Learn how to use Brightspace
The Centre for Teaching and Learning has curated a list of step-by-step "how to" written instructions relevant to the University of Windsor's Brightspace instance. The list is comprised of D2L's resources as well as documents created by CTL. (For How To's in a video format, visit our curated list of How-To Videos)
Brightspace Quick Reference Guide
D2L Brightspace Higher Ed Instructor Documentation
Brightspace Roles and Permissions
Course Delivery during unplanned disruptions
Getting started
- Sign in using your UWin ID email (UWinID@uwindsor.ca) and password
- Navigate Brightspace Learning Environment
- Change personal settings in Brightspace Learning Environment
- Log out of Brightspace Learning Environment
- Supported browsers
- Add a TA/GA/Departmental Support/Guest to my course
- Using the Classlist tool
- Download a class list
- Add a guest to Brightspace
- Customize your Course site:
- Make course site active/available to students
- Student View/Student Preview
Create Content
- Introduction to the Content tool (UWindsor's default is the Classic Content Experience)
- Add learning material to Content
- Why can't learners see the Content I posted?
- Hide newly created content so students are not notified
- The Brightspace Editor
- Add Teams recording to Content
- Notify learners about updated course content
- Best practices for creating release conditions
- Delete a module
- Upload a video to YuJa (or create a video) and place a link of the video on Brightspace
- Connect Legato course reserves to Brightspace
- Copy course material from another course
- Use images provided by D2L Brightspace in Content or elsewhere
- Share YouTube video and have it start at a certain point in the video
- The Brightspace Learning Object Repository(LOR)
- Add Hyperlinks
- YuJa / Stream / Youtube Comparisons
- Exporting Course Content for reuse
Assignments
- Create an assignment
- Create an accommodation for an assignment or quiz
- About assessing assignment submissions
- View ungraded assignment submissions
- Evaluate and add feedback to assignments
- Create a Video Assignment
- How to restore a deleted assignment or quiz
- Bulk download and bulk upload submissions for grading offline
- How to reset assignment submissions
- Using Multiple Evaluators in Brightspace
- Group Assignments Best Practices
- Anonymous peer review using the Discussions tool
- Using Turnitin
Rubrics
Quizzes
- Question types & Creating a library of questions
- Create a quiz
- Copy an existing quiz (in the same course)
- Quiz Generator (create a quiz from a document of formatted questions, courtesy of Algonquin College)
- Import quiz questions to Question Library from a Blackboard archive
- Create an accommodation for an assignment or quiz
- Create quiz accommodations for all quizzes for a student
- Submit an in-progress quiz on behalf of student
- View ungraded quiz submissions
- Trouble shoot using Quiz Attempt Logs
- Changing quiz question after submissions received
- Test Best Practices for Instructors
- How to enable automatic submission when time limit reached in a quiz
- How to restore a deleted quiz or assignment
- Add a YuJa interactive video quiz to your Brightspace course and integrate it with Gradebook
- Reset Quiz Attempts
Grades Tool
- Avoiding Gradebook Gaffes
- Quick Tips Sheet
- Intro to the Grades tool
- Set up your Grade Book
- Create (and Delete) Grade categories and items (these make the columns in your Grade Book)
- Grade Book icons and notifications
- Enter grades in the Grades tool
- Show running total to students
- Export your Gradebook
- Import your Gradebook
- Import grades from Scantron file
- Import grades from files other than Scantron
- Creating Grade Items in Excel and Importing to Gradebook
- Adjust Final Grades
- Release Adjusted Final Grades to students
- Transfer Final Grades from Brightspace to UWinsite Student
- Learn to use the Grades Tool (video tutorials)
- How to know if grades are visible to students
- Override group grades for an individual student
- How to add bonus credit to assessments or final grade
- How to remove Gradebook items that are associated with assessments
Communicate and Engage with Learners
- The Announcements tool (includes short how-to video)
- Create, Edit and use announcements using the widget
- Send an email to your class through Brightspace (emails will be sent to UWindsor Outlook inboxes)
- Use Replace Strings for Personalization (video)
- List of Replace Strings for Announcements and Intelligent Agents
- Create and Copy Announcements
Discussions
- Create and manage discussion forums – (UWindsor's default is the Classic Content experience)
- Create a graded discussion topic with a linked grade item
- Grade Discussions
- How to use the Discussions tool for journaling
- Anonymous peer review using the Discussions tool
Groups
Self Assessments
- Allow learners to reflect on their learning – Self Assessments
- Best Practices and creating a Self Assessment
Awards
ePortfolio and Portfolio tools
MS Teams as Virtual Classroom
- Create a recurring Teams Meeting
- Add Teams meeting to Nav bar
- Activate your Teams Course team
- A Guide to Teaching in Teams
- IT Services Teams Owner Guide
- Create a form or survey using Microsoft Forms
- Create a poll
- A set of short videos meant to help with teaching with Microsoft Teams (the longest video is 5:46 min!)
- Accessibility features in MS Teams
Turnitin (similarity/plagiarism checker)
- Using and Interpreting Turnitin results
- Introduction to Turnitin Feedback Studio (video of workshop provided by Turnitin)
- Setting reasonable expectations for the Turnitin Similarity Score
- Using Turnitin to check a research paper
- Turnitin Help Site
Accessibility in Brightspace
- Accessible Content, Accommodations, and Brightspace Tools
- Focus on Accessibility (A starter visual of the very basics)
- Accessibility in Brightspace
- Common Academic Accommodations and Potential Approaches in Brightspace
- Alt text for images
- Panorama (A tool embedded in Brightspace to help identify and correct accessibility issues for several digital file types that you may upload to Brightspace. It also provides several alternative formats for users to be able to engage with the content in a more accessible way.)
- Accessibility Academy (Log into the Brightspace Community to learn the many ways to provide an accessible course experience, found in:)
Brightspace Analytics
- Brightspace Course-level Analytics for instructors (Using course statistics and reports to support student progress and course evaluation)
Integrations
Storage Management
- Storage Alternatives for Brightspace Course Content
- How to Create a YuJa Video, Add a Video to YuJa, and link to the YuJa video
Emergencies