Using D2L Brightspace to Teach Online:
Brightspace Basics
Use the clickable table of contents in the presentation below to learn the essentials of the Brightspace environment.
Click on the button below to access resources for students and parents, including navigating Brightspace, handing in assignments, looking up grades, and keeping up to date with the announcements.
Pulse app for Students and Brightspace app for Parents is also located here.
Resources
Click on the “+” icon to expand the accordion to view the helpful resources under each heading.
Brightspace Basics
Expand the accordion below to learn how to login, customize your NavBar as well as your Home Page.
GradeBook
The GradeBook can be customized to reflect the assessment practices of the user (teacher). Learn More
Import Class List from Roster
Logging In
- Go to https://myapps.microsoft.com/
- Use SD71 login credentials
- Click on “Brightspace”
- Log in as “Teacher or Student”
- Use SD71 login credentials (if needed)
(@learn71.ca or @sd71.bc.ca)
Import Class List
A customized class list can be downloaded from MyEd BC to use as the roster for importing a class into Brightspace. Follow the directions below to do so.
NOTE: If you have created sections for your course, you will need to create a “Sections” column between the Email and Role Columns. Copy and paste down the section number.
Home Page & Nav Bar
Home Page
🔗Instructions for Creating Your Own Home Page
Recommended Widgets:
- Visual Table of Contents
- Announcements
- Activity Feed
- Work To Do
- Quick Eval
NOTE: Once you’ve followed the instructions to create your own home page, be sure to “Apply” it as your “Active Homepage”. This is also done from Course Admin > Homepages.
Navbar
🔗 Instructions for Customizing the Course Navbar
(Scroll down to “Create Navbar”)
NOTE: You will NOT be able “To make this navbar available to specific org units, click Add Org Units.”
NOTE: Once you’ve followed the instructions to create your own home page, be sure to “Apply” it as your “Active Homepage”. This is also done from Course Admin > Homepages.
Learning Content
Content
Use the “Page” icon to create a page to add content.
▶ Creating Content within the Content Page
Assignments
Use the “Assignment” icon to create assignments for your students. You can also add them from “Course Admin > Assignments”
Quizzes
Use the “Quizzes” icon to create assignments for your students. You can also add them from “Course Admin > Quizzes”. These can be customized to be “automarked” and automatically added to your Gradebook.
NOTE: if you have long answer questions, these will need to be added manually so DO NOT have these quizzes auto update to your Gradebook.
Discussion Boards
In order to use discussion boards and make them visible to students you MUST create a Discussion Forum first. ONce this is done, you can organize course discussion topics into categories.
Check out the “Best practices recommendations” to ensure the best experience for your students.
🔗 Best Practice Recommendations
Discussions can be created from “Lessons” or “Content” so that they can be connected to an associated topic.
🔗 Create a discussion forum and associated topic in the New Content Experience (Lessons)
They can also be created in the Discussions tool located in the Course Admin page.
🔗 Create a discussion forum in the Discussions tool
Checklists
A checklist contains important or required assignments, readings, or other items to complete. These MUST reside in a category, which is used to organize checklist items. Due dates can be assigned to checklist items, which is a great way to keep students on track. Checklists can be created from “scratch” or can be copied and reused for easier workflow.
🔗 Create a New Checklist
🔗 Copy a Checklist
▶ Create a Checklist
Setting Up Gradebook
GradeBook Wizard
The Gradebook wizard can be used to help you set up your gradebook. Each step allows the user to customize how the gradebook will be used as well as viewed. The gradebook contains the following elements:
- Grading systems: Enables you to set how grades display to students, how they update in the grade book, and how you want to deal with ungraded items. Choose from Weighted, Formula, or Points systems.
- Grade schemes: Enables you to organize a student’s performances on grade items into levels of achievement. Levels of achievement can include letter grades, numeric scales, or text.
- Grade categories:Enables you to organize and group related grade items into sections in your grade book.
- Grade items: Enables you to identify how you would like to grade specific student tasks in the course. You can create calculated, formula, text, select box, pass/fail, or numeric grade items and use them to grade tasks.
- View and display options for your grades.
GradeBook Schemes
Schemes can be created to reflect the assessment practice using Proficiencies (and other specific educator uses). Once set up, the learning activities that are associated with Gradebook can reflect the proficiency score rather than a numerical value
📄 Setting Up Gradebook Scheme
▶ Setting Up Gradebook Scheme
Grade Categories
Depending on how you are organizing your assessments, you may want to create Grade Categories. This allows you to group related grade items into sections in your gradebook. Follow the instructions outlined below in the link or the video to learn how to do this.
Using Standards
Importing Standards
Standards (Learning Outcomes) can be added from the Standards tool located on the Course Admin page. These can be selected for the specific BC Curriculum, including Big Ideas, Competencies, and Content. Once added, they can be applied to course content or to specific learning activities.
Importing Standards D2L Community Page
Adding Standards to Learning Activities
Once Standards are added to the course, it is very easy to add specific curricular competencies or content to a learning activity (assignment, discussions, quiz questions). If the activity is assessed using the Standard,
🔗 Aligning Standards to Learning Activities
Assessing Learning Activities Using the Aligned Standards
Once the standards are added to the learning activities, they can easily be assessed using this criteria.
Student Progress
Keeping Up to Date
There are several ways to keep up to date on how a student is progressing in your course.
