By: Susan McInnes, Senior Product Manager
End of Life Date: June 2029
D2L is announcing the intent to begin the End of Life (EOL) process for Classic Content in Brightspace. This article outlines what is changing, the planned timeline, and how customers can prepare.
As of June 2029, Brightspace will offer only the New Content Experience (NCE) for our customers. Over the past several years, we have continued to invest in NCE, making it the recommended content experience in Brightspace. We continue to add new capabilities and enhancements to provide a modern, consistent experience for creating, managing, and completing course content.
Related announcement: D2L is also announcing the Intent to End of Life Learner Experience on the same timeline. Classic Content and Learner Experience are separate experiences and may impact different customers. If your organization uses Learner Experience, see the Intent to EOL Learner Experience announcement for additional information.
What is Classic Content?
Classic Content is the original content authoring and management experience in Brightspace. It allows instructors to organize course materials into modules and topics, create and manage learning activities, and control how learners progress through course material.
If your organization is already using New Content Experience across all courses, this announcement does not require any action.
Why are we making this change?
New Content Experience (NCE) provides a modern content authoring and delivery experience and is the focus of ongoing innovation in Brightspace. NCE delivers a better user experience and aligns with accessibility standards.
By focusing future enhancements on a single content experience, D2L can continue delivering improvements while providing a more consistent experience across Brightspace.
What is the Impact and Transition plan?
Classic Content will continue to be available throughout the End of Life transition period.
If your organization is still using Classic Content, we recommend evaluating NCE in a test environment or pilot course(s). This announcement provides advance notice so that administrators and instructors can begin planning their transition at a pace that works for their organization.
All existing course content remains available, allowing organizations to transition without rebuilding or copying course materials.
Additional documentation and transition resources are available in the Brightspace Community:
https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/33329
The following timeline outlines the planned milestones for the Classic Content EOL process. Additional details will be communicated in advance of each milestone.
Date | Milestone | Description |
|---|
October 2026 | Intent to EOL Announcement | D2L announces the intent to retire Classic Content and recommends that customers begin planning their transition to NCE. |
June 2028 | NCE is Enabled by Default | The configuration variable d2l.Tools.Content.UseLessonsExperience (OrgUnit) will be updated to a default value of ON. Administrators can continue to switch back to Classic Content during the transition period if needed. |
June 2029 | End of Use | Classic Content reaches End of Use and is no longer available. Customers should complete their transition before this date. |
FAQ
- What is changing?
- How do I know whether my organization is using Classic Content?
- Administrators can determine which content experience is in use by reviewing the d2l.Tools.Content.UseLessonsExperience configuration variable. If you are unsure, contact your D2L Account Team.
- Can I switch back to Classic Content during the transition period?
- Yes. During the transition period, administrators can switch between Classic Content and NCE by changing the configuration variable. Note that changing the configuration affects all users within the selected course.
- What happens after June 2029?
- After June 2029, any courses that remain configured to use Classic Content will automatically use NCE . All course material will remain available; only the user experience changes.
- Will D2L continue adding new features to Classic Content?
- No new functionality is being added to Classic Content.
- During the transition period, D2L will continue to address critical defects that significantly impact customers.
- What about the naming of New Content Experience?
- Going forward, the New Content Experience will be referred to as Content.
- This decision was made since New Content Experience has been around for over 10 years and is no longer new. It is the preferred content experience in Brightspace.