This article introduces, explains, and addresses questions about the new Distributed Administration feature in Brightspace.
By Andrew Ko, Product Manager
At D2L, we know that learning organizations come in all shapes and sizes—universities with multiple campuses, global enterprises with diverse business units, and K–12 districts with dozens of schools.
Central teams responsible for administering learning environments for multiple organizations, departments, or institutions can become overburdened with slow response times, inflexible processes, compliance concerns, and scalability challenges. At the same time, local teams often lack the flexibility they need to deliver timely, tailored learning experiences.
That’s why we’re thrilled to introduce Distributed Administration in Brightspace LMS!
What is Distributed Administration?
Distributed Administration in Brightspace gives institutions the ability to delegate control safely and strategically, ensuring the right people have the right tools—without sacrificing compliance or consistency.
Instead of exclusively relying on a central team to manage every course, Org Unit, or branding element, you can now assign trusted administrators at the Sub-Org Unit level to manage operations for their own areas.
What this means for you
Distributed Administration is designed to make sure Brightspace capabilities scale with your organization and business needs.
For central administration teams and the local administrators with whom they partner, this means:
- Faster turnaround – local teams can handle routine tasks without bottlenecks.
- Flexible autonomy – Sub-Org Administrators can work efficiently to customize the environment they manage within centrally-managed guardrails.
- Scalable control – permissions can scale with roles and responsibilities as your organization grows.
- Confident compliance – precise permissions ensure data privacy and consistency, while supporting agility.
With Distributed Administration, you can empower local teams to act quickly while central leaders maintain control and consistency.
For example, you can give each school, faculty, or division its own set of admin controls—so they can get work done faster and tailor Brightspace to their unique needs, all within the guardrails of your institution’s overall structure.
Roll-out plan
To ensure a smooth rollout, we’re releasing Distributed Administration in phases, which will iteratively add functionality over time. Here’s what to expect:
Phase 1 – October 2025 / 20.25.10
When you enable Distributed Administration, Sub-Org Administrators will be able to manage the following tools:
- Courses – Create, edit, and delete course offerings directly within their Sub-Org unit.
- Course Updater – Keep courses current with streamlined updates.
- Org Unit Editor – Manage Org Units with an isolated view of their Sub-Org level only.
Phase 2 – January, 2026 / 20.26.01
Building on the foundation we released in October, Sub-Org Administrators will be able to manage branding customization and academic tools:
- Homepages, Navbars, and Themes – Give each Sub-Org Unit its own look and feel with branding flexibility.
- Grade Schemes – Create and apply unique grading scales that cascade within each Sub-Org Unit.
- Course Copy History – Allow Sub-Org Administrators to track course copy activity within their own area.
Future Phases
We’re not stopping there! In 2026, we plan to support the following tools for Distributed Administration:
- Users
- Roles and Permissions
- Announcements
- Course Offering information for Org Units nested under a Sub-Org Unit
With each release, Sub-Org Administrators will gain more autonomy to support their learners and educators in the way that makes the most sense for them.
Getting started with Distributed Administration
Important: Before you start setting up Distributed Administration, it's important to review the permissions and administrative activities you want to delegate so you can plan how you will structure Org Units and Sub-Org Units in a way that works for your organization or institution.
For example, if you know you will need Sub-Org Administrators to manage Users in addition to Courses, you may want to wait until Distributed Administration features support User management.
The phased roll-out period is designed to give system-level Administrators the time and information they need to successfully adopt Distributed Administration over time.
For detailed information and instructions on how to set up Distributed Administration, see the About Distributed Administration in the Brightspace Administrator Guide.