Brightspace updates are designed to promote consistency and clarity across courses, while preserving instructor flexibility.
Improving the Student Experience
The University of Arizona is implementing three coordinated updates to Brightspace in Fall 2026 as part of the Brightspace Next initiative. These changes are informed by student feedback, institutional data, and D2L's product roadmap, and are designed to create a more consistent, transparent, and intuitive experience for students and instructors across all courses.
Calculated Final Grade. Beginning August 17, the calculated final grade will be set as the default in all courses, ensuring students can see their academic standing at any time without requiring any action from instructors. This change directly responds to student feedback indicating that grade transparency is a significant factor in their ability to manage their academic progress.
Standardized Navigation Bar. A consistent navigation bar (navbar) will be established across all Brightspace courses. Student survey data revealed that navigating differently structured course sites each semester creates unnecessary cognitive load — students must relearn where to find basic tools and materials depending on the course. Standardizing the navbar reduces that friction while preserving the tools instructors rely on most. Departments with demonstrable and documented pedagogical needs may request a custom navbar through a governed exception process.
New Content Experience. Brightspace will transition from Classic Content to the New Content Experience (NCE), a modernized interface designed for more intuitive course creation and navigation. D2L will retire Classic Content in 2027, and this transition positions the university ahead of that vendor-mandated change while delivering a better experience now. The NCE will be available to explore via a toggle on option starting May 12, with full implementation on August 17.
Key Dates
May 12-August 16: Option to toggle on/off the New Content Experience in playspaces and future-term course sites.
August 17: New Content Experience, standard navbar, and adjusted final grade will be applied to ALL course sites and playspaces.
What to Expect
The details below highlight upcoming changes, key impacts, and preparation steps before the August 17 rollout.
Navigation will be standardized across all courses for a more consistent student experience. Individual courses will no longer be able to create custom navigation bars. Departments can request custom navigation bars if they meet certain requirements.
The standardized navigation bar is the same as the current default navigation bar used.
Brightspace currently displays the adjusted final grade by default, which requires instructors to manually release grades for students to see them. Beginning August 17, the default will change to the calculated final grade, and grades will be automatically visible to students.
This means students will be able to see their current standing in the gradebook at any time without any action required from you. Instructors retain full control and can adjust grade visibility settings at any time.
How to access Calculation Options
Default Grade Setting: Beginning Fall 2026
Current Default Grade Setting
Beginning May 12, you can toggle on/off the New Content Experience by following these steps:
- Navigate to Content on the navbar
- Select the Action Menu icon under the NavBar to the right.
- To enable NCE, select Turn it on.
Moving from Classic to New Content Experience
If you copy a course forward from Classic Content to the New Content Experience, your content, assignments, and links that exist within Brightspace Files will remain unchanged.
One known issue when copying forward: Content in item description areas may not transfer as expected. If this happens, you will need to manually move that content. This does not apply to module description areas.
We strongly recommend never putting essential content, long instructions, or weblinks in any description area.
Actions to Prepare for the Change
- Toggle on the New Content Experience and review your course site(s) thoroughly to get comfortable with the new interface
- If you are teaching in the Fall semester, copy your course forward now and review it thoroughly
- Read through the Help Pages and FAQs to understand the changes and opportunities of the New Content Experience
- Get support through webinars, open office hours, or an individual consultation
The best thing you can do to prepare is to start now rather than waiting until August.
Get Support
Help Pages
Visit the New Content Experience page in the Instructor Help Center to get started and prepare for the transition.
Webinars and Office Hours
We will also be offering webinars and open office hours in June and July listed on our Events page.
Consultations
Consultations are available from our expert teams — each brings a focused perspective depending on your goals as you transition to these updates.
- Instructional Technology — Best for troubleshooting, implementation questions, issues with external learning tools, and copying content from previous courses
- Instructional Design — Best for fully online courses, questions about how content displays, or redesigning your course structure
- Educational Development — Best for pedagogy-focused questions about how you present content, and for in-person courses