December 2025 Edition
This section provides a preview of product and feature delivery plans for February 2026/20.26.02 and March 2026/20.26.03 releases. The Product and Services Preview document replaces the former 60/90 day Review/Preview.
Important: The most recent and accurate version of Release Notes apply to near-term delivery plans for the upcoming December 2025/20.25.12 release. This page is a preview of planned release features only. As stated in the Safe Harbor Statement,
the information provided herein is subject to change at any time, at the discretion of D2L, and D2L makes no commitment to update the information.
Print the PSPs
You can print select features or announcements from the page from your browser.
To create a printable version of the Product and Services Preview information
- Highlight the feature announcement(s).
- Right-click and select Copy.
- Paste the content into a text editing document. This process copies over all text, images, tables, and links.
Enablement Information
Information about the default state of a released feature, function or change in a Brightspace site is included to provide additional information, supporting change preparation, or planning in your organization.
Availability (Enabled State)
Advanced knowledge about whether customers can control access to the feature, function, or changes. This allows Administrators, trainers and supporting roles in an organization an opportunity to know which items are controllable and which are not.
- On: Indicates that the feature’s default state is visible/on and that there is no override or setting to control this state by any user.
- Off: Indicates that the feature’s default state is hidden/off and that there is no override or setting to control this state by any user.
- On (Overridable): Indicates the features default state and that it can be controlled or overridden by a user. For example, a new permission that is automatically selected for specific roles, or an editable config variable default that is on both offer opportunities to configure or override the default states.
- Off (Overridable): Indicates the features default state and that it can be controlled or overridden by a Brightspace user. For example, a new permission that is not selected, a new setting or new config variable that is off by default both provide opportunities to review and enable if desired.
Site Actions (Enablement Method)
For any feature, function, or change that is controllable, this section indicate the role settings, permissions, config variables, tool, or application settings you use to control the feature.
This allows Administrators, trainers, or supporting roles in an organization the opportunity to make decisions earlier and better plan for any work required to support any updates or changes.
Some examples include the following:
- Role Settings
- Role Permissions
- Config variables
- In Tool settings (such as Grades Settings or Widget customization)
- In Application settings (such as Pulse Settings)
February 2026 / 20.26.02
Admin Tools — The new Admin Tools Menu is ON by default
Planned Release | 20.26.02
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Administrator
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
The current Admin Tools menu is being replaced to improve navigation and efficiency for administrators. The new Admin Tools menu will offer the same functionality while making it easier to find and access frequently used tools.
New functionality includes:
- Single-column display
- Pinned items list
- Search capability
- Autocomplete search
The new Admin Tools menu currently can be enabled using the configuration variable d2l.Preferences.NewAdminCogMenu (Org).
With the February 2026 (20.26.02) release, the configuration variable will be enforced ON by default with no option to opt out.
Assignments — Implement Group Assignments to Enhance Advanced Assessment
Planned Release | 20.26.02
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Instructor, Administrator
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
Group Assignments will be supported in Advanced Assessment (AA), enabling instructors to evaluate groups of learners collaboratively within Brightspace. This enhancement will allow clients to leverage the Groups tool so learners can submit work as a team and receive shared feedback and grades using AA features.
Previously, AA did not support Group Assignments; this update will remove that limitation and provide a more complete and flexible assessment experience, particularly for Co-Marking, Delegation, and Multi-Evaluator workflows for groups.
When instructors switch an assignment from individual to group assessment (or vice versa) after evaluator allocations have been set, all allocations will be removed. A confirmation dialog will appear to ensure the instructor is aware of this change before proceeding.
Terminology throughout the Assignment Creation experience will be updated to use Groups instead of Learners when a group assignment is selected. Additional text updates will appear in the Evaluation & Feedback panel to reflect group-based workflows.
For more information, refer to
https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/33538-group-assignments-in-advanced-assessments
.
Assignments — Legacy Group Assignment page opt-in
Planned Release | 20.26.02
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Instructor, Administrator
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement: Configuration variable (Org Unit)
Additional Information Overview
Group assignments in Advanced Assignments will be supported only in the new Assignment Creation workflow. To encourage adoption, a dropdown link will appear, directing users from the legacy creation page to the new Assignment Creation experience.
