D2L – the company behind Brightspace has a road map plan of all new features and functions. See https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/categories/product-roadmap
Each month new features and functions are added to our platform at NIC based on this roadmap.
Updates occur automatically with no downtime. These updates are deployed first on our test instance and then on the main production instance.
NIC’s test instance is on Wave 2 and the production instance is on Wave 4 – see Wave Schedule . This means the changes will be noticeable around the middle of the month (Wave 4) for all NIC courses on the production instance.
The monthly update process is called Continuous Delivery (CD). Ongoing platform updates allow for new features, settings, and configurations to be applied to Brightspace without any system outage. Updates help ensure that any needed security patches are applied and new features are available to NIC courses. The monthly release notes are found on the Brightspace Community where you can read what has just been deployed and what is coming up next month!
NOTE: In addition to the Continuous Release notes, D2L provides a Known Issues List to share problems found in the learning management system. Known issues are problems that have been identified by Brightspace users and confirmed by D2L staff. In many cases, these issues are the basis of future product developments or immediate fixes. A companion page for Fix Notifications might also be useful to review to stay informed of Brightspace changes.