Posted on Friday, July 26th, 2019
Fall 2019 course shells have been created and made available in Brightspace as of July 25th!
If you don’t see courses in Brightspace, check ACSIS and/or with your support officer to ensure your course(s) are assigned to you. Email us at brightspace@algonquincollege.com if you still don’t see them listed.
Also, check out the Brightspace Course Readiness Checklist in the Brightspace Essentials course for steps you need to get your course ready for your students!
If you don’t have access to the “Brightspace Essentials for Faculty” course, please send an email to brightspace@algonquincollege.com.
Posted on Saturday, July 20th, 2019
Brightspace Fix Notifications
In addition to the monthly release of new system features and improvements, D2L also performs regular fixes for bugs as they are discovered. Those interested can follow the fix notifications in the Brightspace Community. Note that you will need to have an account created in order to have access to this page. Once you login, just click on the “Follow” button to keep being notified of all the fixes.
Some examples include a fix to a loading problem experienced by students who had reached the maximum file size for an assignment and the correction of a rubric loading issue in the mobile environment.
Brightspace Essentials for Faculty
In response to the feedback received earlier in the year, this course will be updated ahead of the 2019 Fall semester. We will make it easier for you to distinguish between essential and more advanced content. The new content will be developed based on the most frequent support and training requests and our intention is to make the content more interactive and engaging. Look out for these updates and a new satisfaction survey in the coming weeks.
If you don’t have access to the “Brightspace Essentials for Faculty” course, please send an email to brightspace@algonquincollege.com.
Posted on Friday, July 12th, 2019
This month’s updates to Brightspace will take place on July 19th and will bring a few improvements to the Assignment and Survey Tools.
Brightspace Assignment Tool
- A new “Edit Categories” button will be available on the “Assignments” page, accessible from the “Activities” menu on a course navigation bar. This new button will allow you to easily group assignments under categories. The assignments without a category will be displayed under the “No Category” area. Note that the assignments’ categories are different than the grades’ categories.
- An “Eraser” tool will be available when using the assignment annotations.
- Click here to learn more about the Assignment Tool in Brightspace.
Brightspace Survey Tool
- A few renamed buttons on the Surveys page will improve the learners’ experience (“Save Responses”changes to “Submit Survey”, “Save” button changes to “Save Responses” and a new “Back to Questions” button will be displayed when attempting to submit a survey with unanswered questions).
- While taking an anonymous survey, an alert will appear at the top of the survey, indicating that the survey is anonymous and the learners names will not be tied to their submissions.
- Click here to learn more about the Survey Tool in Brightspace.
Turnitin Maintenance this Saturday
Turnitin will take an 8 hour maintenance window on Saturday July 13, 2019 from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Did you Know?
If you need access to the previous “LMS Weekly Update” notices you can find them on the Brightspace website.
Posted on Friday, July 5th, 2019
Quiz Feedback
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. In order 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. Click here to learn more.
Printing a Quiz
There are times when you would like to have a paper copy of an online quiz. Currently, there is no option in Brightspace to allow you to do that, but this work around might save you some time.
Access the quiz from Activities/Quizzes and make sure you have the quiz setup so that all questions are displayed on a single page. “Preview” the quiz and then click on the “Start quiz” button. Copy the entire quiz (Ctrl+C), paste the content (Ctrl+V) to a Word file, and then print it from there.
Student Persona
Switching between the “instructor” and “learner” roles helps you understand how students see the course content. If you feel that you need to take an extra step in making sure your course activities (quizzes, assignments, discussion boards, etc) are perfectly set up or you want to become a pro in setting up that special access for a quiz or assignment, request a student persona by emailing us at brightspace@algonquincollege.com. Click here to learn how to use a student persona account.
Posted on Thursday, June 20th, 2019
This month updates to Brightspace include a few minor changes:
Quizzes: Arithmetic and significant figures questions now round up from .5
Arithmetic and Significant Figures questions in quizzes now round up from .5 by default. Previously these types of questions were rounded down from .5. Note: Past quiz attempt scores are not affected by this change.
Click here to watch an overview of question types in Brightspace.
Discussions: Save feedback in draft state when associated with rubrics
This feature provides instructors the option to save feedback as a draft on discussions associated with rubrics before publishing it to learners. Now, when instructors add feedback for discussions with rubrics, the Save Draft and Publish buttons display. This feature extends existing Save Draft and Publish options available in other assessment tools to discussions that are only associated with a rubric.
Quick Eval: Improvements to Quick Eval list
A Draft icon now displays in Quick Eval for discussion posts that have feedback in draft status. Learn more about Quick Eval here.
Issue: Upload files/Insert Stuff dialog opens in a new un-clickable tab
When Google Chrome 75.0.3770.90 is used when uploading files to Brightspace (using Upload files or Insert Stuff), an un-clickable tab opens. The solution is to update your Chrome browser. Click here for instructions.
Posted on Friday, June 14th, 2019
Development Courses in Brightspace
As the 2019 Fall courses will be created in Brightspace only in the first week of August, you might want to request development courses any time before August, by emailing the LMS support team at brightspace@algonquincollege.com.
Combined Courses in Brightspace
When teaching multiple sections of the same course, combining those sections into one shell might save you some time. To learn more about the two options available and also how to deal with the content of a combined course, click here.
Email brightspace@algonquincollege.com once the Fall courses exist in Brightspace and request to have your course sections combined.
Did You Know?