The config variable to control the options is d2l.Tools.Activities.GroupDropboxCreationRedirectOptIn.
Users may also be prompted to share feedback on why they continue using the legacy page.
The end-of-life (EOL) date for the legacy assignment creation page is planned for 20.27.07.
Brightspace API — Outcome Sets at Scale with New APIs for Create, Update, and Export
Planned Release | 20.26.02
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Data Administrator, API Developer
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
We will introduce foundational APIs for Learning Outcomes to support the management of Outcome Sets at scale:
- Create Outcome Sets: We will enable bulk creation of Outcome Sets and hierarchical Outcomes at the organizational level.
- Update Outcome Sets: Authorized users will be able to update existing Outcomes and Outcome Sets to keep curriculum structures accurate and aligned.
- GET Outcome Sets: Users will be able to retrieve Outcome Sets and Outcomes in a structured format for backup purposes or integration with external systems.
- Delete Outcome Sets: Outcome Sets will be removable through authorized API calls, supporting lifecycle management of curriculum models.
Brightspace API — Update Users API route to include FirstLogindate
Planned Release | 20.26.02
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Instructor, Administrator, Data Administrator, API Developer
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
In order to accommodate the dropped FirstLoginDate column from the original Users dataset, Users API will be updated to retrieve FIrstLoginDate records for users.
- FirstLoginDate will be added to User.UserDate JSON block:
- Single user call (GET /d2l/api/lp/
(version)/users/(userId)) returns FirstLoginDate - Bulk user call (GET /d2l/api/lp/
(version)/users/) returns FirstLoginDates for all users
For more details, refer to
https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/23398-enhancing-consistency-upcoming-updates-to-brightspace-data-sets
.
Class Progress — Load Content Progress asynchronously to prevent timeouts
Planned Release | 20.26.02
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Instructor
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
This update will improve performance and reliability when loading Content Progress within the Class Progress tool. Instead of loading all content data immediately when the page opens, Content Progress will now load asynchronously as users scroll down the page. This approach significantly reduces initial load times and prevents page timeouts for courses with a large volume of content.
Course Management — End of life of the Course Management tool
Planned Release | 20.26.02
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Instructor, Administrator
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
The legacy Course Management tool will be retired and will no longer be available. The Courses tool will serve as the primary tool for managing courses.
Data Access / Data Hub — BDS Major Version 11 Announcement
Planned Release | 20.26.02
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Data Administrator, Administrator
Site Availability: N/A
Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
BDS Major Version 11 will be available in 20.26.02 and set as default in 20.26.06.
For more details, refer to
https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/33305-announcing-data-hub-brightspace-data-sets-bds-major-version-11
.
Data Access / Data Hub — Introducing a New Brightspace Data Set: System Access Summary
Planned Release | 20.26.02
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Data Administrator, Administrator
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
To accommodate the removal of the LastAccessed column from the original Users BDS, we will introduce a new dataset that will provide the most recent last accessed data for each user (the same data previously supplied by the LastAccessed column).
For more details, refer to
https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/23398-enhancing-consistency-upcoming-updates-to-brightspace-data-sets
.
Data Access / Data Hub — Introducing Quiz BDS Updates
Planned Release | 20.26.02
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Data Administrator, Administrator
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
New columns will be added to the following datasets:
- Quiz Objects BDS - new column called IsSingleSession (bit) to indicate if a quiz is using the Single Brightspace Login Session restriction option.
- Quiz Attempt Log BDS - Name column will have a new option SessionRestrictionReset to log if an attempt had the Single Brightspace Login Session restriction reset.
Data Access / Data Hub — Removal of registryID column from the Outcomes Scale Definition dataset
Planned Release | 20.26.02
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Data Administrator, Administrator
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
The registryID column in the Outcomes Scale Definition dataset is no longer relevant and will be removed.
