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Brightspace Basics

Find the text version of Brightspace Basics below or watch the video version of Brightspace Basics while signed in to a Fisher account.

Accessing Brightspace

Go to my.sjf.edu
Click Launchpad in the top right
Click Launchpad again
Click on Brightspace
Scroll down on the homepage to go to My Courses and click on the course. You may have to navigate between semesters to find it.

HomePage & Course Layouts

The Brightspace hompage shows up after clicking from the launchpad to open Brightspace. From there, navigate to a course homepage. Notice that there are some similarities between the layout/design of both pages, but there are also differences.

Homepage Layout

The red navigation bar at the top of the page appears across Brightspace, but has different links depending on where it is. On the homepage, there is:

QuickEval: a way to see all assignments available to grade
Class Progress: see the student progress
Discover: find opportunities to get involved
LOR: learning object repository
Help: links to Brightspace and Fisher help

Additional Homepage Icons

In the top right, there are four icons. They are:

Waffle Menu (nine squares): access courses quickly
Messages: Brightspace messages, mentions, etc.
Alerts: system notifications (i.e. when a file has uploaded, a group is created, etc.)
Profile: Access profile photo, notifications, and account settings

Course Layout

In a course, the red navigation bar has the following things:

Content: the place to build course materials
Assignments: shows assignments in the course
Students & Grades: shows:
- Classlist: list of everyone in the class
- Class Progress: overview of student progress
- Grades: enter, set up, and manage grade book
- Attendance: tool for tracking attendance, not connected to the grade book
- QuickEval: new submissions go into QuickEval for grading
Other Course Tools: access discussions, quizzes, rubrics, and more, but it is recommend to build directly on the Content page
Course Admin: site setup, resources, learner management, assessment, and other admin options

Course Availability & Viewing Options

Make Courses Available

When ready to make a course visible to students, go to Course Admin --> Course Offering Information and check the box to make the course active. It is the responsibility of each faculty member to make their course active.

Viewing Options

To view a course from a student perspective, click on your name in the top right. Then, click on View as Learner. When viewing as learner, the icon changes.

To go back to instructor view, click on your name again and then click the "x" next to Viewing as Learner.

Screenshot of the Course Admin page in Brightspace, specifically the section where instructors can make the course active. There is bolded text at the top and to the left that says Active. Below that, there is a checked box. To the right of the box, there is text that says Course is active.

Screenshot of the Brightspace homepage showing how to switch to learner view as an instructor. In the top right, there is a green square with initials in it. To the right, there is a person's name. Below that, a dialog box is open and the View as Learner option is underlined.

Screenshot of the Brightspace homepage showing how to switch to learner view as an instructor. In the top right, there is a orange square. To the right, there is a person's name. Below that, a dialog box is open and the text says Viewing as Learner.

Announcements

The best way to communicate updates, changes, and important information to students in a one-sided message (instructor to students). Announcements post to the course and email to students

To create an announcement, go to the course homepage
Look for the announcements widget
Click the Create an announcement option (Don't see that option? Click the arrow pointing down to the right of the text that says Announcements. Then, select Go to Announcements Tool and then click New Announcement)
Enter a headline: this is what will show in the subject line of the email
Enter the content of the message
Set the Availability
1. Show Start Date: Always show start date is checked, students see the date the announcement posted
2. Enter the Start Date to schedule a message or post right away, this can be left empty
3. If needed, set an end date, which is when the announcement will be removed/no longer accessible to students
Add any attachments to the message
Attach release conditions: controls who sees this message based on their course activity
Choose to:
1. Publish: to publish right away
2. Save as Draft: to save it for later

Remove Display Author Information (Good if you copied a course that was not taught by you)

If a course copy was done from a course you did not teach and you still wanted to utilize the announcements for continuity, it is currently tied to the professor who originally taught the course (See Example). To remove the author stamp:

Start on your Course Homepage, click on the carrot next to Announcements and select Go to Announcements Tool.
Find an announcement you want to keep by clicking on its blue hyperlink title.
Underneath the Headline, is a box checked next to Display Author Information. Uncheck the box and click Update at the bottom of the page.
Repeat for all announcements you plan to keep, edit, and publish.

Emailing Students

The announcements tool will send an email to students when the announcement is released. Alternatively, you can also send an email to a single student, group of students, or all students using the steps below:

Go to Students & Grades and click Classlist
Check the box to the left of each student you want to email (alternatively you can click on a student's name to email a single student)
Click Email above the list of students
A new window opens to write your email
In the "To" line, we recommend putting your email so you get a copy of the email
Update your subject, add your message, and then click Send

NOTE: Brightspace doesn't keep records of the messages sent in this manner, which is why we recommend putting your email in the "to" field so you have a copy of it.

Notifications

By default, certain notifications are turned on for everyone in the system. Instructors and students can go in and customize their notifications to subscribe to additional categories or adjust which courses they are notified about. To do that, click on your name in the top right corner and click on Notifications. From there, customize the types of notifications and where to get them.

For more details, review Change Notification Settings.

Next Steps

As you start to build your course, the following links will be helpful to structure your course.

When using educational technology tools, be FERPA aware. To learn more, visit the Registrar's FERPA Guidelines site.

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