanageable. Loads of good ideas but it’s just too hard to find them amidst all the piles and piles of other stuff. So decluttering makes sense.
But what also needs to be acknowledged in this Marie Kondo-ing of the PIE is that, alongside these “Not Planned” ideas that are not being migrated, you will find communities of users who have grown up around them. Micro-communities…along with related links, dialogue, workarounds, and other valuable interactions. And, while the idea may persist in an offline D2L archive, the community will no longer be accessible to the users who built it. And this I consider to be a significant loss…especially for long-standing ideas (many dating back more than a decade) that are heavily supported vote-wise but have been marked as “Not Planned.”
A great example of this is the idea of connecting attendance to grading (now marked as "Not Planned"). Dating back to 2013, this idea (and related ideas) has significant support, all of which will vanish on the new PIE. Does this mean that newcomers will propose it all over again without realizing that this backstory ever existed?
Attendance: Associate a Grade Item with an Attendance Register to export attendance scores to Grade (D222)
Submitted: 07/31/2013
Votes: 345Attendance to gradebook (D3537)
Submitted: 11/02/2016
Votes: 108Attendance Tool Redesign (D4426)
Submitted: 03/02/2018
Votes: 33Attendance (D7165)
Submitted: 12/14/2020
Votes: 27QR Code to track attendance and integrate with Attendance Tool or Gradebook (D9141)
Submitted: 05/12/2022
Votes : 31Allow access to attendance in the "custom formula" for calculating grades... (D1800)
Submitted: 08/14/2014
Votes: 35I also want to mention how much I value the community that has grown up over the past three years on BrightSpace quizzes in need of critical updates (D9656) with 244 votes.
Honestly, the prospect of restarting these communities from scratch on the new PIE feels overwhelming.
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@Mike.B.559 I want you to know- as always- your posts are thoughtful, nuanced and thought provoking. All of the folks working on this initiative are following these Community conversations on the reheating of PIE.
Please keep sharing with us. In launching new methods and processes, your perspective helps to shed light on challenge and opportunity.
I'm excited and hopeful for the ways we can continue to foster that spirit of ideation, connection, and inspiration that often emerged from the micro communities of the ideas in our Legacy PIE, by embracing some new approaches we hope will improve our ability to respond with greater efficiency to shared ideas, and celebrate the submissions and partnership that lead to real change in the ways we can teach and learn with Brightspace. -
@Mike.B.559 thanks for the feedback on what's next for PIE. I had not considered the value of closed PIE items for sources of workarounds. We will discuss how to best handle this so that knowledge base is not lost in this transition.
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I'm intrigued by the comment above that PIE isn't the place for feature enhancements, I know that I have certainly been directed to PIE when raising with my CSM about how the lack of a particular option is causing an issue.
What is the recommended method to make enhancement requests for existing features?
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@Steve.B.446 the refocusing of what goes into PIE with this enhancement will improve how our Product Management team will engage with the Community and the timeliness of responses.
You’ll still be able to share your ideas on how to make existing tools and workflows better. If making them better means adding something new or changing the feature in order to make it work for additional tasks; then PIE is still your place. If it is feedback that you'd like to see the feature implemented or solved differently than it has been; then sharing this with your CSM will mean it is shared with the right teams to review and action.
Our triage team will help guide this in the next several months to help you find the right line of what fits best into PIE.
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@Tommy.O.141 I have to say I disagree with the use of the PIE solely as a repository for "pie in the sky" ideas. Maybe if there were fewer persistent bugs/limitations/UX issues on the current platform, I would be more amenable to the idea. But as it stands, I think there is a lot of work that needs to be done on known (and long standing) issues before pursuing pie in the sky.
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Hi @Mike.B.559 Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback — we hear your frustration, and we truly appreciate your candor.
