Brightspace Tips

DLE Weekly Update: Test Student Account

Have you ever wondered how your students see your courses’ content and activities?

The “View as Learner” will not display your course exactly as a student will see it. The workaround is to Add a Test Student account to your courses and impersonate this student to experience your course exactly as a student will see it. You can complete quizzes and submit assignments as a student, then exit the impersonation to view the results as the instructor.

As many other instructors are using this test student, please be aware of the fact that, once you enrol it in your course, any instructor that will impersonate the test student will be able to view your course content as a learner. It is recommended to unenrol the Test Student from your course once your testing is complete. Instructions on how to unenrol a user from your course can be found in this article

Important: Please make sure that you are using the “teststudent” role when adding this account to your courses. If you use any other role (for instance, learner or observer) you AND the rest of the instructors will not be able to impersonate this account.

 

DLE Weekly Update: November News, Brightspace Tips and Grade Entry in ACSIS

New great feature introduced by the November release: Retake incorrect questions in subsequent attempts

This feature introduces a new option for Quizzes Attempt settings that allows students to only retake their incorrectly answered questions from previous quiz attempts. When you edit a Brightspace quiz (Activities/Quizzes), the new option is available for you to select from the Assessment tab. Each learner only sees the questions they had previously answered incorrectly in the same order as the initial attempt (including quizzes with random sections and random questions).

Brightspace Tips

Are you marking your students’ assignments anonymously?

Anonymous Marking is a tool in Brightspace which allows you to mark your students Assignment submissions without knowing the identity of the student. In case you are using Anonymous Marking, note it is not possible to publish individual evaluations. To maintain anonymity, all evaluations have to be published at the same time using the Publish All Feedback button. When marking, the first step is to save the grades/feedback as a draft (select Save Draft to save), and then go back to Activities/Assignments/View Submissions page and click on the Publish All Feedback button.

Do you need to copy ONLY the final exam (or any other quiz) from one course to another?

Use the Select Components button when you perform a course copy and select only the Quizzes option, followed by Selected Quizzes, and then the quiz you wish to copy. If your quiz is created as a random quiz with questions from the Question Library, make sure you also copy that particular section from the Question Library, by selecting the Question Library option, along with the Quizzes one. By doing this, you will make sure that you will have that Question Library section in the destination course, for usage in other quizzes.

Preparing a CSV (Excel) File for Uploading Grades into ACSIS

At the end of each semester, you are asked to upload the final grades for your students to ACSIS. This article provides you with step-by-step instructions describing how to prepare a .csv (Excel) file from the gradebook in Brightspace in preparation for submitting/uploading grades to ACSIS.

Does your course contain TechSmith Relay videos?

The TechSmith web server will be shut down on December 31, 2020. Any content not retrieved by this date will no longer be available to users.
You may have inherited a Brightspace course that contains TechSmith Relay presentations, created by you or another faculty member (past or present). The URL will typically contain “replay.algonquincollege.com” and will also indicate the username of the original creator, e.g. “replay.algonquincollege.com/replay/kershar/…” For more information, and the steps that you should take to address this, please take a look at this myAC post.

DLE Weekly Update: New Video on How to Show Quiz Results via Submission Views

Since using the Submission Views options in a Brightspace Quiz is the most common topic almost any time of the semester, we are sharing again the KB article on how to show the quiz results via Submission Views. In addition to the article that it’s been already appreciated by many of you, we NOW have for you a very informative video on this topic, created by our DLE Team.

When students complete quizzes, they will be eager to see their results AND feedback. The default quiz settings show only the overall grade, and nothing else. To release more information to students (i.e. questions, correct/incorrect answers, class averages, etc.) you need to either edit the default submission view or set up an additional submission view.

This KB article describes how to set up a submission view (Default View or Additional View) for a Brightspace quiz. The Quiz Submission Views video is included in this article.

Note: To check if it works the way you want it to, add the Test student account to your course.

Important: Make sure you select the correct role (teststudent) when adding this account to your course. If you use the learner role, you and the rest of the instructors won’t be able to impersonate it.

