Brightspace for Instructors
This page contains resources beneficial to instructors teaching and developing courses.
Getting Started
We recommend setting up your course as soon as possible.
Tips for a smooth start to the semester.
End of Semester
If your final grade column doesn't look right, you may need to adjust weights and categories.
If you want the final grades to show as letter grades, you need to set up a grade scheme.
Training
View past (and upcoming, if applicable) DoIT workshops on Brightspace. For past workshops, access workshop resources, too.
View Brightspace Community page for documentation, tutorials and events.
Frequently Asked Questions
Access
Instructors who have access to the Course Admin tool in their Brightspace course site can add individual users with NetIDs to their course by assigning them a role (roles provide the level of permissions within a Brightspace course).
For credit courses, when students officially add or drop a course, their access to the Brightspace course site will update by the following day.
You can only add one user at a time, so to add many users, provide a spreadsheet (that includes: Course ID and section, first name, last name, and SOLAR ID number) and create a service ticket at service.stonybrook.edu
Brightspace Roles
Instructor
The Instructor role has full administrative and content rights within a course.
This role can add, edit, and delete any:
- Announcements
- Assignments
- Attendance registers
- Awards, badges, and certificates
- Checklists
- Competencies
- Content
- Discussions
- Exams / Quizzes
- External Learning Tool links
- Gradebook items and calculations
- Groups
- Rubrics
- Surveys
This role can also:
- activate tools in a course
- configure accommodations, release conditions, and special access restrictions
- configure intelligent agents
- copy, import, or export course materials
- enroll / unenroll users at any role
- modify the course theme, homepage, and navigation bar
- release / retract final grades
- save and publish grades / feedback for all submissions from students
- send emails using the course address book
- set course availability (active or inactive status)
- view all content (including hidden items)
Teaching Assistant
The Teaching Assistant role was updated based on feedback from the campus community to represent the variety of students in TA positions with varying responsibilities. The Teaching Assistant role can perform virtually all of the same functions as an Instructor
Note: Graduate TAs enrolled from SOLAR are automatically enrolled at this level in Brightspace. Users enrolled with this role in Brightspace should be FERPA Trained.
This role has all the same permissions as an Instructor EXCEPT:
- Teaching Assistants cannot enroll / unenroll users with the Instructor role in a course
Course Builder
The Course Builder role was updated based on feedback from the campus community to represent the variety of students in TA positions with varying responsibilities. The Course Builder role can perform virtually all of the same content-related functions as an Instructor but cannot view student submissions or grades.
This role has all the same permissions as an Instructor EXCEPT Course Builders cannot:
- enroll / unenroll users of any role
- copy, import, or export course materials
- modify the course theme, homepage, and navigation bar
- set course availability (active or inactive status)
- view student submissions
- view student grades / feedback
- view the gradebook or grade calculations
Grader
The Grader role was added by request from the campus community and gives Instructors and TAs access to add users to their course for the sole purpose of grading submissions from students.
Note: Users enrolled with this role in Brightspace should be FERPA Trained.
This role can:
- add / edit / delete announcements
- release / retract final grades
- save and publish grades / feedback for all submissions from students
- see all student submissions
- view all content (including hidden items)
This role cannot:
- edit / delete any gradable item (assignments, discussions, exams / quizzes)
- edit / delete any content
- enroll / unenroll users of any role
Learner (student)
The Learner role is the traditional student role in Brightspace. This role can view and interact with content and gradable items that are visible to them, and submit items for grades.
Read Only
The Read Only role is a limited student role in Brightspace. This role can only view content that is visible to Learners, but cannot submit items for grades.
Requirements
To add users to a Brightspace course, you must be an instructor in the course. You'll also need the Stony Brook ID (Solar ID) and/or NetID of the user you want to add (you can search by name, but it is best to add users by their unique IDs to be sure you add the correct users.
In this article you, will learn about:
Adding Users to Your Course
Video:
- Navigate into a course to add users
- On the Stony Brook red navigation bar, i.e. the Navbar, click Course Admin (or select More then click Course Admin)
- Click Classlist
- Select the Add Participants drop down and select Add existing users
- In Add Existing Users, if you see it, click Show Search Options
- Then under Search In, check the boxes to search for ☑︎ First Name, ☑︎ Last Name, ☑︎ Org Defined ID (i.e., Stony Brook ID/SOLAR ID), ☑︎ Username (i.e., NetID)
- In the Search For... box under Add Existing Users, type your search terms, e.g., Bob, Smith, Bob Smith, B Smith, bsmith, 123456789, etc. Tap Enter on your keyboard or click ? to search
Tip: You cannot search byemail addressnorfirst.last. Search for NetID, SolarID, First Last, Last First instead - Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the results
- In the Search Results, check the box next to the user you'd like to add
- On the right under Role, select the role you want to assign the user (e.g., Teaching Assistant)
- Click Enroll Selected Users
- In the Confirmation of Enrollment, click Done or Add More Participants
Changing the Role (Permissions) of Someone Already in Your Course
- Navigate into a course to change user roles
- On the Stony Brook red navigation bar,, i.e. the Navbar, click Course Admin (or select More then click Course Admin if your window isn't maximized)
- Click Classlist
- Check off name of the individual whose role you would like to change and click Enrollment
- Under New Role, choose from the drop down menu
- Click Save when finished
Your Brightspace course sites are not available to students by default as soon as they are created. Be sure to make your course active (available to students) so your students can access course materials and syllabi.
Your Brightspace course sites are usually available for you to begin adding course materials during:
- early November for Winter and Spring semesters
- early April for Fall and Summer semesters
Making a Course Active or Inactive
- Hover over a course tile in the My Course list and click on the 3-dots that appear and then click on Course Offering Information
*You can also find the Course Offering Information page in Course Admin - Under Active, Check off "Course is Active" to make the course visible to students. Or uncheck it to hide it from student view.
- Click Save.
When a course is inactive, on the Stony Brook Brightspace home page, the instructor will see an INACTIVE sticker on the course (the Inactive sticker has a slight delay; it will appear a few minutes after you have made a course inactive and will stay for a few minutes after you make a course active).
Adding Content
Every course at Stony Brook University (with the exception of the School of Medicine) has a Brightspace course and your students are automatically added (and removed if they drop) for you.
By default, your course is unavailable to your students. If you wish to use Brightspace this semester, please make your course available before the semester starts.
Request that cross listed sites be merged by submitting a ticket if you are teaching a cross listed course and want to only maintain one course site (Keep in mind that all students from all sections will appear in your Grade Book if we merge your courses)
Add content (including your Syllabus). We highly recommend you utilize the Learning Objects Repository (LOR) to add syllabi statements
Create an Announcement to greet your students (or send an email from the "Classlist" tool
Make sure your students know about the Brightspace Mobile App, Pulse
Set up your Grade Book early so that your students keep on track and save yourself time at the end of the semester
You can reuse course information from a previous semester
All Fall 2021-Spring 2023 Blackboard courses are available in Brightspace so you can copy content to your new course shell. If you taught during those semesters, you should see courses starting with "STB" in the Conversions tab.
