By: Stefano Nicoli, Senior Product Manager
Release Version: 20.25.12
Release Date: December 2025
Audience: Instructors, Administrators
Environment: Production
Overview
We’re thrilled to announce a long-awaited enhancement to the Discussions tool in Brightspace: Discussion Due Date on First Post. This new feature empowers instructors to set a due date for students’ initial discussion posts—bringing more structure, accountability, and alignment with institutional participation policies.
Whether you're managing weekly discussions or assessing participation, this update ensures learners engage on time and stay on track.
What’s New?
Discussion Due Date on First Post
What it does:
Instructors can now specify a due date for the first post in a discussion topic—whether it’s a new thread or a reply. This mirrors the behavior of Assignments and Quizzes, making your course experience more consistent and predictable.
Why it matters:
- Encourages timely learner participation
- Supports accurate assessment workflows
- Simplifies course migration from other LMS platforms
- Enhances compliance with institutional policies
Feature Highlights
- Enabled by default in the December 2025 release—no setup required!
- Grading: Discussion due dates will support automatic-zero grading
- Calendar integration: Due dates appear in the Calendar tool.
- New Content Experience: “Overdue” label to support instructor assessment and help students stay accountable.
Instructor View - New Content Experience
Learner View - New Content Experience
- Evaluation-ready: Due dates are reflected in the learner evaluation workflows.
- New notification: “Discussion due date or end date is 2 days away” (customizable in web and mobile).
- Reporting support: A new “Due Date” field is added to the DiscussionTopics Brightspace Data Set (BDS).
What’s Next: Building Toward a More Robust Discussion Experience
The ability to set a due date on a learner’s first discussion post is an important step toward more structured and assessable discussions in Brightspace. But we know that meaningful participation doesn’t stop at the first post.
We’ve heard from many of you that there’s a strong need to support due dates and expectations for subsequent replies and multi-phase participation—especially in courses where peer interaction and ongoing dialogue are central to learning outcomes.
As we look ahead, we’re committed to continuing this work. We will be purposeful and thoughtful in our approach to future enhancements, ensuring they reflect your needs, support diverse instructional strategies, and integrate seamlessly with the rest of the platform.
💬 Join the Conversation
We’d love to hear how you plan to use this feature! Share your thoughts, questions, or feedback in the Brightspace Community Forums.