For more tips and documentation on Brightspace quizzes, please read these KB articles:

DLE Weekly Update: More Brightspace Tips


Brightspace Tips – Answers to Common Questions this past Week

 

  • Q: I would like to create an assignment that allows students to offer feedback to each other’s work. Can I do this in Brightspace?
    A:     This article describes how to create and set up a PeerMark Assignment in Brightspace.
  • Q: I am trying to upload a new ZOOM recording to Brightspace and it looks like the existing Zoom recording gets replaced by the new one. What am I doing wrong?
    A:     We recommend that ZOOM recordings be stored in the cloud. If for some reason you need to save the recordings to your computer before uploading them to Brightspace, you must rename the videos on your computer prior to uploading. If you don’t, as by default all videos have the same name (Zoom_0), each new video will overwrite the previous one you loaded to your course. There will be nothing that can be done to restore previous videos.
  • Q: I am using breakout room in ZOOM when delivering my class lecture, but I would like to allow my students to choose the room they want to be in. Is there a ZOOM option to allow me to do this?
    A    : The “Let participants choose room” option is NOW available to select during a ZOOM meeting, ONLY for the versions 5.3 or newer. Update your software from your Zoom app or from your profile under the Algonquin College Zoom portal.
  • Q: Some of my students can not access their group assignment. Is there any easy way to view the groups’ enrollment at once?
    A:     On the “Manage Group” page, from the contextual menu for the group category, choose “Enroll Users”. The next screen will display all your students on one page, and the groups they belong to. This view will help you quickly identify students who are not part of any group. Click here for more tips on Groups. Make sure you use Replace Strings in the announcement for a personalized message.
  • Q: Can I post an announcement visible ONLY to the students who have not submitted yet to an assignment?
    A:     When creating your course announcement, under “Additional Release Conditions”, click on the “Create and Attach” button. Select the “No submission to folder” menu option, and then choose the assignment. The announcement will be visible ONLY to the students who have not submitted and it will also be sent as an email ONLY to those students.
  • Q: How can I add closed captions to My Mediasite presentations?
    A:     Closed captions are provided by a third party and you have to request closed captions by using the steps described in the My Mediasite FAQ page, on the LTS website.

Reminder: New Assignment Create and Edit Experience

The June Brightspace release introduced a new assignment create and edit experience, available across all your courses, on an opt-in/opt-out basis. Eventually, this new assignment version will automatically be turned on for all of you.

  • Access here the Knowledge Base article for instructions on how to turn it off or on.
  • Read this article if you need to create an assignment in your course and you are not clear about all the assignment options.

So You Think You Can Brightspace

Are you doing something exciting or engaging with Brightspace (or other integrated technologies)? Are you willing to share your ideas with other faculty members? If so, please consider participating in the AC Expo: Rockin’ the Remote Classroom during the midterm break week, October 26th – 28th.

 

DLE Weekly Update: Hot Topics

Brightspace Tips – Answers to Common Questions this past Week

How do I share My Mediasite presentations in my Brightspace courses? You created a presentation and you have it available in My Mediasite, but how do you insert it in Brightspace and make it available to your learners? This article describes the steps you need to know. You will need to use the Insert Stuff tool available under Content (Create a file option), and also available when you create/edit an Announcement.

How to I copy a quiz/exam/assignment between two courses? Use the Course Copy process and, rather then copying everything, use the Select Course Components and choose the Brightspace activity you need to copy over.

Is there any way to start a Zoom classroom with pre-assigned break out rooms? Yes, but ONLY if students have Zoom accounts (through https://zoom.us), and they are logged into their account in order to be assigned to the breakout rooms correctly. Follow this instructions on pre-assigning participants to breakout rooms.
Note: Students must use their Algonquin email address when they create the Zoom Basic accounts.
Here are some recommendations to get your students in the habit of signing into Zoom:

  • Inform students that they will need to create a Zoom account and log into Zoom to access future meetings.
  • Edit upcoming meetings so that Only authenticated users can access them (it’s a checkbox when editing the meeting).
  • Give students an extra 5-10 minutes to get into your next meeting – they will inevitably run into difficulties and some may not have created an account.
  • The main thing is the communication piece. We’d recommend something like this: “To join this session, please see the Getting Started section of this Library guide, to create a free Zoom Basic account using your college email address. Accounts will be used to make group work easier in each session. You will not be able to access future class meetings without a Zoom account.

