Release Notes

May 2026/20.26.05

Preview Release Notes

Video: Release Highlights

Release Highlights for May 2026/20.26.05 will be available on May 7, 2026.

You Asked, We Delivered

The following updates were inspired by your submissions to D2L's Product Idea Exchange:

General Announcements
- Inspired by PIE #: D10392, D10660
Assignments – Improved Assignments Submissions layout with accessibility enhancements | Updated
- Inspired by PIE #: D13434
Awards – Select configuration variables can be set at the Org Unit level | Updated
- Inspired by PIE #: D11600, D4030

General Announcements

Updates to the Calendar API routes expand data retrieval capabilities, including support for recurring events and event types and introduce scoped access control for Calendar API routes. This update implements PIE items D10392 (Include EVENTTYPE_T in calendar event call) and D10660 (Recurring Calendar modifications through API). Refer to the Current Release Changes page in Brightspace Developer Platform for details.
Developers can now re-offer Source Courses using a new API. This API enables scalable, automated re-offering workflows from external systems and reduces the need for manual, course-by-course updates. Refer to the Current Release Changes page in Brightspace Developer Platform for details.
Developers can now bulk create Source Course shells using a new API. The API supports specifying a name, code and optionally a department and template. If no template is provided, the system creates one for the Source Course. This update simplifies course creation and enables automated provisioning from external systems. Refer to the Current Release Changes page in Brightspace Developer Platform for details.
Developers can now retrieve Source Course information for an associated course offering using a new API. The API returns the Source Course, creation timestamp, and key details including Name, Code, Department and Template. This update enables developers to audit relationships between source courses and course offerings. Refer to the Current Release Changes page in Brightspace Developer Platform for details.
D2L is continuing to unlist outdated Brightspace Tutorial videos that no longer reflect the current interface and workflows. Updated tutorial videos are embedded in the documentation to align with the latest features. To review the list of added, unlisted, and removed videos, refer to the article: Brightspace Tutorial Video Updates: Added, Unlisted, Removed.

To view the change log for this release note landing page, go to Change History at the bottom of this page.

Assignments – Improved Assignments Submissions layout with accessibility enhancements | Updated

We refined the Assignments Submissions page by improving the layout in both standard and wide views, reducing the need for horizontal scrolling, and creating a cleaner, more consistent experience. All recent accessibility improvements remain in place.

This change improves the visibility of key information, such as submission dates and learner names, making the page easier to review.

Previously, the page layout with a long file could make it difficult to view key information without scrolling, especially when additional columns, such as Turnitin Similarity Report, were enabled.

The submissions page before the update showing a table of student file submissions, Turnitin status, submission dates, and learner names, with search and action buttons above.

Figure: The assignment submission page before this update.

The submissions page after the update showing files, Turnitin report status, submission dates, and learner names, with download, email, and delete actions above.

Figure: The assignment submission page after this update.

This feature implements the following PIE item:

D13434 (Remove unnecessary scrolling from the Assignment submission page where Turnitin is enabled)

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to instructors due to improved usability on the Assignments Submissions page.

Availability:

This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

This functionality is automatically enabled.
This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing permissions or configuration variables.

Assignments – Streamlined group assignments creation workflow is enabled by default | Updated

With the February 2026/20.26.02 release, when creating assignments from the groups tool, a Group Assignments workflow dropdown was added to the legacy assignment creation page, which directed users to the newer assignment creation experience.

For an improved experience, the user can try the new Group Assignments experience with updated features and an improved design. The user can switch back at any time before June 2027.

Dropdown prompting users to try creating group assignments in the newer experience, with the Turn it on and Leave it off buttons above the assignment creation form.

Figure: A dropdown on the legacy group assignment creation page to prompt the user to try the new experience.

Dropdown in the Assignment Creation page prompting users to try creating group assignments in the newer experience, with the Leave it on and Turn it off buttons above the assignment creation form.

Figure: A dropdown in the assignment creation page when the new Group Assignment workflow is enabled.

This feature is controlled by the d2l.Tools.Dropbox.GroupDropboxCreationRedirectOptIn (OrgUnit)configuration variable, which is now enabled by default ON (Opt-In) for users who had it set to OFF. The OFF option is not available anymore, and there is no option to hide the dropdown by administrators as of these releases. However, individual users still have the ability to show or hide the dropdown when using the ON (Opt-In) setting.

Customers with the existing ON (Opt-In) setting do not experience any changes.

The legacy assignment creation page is scheduled for retirement in the Brightspace version June 2027/20.27.06.

Setting	Before the May 2026/20.26.05 release	As of the May 2026/20.26.05 release
ON	Available	Available
ON (Opt-In)	Default	Default
OFF	Available	Not available

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to administrators due to the inability to disable the improved Group Assignment workflow dropdown.
Slight impact to instructors due to the ability to use enhanced experience for creating Group Assignments.

Availability:

This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

This functionality is dependent on the existing d2l.Tools.Dropbox.GroupDropboxCreationRedirectOptIn (OrgUnit) configuration variable (default: ON(Opt-in)).
This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing permissions.

Awards – Select configuration variables can be set at the Org Unit level | Updated

This feature updates the Awards tool to allow select configuration variables to be set at the Org Unit level. Previously, these settings were only available at the organization level and applied to all org units.

Administrators can now override values for individual org units and their descendants, supporting different departmental or group needs.