Third Party tools, such as Echo360 & VoiceThread, will need to be re-linked. Directions are available here
Make sure you remove any old content from your new Brightspace site
Manage your deadlines and dates with Manage Dates
You can use View as Learner to view your course from a Student perspective
SUNY and Academic Technology Services are here to help you!
online.suny.edu/help | service.stonybrook.edu
1-844-673-6786 | 631.632.9800 (option 2)
DoIT provides "technology support statements" that you can add to your Brightspace course. If you would like to add information to your course about general IT help, Respondus, VoiceThread or other Stony Brook IT services, you can do so from the Learning Object Repository.
- When adding content, select Create and then Add Object from LOR
- Under the Search For box, select Show Repositories
- Select Syllabi Statements and then click Search
- Select the statement that you would like to add (You can only add one item at a time) and then choose Next. Answer questions on your screen to proceed.
These syllabi statements are Google documents that are maintained by Stony Brook's Brightspace team. Once you add them, if you select Dynamic Link to Newest Version, they will update in your class(es) every time our team makes a change.
To embed a YouTube video to a Brightspace module, watch this video:
Or follow the steps below:
- In your course, select the Content tab
- Then select or create a module
- Once your module is created, click the area of the module that says "Add a description..."
- Then click the "Insert Stuff" icon
- Select "YouTube"
- Paste the link of a YouTube video that you with to embed and select "Search"
- Click on the YouTube video you want to insert and select "Next"
- Select "Insert" to finish embedding the video to your module
- In Brightspace, go to your course
- From the navbar, click Content
- In the Table of Contents on the left, select the module you want to add the Google Drive item to
click Existing Activities and select Google File Embed
Image- If prompted to sign in, select Sign in to Google Workspace and sign into your Stony Brook Google account
Once signed in, click Select file Add existing files from Google Drive to Content
Image- Find and select the file you want and click Add
- In the Attach file window, note that attaching the file will change the sharing settings and allow anyone with the link to access it. Click Attach.
- The file will appear as a content item
Note about File Access: When you (the person who added the file) click to open it in Brightspace, as the file owner you will have edit access to it; when others in the course click to open the file, they will have view access. Also, as noted in step 8, when you select to attach the file, its sharing settings are changed to Anyone with the link can view.
Hierarchy of Content in Brightspace
Brightspace content can be organized into Modules, which are like folders. Modules contain Topics, which can be created/linked to from Brightspace or uploaded from your computer.
Before adding or creating Topics, first create your modules (e.g., module 1, module 2). An easy way to do this is using Course Builder.
Tip: Your content from recent Blackboard courses is already in a Brightspace conversion course; use Brightspace Course Copy to bring content from them into your new Brightspace courses.
Create Modules
- On the navbar, select Course Admin (or, if you don't see Course Admin, you may need to first select More or Course Tools)
- Select Course Builder
- From the Build Outline section of the toolbox,
- Click and drag the module icon and drop it on the top of the course tree (on the course name, e.g., Julie Test Course)
- Or single-click on the module icon and select the top-most location from the list (e.g., Julie Test Course)
- Click and drag the module icon and drop it on the top of the course tree (on the course name, e.g., Julie Test Course)
- Complete the module details
- Click Create
Tip: At the top of your course (above Module 1), add another Module called Syllabus for your syllabus
Add Topics as Content Or Create Placeholders
Once you have added Modules in Course Builder, you can add your syllabus, placeholders, and content.
- On the navbar, select Course Admin (or, if you don't see Course Admin, you may need tofirst select More or Course Tools)
- Select Course Builder
Add your Syllabus
- In the Course tree, select the Syllabus module (it will be outlined in orange once selected)
- While it's selected, upload the file from your computer: To the right, select Upload Files, select Choose File, navigate to and select the file from your computer, and select Upload
Add Placeholders
- Add placeholders to create the structure for your course that you can later fill in with content
This is helpful especially if you structure each module similarly (e.g., two readings, one quiz, one discussion, one assignment) because you can create that module and structure once and copy it to create your other modules, and then rename/modify them as needed:From the Build Outline section of the toolbox, click and drag a placeholder icon (link, file, discussion, assignment, quiz;) and drop it into the module/location where you want it (e.g., Module 1). Or single-click a placeholder icon and select the where you want it to go (e.g., Module 1)
Tip: hover over the icons for more information about them
- Repeat to add other placeholders
- Copy Module Structure
- When you've set up one module with the complete structure, to copy that structure and create another module with the same structure, in the course tree, click the down-pointing arrow ˅ to the right of the module name and select Copy Structure.
- Click the down-pointing arrow ˅ to the right of the module and select Paste > Paste After to add a copy of the module directly below it
- Select the new Module (it will have the same name as the Module you copied the structure of), and to the right select Edit Module (if you don't see the Edit Module option on the right, refresh your browser page ⟳ and try again) and re-name the Module (e.g., Module 2)
- Continue Copying Structure and Pasting After to create all your Modules, and then editing them as needed to rename them and/or add other placeholders
Add content to Modules
- Once you have your Modules created and structured with placeholders, you can add the actual content you want
- Use Browse Tools to add content you've already created
Tip: It is easiest to first create assignments/quizzes/discussions in each respective area in Brightspace, and then add those to the placeholders in Course builder- For the content type you want to add, click the right-pointing carrot ͐ for the content type (e.g., to add a quizzes to a quiz placeholder, click the ͐ next to Quizzes)
- Select the content and drag/drop it in the desired location OR click Add to Course and then click the + next to Modules to expand them and select the Module or Placeholder where you want it to go
- Use Add Content to create new content from Course Builder
- From the Add Content section of the toolbox, click and drag a content type (Create a link, HTML file, discussion, assignment, quiz, grade item) to a matching placeholder in the desired Module (e.g., to add content to a Discussion placeholder, click Create a discussion in the Add Content area)
Communication Tools
To create a signature for Brightspace communications, watch this video:
Or follow these steps:
- Select the envelope icon at the top of your Brightspace screen
- Click "Email"
- Choose "Settings"
- Type out your signature
- Hit "Save"
Communications from Brightspace will be sent directly to the recipient's @stonybrook.edu email address. Replies to an email will also be copied to the sender's @stonybrook.edu address. You can send email from the Classlist or the Email tool in Brightspace
In this article, you will learn how to
- Email from Classlist (option 1)
- Send Messages from the Email Tool (option 2)
How is this different from Blackboard?
How can students receive notifications for course updates?
Alternatively, you can get a list of student email addresses in SOLAR
Option 1: Email from Classlist
Following these instructions ensures that all students receive an email.
1. In Course Admin, click Classlist:
2. Near the top, select the Email Classlist button.
*Be sure to use Email Classlist and not the Email button below that. Using the Email Classlist ensures all students (especially in large classes >200 receive the email). The Email button below that only sends messages to students listed on that page.
3. At the bottom of the Email Classlist page, click Send Email.
4. Select all or some of the students and then click Email.
5. Type your message and click the Send button
Please note that this option will place the message recipients in the BCC field by default.
Option 2: Send Messages from the Email Tool
This option is only recommended to email individual, or small groups of students. To email a large class of students, use the Email Classlist button described in Option 1 above.
- While in your course, select the envelope icon at the top of your screen
- Click Email
- Select the Address Book button
- Choose the students you wish to email
- Select the To, Cc, or Bcc buttons to add them to the corresponding fields
- Select the Add Recipients button
- Type your message to the students
- Click the Send button
How is this different from Blackboard?
