Starting in Fall 2026, the D2L News tool will be renamed to Announcements. This change is expected to happen in conjunction with the D2L Dropbox Tool being renamed to Assignments on August 10th.
Why the change?
The main reason for this change is “News” is a legacy term that D2L moved away from several years ago. Newer instances of D2L use “Announcements” rather than News. This will also allow us to utilize D2L tutorials as needed and put Canisius University in a better position for future updates to our learning management system.
Will there be any changes to the functionality of the News/Announcements tool?
No, there will be no changes to the overall functionality of the tool. This is a name change only. If we import news items from previous courses, they should import as announcements into new courses without issue.
However, if we refer to the News tool as specifically “the news tool” or similar in course syllabi and other content, we may want to update the language.
In addition, and if able, we recommend that any time we put anything into the Announcements tool, also email your course. It is better to provide important information in several ways than only one or the other (i.e., students may not log into D2L or they may accidentally delete certain emails).
Option 1: Use the D2L Email Tool
- Click on Classlist in the course navbar
- Click on Email Classlist at the top
- Make sure that we are in the Students tab and check the classlist to ensure that all students are listed
- Click on Send Email and double-check that all students are in the BCC field
For more information on the D2L Email Tool, please see this introductory video or see D2L’s Email Tool Documentation for Instructors.
Option 2: Use Outlook
- Click on Classlist
- Click on Export in the upper-right
- In the pop-up that appears, wait until the download is ready
- Click on the Download button
- Open the CSV
- Copy the Email column
- Click on the first email and scroll to the bottom of the list
- While holding SHIFT, click on the last email
- Use CTRL+C (Windows) or CMD+C (Mac) to copy the email addresses to the clipboard
- We should see “ants” surrounding our selection
- Start a new email in Outlook
- Use CTRL+V (Windows) or CMD+V (Mac) to paste the emails into the BCC row
- It should populate with the names of the student in the course
- Double-check that everyone is listed
- Create the email and send
See Exporting the Classlist Wiki page for more information.
What will the change look like?
The following images will provide an example of the changes, but not necessarily the full extent. If there are any questions or concerns, please email ITS Helpdesk at helpdesk@canisius.edu.
The above figure will be similar to what students see when they access the Course Homepage. Students will be notified via the News/Announcements tool on the D2L Homepage. However, for at least Fall 2026 and Spring 2027, it may be a good idea to let students know in-class or via email about this change.
COLI’s Request
The Center for Online Learning and Innovation has a few requests:
- This is a period of transition. While we will spot-check the various screens, COLI may not catch where “News” was left behind in D2L (excluding syllabi and older News Posts). As such, if there are any instances of News in D2L or other issues or concerns, please email the ITS Helpdesk at helpdesk@canisius.edu.
- Screenshots are very useful!
- Please be patient with us as we transition our tutorials.
- Tutorials will be updated on an “as-needed” basis and will be unable to replace all of them before Fall 2026.
- This is because, while the name of the tool is changing, the functionality and workflows will remain the same.
- Tutorials will be updated on an “as-needed” basis and will be unable to replace all of them before Fall 2026.
- Want to help or have you created training materials for your courses that you think will be helpful? Get in touch with Tyler Kron-Piatek (kronpiat@canisius.edu) to discuss further.
If there are any questions or concerns, please contact the ITS Helpdesk at helpdesk@canisius.edu. Otherwise, see D2L’s Announcement Tool Tutorials for Instructors for more information on the Announcement Tool. For other help concerning D2L at Canisius University, see the D2L Self-Paced Tutorials for Faculty and Staff Wiki page.