Division of Information Technology

Brightspace for Instructors

This page contains resources beneficial to instructors teaching and developing courses.

Top 10 Brightspace tips for Instructors

Resources

Faculty Training Options

There are several ways for you to learn Brightspace, including live hands-on training, demonstrations and recorded training:

  • SUNY Training Provided Training
  • DoIT Provided Training
  • Brightspace Provided Training
View Training Options

FAQs

How do I connect my course for clickers in Brightspace?
What can I use to communicate announcements, files and general messages to a group of people?

Access

How do I add a TA or others users to my Brightspace Course? How do I change the role of someone in the course?
How do I make my Brightspace Course available (active) or unavailable (inactive) to students? How do I hide a course from student view?
How do I view my Brightspace Course as a student (View as Learner)?

Adding Content to a Brightspace Course

Getting Started: What start-of-semester tips should I know for using Brightspace?
Can I merge two courses (or sections) into one course in Brightspace?
How can I add technology support information to my course using the Learning Objects Repository (LOR)?
How can I embed a YouTube video into Brightspace?
How do I add content to my Brightspace Course?

Assignments

How can I temporarily hide assignments from students?

Attendance Tool

Does the Attendance Tool in Brightspace link to the Grades?

Communication Tools

Why can't I email an Announcement to my Students in the Announcements Tool? Will they be notified in the Pulse App?
How can I add a signature in Brightspace communications?
How can I email my students in Brightspace?
How can I send automatic emails to students if they didn't complete something in my course?
How do I create an Announcement in Brightspace?
I just created an Announcement in Brightspace and I want to send an email to my students linking to it. How do I do that?
Students aren't getting notifications of announcement I create in my course before this course starts or after it ended. Why?

Course Copy/Export/Archive/Import in Brightspace

How do I copy content from one Brightspace Course to another?
How do I archive/export my course?
Why didn't my discussion questions copy over?

Customizing Your Course

How do I change the picture for each module in the Visual TOC?
How do I edit the Navbar? I deleted the Course Admin from the Navbar. How do I get it back?

Discussions

How are Discussions structured in Brightspace?
Why does the Discussion area look different?

Exams/Quizzes

Can I store my Exam/Quiz Questions in Brightspace? (The Question Library)
Faculty - How can I enable Respondus Lock Down Browser to a quiz or exam in my Brightspace exam?
How can I add a time limit to my exam/quiz in Brightspace?
How can I adjust time limits, attempts, and dates on exams for students with accommodations?
How can I move questions from the Question Library to an Exam or Quiz?
How can I show students individual question results for exams/quizzes?
How Do I Create a Quiz Question Pool in My Brightspace Course?
My quiz question was wrong, I fixed it but my student's grade wasn't changed? Why?
What question types can I use for quizzes in Brightspace?
Why can't my student see their exam/quiz results? How do I control if quiz grades are automatically viewable by students?
Why does the Exam/Quiz area look different?

Grades

How do I set up Grade Book in Brightspace?
Why aren't my gradable activities (assignments, quizzes, discussions) showing in Grades?
Can I export/import grades from Brightspace to work on them offline (in Excel)?
How can I delete things from my Grade Book?
How can I find grades for students who were withdrawn from or dropped my course?
How can I release final grades to students?
How can I see what my students see in Grades? Can I preview a student's view of his/her grades?
How do I link a Brightspace Assignment to Grade Book so that it appears in Grades?
How do I link a Brightspace Discussion Topic to Grade Book so that it appears in Grades?
How do I link a Brightspace Exam / Quiz to Grade Book so that it appears in Grades?
How do I see more than 20 students in Enter Grades?
How do I use grade schemes in Brightspace?
Why can't students see Published Grades in Grades? OR How do I hide a Grade Item so students don't see it in Grades?

Groups

How can I create Groups in Brightspace?

Journals

How can I make journals in Brightspace?

Reporting Tools

How can I (Instructor) view statistics on my students performance? OR How can students view their overall progress in a course?
How can I see if students viewed content in my course?
How do I change what students see in their class progress view?

Troubleshooting Tips and Workarounds

In Assignments and Quizzes, why can't I categorize my items while I am creating them?

Reporting Grades to SOLAR

How can I make sure my Gradebook is setup correctly before importing it to Solar?