Using Private Discussions for Journaling in Brightspace

Audience: Faculty, Staff and Teaching Assistants

This KB Article References: Brightspace
This Information is Intended for: Faculty, Staff, Teaching Assistants
Last Updated: February 09, 2023
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In Brightspace, you have the ability to create private groups with restricted discussion areas where learners are able to keep a journal.  These journals are only viewable to each individual student, and the instructors of the course.

 

Creating Journal Areas

  1. Go into the Course Admin menu

Image of course admin button

 

  1. Select Groups

Image of group option in course admin menu

 

  1. Select New Category

Image of new category button

 

  1. Enter in a Category Name (and optionally a description)

Image of Category Name

 

  1. For Enrollment Type, select Single user, member-specific groups

Image of enrollment type drop down

 

  1. Under Additional Options, select Set up discussion areas

Image of set up discussion area box

 

  1. Under Forum, use the drop down selector to choose a forum you would like to assign this journal to, or select New Forum to create a new forum.  The forum will be present in the Discussions area of your course. 

Image of forum selector

 

  1. Select Save.  Once selected, your groups will be created in the background (this process may take a few minutes). 

Image of save button

 

  1. You will then be prompted to create a restricted topic.  This topic will be the journal area where your students can type in their own personal journals. 

 

  1. When creating a topic, you can choose to either Create one topic per group or Create one topic with threads separated by group. 

Image of create a topic options

 

Each option does the following:

 

  • Create one topic per group (not recommended if you plan on grading journals): This will create a topic for each student in the discussion forum.  These topics will only be viewable to each individual student, and the instructor. 

Image of how the one topic per group looks

 

  • Create one topic with threads separated by group (recommended if you plan on grading journals): This will make one topic in the discussion forum.  Students can add a thread to the topic that will only be viewable to themselves, and the instructor. 

Image of how the one topic separated by group option looks

 

  1. If you selected Create one topic with threads separated by group enter in a title for the topic (IE: Your Personal Journal).  You can also add a description for the topic as well (optional).  If you selected Create one topic per group, move on to step 12. 

Image of area where you can title your topic

 

  1. Select Create and Next.  You will then be informed that your topic is created. 

Image of create and next button

 

  1. If you select, Discussions,  you can see the journal topic.

Image of the journal topic in discussions

 

 

Setting Up Journals as Graded Items

To make your students journals into a graded item, follow the steps below.  Please note that if you want to grade journals, it's recommended that your journal topic be set up to "Create one topic with threads separated by group". 

 

  1. Select Discussions

Image of Discussions tab

 

  1. Find the journal topic and select the downward facing arrow next to it's name

Image of downward facing arrow next to journal topic

 

  1. Select Edit Topic

Image of edit topic button

 

  1. Select the Assessment tab

Image of Assessment tab

 

  1. Select New Grade Item

Image of new grade item link

 

  1. Enter in the details of your grade item, including it's name, category to be assigned under, point value, and other desired settings.  Once you have finished, select Save.

Image of the save button

 

  1. Choose how many points you would like to score the journal out of

Image of score out of box

 

  1. Review any optional assessment settings

 

  1. Select Save and Close

Image of save and close button

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