Brightspace's emailing system functions the same way that Blackboard's did with an added benefit: Brightspace also has a sent button in the email tool, which allows you to view any email you sent from Brightspace. To access this, follow these steps:
- Select the envelope icon at the top of the screen
- Click Email
- Choose the Sent Mail button
How can students receive notifications for course updates?
To learn how students can receive notifications for course updates, check out this article!
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
- Go into the Course Admin menu
- Select Groups
- Select New Category
- Enter in a Category Name (and optionally a description)
- For Enrollment Type, select Single user, member-specific groups
- Under Additional Options, select Set up discussion areas
- 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.
- Then select Create new topic
- Select Save. Once selected, your groups will be created in the background (this process may take a few minutes).
- 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.
- When creating a topic, you can choose to either Create one topic per group or Create one topic with threads separated by group.
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.
- 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.
Setting Up Journals as Graded Items
To make your students journals into a graded item, follow the steps in this article. 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.
The Intelligent Agent tool allows instructors to set up criteria to create a report of students who completed or did not complete an action within the course. Once the instructor sets up the criteria, s/he can enable automatic emails to students who met the criteria or just use the report.
Examples of criteria that can be set up include, but are not limited to the following:
- Login Activity: If the student has or has not logged into Brightspace
- Course Activity: If the student has or has not accessed the course
- Assignments: If a student has or has not submitted an assignment
- Discussions: If a student has, or has not posted to a discussion topic
- Quizzes: If a student has achieved a specific score, if they have completed a quiz attempt, or if they haven't completed a quiz attempt
- Content: If a student has completed, not completed, viewed, or did not view a content topic
- Grades: If a student received a specific score on a grade item or if they haven't completed a graded item
Access the Intelligent Agents tool
- Go to Course Admin from the Navbar
- Select Intelligent Agents
Creating an Agent
- Select New Agent
- Type in your Agent Name and optionally add a description
- Optional - Select or add a Category for this agent. (Categories allow you to sort your intelligent agents.)
- Decide if you would like to enable the agent once created by selecting the "Agent is enabled" checkbox. If you don't want this enabled, leave the checkbox unselected.
- Decide the schedule for the agent, your options are:
- One-Time Run
- Hourly
- Daily
- Weekly
- Monthly
- Annually
- Choose if you would like this agent to apply to all within the class, or to users with specified roles (e.g., Learners, Undergraduate TAs, Graduate TAs, etc.)
- Choose what criteria you would like to identify, options include:
- Login Activity: If the user has or has not logged into Brightspace during the last set amount of days
- Course Activity: If the user has or has not accessed your course during the last set amount of days
- Release Conditions: Identify if a student did or did not complete a specific action within your course. Options include but are not limited to discussions, assignments, quizzes, content, and grades.
- Decide if you would like to take action only the first time the criteria is satisfied for the user, or every time it is satisfied.
- Decide if you would like to send an automated email for those who meet the set criteria.
- To make sure student(s) who met the criteria receives the email, in the To, Cc, or Bcc field, type in the replacement string {InitiatingUser}. (This will be replaced with students' email addresses.)
- Include the name of your course in the subject field so students recognize where the email is coming from. You can either type the name of the course or use the replacement string {OrgUnitName} to have it automatically appear.
- Type out the message that the student will see in the body of the email when they meet the set criteria.
- Decide if you would like to add an attachment to the email
Please note! If you do not want to send a message to students, and you instead would like to notify yourself that a student has met the criteria of your agent, you can enter your own email address.
- Select Save and Close
Once your agents are created, in the intelligent agent menu, you can view your agents, the results of it's last run, the last run date, and the next run date. By clicking on the results of the last run, you can view the students who met the criteria of the run.
You can also decide if you would like to enable, disable, delete, or bulk update your agents.
And you can edit categories or select More Actions to restore deleted agents, or export a .csv file containing the results of agents that were previously run.
By selecting Settings, you can view the Name that emails come from and you can also view the Reply-To address for responses. By default, Name that email comes from will be Stony Brook's Brightspace and the default Reply-To address is noreply@stonybrook.edu, however these can be customized.
Note, Name that emails come from cannot be set to your personal email address due to how spam filters operate. However, the Reply-To address can be a personal email address.
To create an Announcement in Brightspace, follow the steps below:
- When in your course, go to the Course Admin menu and select Announcements
- Select the New Announcement button
- Type your Headline and Content for your Announcement
- Choose a Start Date and Time. You have the option to show this start date to students.
- Optionally, you can choose an End Date and Time. Once this date and time happens, your announcement will no longer be available to students.
- If you would like to add an attachment to your Announcement, you can do the following:
- Upload a file from your computer or Google Drive
- Record Audio to attach to the Announcement
- Record yourself on Video to attach to the Announcement
- If you would like to have your announcement sent after certain conditions have been met by your students, then you can create a release condition for your Announcement
- Select Publish
In Brightspace, you can link directly to your course content - including Announcements- directly from Brightspace communications. Send these directly from the Classlist tool to easily reach your whole class.
- Sign into your course in Brightspace
- In the nav bar, select Course Admin (if you don't see Course Admin, select More and then Course Admin)
- Select Classlist
- Select the checkbox near the top left of the Classlist to select everyone, or individually check the box(es) next to the people you would like to email; Then, select Email
- A new message opens in a new window with the select recipients' Brightspace email addresses in the BCC field.
- Fill in the Subject (when emailing from a class, the Subject will have the prefix of your course name (e.g., ENG 101 >)
- Type the body of the message, and wherever you want a link to content from your course (e.g., an announcement, assignment, content), select the text and click the link icon ? in the toolbar at the top (don't select the "floating" link icon as it doesn't have the same options as the link icon in the toolbar)
- Click on the type of content you want to add (e.g., Announcements, Assignments, Calendar, Checklist, Content, Discussions) , navigate to the specific item, and select it to create the link as default
- OR click the pencil icon to change how the link works (change the link Title and/or Target--open in-- Whole Window; Same Frame; or the default, New Window)
- OR click the pencil icon to change how the link works (change the link Title and/or Target--open in-- Whole Window; Same Frame; or the default, New Window)
- When your email is done, click Send
When a Brightspace Course's Course Offerings Information has a start date and that start date is in the future, users in the course will not get notifications when changes are made to the course prior to that date. That means if the instructor creates an announcement before the course's start date, students will not get an email about that announcement. The same applies to end dates: If the course has an end date, any changes made to the course or announcement created in it after that end date will not send notifications.
If, as an instructor, you want to communicate with students before the set start date or after the end on a Brightspace Course, either change/remove the start/end date or use the Classlist tool to email everyone currently enrolled in the course.
Contents
- Understand what students see when a course is active but a start/end date
- Instructors: See if your course has a start or end date and change/remove it
How an Active Course with a Future Start Date Looks to Students
When a course is active but has a future start date, students will see the course in their Brightspace Home Page My Courses, but it will be grayed out, so they cannot click into the class.
Also, if an instructor emails the classlist a link to content in the course, students will not be able to access the content:
Tip: If a course is inactive, the course will not show in students' Brightspace Home Page My Courses.