Instructors have access to the course feedback provided by students at the end of a course, through the same course link students use to access the Course Eval: Tools>Student Course Feedback
Posted on Friday, June 7th, 2019
Summary of the Brightspace Pro Tips Week
The Bites Workshops were well attended and we thank everyone who came to learn, share your best designed courses or to donate pies. A huge THANK YOU to Farbod Karimi, Chair of Learning and Teaching Services, who had the courage to stay brave while three real pies were tossed in his face. All this for a good cause, as we raised $170 for the Food Bank.
Vote the PIE on the Brightspace Email Issue
During the session on the Product Idea Exchange (PIE), highlighting how instructors can contribute to the system updates by adding new ideas or voting on existing ones, an idea on the email issue that we currently are experiencing was posted on the Brightspace Community: Email sent from Brightspace should display as coming from the user’s email address (D5481)
Click here to vote for it!
Note that you must create an account first and become a member of the Community.
Brightspace Activities (quizzes, assignments, discussions)
A reminder that, when working with activities in Brightspace, you must manually create the grade column and associate it with one of the activities. Watch a video here.
Posted on Friday, May 24th, 2019
Last Call for Pro Tips Week
There’s still time to register for Brightspace Pro Tips Week from May 27th to May 31st. Visit the website here for details and registration.
Brightspace Bites (May 27th – 31st)
Learn the latest hacks from our LMS experts at our ‘digestible’ Brightspace workshops – only 30 minutes each! Each session features refreshments and cheesy door prizes: wireless mice. We know Brightspace requires heavy clicking. Register for a session here.
PIE Drive and Toss (May 30th)
Take a deep-dish dive into the Product Idea Exchange (PIE) on May 30th as we raffle off delicious pies at the PIE Drive. Then, watch Farbod Karimi, Chair of the Learning & Teaching Services, get a pie in the face in our PIE Toss @ Boss! Donate a pie here.
Special Access
Are you aware of the tools to create special access to your assessments? Check out this module in Brightspace Essentials to find out more.
Posted on Thursday, May 16th, 2019
Brightspace Pro Tips Week isn’t only about teaching. It’s about community involvement. Here is a reminder about the fun ways you can participate.
Brightspace Bites Workshops (May 27 – 31)
Learn the latest tips and tricks from our LMS experts at our ‘digestible’ Brightspace workshops – only 30 minutes each! Each session features refreshments and cheesy door prizes: wireless mice. We know Brightspace requires heavy clicking. Register here.
Best Practice Potluck (May 29th)
Submit your best Brightspace course by May 21 for a chance to win $50 on your employee card. Select professors will be invited to present their best practices at a special workshop. Submit your course here.
PIE Drive and Toss @ Boss (May 30th)
Donations urgently needed. Not money, not clothes – pies! These pies will be raffled away on May 30 and the proceeds will be donated to the Algonquin Food Cupboard. Sign up to donate a pie here.
Faculty who have submitted or submit an idea to the Product Idea Exchange could be chosen to throw a pie in the face of Farbod Karimi, Chair of Learning and Teaching Services! To find out how to use the PIE, start here. Enter the contest here.
View Content as Learner
This week, your LMS team would like to share more about all the ways you can preview your course content, grades and quizzes as a learner. Check out the module in the Brightspace Essentials course for Faculty: https://brightspace.algonquincollege.com/d2l/le/content/6832/Home?itemIdentifier=D2L.LE.Content.ContentObject.ModuleCO-2540712
Updates to Assignment Annotation Tool
This months release of Brightspace includes two small additions to improve user experience when annotating assignments; Instructors can now annotate in full screen and rotate assignments. In order to use the Annotation Tool, users need to check the “Make annotation tools available for assessment” box in the Properties tab from the Edit Assignment section.
Posted on Thursday, May 9th, 2019
Here’s a preview of our second fun, food-filled event for Brightspace Pro Tips Week. On May 30, we are taking a deep-dish dive into the Product Idea Exchange (PIE), a community forum where Brightspace users share and vote on their improvement ideas for Brightspace.
PIE Drive
Spring is here and PIEs be near. On May 30 from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm, we are selling raffle tickets in C126 for a chance to win delicious pies! You can participate by purchasing tickets or showing off your baking skills – contribute your delicious creation to the PIE Drive. The event is free to attend, and all ticket proceeds will be donated to the Algonquin Food Cupboard.
Sign-up as a pie donor here by May 22. Please contact Justyne Jones @ Jonesj1@algonquincollege.com with your questions.
PIE Toss @ Boss ft. Farbod Karimi
From now until May 29, faculty who have submitted or submit an idea to the Product Idea Exchange will also be entered in our PIE Contest. One lucky winner will be chosen to throw a pie in the face of Farbod Karimi, Chair of the Learning and Teaching Services, after the PIE Drive! To enter the contest, click here.
We are using the PIE to drive change
Employees at Algonquin College are voting on PIE items to collectively change your Brightspace experience. Find out more on our website by clicking here.
We’ll be offering a session during Pro Tips Week on how to use the Product Idea Exchange. All attendees in this session will have an opportunity to enter the PIE Toss @ Boss Contest (after all, two PIEs are better than one). Registration opens next week. Stay tuned.
Improving Navigation for Users
Thanks to several user requests, there are some minor changes to the LMS this month. Grades is being moved from Progress and will standalone on the Course Nav Bar. The Help section is also being updated making it easier for Students and Faculty to find out where they can get help with using the LMS. These changes will be implemented before May 13, 2019.