- Quick Eval Tool
- Class Progress Tool
- Progress Summary
- Mastery View in Gradebook
Quick Eval Tool
Using the “Quick Eval” tool allows the teacher to quickly view and assess recently completed activities. View the page below for some tips and tricks on how to use the quick eval tool
Quick Eval D2l Community Page
🔗 View Activities in Quick Eval
🔗 Evaluate submissions in Quick Eval
Class Progress Tool
The Class Progress tool tracks the students’ overall progress as a course and individually. By default, the following performance indicators are displayed for each student: Content Completed, Objectives, Logins, and Grades. This view can be changed to add or delete performance indicators.
🔗 Class Progress Tool
▶ Class Progress Tool
Progress Summary
The “Progress Summary” provides an overview of EACH individual student’s progress in a number of different areas. This is accessed from the “Class Progress” page by clicking on the student’s name. This also has a set of defaults that is displayed, but can be customized. These include: Grades | Standards | Content | Discussions | Assignments | Quizzes | Checklist | Surveys | Course Access. If any of these are not used in a course, they can be removed from the list.
Mastery View
If the course has standards attached AND they have been used for learning activities, the “Mastery View” offers a great overview of how the student is progressing using the competencies and proficiencies they are assessed with. Mastery view is accessed from the GradeBook tab by clicking on “Mastery View” beside “View Achievements By:
Creator +
Creator+ offers the following tools for content creators to enhance their course content with Insert Elements, Practices, and Capture App. Learn More
Communication
Communication can occur easily from teacher to student or directly to parents using the Announcements, Activity Feed, or Parent & Guardian tools.
Insert Element
Creator+ Insert Element allows content creators to add dynamic components with a user-friendly authoring experience that does not require HTML coding knowledge or experience.
Insert Element D2L Community Page
Specific Insert Elements include:
Accordion: Expandable content by opening each accordion using the “+” icon.
Tabs: Displaying content so only one “tab” is viewed. Reveal the content by clicking on the tab header.
Click and Reveal: Great for presenting learners with a question or statement to view first before “clicking” to reveal further information about the topic without overwhelming them.
Callout: A tool used to highlight specific text from the rest of the content by adding a bordered rectangle around it.
Timeline: Useful for laying out events over a period of time, steps in a process, or items in a series. Created vertically within the page.
▶ Creating Timelines
Stylized Quote: Set apart text from the rest of the content by adding large, stylized, coloured quotation marks.
Flip Cards: Great for presenting learners with information first before “clicking” to view the backside of the card.
Carousels: A slideshow of images or text (simplified PowerPoint) that is displayed one at a time, with the learner clicking through to reveal content.
Hotspot: “Icons” are situated on various locations of an image, which can then be clicked to learn more about that specific part. (ThingLink)
▶ Creating Hotspots
Insert Practice
Creator+ Insert Practice empowers you to create formative and interactive learning activities to let learners test their comprehension and get immediate feedback on their understanding of a topic outside of a formal assessment.
Insert Practice D2L Community Page
NOTE: There is no way to “track” students’ progress in the use and results of Practice. This is used purely for practice.
There are a number of types of Practice to insert.
Drop Down Fill in the Blanks: Enables users to engage with content by selecting the appropriate answers for the question asked or to complete a sentence.
Multi-Select: Allows users to analyze options and identify multiple correct answers.
Multiple Choice: A number of choices are presented, and the learner is required to select the single best answer.
Sorting: Users are required to organize items into a logical sequence or category.
Sequencing: Learners must arrange steps or events in the correct order.
True or False: Learners must decide the accuracy of a statement.
Capture App
Capture web enables users (teachers as well as students) to capture full presentations from the browser without needing to download a specific screen recording app.
Capture Web D2L, Community Page
Using Capture App to Create Screen Recording
Announcements
Help boost engagement by scheduling announcements to ensure frequent, consistent communication with all students enrolled in a course. Students can set notification preferences to receive important updates. Announcements can be posted on the home page for easy access or delivered to students using the Pulse app.
Announcements D2L Community Page
NOTE: Parents WILL NOT be able to see announcements from the Parent & Guardian space.
Activity Feed
Creator+ Insert Practice empowers you to create formative and interactive learning activities to let learners test their comprehension and get immediate feedback on their understanding of a topic outside of a formal assessment.
Insert Practice D2L Community Page
NOTE: There is no way to “track” students’ progress in the use and results of Practice. This is used purely for practice.
There are a number of types of Practice to insert.
Drop Down Fill in the Blanks: Enables users to engage with content by selecting the appropriate answers for the question asked or to complete a sentence.
Multi-Select: Allows users to analyze options and identify multiple correct answers.
Multiple Choice: A number of choices are presented, and the learner is required to select the single best answer.
Sorting: Users are required to organize items into a logical sequence or category.
Sequencing: Learners must arrange steps or events in the correct order.
True or False: Learners must decide the accuracy of a statement.
Parent & Guardian
Web Application
Parents can access the Brightspace Parent & Guardian Parent Portal from a web browser by going to the Comox Valley D2L home page and using the Parent Login link: sd71.onlinelearningbc.com/d2l/login
Parents will be able to access: Work to Do | Recent Grades | Posts from Activity Feed | Portfolios (if used).
📄 Parents Accessing SD71 Parent Portal
Brightspace Parent & Guardian App
Installing the Brightspace Parent and Guardian app will give parents and guardians the same content as in the web browser, with easy access from their phones.
Creator + in Brightspace
View the presentation below to learn how to incorporate the elements of Creator + in the Brightspace environment.
Accessibility Tools in Brightspace
View the presentation below to see what accessibility tools are built right into Brightspace AND how to access them.
UDL Content in Brightspace
View the presentation below to learn how to create inclusive and accessible online learning content in Brightspace.
Support
Check out some of the suppports available for Brightspace users.