Instructors: See If a Course Has a Start Date and Change/Remove it
Instructors: You can check if your course has a start date in Course Offerings Information:
- When in your course, in the Navbar at the top, click Course Admin (or click More and then Course Admin) and select Course Offering Information
- Scroll down to Start Date and End Date. If ☑︎Course start date is checked, your course's start date is the date in the box. If ☑︎Course end date is checked, your course's end date is the date in the box.
Changes made or announcements added to the course before the start date will not send notifications; changes made or announcements added to the course after the end date will not send notifications either. - To remove a start or end date, uncheck the ⃞ Course start date and/or ⃞ Course end date box(es) or change the start/end date(s)
- At the bottom of the page, click Save, and then you can safely navigate away from the page
Announcements work a little differently in Brightspace compared to Blackboard. There is no option to Send an Email inside the Announcements tool. The work around is to send an email to students and link to an announcement. Or encourage your students to install the Brightspace Pulse App to receive instant feedback and notifications on their phone.
Students may choose to receive information as
- Push Notifications - These are popup notifications that come from the app
- SMS (Text) messages - These count towards your phone's plan and appear in the Text message app
- and / or Email - These messages go to your official Stony Brook email address
In this article you will learn about
Getting the Brightspace Pulse App
The Pulse app will send announcements, published grades and due dates as push notifications immediately to students' phones. They can read course content on their phones as a side-guide while doing their coursework!
Encourage your students to install the Brightspace Pulse app by logging into Brightspace from their phones (brightspace.stonybrook.edu), and click on their Name and then click Notifications.
Then click on the App Store or Google Play button depending on the device.
While on the Notifications page, they can check off which emails and SMS (text) to receive.
How Will Students Know There is New Information?
When you send an email, chat or have an announcement, post content or a grade, the Pulse app will send out a push notification to all students (on their phones), and on the web, the Bell icon will have an indication that there is something new to read or look at.
Customizing Your Course
In the Visual TOC on Course Home, each module has an image either from the Course Banner or, if the module's description field has an image, from the description. By adding an image to the module's description, you can customize the images in the Visual TOC.
Finding Appropriate Images
To add an image to a Module's Description, you will need to find and download your own images and then upload them to the description (there aren't any images built into Brightspace to choose from). Be sure you have the appropriate permissions to use any images before adding them to your course.
Here are a few website that have copyright free images you can download: pexels.com, freepik.com, pixabay.com.
Recommendations
When choosing images, here are some things to look for:
- Images that match your course/module content
- Images with uncomplicated visuals; avoid images with text
- Images with content in the top left corner because the Visual TOC will only show the top left portion of larger images (The recommended size for module images is 768 pixels x 400 pixels. If your image has different dimensions it will display fully in the module, but be cropped in the visual table of contents)
Adding an Image to a Module's Description To Customize the Visual TOC Image
- Before starting, download the image you'd like to use to your computer
- In your course in Brightspace, in the Navbar, click Content
- On the left, select the module you'd like to add an image for
- With the module selected, near the top center, click Add a description... (or click to edit the existing description)
- In the description editor, click Insert Image
- Select My Computer
- Select Upload, select the image you download to your computer and select Open
Tip: The recommended size for module images is 768 pixels x 400 pixels. If your image has different dimensions it will display fully in the module, but be cropped in the visual table of contents. - Select Add
- Fill in the alternative text (e.g., image of multiple devices) and if the image is decorative, check the box for ☑︎ This image is decorative
- Select Ok
- Select Update under the Module Description
- To see how the image looks in the Visual TOC, near the top left click Course Home and scroll down to see the images on the modules in the Visual TOC
To add a link to your course navbar, follow these steps:
- Hover over your course's navbar and select the three dots that appear at the end of the bar
- Select Customize This Navbar (or Edit This Navbar)
- If you are using the default navbar for all Stony Brook courses, you will be prompted to create a copy of the navbar. Select "Yes I'll work with a copy of the navbar".
- You will then be directed to edit the copy of the navbar you created. To add a new link to your navbar, select "Add Links".
- Select the link you would like to add and select "Add"
- To change the order of your links, hover your mouse over the link you wish to move and drag and drop it in your desired location.
- Select "Save and Close"
Discussions
Discussion Order
Discussion Forums:
When creating Discussions, your Discussion Forum must be created first. Discussion Forums allow instructors to organize their Discussion Topics however the instructor wishes. For example, an instructor could organize their Forums by each week or unit of the course. Instructors are also able to add descriptions to Forums for students to reference as well.
Forums are able to be copied from one course to another.
Discussion Topics
Discussion Topics are assigned to Discussion Forums. Topics should be used by instructors to add in questions/instructions for students to reply to. Simply add a title to your topic and provide instructions in it's description.
If you would like to associate your Discussion to your Grades, it must be done through the Discussion Topic. For more information on linking your Discussion Topics to Grades, check out this article.
Topics are able to be copied from one course to another.
Discussion Threads
Discussion Threads are used to reply to Discussion Topics. When a student clicks on the title to a Discussion Topic, they will see a button where they can start a new Thread to reply to the Topic.
Please note! Instructors are also able to create Threads, however these Threads are not able to be linked to Grades. Only Discussion Topics can link directly to the Grade Book.
When evaluating your student's work, you can grade the Thread they submitted, and you can also respond to their thread directly by clicking on it's title to continue the conversation.
Because Discussion Threads are used to reply to Topics, they will not copy from one course to the other.
As of May 18th, 2023, we have transitioned to the New Discussion Experience in Brightspace. This new experience has changed the appearance of the Discussion creation area to be uniform with the area to create an Assignment. While this Discussion creation area may look different, this new experience will not effect the following:
- Discussion Settings
- Replying to Discussions
- Grading Discussions
- Creating Forums from the main Discussion menu.
Overview:
- The Design
- Creating a Forum in a Discussion Topic
- Creating a Grade Item
- Categorizing a Grade Item
- Linking a Topic to an Existing Grade Item
- Hiding Discussion Topics
What Has Changed?
The Design
When creating a Discussion, the creation area will now resemble how it appears when creating an Assignment in Brightspace. The old experience had various tabs at the top of the screen that would allow instructors to customize their Discussions; these have now moved to the right of the screen in the new experience and they are given new titles.
Creating a Forum in a Discussion Topic
In the old experience, when creating a Discussion Topic you had to either assign the topic to an existing forum, or create a new forum in the Discussion creation area. In the new experience, by default, a forum will be created automatically. This forum will have the same name as the topic.
To assign a topic to a specific forum, select the Change Forum link, then choose to either Create a Forum or Choose an Existing Forum to assign the topic to a forum that was already created.
Creating a Grade Item
In the old experience, when creating a topic, you would have to go to the Assessment tab and either link the Discussion to an existing grade item, or click a link to create a new grade item. In the new experience, this works differently. Instead of going to a separate tab, you will have access to a box that says Grade Out Of from the main topic creation area.
This area will allow you to type a value to score a discussion topic out of. Once a number is typed, it will automatically create a grade item for this discussion in Grades. Please note that this grade item will not be categorized. If you have a weighted gradebook, you will not be able to set the weight of the grade item from here, this must be done in Grades.
