Brightspace Blog
September 2023 Brightspace Update
Sep. 13, 2023—The September update to Brightspace has a few minor updates to behind the scenes aspects of Brightspace, but there are also a couple of important updates to Quiz Timings. Quizzes – Quiz Timing Improvements featuring Synchronous Quizzes This release updates the Quiz Creation experience for instructors and learners by adding a new synchronous quiz option....
Guidance on AI Detection and Why We’re Disabling Turnitin’s AI Detector
Aug. 16, 2023—In April of this year, Turnitin released an update to their product that reviewed submitted papers and presented their determination of how much of a paper was written by AI. As we outlined at that time, many people had important concerns and questions about this new tool, namely how the product exactly works and how...
August 2023 Updates to Brightspace
Aug. 15, 2023—Each month there are regular updates to the Brightspace platform. Below are the highlights of the August 2023 release notes. Announcements – Pin announcements to top of Announcement widget With this release, instructors can now pin announcements to the top of the Announcement Widget, allowing important information to remain visible to learners. Announcements so pinned...
June & July Brightspace Updates
Jul. 17, 2023—Over the last two months, there have been several important updates to Brightspace. Here is a summary of recent changes. Assignments – Availability dates are now on by default Recent improvements to the Assignments tool’s availability dates allow Instructors to have greater control over the access and visibility of their assignments before or after the...
March-April Brightspace Updates
Apr. 13, 2023—There have been a few important updates to Brightspace in the last two months, so we wanted to spotlight them here. If you have any questions about these updates, or anything else Brightspace related, be sure to contact the Brightspace and Instructional Technology Support team. Awards – Share achievements with Public URL sharing for awards...
Turnitin’s New AI Writing Detection (and what it means for your teaching)
Apr. 4, 2023—Effective August 16, 2023, Vanderbilt has disabled Turnitin’s AI detection tool. To read more about why this decision was made, refer to this newer blog post. Beginning on 4/4/2023, faculty who use Turnitin now have access to an additional tool – Artificial Intelligence (AI) Writing Detection. There is no denying that artificial intelligence has...
Winter Brightspace Updates
Feb. 10, 2023—There have been a few new updates to Brightspace over the last couple of months that we would like to share with you. If you have any questions about any of these changes, or anything else concerning Brightspace and Instructional Technology, please feel free to reach out to the Brightspace and Instructional Technology Support team...
Welcome to Vanderbilt, New Faculty!
Aug. 18, 2022—If you are new to teaching at Vanderbilt, I hope you got to attend the CFT’s new faculty orientation called Teaching at Vanderbilt (TAV). It’s always a wonderful opportunity to get to know new faces and learn some tips for success at Vanderbilt. I did a session at TAV this year called Tools for success: The educational...
August Brightspace Updates
Aug. 12, 2022—As we begin another fall semester, there are several updates coming to Brightspace this month. Assignments – Access new shortcuts to undo and redo PDF annotations on evaluations Previously, the only way to remove PDF annotations in Assignments was to use the eraser tool or delete the selection. Now, an undo/redo button is added for...
June 2022 Brightspace Updates
Jun. 16, 2022—Summer months are usually when we see the biggest updates from Brightspace and D2L. This summer is shaping up for some good updates across different areas of the platform. Assignments – Save time by copying assignments to other courses you teach Instructors who teach several courses are now able to copy assignments between their courses....
May Brightspace Updates
May. 12, 2022—May Brightspace Updates This time of year there are not many updates to Brightspace, but there are a couple that we want to point out to users. One is going to be a big help to students and instructors alike, and the other is an interesting new option for those Instructors using the Lessons View...
Support for Online Challenges: Labs, Group Work, and Class Discussions
Mar. 28, 2022—In a recent article, Inside Higher Ed described the results of a new survey highlighting a few of the biggest challenges instructors have faced during remote and online teaching over the last two years. You can find the article here: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/03/23/survey-views-pandemic-learning-overwhelmingly-negative According to this survey, labs, group work, and class discussions have been the...
Early 2022 Brightspace Updates
Mar. 18, 2022—Wintertime is not known for big changes to Brightspace, but there have been a few updates over the beginning of this semester that we wanted to update users on. Updated Brightspace Branding D2L, the parent company of Brightspace, recently updated its logo and company branding. As a result, you may have noticed the new...
Addition of Pronouns to Brightspace Account Settings
Feb. 10, 2022—In 2018, Vanderbilt added a way for Brightspace users to set their personal pronouns in their Brightspace profile. While this was a good option at the time, this was only viewable when users went to someone else’s profile. As of February 2022, Brightspace is rolling out a new way to make this information visible. This...
Updates to Brightspace for November and December 2021
Dec. 16, 2021—There are several highlights from the most recent Brightspace updates, and today we want to focus on three things that will be most helpful to Brightspace users. Links to the full release notes are available at the end of this post. Assignments – New Assignment Creation Experience Universally Enabled This feature sets the new assignment...