Data Access / Data Hub — Updates to Users dataset
Planned Release | 20.26.02
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Data Administrator, Administrator
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
The following column changes will be made to the Users dataset:
- Columns Dropped:
- Last Accessed
- Addressed in the new BDS (System Access Summary BDS)
- First Login Date
- Addressed with an update to the Users API
- Organization
- Columns Added
- DateDeleted (DATETIME, nullable)
For more details, refer to
https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/23398-enhancing-consistency-upcoming-updates-to-brightspace-data-sets
.
Data Access / Data Hub — BDS Deprecation of Outcome Data Sets: Outcomes Program Details & Outcomes Registry Owners
Planned Release | 20.26.02
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Data Administrator, Administrator
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
As part of ongoing improvements to Outcome Set architecture and reporting in Brightspace, two legacy Brightspace Data Sets (BDS) will be deprecated:
- Outcomes Program Details
- Outcomes Registry Owners
They will be replaced by two new, purpose-built data sets:
- Outcome Set Course
- Outcome Set Org
The new data sets provide more accurate and granular data that better reflect how Outcome Sets are structured and used in Brightspace.
- Outcome Set Course will include registry ownership information, making Outcomes Registry Owners redundant.
- Outcome Set Org will capture organizational-level configuration details, replacing the broader and less precise Outcomes Program Details.
Data Access / Data Hub — Question Relationships Data Set
Planned Release | 20.26.02
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Data Administrator, Administrator
Site Availability: N/A
Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
Data Access / Data Hub — New Brightspace Data Set: Question Pools
Planned Release | 20.26.02
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Data Administrator, Administrator
Site Availability: N/A
Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
A new Brightspace Data Set called Question Pools will be available. This data set will list all questions included in question pools created within the organization and will include the following fields:
- SectionId
- QuestionId
- QuestionVersionId
- IsDeleted
- Version
Data Access / Data Hub — remove UserID column from Rubric Assessment Criteria dataset
Planned Release | 20.26.02
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Data Administrator, Administrator
Site Availability: N/A
Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
The following improvements to the Rubric Assessment Criteria Brightspace Data Set (BDS) to streamline data and reduce duplication will be made:
- Removal of UserId column. To retrieve UserId information, users will be able to join the Rubric Assessment Criteria BDS with the Rubric Assessment BDS using AssessmentId.
- Records that were previously differentiated by UserId will appear as a single unified record, reducing redundancy and ensuring cleaner reporting.
External Learning Tools — Anonymous Deployment Setting Deprecation
Planned Release | 20.26.02
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Administrator, Data Administrator
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
We will deprecate the Anonymous setting in LTI 1.3 deployment configurations. This change will simplify the creation and management of LTI integrations by removing a setting with extremely low usage that complicates support and administration. Instructors and administrators will see a cleaner, more streamlined experience, as the Anonymous checkbox will no longer appear in the Security Settings section. Customers will still maintain full control over what information is shared with the tool through the remaining security settings options.
Grades — Improved navigation
Planned Release | 20.26.02
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Instructor
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
This update will improve navigation and usability in the Gradebook. Instructors will be able to move across many grade objects more easily without relying on a horizontal scrollbar. The update replaces the existing scrollbar at the bottom of the page with intuitive navigation arrows integrated into the Gradebook interface.
In addition, this update will enhance dropdown menu behavior to ensure menus display correctly and no longer load beneath other interface elements, such as user names.
Groups — Improved group category/section filters in Brightspace
Planned Release | 20.26.02
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Instructor
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
In Brightspace, the current View By filters used to filter users by groups and sections will be updated to improve their visual design and support additional functionality. The existing filter presents a single dropdown containing all group categories, groups, and sections. When many groups or sections exist, this list can be long and difficult to navigate.
With the upcoming update, filters in tools such as Classlist, Grades, and Discussions will display groups and sections in separate dropdowns. The new filter will allow you to filter by an entire group category, select multiple groups within or across categories, or filter by multiple sections within a section category. A new search bar will also be introduced, enabling you to quickly locate a specific group within a category or a section with ease.
Language Management, Locale Management — The Arabic language pack name will be updated from ar-SA to ar.
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Administrator, Instructor, Learner
Site Availability: N/A
Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
As a result of feedback from Arabic-speaking customers, this initiative will rename the Arabic language pack from ar-SA to ar in the frontend of Brightspace.