How do I allow one student an alternate time restriction for a quiz? Use the special access options when you need to provide students with alternate time restrictions, alternate attempt limits, or alternate due dates.

Important! Extending the availability of a quiz, by changing the quiz start/end dates, does not give the student more time. If you have students who need a longer time to complete a quiz, when using one of the Special Access options, make sure you change the amount of time your students are allowed to take (the Recommended Time Limit or the Enforced Time Limit).

Did you know?

Did you know that Brightspace has a Chat tool that allows you and your learners to have a real-time discussion? You can use the Chat tool to brainstorm ideas, hold a question and answer period, have a debate or discussion, or organize a remote study group. As opposed to other collaboration tools, such as Discussions, Chat conversations occur in real-time.
There are two types of chats:

  • Personal chats – visible only to users who you have added to the chat’s participants list. Great for when you need to schedule private conversations.
  • General (course) chats – visible to everyone enrolled in your course. Use one during an online exam, when students need a quick way to ask you questions. As the general chat is visible to the entire class, it may be beneficial in case that the answer needs to be visible to all your students.

Notes:

  • The Chat Tool is available to you from Tools/Course Admin/Chat. Once you create a chat, you link to it from a Content area, by going to Existing Activities/Chat option.
  • A personal chat will be visible to all students, but accessible only to students added as members.
  • If you need to avoid having the link to the personal chat visible in your course, go to Tools/Course Admin/Chat and click on the name of a personal chat. From the browser’s address bar, copy the URL and send it to your student by email, along with the date and time set up for the appointment.

Brightspace Support for Students

Do your students have any issues with their Brightspace courses? Please refer them to the ITS Support Team (5555@algonquincollege.com).

Digital Learning Environment Weekly Update: New Name for Our Weekly Updates

New Name, Same Great Content

With the addition of a number of new tools that have been integrated with Brightspace in the last few months, our LMS Weekly Update has been renamed to Digital Learning Environment (DLE) Weekly Update, in order to accurately represent our support for you.

What’s New in Brightspace: September Release

Assignments – The new Assignment creation experience now has Special Access options

The June Brightspace release included a new assignment create and edit experience, that will eventually replace the current Assignment tool. As of today, the Special Access options are available to you, when using this new assignment view. You can use Special Access rules in a Assignment to provide students with alternate time restrictions, attempt limits, or different due dates.

Class/User Progress – Include Pulse activity in usage data: Learner activity data is now captured more accurately through the addition of a new system usage metric. Previously, Pulse usage was not tracked, and learners who accessed their courses through the app were misrepresented as having low engagement and could not access conditionally released content.

  • Class Progress has a new System Access performance indicator, which displays the number of times each student has accessed the system through the LMS website or Pulse in the last 30 days. You can add System Access to the Class Progress dashboard by clicking Settings.
  • User Progress has a new System Access History section, which displays the number of times the student has accessed the system through the LMS website or Pulse in the last 30 days. You can select System Access History to display in the User Progress report by clicking Settings.

My Mediasite

As you already know, My Mediasite is a new tool in Brightspace, with a simple interface that allows you to create, record, share, and publish your presentations easily. Mediasite hosts these videos and also has a Brightspace integration that allows you to embed video content directly within your courses.

Whenever you or your students are prompted for the user name and password when you are asked to sign in to access Mediasite content, make sure you use your Algonquin College user name and NOT the full email address.

