Academic Technology Updates for July 2026

Instructors can now use third-party processing tools that support the LTI 1.3 Asset Processor service with group assignments. Previously, these processing tools, such as Turnitin, could only be used with individual assignments because the required group information could not be passed to the processing tool.

With this update, instructors can attach LTI 1.3 processors to group assignments to assess submissions for originality, AI generation, grammar, and more. Processing reports now appear in the same locations as they do for individual assignments, including the Users and Submissions tabs and the Consistent Evaluation page. For learners, reports are visible in their Submission History and Feedback views, allowing all group members to view reports associated with the group submission.

This feature uses the LTI 1.3 Asset Processor standard and the Course Group ID substitution parameter to ensure the processing tool receives the required group context. The submission notice is sent on behalf of the learner who uploads the file, while the resulting report remains associated with the group submission.

This update improves Help text dialogs in MyCourses.

Help text dialogs appear when users click question mark icons in forms.

Previously, these dialogs did not automatically resize to fit the screen, which could hide content or action buttons and prevent users from accessing information, closing dialogs, or manually resizing the dialog.

Help text dialogs now automatically resize to fit the screen, ensuring all content and actions remain visible and accessible. Dialogs now display a scrollbar when content exceeds the available space, allowing users to scroll through the full text and access all controls.

Before improvement:

After improvement:

To create a cleaner and more seamless visual experience for embedded learning activities, MyCourses no longer displays the default gray border around Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) activities on Content pages. This update applies to both newly added and existing LTI activities, including H5P content. Removing the border improves visual consistency across platforms and better aligns interactive content with the modern MyCourses experience, reducing the need for custom styling or workarounds by course authors.

Note: This update only affects the visual appearance of the activity border. The way instructors add, launch, and interact with LTI activities remains unchanged, and there is no impact on activity functionality or accessibility.

With this update, instructors with the See Anonymous Post Author permission can view anonymous posts when assessing individual learners in Discussions. Anonymous posts display an Anonymous post label to indicate that the learner posted anonymously.

Previously, instructors with the See Anonymous Post Author permission could reveal a learner’s name on an anonymous discussion post, but they could not see anonymous posts when assessing learners or view discussion statistics that included anonymous posts.

Note: When the Allow evaluation of individual posts setting is enabled for a discussion topic, instructors with the See Anonymous Post Author permission can view anonymous posts. However, instructors cannot score these posts individually, and the posts are excluded from individual post calculations.

For topics linked to the grade book, instructors can manually assign an overall grade.

Instructors without the See Anonymous Post Author permission continue to be unable to assess anonymous posts.

Discussion statistics now include anonymous post counts for roles with permission to see anonymous post author information. Statistics include counts only for anonymous posts created after this feature is introduced.

When learners view linked discussion activities in Content, the My Work area now includes their anonymous posts. These posts are labeled Anonymous post.

Categories that allow instructors to specify the number of groups now support up to 1,000 groups. Single-user, member-specific enrollment type groups also support up to 1,000 groups per category.

This update makes it easier to create larger group sets in high-enrollment courses.

The 1000-group limit applies to all group creation methods and cannot be exceeded. This includes creating groups on the Manage Groups page, creating groups using the API, and automatically creating groups when enrollment capacity increases.

Previously, instructors could create up to 200 groups per category.

This release introduces a new Manage Groups interface that helps instructors and administrators manage course groups more efficiently. The updated interface supports larger class sizes by making it easier to manage more groups in a single category, reducing the need to spread small-group activities across multiple categories.

Administrators can manage the new Manage Groups experience using the d2l.Tools.Groups.ManageGroupsOptIn configuration variable. The default value is OFF. This configuration variable is currently scheduled to be set to ON (Overridable) in February 2027/20.27.02 and to ON by default in May 2027/20.27.05.

When administrators set the value to ON (Opt-in), users accessing the Groups tool are prompted to turn on the new Manage Groups experience. Users can opt out at any time on the Manage Groups category page.

Setting d2l.Tools.Groups.ManageGroupsOptIn to ON enables the new Manage Groups experience for all users and removes the opt-out option.

After instructors opt in, they can view all group categories on a new page. This page helps users quickly validate group setup by showing existing categories and their configurations. Instructors can view each category’s enrollment type, number of groups, and associated activities. Each activity links to its related locker, discussion, or assignment.

From each category context menu, instructors can edit the category, add a group, manage members, import users, export member details, email the category, or delete the category. Access to the Recycling Bin remains available. However, the Import and Export buttons are no longer on the Manage Groups page; they are now available from each category’s context menu.

To view and manage individual groups in a category, instructors can select a category to open a details page. This page shows each group’s name, code, number of members, associated assignments, discussions, and lockers. Instructors can edit each group’s name and code, manage members, export members, email the group, or delete the group.

Note: In the new Manage Groups experience, the Enroll Users option is renamed to Manage Members. Currently, both terms appear in the Groups tool. Future updates will align this language across the Groups tool pages.

As part of the improved Manage Groups experience, the Recycling Bin page presents visual updates, including new filtering and search options. These updates do not change how instructors delete or restore groups and categories.