Categorizing a Grade Item
To assign a Grade Item you created from the Discussion Topic creation area to a Grade Category, select the button that says In Grade Book, and then choose Edit or Link to Existing.
Once clicked, make sure you have the option Create and Link to a New Grade Item selected, and then you can then click a button titled Choose Grade Category.
Once selected, you can choose the applicable category to assign this grade item to.
Linking a Topic to an Existing Grade Item
In the new Discussion experience, if you would like to link your topic to an existing Grade Item, you can do so by selecting the In Grade Book button, and then choose Edit or Link to Existing.
Once clicked, you can choose the option titled Link to an Existing Grade Item. Then choose the drop down selector to find the grade item you wish to link the topic to.
Hiding Discussion Topics
When creating or editing a topic, you are now able to hide the topic from learners at the bottom of the screen by selecting the eye icon.
What Has Moved?
All customization options that existed in the old Discussion experience still exist in the new one. These features have been moved to three new areas in the topic creation screen:
- Availability Dates & Conditions
- Post & Completion
- Evaluation & Feedback
Availability Dates & Conditions
In the Availability Dates & Conditions section, you can find the following:
- The option to include the start or end dates for a Discussion Topic
- Release Conditions
- Group and Section Restrictions for the Topic
These options were previously available in the restrictions tab of the old experience.
Post & Completion
In the Post & Completion section, you can find the following options:
- Default participation (default discussion setting)
- Allow learners to hide their name from other learners (previously titled: allow anonymous posts)
- Learners must start a thread before they can view or reply to other threads
- Posts must be approved before they display in the topic
These options were previously available in the properties tab in the old experience.
Evaluation & Feedback
In the Evaluation & Feedback section, you can find the following options which were located in several different areas of the old experience:
- Adding a rubric (formally in the assessment tab)
- Allow evaluation of individual posts (formally in the assessment tab)
- Mange learning objectives (formally in the objectives tab)
- Allow learners to rate posts (formally found in the properties tab)
Exams/Quizzes
The Question Library is a central repository that stores and archives questions which you can reuse within a course. You can create multiple collections within the Question Library to organize your questions by type and topic, making it easier for you to find questions for your quizzes, surveys, and self assessments.
As a best practice for storage, organization, and easy access, we recommend that you create all your questions using the Question Library. You can also consolidate questions created within the Quizzes, Surveys, and Self Assessments tools by importing them back into the Question Library.
To access and use the library, follow these steps:
- Go to the Exams/Quizzes tool
- Select Question Library
- From here, you can create questions and sections, however it is recommended to create a section first. Sections allow you to organize your questions in a folder. To create a section, click new, then section.
- In the section creation section, you can do the following:
- Add a title to your section, and optionally, hide the title from learners
- Add a text description to your section, and optionally, hide the text description from learners
- Shuffle questions in this section
- Save your section you created
- Now you will see your section in the Question Library and if you choose the select box next to it, you can do the following:
- Place your section within another section using the Move button
- Delete your section using the Delete button
- Reorder your sections using the Order button
- Edit your section using the Edit Values button
- Upload your section to the Learning Object Repository using the Publish to LOR button
Adding Questions to Sections
Questions can be added to Sections directly from the Question Library. These questions can either be created from this area, or, they can be imported into the library from previous exams/quizzes that you have created.
To create questions directly from the Question Library, follow these steps:
- From the Question Library, select the New button and select your desired question type
- Create your questions
- Once your questions are created, they will be present in the Question Library. To move them into a section, choose the select boxes next to them and choose the Move button.
- Select a section you wish to move your questions into
To move questions from existing exams/quizzes into the Question Library, follow these steps:
- From the Question Library, select the Import button
- Choose Browse Existing Questions
- Choose a source to pull questions from. This will bring up a list of any exams/quizzes that you've previously created in your course.
- Once your source is selected, choose the questions you wish to import
- Select Import
- Once your questions are in the Library, you can move them into a section by choosing the select boxes for each question and choosing the Move button
- Select a section you wish to move your questions into
Create a Question Pool
When editing a quiz, click the grey Create New button (1), then select Question Pool (2)
- Enter a title for the question pool. Here we can configure how many questions will be selected from the section of questions (highlighted yellow) and the number of points per question (highlighted green). Once done, click the grey Browse Question Library button.
- By default, you will see questions and/or sections of questions from the Question Library. If you would like to change where you are pulling questions from, you may click the Source button and select a different location (1). Check the box to the left of a section and/or individual questions (2). Once done, click the blue Import button (3).
- Click the blue Save button
- If needed, please fill out the remaining details of the quiz. Once done, click the blue Save and Close button.
Creating a Time Limit
- When creating or editing a Quiz or Exam, go to the section labeled Timing & Display
- Select the checkbox for Set Time Limit
- Type the time limit you wish to provide in the Time Limit box
Timer Settings
After you set the time limit, you will notice a button below titled Timer Settings. This will allow you to choose one of three options to decide what should happen in the student's attempt when the time limit expires
After selecting this button, you have these options to choose from:
Automatically submit the quiz attempt (Default Setting)- When the time limit expires the student's attempt will automatically be submitted, preventing them from continuing or making further edits to their submission.
Flag as "exceeded time limit" and allow the learner to continue working- This will allow the student to continue working on their attempt, however when they finish, the instructor will be able to see the amount of time the student exceeded the limit by when reviewing attempts.
Do nothing: the time limit is not enforced- This provides a recommended time limit to students when taking an attempt, however the student will not be flagged or penalized for exceeding the limit.
By default, students will not be able to see any answers to exam/quiz questions when results are published. If you would like students to see answers, follow these steps:
- When creating or editing the quiz, go to the Evaluation & Feedback area
- Choose Attempt grade under the section titled When published, display to learners.
- Under the attempt grade checkbox, use the dropdown to decide which questions will display to learners when results are published. Your options are:
- Incorrect questions only, with correct answers
- Incorrect questions only, without correct answers
- All questions, with correct answers
- All questions, without correct answers
Optionally, you can further customize the option you selected by choosing the Customize Quiz Results Displays button below the drop down.
Once you select, this option, choose Edit View.
Under the Questions section, you can see what settings are currently enabled based on which option you chose. You can change these settings by using the drop down, and by using the checkboxes for each option you chose. Please note! You must hit the Update button to finalize your changes.
Brightspace has many question types you can use in quizzes.
We recommend adding all questions to a question library - rather than to a specific quizzes. This allows you to re-use questions within that course.
Note: Some questions types from Blackboard are not supported in Brightspace because they are not accessible.
Question types are
- True / False
- Multiple Choice
- Multi-Select
- Written Response
- Short Answer
- Multi-Short Answer
- Fill in the Blanks
- Matching
- Ordering
See Creating questions library questions for more information on question types.
When creating an exam/quiz in Brightspace, by default, quiz grades should publish attempts automatically to students and also show their results in Grades (so long as the quiz is linked to Grades as a grade item). However, if these settings were changed, then grades will not auto publish to students or display in Grades.
See each section below to learn more.
*To allow students to see answers to each question, see here.
Show published exam/quiz results in grades
Automatically publish quiz results upon completion
Note: If students still can't see their grades, check the Grade Items to be sure they don't have restrictions.