ZOOM Tips

  • Please remind your students that the Zoom calendar events in their courses (notifications automatically added in the courses’ calendars when you schedule Zoom meetings) are NOT necessarily supposed to match the schedule on their timetables.
  • When creating recurring Zoom meetings, before saving the meetings, make sure that there is only one day of the week checked off (assuming that you are giving a lecture only once a week). As the week day when you set up the meetings gets automatically checked off, there have been situations when two week days were checked off by mistake, and this creates confusion among students.

Multiple Ways to find Answers to your Questions:

  • Book Online Appointments with our Team. You will notice that, the booking form and the emails confirming the appointments, now have a different name : Digital Learning Environment (DLE) Support
  • Email our DLE Team at brightspace@algonquincollege.com. After emailing us, you will receive an automatic reply with your case number.
  • Access our Digital Learning Environment Knowledge Base (DLEKB).

LMS Weekly Update: Tips on Quizzes, Turnitin Assignments and ZOOM…

Tips on Quizzes, Turnitin Assignments and ZOOM…

Quizzes

Question: My exam contains sections of various type of quiz questions (multiple choice, written response and short answer). I need to shuffle the questions within each section, while keeping the order of the sections intact when students are taking the exam. How do I do this?

Answer: Our recommendation is to start by having your quiz questions organized in Sections, in the Question Library, for an easy work flow. Then follow these steps:

  • Go to Activities/Quizzes/New Quiz to begin creating your exam.
  • Click on the Add/Edit Questions button and then choose Import/Browse Question Library.
  • Select all the sections (they look like folders) you need to bring over to your exam and click Add.
  • Double click on the name of each Section and check off the Shuffle questions in this section option.
  • Note that you could display extra information that comes up before the questions contained in each section, by using the Section text. Ensure you don’t have the Hide Section Text from students option checked off
  • DO NOT check off the Shuffle questions at the quiz level option from the Properties tab.

Turnitin

Question: I have given my students feedback using the GradeMarks in a Turnitin Assignment, but the feedback is NOT visible to them.

Answer: Students view the Turnitin feedback by going to Activities/Assignments, then clicking on the Feedback (read/unread) in the Evaluation Status column for that particular assignment OR or by going to their Grades.

  • Note that the assignment needs to be visible to students (it does NOT have to be available) so that they can access the Feedback.
  • Ensure you have a grade entered for each submission in the Turnitin Feedback Studio where you used the QuickMarks for grading.
  • Make sure you have the grades published by going to the Activities/Assignments/View Submissions screen, select all users and then click on the Publish Feedback option.

ZOOM

Question: My students have group presentations and I have split them in breakout rooms. How do I make sure I have a recording of each breakout room?

Answer: Set up the ZOOM meeting to record on your computer and NOT in the cloud. You will need to have one student from each room record the breakout room session. You can designate one person in each Breakout Room to record locally and then share that file with you after the meeting. Multiple students can record locally if allowed by the host.

Note: Need to know how to set up your Zoom account and get familiarized with the security and privacy guidelines around hosting and recording meetings? Check the LTS’s Tools for Delivery website.

D2L Fusion 2020 – Virtual Event

D2L Fusion 2020 is starting on July 20th and it is FREE. This virtual Fusion conference will take place three consecutive days each month, from noon to 3:45 p.m., over a few months period.

Reminder: New Assignment Create and Edit Experience

The June Brightspace release includes a new assignment create and edit experience. This will be available to faculty immediately across all courses, on an opt-in/opt-out basis, providing an early opportunity to test and provide feedback ahead of the summer vacation.

  • Access here the Knowledge Base article for instructions on how to turn it off or on.
  • Access here the Knowledge Base article for on overview of the benefits and limitations of the new assignment experience in its current state.

Reminder: Turnitin Mappings to be reset on August 21, 2020

Please take a moment today to schedule a reminder for yourself to export the content you wish to keep before August 21st, 2020. If you have any questions or need assistance, please email brightspace@algonquincollege.com, with the subject line “Turnitin Export”.

Instructions on How to Export/Import your QuickMarks and Rubrics:

LMS Weekly Update: Respondus Lockdown Browser Pilot and Quiz Feedback

Respondus Lockdown Browser Pilot

As promised, here’s the official announcement about this upcoming pilot!

