D2L Brightspace: Faculty introduction to the learning environment

Article Type: General Information

Question:

• What can I do in D2L Brightspace?

Answer:

• Accessibility
  • Courses should be constructed with accessibility in mind.
  • Links
    • About Brightspace Accessibility (KA #1213)
    • Design accessible course and content (KA #1216)
• Announcements
  • The announcements tool enables you to create news items that help communicate course updates, changes, and new information to your students quickly and effectively. Since Course Home is the first page that students see when they access their courses, the Announcement widget is a good area for displaying important information. Announcements items appear in the Announcements widget, but you can also receive instant notifications through email, SMS, and RSS feeds.
  • Create an Announcement video link
    •  Announcements - Create an Announcement - Instructor - YouTube
  • Additional links
    • Create and Manage Announcements (KA #1045)
    • Personalized Announcements (KA #1280)
• Content
  • The content tool is used to create, edit, and organize course materials such as syllabi, lecture notes, video, audio, and readings. The content tool allows users to navigate through course content and activities
  • Add a Module video link
    • Content - Add a Module - Instructor - YouTube
  • Create a file and insert stuff video link
    • Content - Create a File and Insert Stuff - Instructor - YouTube
  • Additional links
    • Content Completion and Participation (KA #1313)
    • Create Course Content (KA #1309)
    • Manage Course Content (KA #1310)
• Discussions
  • The Discussions tool provides an area for collaboration and communication, allowing students to post, read, and reply to messages on different topics, share thoughts about course materials, ask questions, share files, and work with peers or instructor. Private discussions also allow a faculty member to keep all communications within the classroom, i.e., email is then discouraged as faculty can require all correspondence for the course to take place in the discussion board. There are two parts to discussions; a Forum and a Topic - if you do not have one of each, students will not be able to participate.
  • Create a Forum video link
    • Discussions - Create a Forum - Instructor - YouTube
  • Create a Topic video link
    • Discussions - Create a Discussion Topic - Instructor - YouTube
  • Additional links
    • Assess learners in discussion topics (KA #875)
    • Create Discussion forums and topics (KA #870)
    • How do I create Private Discussions with my students? (KA #1567)
    • Manage discussion forums and topics (KA #871)
• Assignments
  • The Assignments tool enables faculty to collect and assess assignment files in D2L. The Assignment tool also incorporates Turnitin®, a plagiarism detection tool.
  • Create an Assignment video link
    • Assignments - Create an Assignment - Instructor - YouTube
  • Create an Assignment with Turnitin® video link
    • TurnItIn® - Create an Assignment and Enable TurnItIn® - Instructor - YouTube
  • Additional links
    • Assignments: How to download assignment submissions (KA #1370)
    • Create and manage Assignments (KA #880)
    • D2L Brightspace: Turnitin® Setup within Assignments
    • Manage assignment submissions (KA #882)
• Quizzes
  • The Quizzes tool allows faculty to create and manage points-measured assessments. Quizzes can be automatically linked with the Grades tool. There are multiple setup options to control number of attempts, security, and more.
  • Create a Quiz video link
    • Quizzes - Create a New Quiz with New Questions - Instructor - YouTube
  • Create an imported Quiz video link
    • Quizzes - Create a New Quiz with Imported Questions - Instructor - YouTube
  • Create a new Quiz with randomized questions video link
    • Quizzes - Create a New Quiz with A Randomized Set of Questions - Instructor - YouTube
  • Additional links
    • How to create a Quiz (KA #984)
    • Quizzes: Create, Edit, Print, and Import Questions (KA #964)
    • Manage Quizzes (KA #1268)
    • Reset and restore a quiz attempt (KA #1067)
    • Grade and publish quiz attempts in quizzes (KA #993)
    • Quiz submission view options (KA #1294)
• Gradebook
  • Students use the Grades tool to check grades on assignments. Students can see their individual grades and comments, as well as feedback. They can also view their final grade and teh grade formula used to evaluate them when the grades are released. Instructors can set up grade books that reflect their approach to evaluation. You control the grading formula used to calculate grades and what projects, assignments, tests, etc are graded; how grade items are associated with other tools, and when grades are released to users and what information they see. A gradebook is a list of items on which you evaluate student's performance. Grade items can include assigments, tests, discussion p[osts, participation, and so on. Together, the items in a grade book represent all the work that you evaluate users on in a course. One cvopmment that has been consistent for years from students is thier desire to see their grades - to know where they stand in the course at any moment in time.
  • Create Grade items video link
    • Grades - Create a Grade Item - Points - Instructor - YouTube
  • Associate Grade items to Activities video link
    • Grades - Associate an Activity with a Grade Item - Instructor - YouTube
  • Related links
    • Gradebook basics (KA #894)
    • Create grade items and categories (KA #901)
    • Enter grades in the Gradebook (KA #903)
    • Manage grade categories and items (KA #902)
    • Manage Final Grades (KA #905)
• Third-Party Considerations
  • Zoom
    • Zoom is a web conference solution provided by Minnesota State for use by faculty, staff, and students. This tool is simple to use and works well at delivering features that faculty wish to use in an online collaborative solution. Zoom has the ability to record the session. Through an integration with Kaltura MediaSpace, students can revisit the recording of a lecture or collaboration session.
    • Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Online Meetings, Screen Sharing - Zoom
  • Kaltura MediaSpace
    • MediaSpace is a media solution provide by Minnesota State for use by faculty, staff, and students. This tool can be used for video storage, video creation, and audio recordings. Faculty could pre-record lectures, create short weekly introduction videos to their content, create multimedia assignments for students.
    • If you use videos, please caption them.
    • https://mediaspace.minnstate.edu
    • About Kaltura MediaSpace (KA #1733)
    • How to upload, download, and capture media in Kaltura MediaSpace (KA #1679)
    • Teachers share your Kaltura MediaSpace media within D2L Brightspace (KA #1730)

Summary:

D2L Brightspace is a learning environment engineered with learning in mind. Faculty can supplement their in-class courses or use it to deliver 100% of their course online.