The following configuration variables are now available at the Org Unit level:

Sharing-related configuration variables

These variables control how awards can be shared externally:

d2l.Tools.Awards.IssuerLinkedInId
d2l.Tools.Awards.LinkedInEnabled
d2l.Tools.Awards.DigitalCredentialSharingEnabled
d2l.Tools.Awards.PublicAwardsEnabled

Issuer information configuration variables

These variables define issuer details and notification settings:

d2l.Tools.Awards.IssuerName
d2l.Tools.Awards.IssuerUrl
d2l.Tools.Awards.IssuerContact
d2l.Tools.Awards.AwardEmail
d2l.Tools.Awards.ExpiryEmail

In order to have the override values applied to an Org Unit and all its descendants, the administrator will need to:

Create an override value for the Org unit (typically a sub-organization, which is a custom org unit type)
Add the sub-org unit type under Cascading Org Unit Types section.
For example, if the override value was added for a department, then the Department Org Unit Type must be added to the Cascading Org Unit Types in order for all descendants to use the new override values instead of the Organization value of the config variable.

This change supports distributed administration models and enables more tailored award configurations.

When the Restrict award to Course and its child org units option is selected on the New Award page, issuer details (name, URL, and contact) are automatically populated using Org Unit-level configuration values. This reduces manual input and ensures consistency.

Availability section shows “Restrict award to Astronomy 101b and its child org units” selected.

Figure: On the New Award page, Restrict award to a specific course and its child org units option selected is selected to ensure issuer details (name, URL, and contact) are automatically populated using Org Unit-level configuration values.

This feature implements the following PIE items:

D11600 (Allow Awards to be shared to LinkedIn from multiple Issuer LinkedIN IDs)
D4030 (Award email notifications – Toggle per course)

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to administrators due to increased flexibility in configuring Awards settings at the Org Unit level.

Availability:

This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

This functionality is automatically enabled.
The existing configuration variables are now available at the Org Unit level.
This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing permissions.

Data Hub – Content Objects Brightspace Data Set improvements | Updated

The Content Objects Brightspace Data Set (BDS) now includes updates that support version control and improve consistency with other data sets.

New column: Version (bigint, non-nullable)
Updated formatting for all bit and datetime2 columns. Refer to the Enhancing Consistency: Upcoming Updates to Brightspace Data Sets blog post for more information.

Technical Details

Impact:

Moderate impact to administrators due to the addition of a new column to an existing Brightspace Data Set.

Availability:

This feature is available to all Brightspace Core clients.

To enable:

Ensure the Brightspace Data Sets > Can Access Brightspace Data Sets permission is granted to administrators at the org level.
Ensure the d2l.Tools.BrightspaceDataSets.Version configuration variable is set to version 10.13 or 11.3.
New and changed data sets appear the first time the data set runs after the version update.

Grades – Completion Status column removal and overdue comment update | Updated

Following the release of automatic zero grading, the Completion Status column in Grades, which displays the status of connected activities for grade items, was temporarily disabled. Based on client feedback and subsequent investigation:

The Completion Status column is now end-of-life (EOL)
The overdue feedback text is tied to enabling automatic zero within a course.
The overdue feedback text will appear in the Comments & Assessments column on the learner's view of Grades, can be customized via the existing lang term Grades.UserMain.txtOverdueComment, and is no longer tied to the Completion Status column.

The feature supports a limited set of activity types (Assignments, Quizzes and Discussions) to ensure accuracy and prevent recurrence of previous issues.

This change provides a more predictable and trustworthy experience for identifying overdue work.

Grades table showing feedback text in Comments & Assessments column, independent of Completion Status.

Figure: On the learner's view of grades, the overdue feedback text now appears in the Comments & Assessments column and is no longer tied to the Completion Status column.

Technical details

Impact:

Slight impact to administrators due to the ability to control and customize overdue feedback.
Slight impact to instructors who now have a more reliable way to identify overdue work.
Slight impact to learners who now have overdue feedback text included when automatic zero is enabled within a course.

Availability:

This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

The overdue feedback text can be customized via the existing language term Grades.UserMain.txtOverdueComment.
This functionality is dependent on the d2l.Tools.Grades.AutomaticZero configuration variable, or by enabling Automatic Zero within the Grades settings of a Course.
This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing permissions.

Quizzes – Improved Browse Question Library Import button styling and behavior | Updated

This update improves the consistency and usability of the Import options in Browse Question Library.

Available import options vary depending on whether the quiz contains sections:

The main Import action remains a button for quizzes with no sections.
The Import to Section option is now a separate button for quizzes with sections.

This change makes actions more visible and easier to access. Previously, the Import option appeared as a split button with multiple actions in a dropdown.

Browse Question Library dialog with one item selected and Import menu expanded showing placement options.

Figure: Before state of the Browse Question Library Import dialog, where instructors select questions and use the Import to choose placement in the quiz (top, bottom, or a specific section) from the dropdown.

Figure: New state of the Browse Question Library Import dialog for a quiz with no sections, displaying the import placement options.

Figure: New state of the Browse Question Library Import dialog, where the Import to Section button allows placement into specific sections.

Technical Details

Impact:

Slight impact to instructors due to minor interface changes.

Availability:

This feature is available to all clients.

To enable:

This functionality is automatically enabled for all users.
This functionality is not dependent on any new or existing configuration variables or permissions.

Change History

16-April-2026 Preview Release Notes published.