AC Online has entered into an agreement to pilot Respondus LockDown Browser. This pilot will run from May 1, 2020, through August 31, 2020, and includes unlimited installations of LockDown Browser software. Respondus LockDown Browser is a custom browser that locks down the testing environment within Brightspace. When students use LockDown Browser, they are unable to print, copy, go to another URL, or access other applications.

You can find more details about this Pilot on the Respondus Lockdown Browser Pilot page.

Providing Quiz Feedback

Did you know that, when grading your students quizzes, you have multiple ways of providing feedback? Also, your students have different ways of accessing the feedback, depending on the way you chose to enter your comments.

  • Overall Feedback – general feedback for all of the quiz attempts.
  • Attempt Feedback – feedback provided for each quiz attempt.
  • Question Feedback – feedback entered for each individual quiz question, for each student.

Overall Feedback

There are two ways to provide overall feedback, along with the grade for a quiz, regardless of the number of attempts your quiz allows:

  • Overall Feedback entered from Grades/Enter Grades – The feedback will automatically update in the Overall feedback text box available to you when you grade the quiz.
    Want to save time? When you need to provide all students with the same overall feedback and have it personalized for some of them, while you are still here in Grade/Enter Grades, select all student’s names and click on the Add Feedback button. The comments entered here will populate the Overall feedback area for all those students.
  • Overall Feedback entered from Activities/Quizzes/Grade – When you grade the students’ quiz attempts from the Activities/Quizzes, choose Grade from the contextual menu of the quiz. On the Users tab you will see all students who have completed an attempt. Click on the Overall Grade (highest attempt) and then scroll down at the bottom. Here you will see details on the student’s quiz attempt(s) and also the feedback that you entered from the Grades.

Note 1: It is recommended to enter the overall feedback starting from the Grades, as currently there is an issue with updating the feedback in the Grades, if you do it the other way.

Note 2: The Overall Feedback will be visible to your students even when you keep the Default View on the Submission View tab, in the properties of the quiz, when only the quiz score will show up after students submit the quiz.

How do students view the Overall feedback? Students will access the overall feedback either from their Grade menu, or from the Activities/Quizzes in the Evaluation Status column.

Attempt Feedback

If you allow your students to have one or multiple quiz attempts, you will have the option to provide feedback for each attempt. From Activities/Quizzes, click on Grade from the contextual menu. The Users tab will display your students names and their quiz attempts. Click on the attempt (1, 2, 3, etc) you want to give feedback to and enter the comments in the Attempt Feedback text box. The Attempt drop-down list gives you the option to select different quiz attempts for the same student, while the arrows at the top of the screen allows you to move to the next student.

Note: The Attempt Feedback will be visible for your students without you, the instructor, needing to change the Default Submission View.
How do students view the quiz attempt feedback? They need to go to Activities/Quizzes and click on the Feedback link in the Evaluation Status column and then on each Attempt link.

Feedback per Quiz Question

If you want to give feedback for individual quiz questions (for instance, for written response type of questions), then you will need to set up a different Submission View for your quiz, other than the default one. In the Submission View for the quiz, either “Show questions answer incorrectly”, “Show questions answered correctly”, or “Show all questions with user responses” must be selected.
Click here in order to read about Submission Views.

How do students view the feedback for individual questions? Students will need to go to Activities/Quizzes and click on the Feedback link from the Evaluation Status column. Once there, there will be a link to their quiz attempt.

Important! For the type of feedback that requires students to go to Activities/Quizzes, the quiz (active or inactive) needs to be displayed on that page. Even if you don’t want the quiz open anymore, you will just need to keep it active an set up an end date under the quiz Restrictions tab.

 

LMS Weekly Update: Have You Ever Wondered What To Do If You…(part 2) and the Winners for the SYTYCB Contest!

For detailed instructions on the tips listed below and in the previous update, contact us at brightspace@algonquincollege.com.

