FastComments adds threaded discussions, live chat, and community engagement directly to your Brightspace course content, with no code to install and no separate logins for learners.

FastComments is a fast, privacy-first discussion and community platform. The Brightspace integration is built on LTI 1.3 Advantage, so an administrator connects it once and instructors add it to any course from there. Learners are signed in automatically from their Brightspace session, so there are no extra accounts to create and no passwords to manage.

Set up once, add it anywhere

Register FastComments through IMS Dynamic Registration by pasting a single URL into Manage Extensibility. There is no developer key to configure and nothing to install on your servers. Once registered, instructors add a FastComments discussion to any topic through the Insert Stuff menu (LTI deep linking), in both Classic Content and the New Content Experience. Discussions resize to fit the page automatically.

Roles map to your course automatically

Because the integration reads the signed LTI launch, permissions follow your existing course roles with no manual setup. Administrators become FastComments admins, instructors become moderators with full moderation tools, and learners can post, reply, and vote. You can also restrict a discussion so that only enrolled learners can read it.

Engagement features learners use

• Threaded comments with @mentions and reply chains
• Collaborative inline chat: highlight any text on a page to start an anchored discussion
• Upvote and downvote voting, page reactions, and ratings
• Real-time updates and an online-presence indicator
• Image and GIF uploads with a rich text editor
• In-app and email notifications with per-thread subscriptions
• Badges and gamification to reward participation
• Moderation, profanity filtering, and spam blocking

Private and compliant by design

FastComments is privacy-first: no cross-site ad tracking, with an EU-based CDN option for GDPR requirements. You can white-label the widget, match it to your course styling, and enable dark mode. The interface is localized in more than two dozen languages.

Compatible with any version of Brightspace that supports LTI Advantage. The Brightspace integration is included at no additional cost on FastComments Flex and Pro plans.