March 2026 / 20.26.03
Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes — Rubric Icon in Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes
Planned Release | 20.26.03
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Instructor, Administrator
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement Actions: Configuration variable
Additional Information Overview
Instructors will soon be able to identify which Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes have rubrics attached directly from the list view. A rubric icon will appear next to items that include a rubric, making it easier to audit assessments and confirm that rubrics are properly attached. A similar rubric indicator will also appear for written response questions in the quiz creation page.
The icon will be informational only and will not link to the rubric, aligning with the behavior of other informational icons such as release conditions and anonymous marking.
A new configuration variable, D2L.Tools.Activities.ShowRubricsIcon, will allow users to enable or disable this feature. This setting can be enabled at the course level.
This enhancement is in response to PIE idea D5453.
Awards — Inherit Awards and Certificates between two user accounts
Planned Release | 20.26.03
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Administrator
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement Actions: Role Permission
Additional Information Overview
Administrators will be able to use this new feature when a learner receives a new user account but needs to retain awards or certificates earned under an existing (source) account. Administrators will be able to merge two users and transfer all awards and certificates from the Source user to the Destination user. The Destination user will inherit all awards earned by the Source user while keeping all of their own user data intact.
The following permissions are required:
- Users > Can Merge Users permission
- Users > See the User Management tool
After the merge is completed, the Source user will be deleted and the Destination user will be retained.
Data Access / Data Hub — Updates to Question Relationships Brightspace Data Set
Planned Release | 20.26.03
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Data Administrator, Administrator
Site Availability: N/A
Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
Brightspace will no longer surface Question Pools within the Question Relationship BDS. Instead, this information will be provided through a newly introduced Question Pools BDS, ensuring clearer separation of data and improved dataset organization.
Additional dataset updates include the following:
- The CreationDate field will be updated to allow null values (previously non-nullable).
- The unique constraint for the dataset will be revised to apply to the combination of ObjectId and QuestionId (previously applied to ObjectId and QuestionVersionId).
For more details, refer to:
https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/23398-enhancing-consistency-upcoming-updates-to-brightspace-data-sets.
.
Data Purge, Course Management, and Org Unit Editor — Updating data deletion terminologies to align with their action
Planned Release | 20.26.03
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Data Administrator, Instructor, Administrator
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
To reduce confusion during the data deletion process, terminology related to data deletion will be updated to better reflect each action. This is strictly a terminology change — there are no functional changes.
- In the Courses tool (including Courses, Templates, and Source Courses):
- Delete will be replaced with Archive, including within any buttons or text in the delete confirmation dialog.
- In Data Purge:
- Archive will be replaced with Export.
- In Config Variable Browser:
- Archive will be replaced with Export for the following configuration variables and descriptions:
d2l.Tools.DataPurge.ArchiveLocationd2l.Tools.DataPurge.ArchiveWorkDirectoryd2l.Tools.DataPurge.PerSubTaskThrottleTimeInMs (description only)
- In Valence API document
Course Publisher — Course Completion will send Completion only upon actual course completion
Planned Release | 20.26.03
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Administrator
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
Course Publisher will respect a course’s Completion settings. This update will ensure that completion status is sent to the recipient LMS only when the learner has actually completed the Brightspace course, rather than the previous behavior where the course was marked complete on first access.
Course Updater — End of life of the Course Updater tool
Planned Release | 20.26.03
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Administrator
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
With the introduction of bulk course status and date updates in Courses, the Course Updater tool will be deprecated. Course Updater will be removed from Organization Tools, and as a result, it will no longer appear anywhere in Brightspace. The associated Course Updater permission will also be removed.
Quizzes — New Quiz Evaluation Experience configuration variable removal
Planned Release | 20.26.03
Change and Enablement Information
Role / Audience: Administrator
Site Availability: On
Site Enablement Actions: None (Automatic)
Additional Information Overview
We will remove the configuration variable for the new Quiz Evaluation experience to streamline system settings and reduce administrative complexity.