  1. Can’t seem to find a way to reply to topic threads under Discussions? Once you click on the name of the thread, the Reply to Thread button will show up above and below the content of the thread.
  2. See your Assignments/Quizzes under the Activities menu on the nav bar, but not under the Content area? Once in a while we see a bit of confusion about the area where you should make your quizzes/assignments accessible to your students. Regardless of the way you create your quizzes/assignments, they will ALWAYS exist under the Activities menu on the course nav bar. There is nothing wrong in having your students go to access the quizzes/assignments from there, but sometimes, depending on how your course is structured, your might want to make them available under one particular module, under the Content area. This is when you will be using the Existing Activities/Quizzes or Assignments to create a link to the existing quizzes/assignments.
    Important!     Removing the link from the Content area and choosing the second option on the confirmation pop-up screen, will delete your quiz/assignment from your course.
  3. Your students view the grades for a hidden gradebook item? Displaying how the final grade is calculated will actually give away the hidden grades. From Grades, click on the Settings option and then on the Org Unit Display Options tab. Make sure that the Display how final grade was calculated to users is not checked off.
  4. Need to attach multiple files to one item under Content area? Use the Upload/Create button and then Create a file. In the next window, enter the Title and then use the Insert stuff tool to upload the first file from your computer.

So You Think You Can Brightspace

Learning and Teaching Services would like to thank everyone who participated in this contest. Our panel of 6 judges, a mixture of staff, faculty and students, were very impressed with the submissions and the results were as follows:

  1. Danielle Allard – $50 gift card
  2. Kate Ming-Sun – $25 gift card
  3. Mark McKenna – $25 gift card

Congratulations to our winners! Here is a video showcasing some of the work that was submitted – we’re sorry that not all courses could be covered in this short video, and we’re very grateful to those who gave permission for their content to be shared in this way.

LMS Weekly Update: Have You Ever Wondered What To Do If You…

  1. Need to change the answer to a quiz question and regrade student submissions?
    From the Activities/Quizzes, click on the chevron for that particular quiz and then on Grade. On the Questions tab, click Update All Attempts and then on the question, you need to regrade. You have the options to give to all students points value for that particular question or re-grade only the attempts that have a particular answer.
  2. Need to view grades for students who are not in your course anymore?
    Click on the Tools/Class List/Enrolments Statistics. Down at the bottom, under Withdrawals, click on the chevron beside the student and choose View Grades.
  3. Deleted an assignment by mistake?
    To recover deleted assignments go to Activities/Assignments/More Actions/Event Log. The deleted assignment will have a Restore button available.
  4. Need to grade assignment files offline?
    You have the option to download all the assignments files in a zip file, grade them, save the files, create a new zip file and upload all the graded files as a package file. Go to Activities/Assignments/View Submission and then the Submissions tab. Select all submissions and click Download. When you are ready to upload them, from the same screen, click on the Add Feedback Files tab and upload the zip file. Note that you will need to manually enter the grades in the gradebook column.
  5. Need to set up practice quizzes, but without the associated columns in the course gradebook?
    When you set up the quiz, on the Assessment tab, leave None for the Grade Item, but check the box to “Allow attempt to be set up as graded immediately upon completion.” No column will appear in the gradebook, but students will be able to view their score and any other options that you set up under the Submissions View tab.
  6. Your students are reporting that your emails sent from within Brightspace never reaches them?
    Ask them to check the Other folder in their Outlook email client.

Notes:

  1. For the detailed instructions on the above tips and the ones that will be included in the next week update, contact brightspace@algonquincollege.com.
  2. If you are interested in a PD session on these tips, please contact Rob Kershaw (kershar@algonquincollege.com).

Current Rubric Issue and a Work Around

You might have noticed that, when you are editing a rubric and use Ctrl + V or just Edit/Paste, and then save the rubric, surprisingly, when you go back to view the rubric, actually the copied text was not saved. D2L just entered this issue to the known issues list. One of our instructors has discovered a work around that will save you some time and frustration. The work around is to add a space at the end of a copy and pasted comment. So, copy the text, paste it in the rubric and then hit the space key.