What's New in D2L Brightspace

Are you a student who requires help during an online exam?

If technical issues arise during an exam delivered in D2L Brightspace, for most problems, you should communicate with your instructor directly.

For technical problems, you can request technical support via help.torontomu.ca/ithelp (opens in new window)  (opens in new window) , under the "General IT Help" section. Submit a request through the "D2L Brightspace Exam Help Form".

Please note that the Help Desk and D2L Brightspace Exam Help are for technical issues only. Questions related to access to course content or exam schedules should be directed to your instructor.

Support for instructors preparing for online exams

The Brightspace support team has put together a collection of tips for preparing for online exams, including:

• how to choose the best tool for your exam
• tasks you should complete in advance
• things you may need to do just prior to starting an exam

Fall 2023 course shells will expire on February 2nd. Course shells are set to end after the last appeals date for that term.

On the end date:

• On the Shell End Date, there is a 24-hour processing period, during which the previous term's course shells may be unavailable. This is temporary.
• Instructors will be switched to a read-only role called Instructor (RO), which will be retained for 2 years. This allows for ongoing (read-only) reference to the shell and some of the student activity data and grades*. 
• All other users will lose access to the shell.
  
• New users cannot be added to course shells after they have ended.

*Please note: Certain features of D2L will only apply to users who are currently 'active' in the course shell. For example, you cannot email students from a D2L shell and you cannot view the students' full Progress results if those students don't currently have access to the shell.

If you require a course shell extension to finalize INC grades, and you hold the instructor role in the shell, please email courses@torontomu.ca and include the course shell details (shell code, course code, section numbers(s)) and the reason for the extension.

We strongly recommend that all students enable push notifications in D2L, to ensure that they are well-informed about what is going on in their courses. In the past, there have been two options: SMS (text message) and email notifications. 

Unfortunately, many wireless providers are deprecating the service that D2L has been using for SMS notifications, and there have been frequent service disruptions, rendering these notifications unreliable. As of May 1, 2024, SMS push notifications will no longer be available from D2L Brightspace.

How can users get push notifications without SMS?

Email-based notifications are not going away, so users can still receive email notifications if subscribed.  Follow our instructions to enable email notfications.

What will happen to stored phone numbers after this?

Personal Data will be deleted once it is no longer needed to send notifications.

While it may seem a little inconvenient, we strongly recommend that you check your web browser regularly for updates. Once a week is a good interval. It only takes a minute or two, and ensures that you are protected with the latest security updates and performance improvements.

As of January 2024, D2L Brightspace only works in the following browser versions (or newer):

• Chrome 112+ (released March 2023)
• Android Chrome 107+ (released October 2022)
• macOS Safari 16+ (released September 2022)
• iOS Safari 16+ (released September 2022)
• Firefox 112+ (released April 2023)

Based on our support team's experience, whenever possible, it's best to use the latest version of either Chrome or Firefox, as we notice the most consistent experience with those browsers.

Also, remember to periodically clear your browser cache. This will improve performance.