Show Published Exam/Quiz Results in Grades
If you would like for your students to automatically see their exam/quiz results in Grades once they're published, follow these steps:
- Go to the Exams/Quizzes tab from your Navbar, or from the Course Admin menu
- Select the downward facing arrow next to the desired exam/quiz and select Edit
- Go to the Evaluation & Feedback Section
- Check the box for ☑︎ Synchronize to Grade Book on Publish
Tip: You need to add a grade item for the quiz before you can select to Synchronize it with Grade Book - Select Save and Close
- Either automatically or manually publish students quiz grades and those published results will show in Grades for students
Automatically Publish Exam/Quiz Results
If you would like for your students to automatically see their exam/quiz results upon completion of their attempt in both Exams/Quizzes and Grades, follow these steps:
Notes:
- Any question that needs to be manually evaluated by the instructor (e.g., written response questions) will be scored as 0 until manually evaluated.
- This setting only applies to quiz attempts made after you change select Auto-publish attempt results immediately upon completion. If there are any existing attempts, you will need to publish those manually (see below)
- Go to the Exams/Quizzes tab from your Navbar, or from the Course Admin menu
- Select the downward facing arrow next to the desired exam/quiz
- Choose Edit
- Go to the Evaluation & Feedback section
- Make sure the Auto-publish attempt results immediately upon completion and Synchronize to Grade Book on Publish checkboxes are selected
- Hit Save and Close
Manually Publish Exam/Quiz Results
To manually publish results for exams/quizzes, follow these steps:
- Go to the Exams/Quizzes Tab of the Navbar or in the Course Admin menu
- Find the exam/quiz you wish to publish results for and select the downward facing arrow next to it
- Select Grade
- Choose the students you wish to publish results for (note that if you are only viewing a subset of the total number of students in your class, those are the students who will see published results. Either choose to view more students per page, or remember to page forward for the additional students if you have a class greater than 200.)
- Select Publish
As of May 18th, 2023, we have transitioned to the New Exam/Quiz Experience in Brightspace. This new experience has changed the appearance of the Exam/Quiz creation area to be uniform with the area to create an Assignment. While this new experience may change the appearance of the Exam/Quiz creation area, this new experience will not effect the following:
- Exam/Quiz Settings
- Taking an Exam/Quiz
- Grading an Exam/Quiz
Overview:
- The Design
- Creating a Grade Item
- Categorizing a Grade Item
- Linking an Exam/Quiz to an Existing Grade Item
- Enabling Respondus
- Displaying Questions After an Attempt
- Adding a Due Date
- Question Paging
- Previewing Your Exam/Quiz
- Hiding an Exam/Quiz
What Has Changed?
The Design
When creating an Exam/Quiz, the creation area will now resemble how it appears when creating an Assignment in Brightspace. The old experience had various tabs at the top of the screen that would allow instructors to customize their Exam/Quiz; these have now moved to the right of the screen in the new experience, and they have been given new titles.
Creating a Grade Item
In the old experience, if you wanted to create a grade item for your Exam/Quiz, you would have to go to the Assessment tab and either create the grade item, or link it to an existing one in the gradebook. In the new experience, this works differently. Instead of going to a separate tab, you will have access to a section titled Grade Out Of, directly in the main Exam/Quiz creation area.
In this area, select the box that says Not In Grade Book, and then choose Add to Grade Book, this will create a grade item for your exam/quiz. Please note! This grade item will not be categorized in your gradebook. If you have a weighted gradebook, you will not be able to set the weight of the grade item from here, this must be done in Grades.
Categorizing a Grade Item
To assign a grade item you created from the Exam/Quiz creation area to a Grade Category, select the button that says In Grade Book, and then choose Edit or Link to Existing.
Once clicked, make sure you have the option Create and Link to a New Grade Item selected, and then you can click a button titled Choose Grade Category.
Once selected, you can choose the applicable category to assign this grade item to.
Linking an Exam/Quiz to an Existing Grade Item
In the new experience, if you would like to link your Exam/Quiz to an existing grade item, you can do so by selecting the In Grade Book button, and then choose Edit or Link to Existing.
Once clicked, you can choose the option titled Link to an Existing Grade Item. Then choose the drop down selector to find the grade item you wish to link the exam/quiz to.
Enabling Respondus
In the old experience, you had the ability to enable Respondus when creating a specific exam. This feature has been removed in the new experience, however you may still enable Respondus from the main Exam/Quiz menu. To learn how to enable Respondus for your exams, click here.
Displaying Questions After an Attempt
When Exam/Quiz results are published, by default, students cannot see which questions they answered correctly or incorrectly. In the old environment, instructors needed to go to the submission views tab and change default view settings in order to display these questions. The new experience however, has made the process of displaying these questions much simpler.
To do this, go to the Evaluation & Feedback area, and then find the section titled When published, display to learners. Under this section, select the checkbox for Attempt Grade, and below the checkbox, click on the dropdown selector and choose one of the following options to display questions:
- Incorrect questions only, with correct answers
- Incorrect questions only, without correct answers
- All questions, with correct answers
- All questions, without correct answers
If you would like to further customize displayed answers, you can do so by selecting the Customize Quiz Results Displays button.
Adding a Due Date
The Due Date feature is now available from the main Exam/Quiz creation page as opposed to being located in a separate tab.
Question Paging
In the old environment, you could type in any amount of questions that you would like to display on each page of the Exam/Quiz. In the new environment, you are limited to choosing either 1, 5, or 10 questions to appear on each page, or to display all questions at once. This paging option can be found in the Timing & Display section when editing your Exam/Quiz.
Previewing Your Exam/Quiz
In the new environment you are given an additional location to preview your Exam/Quiz directly when creating or editing it. This can be found in the Questions section of your Exam/Quiz.
Hiding an Exam/Quiz
When creating or editing an Exam/Quiz, you are now able to hide it from learners at the bottom of the screen by selecting the eye icon.
What Has Moved?
All customization options that existed in the old Exam/Quiz experience still exist in the new one. These features have been moved to four new areas of the Exam/Quiz creation screen:
- Availability Dates & Conditions
- Timing & Display
- Attempts & Completion
- Evaluation & Feedback
Availability Dates & Conditions
In the Availability Dates & Conditions section, you can find the following:
- Start and End Date
- Add your dates to the Course Calendar
- Release Conditions
- Managing Special Access
- Adding a Password
- Creating IP Restrictions
Timing & Display
- Time Limits
- Question Paging
- Prevent learners from going back to previous pages
- Shuffling Questions
- Allowing Hints
- Disable Email, Instant Messages, and Alerts within Brightspace
- Adding a Header and Footer
Attempts & Completion
- Attempt Amounts
- Overall grade calculations for multiple attempts
- Assigning Quiz Categories
- Notification Email for Attempt Completions
Evaluation & Feedback
- Auto-publish attempt results immediately upon completion
- Synchronize to grade book on publish
- Display Attempt Grade when Published
- Display Questions when Published
- Customize Quiz Results Displays
- Manage Learning Objectives
Grades
You can export Brightspace grades to work on them offline and them import them again.
Helpful Tips!
- We recommend having your grade items created in Brightspace BEFORE you export your grades, instead of manually creating the grade items in a spreadsheet. When grade items are created in a spreadsheet, they have to be manually formatted in a very particular way in order for them to be successfully uploaded to Grades. Creating grade items beforehand will allow them to be formatted correctly when exported.