You’ve highlighted a concern that many of our users share: that existing bugs, limitations, and UX issues should be addressed with higher priority. We agree that fixing known and persistent issues is critical to delivering a high-quality experience, and your message reinforces the importance of staying focused on that commitment. This is an area we are doubling down on in addition to ensuring that we continue to innovate.
To clarify, the PIE (Product Idea Exchange) is intended as a space for new ideas and enhancements, not for bug reporting — and we recognize that this distinction hasn’t always felt clear or helpful. When bugs are submitted through the PIE, it slows down our ability to triage them effectively and to make real progress on both fixing issues and planning meaningful improvements. That’s why we strongly encourage using D2L Support to report bugs, where they can be properly logged, tracked, and prioritized by the right teams.
That said, we also know that our processes need to work better for you. We're actively working on changes to make the PIE more responsive and transparent. Over the coming months, you'll start to see a faster, more streamlined experience — including quicker feedback on submitted ideas and more visibility into how those ideas are influencing our roadmap and releases.
We’re committed to doing better, and to making sure your voice helps drive meaningful change. Thank you again for holding us to a higher standard — we’re listening, and we’re working on it.
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I wonder if the "gatekeeping" of D2L Support to only allow a handful of approved individuals (ASCs) in each institution to contact them is part of the reason why bugs and feature requests end up in PIE?
Our ASCs are busy people, having them be the go-between on a simple bug report (with the implied expectation that they will need to spend time understanding the issue and testing it) might be a reason why people take the apparent shortcut?
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Hi @Steve.B.446
Truly appreciate your posts always and am grateful for the perspective. It's important for us to hear this and helps us understand the day-to-day challenges our Administrators face.
We hear you on the concern around the gatekeeping of Support and the extra burden this may place on ASCs. You're absolutely right that ASCs often wear many hats, and needing to act as intermediaries for even simple bug reports can be a real pain point.
Some institutions do choose to enable End User Support, which allows anyone to reach out to Support directly — though we recognize that this is part of a premium service offering and not always an option. That said, we want to ensure everyone still has a way to share issues, and that’s where the Brightspace Community plays a role — it’s open to all users for discussion, support, and collaboration.
Regarding PIE, the intention behind reframing it isn’t to limit reporting, but to better organize and prioritize ideas that shape future product improvements. Still, your point is well taken — if the process feels like an indirect path for reporting bugs, then we may need to look at how that experience can be improved.
Would it be valuable if PIE included a clearer path for directing bug reports to the right place — like Community or Support — depending on the nature of the issue? We’d love to hear more on how that might look from your perspective.
Thanks again for taking the time to share this — your feedback is essential to helping us improve both the process and the product.
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This issue was raised on the PIE in 2021.
Community bug reporting/issue tracking system (D7594)
Submitted: 03/15/2021
Votes: 8
Status: Feedback Review WindowSearchable Known issues, PRB, fixed issues lists (D7229)
Submitted: 01/11/2021
Votes: 42
Status: Not PlannedSpend an Entire Year, Only Fixing Bugs (#D10413)
Submitted: ?
Votes: ?
Status: Hidden -
HI @Mike.B.559
These are important PIE submissions- they highlight the long-standing need for change in PIE (and opportunities for Community too) as well as your own sincere, ongoing efforts to help make the experience better!
Ideas like D7594 and D7229 raised an important need: better visibility into known issues and workarounds. Since they were submitted, we’ve launched a new Community platform with a dedicated Known Issues Knowledge Base and Discussion Category, designed to offer a searchable, centralized place to track these issues.Known Issues articles are informed by real support cases and community reports, and while some users prefer downloadable trackers, others find the search tool and filters more useful. Searching within the Known/Fixed Issues category now defaults to the Knowledge Base content, helping people find relevant information faster.
Your feedback also highlights that we haven’t consistently updated older PIE submissions to reflect these newer resources and process changes. That’s a gap, and we’re actively working to improve how we communicate updates in PIE with these process and submission changes so contributors like you can receive faster updates with improved information on the status of your submissions and find out more about where your input is making a difference.