As of version 20.25.07, all clients have been using the new Quiz Evaluation Experience by default, with no option to revert to the legacy version. The former d2l.Tools.Activities.CEQuizzesOptIn configuration variable was no longer functional, and its removal will simplify system settings and reduce maintenance overhead.
There will be no change to the user experience. This update only removes an outdated configuration variable that is no longer in use, helping reduce clutter in your configuration settings.
Change history
- 12-12-2025: Published the December Product and Services Preview
- 13-11-2025: Published the November Product and Services Preview
- 21-10-2025: Published the October Product and Services Preview
- 18-09-2025:
- Removed Annotations (Nutrient) — Update the third party software that powers Assignment Annotations (Nutrient) from version 1.3.0 to 1.6.0 from the list of features planned for 20.25.11
- Administration and System Settings — Improved Admin Tools Menu Experience - the transition period for enforcing the new Admin Tools Menu experience has been extended from December 2025 - 20.25.12 to February 2026 - 20.26.02. The config variable name was also corrected, from to d2l.Preferences.NewAdminCogMenu to d2l.Preferences.NewAdminToolsMenu.
- Data Access / Data Hub — Updates to Release Condition Results Brightspace Data Set is now planned for 20.25.11.
- Fixed typos and made revisions to improve consistency and clarity.
- 17-09-2025: "Usability Improvement - Update legacy style tabs to D2L's modern tabs" is now planned for the 20.25.12 release.
- 16-09-2025: Published the September Product and Services Preview
- 20-08-2025: Published the August Product and Services Preview
- 22-07-2025: Removed Assignments - Support Bulk feedback Submission in Assignments and Discussions Submission Page from the list of features planned for the 20.25.10 release.
- 21-07-2025:
- Added more information to Data Access / Data Hub - Updates to Grade Results Data Set.
- 17-07-2025:
- Corrected duplicated heading content for HWEP - Slim Announcements Permissions Update
- Added missing item for Data Access / Data Hub - Updates to Quiz Attempts Brightspace Data Set
- Corrected heading for Data Access / Data Hub - Updates to Question Relationships Brightspace Data Set
- 16-07-2025 - Published the July Product and Services Preview.
- 13-06-2025 - Published the June 2025 Product and Services Preview.
- 04-June-2025 - Corrected duplicated heading and removed Course Management - Enable delegated administration of courses to support distributed administration initiatives from 20.25.07 release.
- 03-June-2025 - Corrected misplaced information for Lessons/New Content Experience items.
- 28-May-2025 - Updated list of features coming in 20.25.07
- 26-May-2025 - Removed internal-facing metadata.
- 15-May-2025 - Published the May 2025 Product and Services Preview.
- 22-April-2025 - Updated the following preview features:
- Outcomes - Implement Outcome Set (prev Programs) Management with Achievement Scale Setting for Better Reporting is changed to Renaming 'Programs' to 'Outcome Sets' for Better User Familiarity.
- Updated the Additional Information section of Rubrics - Adding Ability to Clear Rubric Selections to Save Instructors Time in Evaluation.
- 8-April-2025 - Published the April 2025 Product and Services Preview.
Safe Harbor Statement
The information provided herein is confidential and proprietary to D2L Corporation and its affiliates (“D2L”) and may not be shared without the written consent of D2L. Nothing herein should be construed as legal, human resources, insurance, tax, or other advice for any particular issue, including compliance with relevant laws. You must consult a professional advisor that is familiar with your particular factual situation for any such advice. The information provided herein could include inaccuracies, typographical and other errors. The information provided herein is subject to change at any time, at the discretion of D2L, and D2L makes no commitment to update the information.
TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE INFORMATION PROVIDED HEREIN IS PROVIDED “AS-IS” AND WITHOUT WARRANTY, AND ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, COMPLIANCE, RELIABILITY, SUITABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, TITLE AND ANY WARRANTIES RESULTING FROM CUSTOM OR USAGE OF TRADE, OR COURSE OF PERFORMANCE OR DEALING ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED, AND YOU AGREE TO WAIVE SUCH WARRANTIES. D2L reserves all of its rights with respect to the information provided herein.