- It is not currently recommended to select "Export To Excel" when exporting. Instead it is recommended that you select "Export to CSV".
If a file is exported using the "Export To Excel" option, then a user will receive an error notice when they are attempting to import the file into Grades.
If you want to delete items from your Grades, perhaps because you imported content-including grades-to your Brightspace course, use these steps to do so. Note: Before deleting a grade item associate with a quiz, assignment, or discussion, you must first disassociate it.
Deleting a Grade Item
Before deleting any grade items, be sure to verify that this is the correct option for you. Deleting items includes deleting all associated grades, removal from calculations, and removal from other tool associations. Consider hiding the items instead. If you have decided that you would like to delete, be sure that you have selected the intended grade items and that there are no associated grades that are needed.
To delete a Grade Item from your Grade Book, follow these steps:
- In your Grade Book, go to the Manage Grades tab
- Choose More Actions
- Select Delete
- Choose the grade items you wish to remove
- Click the Delete button
Disassociating a Grade Item
If you are unable to select a Grade Item to delete from the Grade Book, it is most likely because the Grade Item is associated with a Discussion, Assignment, or Exam/Quiz. In the Association column in the Manage Grades tab, you will see which association the Grade Item has.
Once you have disassociated the Grade Item from the Discussions, Assignments, or Exam/Quizzes tools, they can be deleted using the instructions above.
Disassociating an Assignment
To disassociate an Assignment, follow these steps:
- Go to the Assignments tab from the Navbar or the Course Admin menu
- Select the downward facing arrow next to the assignment you wish to disassociate
- Click Edit Assignment
- Choose the drop down option that says In Grade Book
- Select Not in Grade Book
- To finish, choose the Save and Close button
Disassociating a Discussion
To disassociate a Discussion, follow these steps:
- Go to the Discussions tab from the Navbar or the Course Admin menu
- Select the downward facing arrow next to the discussion topic you wish to disassociate
- Choose Edit Topic
- Choose the drop down option that says In Grade Book
- Select Not in Grade Book
- To finish, choose the Save and Close button
Disassociating an Exam/Quiz
- Go to the Exams/Quizzes tab from the Navbar or the Course Admin menu
- Select the downward facing arrow next to the exam/quiz you wish to disassociate
- Choose Edit
- Choose the drop down option that says In Grade Book
- Select Not in Grade Book
- To finish, choose the Save and Close button
If you would like to exempt specific students on grade items so that it does not affect their final grade calculation, follow the steps below:
In this example, I'll allow one of my students to be exempted from the final exam.
- Go to the Grades tool, and select Enter Grades
- Find the grade item you wish to exempt a student from, and select the arrow next to it
- Choose Enter Grades
- Select the checkboxes next to the students who you wish to exempt
- Above the table, choose exempt, once you do this, the word "Exempt" will appear in the Scheme column
- Select Save and Close
Unexempting Students
If you accidentally exempted a student who shouldn't be exempted, you can unexempt them using these steps:
- Select the arrow next to the grade item that you want to unexempt a student from
- Select Enter Grades
- Select the student you wish to unexempt
- Choose Unexempt
- Select Save and Close
To find grades for students who were removed from your course in Brightspace, follow these steps:
- Access your Classlist
- Click "Enrollment Statistics"
- Scroll down to the bottom of the page until you see the Withdrawals section
- Click the downward facing arrow next to the name of the student you wish to view
- Click "View Grades"
- Then you can see final grade information, and information of individual grade items
In Brightspace, you can make any grade item worth extra credit by turning it into a bonus grade item using the steps below:
- Go to the Manage Grades tab of your Gradebook
- Select the arrow next to the grade item you wish to turn into a bonus item, and select Edit
- Select the checkbox that says Bonus
- Choose Save and Close to finish
When creating bonus grade items, there are some important things to consider:
- My bonus items are going in a category, what should the weight of the bonus grade item be?
- Can I allow my students to achieve a score that is higher than the highest possible score in the category?
- My bonus item is outside a category, what should the weight of the bonus grade item be?
- Can I allow my students to achieve a score for their final grade that is higher than 100%?
- How many points should my bonus item be worth? Does it matter that the bonus item is in a category?
- Can I allow my students to achieve a score that is higher than the max amount of points for the course?
Weighted Gradebooks
My bonus items are going in a category, what should the weight of the bonus grade item be?
For weighted gradebooks, if you place a bonus grade item in a category, then students who complete the bonus item will have their score go towards the overall category's weight. However, you still need to determine how much this bonus grade item will assist by assigning a weight for the bonus grade item itself.
In this example, I have a discussion category worth 15% of my final grade. Within this category I have five discussions, each with a weight of 20 (meaning 20% of the category).
If I add a bonus grade item to the category, I can decide how much this grade item will assist students by adjusting it's weight. For example, if I gave the bonus grade item a weight of 20, then it would be equal in weight to all of the other discussions within the category. So if a student did not complete one of the discussions and received a score of 0, they could still complete the bonus grade item, which would make up for their missing work without penalizing their overall score for the category.
This is just one example of assigning a bonus item to a category in a weighted gradebook. When deciding the weight of a bonus grade item, make sure to take the weight of the other grade items in the category into consideration. This will assist in determining how much the bonus grade item will effect the students grade for the category.
Can I allow my students to achieve a score that is higher than the highest possible score in the category?
Bonus grade items can assist students by giving them an opportunity to make up for lower scores on grade items, or missing work which resulted in a score of 0. However, some instructors may consider allowing students to complete bonus grade items, even if they already achieved higher scores. If you are considering this, you may run into the possibility of your students scoring higher than the max amount set for a category or final grade.
If you wish to allow for your students to exceed the max score for a category, follow these steps:
- Edit the category
- Select Allow category grade to exceed category weight
- Select Save and Close to finish
My bonus item is outside a category, what should the weight of the bonus grade item be?
If you have a bonus grade item outside of a category, and a student completes it, then the score will go towards the final overall grade for the course. But how much should that bonus grade item be worth?
The answer depends on the purpose of the bonus grade item. For example, are you are creating a bonus item to make up for low scores on a particular grade item? If so, then you should take into consideration the weight of the grade item with low scores. In this example, multiple students did not do well on a midterm that was worth 15% of their final grade.
If I want to create a bonus item in the gradebook to make up for this low score, I would have to take the 15% the midterm was worth towards the final grade into consideration to determine the weight of the bonus item and how it can assist students. For example, I can make the weight of the bonus item 3%, which would give students an opportunity to make up 1/5 of the original weight of the midterm.
If your bonus item is not making up for scores on a particular grade item, and you just wish to give students an opportunity to increase their final overall grade, then choose the weight based on how much you would like to increase their final score by. For example, you could set the weight to the bonus item to 2 so they could make up 2% towards their final overall grade.
Can I allow my students to achieve a score for their final grade that is higher than 100%?
If a student who is already achieving high marks in your gradebook completes bonus items, it is possible for them to receive a score higher than 100% for their final grade. In order to allow this, you would complete these steps:
- Edit the final grade column
- Under Grading, select the Can Exceed checkbox
- Select Save and Close
Points Gradebooks
How many points should my bonus item be worth? Does it matter that the bonus item is in a category?
A bonus item in a points style gradebook can be worth any amount the instructor wishes. Points style gradebooks do not separate points by category. So any bonus items within a category will go directly towards the final overall grade of the course. Please note however that if a bonus item is in a category, and you wish for students to achieve a score higher than the max amount of points of other items in the category, you must follow these steps:
- Edit the category
- Under Grading select Can Exceed
- Select Save and Close
Otherwise, the bonus points will not apply to the final grade.
Can I allow my students to achieve a score that is higher than the max amount of points for the course?
To allow students to achieve a score higher than the max amount of points for the final grade, follow these steps:
- Edit the final grade column
- Under Grading, select the Can Exceed checkbox
- Select Save and Close
Checklist:
- Check Weighted Grade Items and Categories
- Verify All Grades Are Entered
- Create and Apply a Grade Scheme
- Make Grade Scheme Symbol Visible to Students
- Verify Your Final Grade Release Settings
- Release Final Grades in Brightspace
Check Weighted Grade Items and Categories
For those using a Weighted Gradebook, are your grade items and categories each reflecting the correct weight? If you are receiving messages like below, you will have to make adjustments for your course to equal 100%.
For more information on how to setup the weighting of your grade items and categories, please view this article.
Verify All Grades Are Entered
Check your gradebook to verify that all grades have been entered correctly before importing final grades to Solar.
Create and Apply a Grade Scheme
Have you applied a letter grade scheme for your course? This allows you to apply a letter grade automatically for students who achieved a score within a specific range that instructors can set manually. To create a scheme, please read the instructions in this article.
After your scheme is completed, please make sure it is applied to either the Final Calculated Grade or Final Adjusted Grade column of your gradebook (please verify which column you are using in the step below). Whichever column is enabled is where the results are pulled from to go into Solar. The scheme can be applied to either column by selecting the arrow next to it and choosing Edit.
Then for the Grade Scheme, choose the scheme that you created and save your changes.
Make Grade Scheme Symbol Visible to Students
In your Gradebook settings, go to Org Unit Display Options and verify in the Grade Details section that Grade Scheme Symbol is enabled. If this is not enabled, students will not be able to see their letter grade in Brightspace and the import of grades into Solar will not work.
Verify Your Final Grade Release Settings
In Brightspace, there are two final grade columns, Final Calculated Grade and Final Adjusted Grade. While both columns will appear to instructors in the gradebook, only one can be enabled to be released to students. Whichever column is enabled will also be where Solar pulls the final grade from. To see which column is enabled, look for an eye icon (this icon means the grade is released to students) or an eye icon with a slash through it (this icon means the grade is not released to students) under each column. If either icon is present under a column, that is where the final grades will be pulled from.
If the wrong column is enabled, you can adjust this setting by using the setup wizard (Instructions on how to use the setup wizard can be found in this article), or by going into the calculation options section of your gradebook settings.
Enter Grades in the Final Adjusted Grade Column
If the Final Adjusted Grade column is enabled, you will need to manually enter grades in the column using the instructions provided for either of the options below:
Option 1 (Transfer and Adjust Grades in Brightspace)
- Select the header titled Final Grades and select Transfer All.
- This will move all the student's grades from the Final Calculated Column to the Final Adjusted Column. If you would like to override grades for specific students, please type the grade you wish to give them in the Final Adjusted Column.
- Once the grades are ready, make sure to save what you entered. If you wish for these grades to be visible, you can release the grades.
Option 2 (Export and Enter Final Grades):
For larger class sizes, it's recommended to enter the final adjusted grade, by exporting your gradebook into a .csv file.
- Export your grades into a .csv file
- In the exported .csv file, copy the grades from the final calculated grade column and paste them into the final adjusted grade column. (If necessary, you can type in a different grade in the column for students who you wish to provide extra points to.)
- When all grades have been entered in the .csv, you can import the .csv file back into your gradebook.
Release Final Grades in Brightspace
If you would like for your students to see their final grade in Brightspace before being made available in Solar, you can do so by following the steps in this article.
Use the Preview option to see exactly how a student sees his/her grades. (If a grade is missing in the student grade preview, check the Grade Item to see if it has a restriction.)
- In Brightspace, click the course selector near the top center and select the course
- Once in the course, in the Navbar select Grades
- Near the top left, select Enter Grades
- Scroll down (or use the View By or search tools) to find the student whose grades you want to preview grades for and select the dropdown next to the student's name and select Preview
- The student's grade preview will open in a new window. Scroll down to view all the grades and select Close when done.
You need to manually link a Brightspace Exam / Quiz to Grades either by linking it to an existing grade item or by creating a new one.
You can tell if a quiz is linked to grades directly from Exams / Quizzes. You can also tell if a Grade Item is linked to a quiz from Grades.
If you would like to learn how to publish your students' exam/quiz attempts, check out this article.
Link an Exam / Quiz to a Grade Item
Creating a Grade Item
- When creating or editing your exam/quiz, find the Grade Out Of area
- Select the Not in Grade Book button and choose Edit or Link to Existing (You can also choose Add to Grade Book, however if you do this, it will add the exam/quiz to Grades uncategorized)
- If you would like to add your grade item to a category, select the Choose Grade Category button
- Select the Category from the drop down selector
- Select OK
- Type the amount of points this will be graded out of in the Grade Out Of area
- Select Save and Close
Linking to an Existing Grade Item
- When creating or editing your exam/quiz, find the Grade Out Of area
- Select the Not in Grade Book button and choose Edit or Link to Existing
- Select the option labeled Link to an existing grade item
- In the drop down selector, choose the grade item to link this to
- Select OK
- By default, the amount of points the grade item was originally worth will populate in the Grade Out Of field, this can be overridden
- Select Save and Close
How To Know if a Quiz is Linked to Grades (from the Exam / Quizzes tool)
- Back in the list of Exams / Quizzes, you'll know a quiz is linked to Grades when it shows a ribbon next to the name
- If you see the linked to grade item ribbon but the results still don't show up in Grades, make sure to check ☑︎ Automatically update evaluations in grade book when published in the Assessment tab
How To Know if a Grade Item is Linked to/Associated with a Quiz (from Grades)
- In Grades, you'll know a grade item is linked to an Exam / Quiz from the Association column: Any grade item linked to an Exam / Quiz will show Quizzes ? in the Association column. Click the ? to see which quiz the grade item is linked to:
By default, the Brightspace Enter Grades view for instructors shows 20 students. To show more students, at the bottom select to show up to 200 per page.
If the course has a lot of grade items/columns, you might not be able to show more per page. Instead, you can hide some grade items/categories (columns), which may allow you to show more students per page (Brightspace can only show so many "cells" in Enter Grades, so if your course has a lot of displayed grade items/columns, you might not be able to show more students per page).
Select to see up to 200 students per page in Enter Grades
- Sign into your Brightspace course as an instructor
- Near the top, select Grades and then Enter Grades
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and near the left select the 20 per page dropdown and select to show 50, 100, or 200 per page
- If you don't have the option select more per page, there are likely many grade items/categories or "columns" showing on the page. Collapse or hide columns to be able to show more per page:
Collapse or Hide Grade Item/Category Columns to be able to show more per page
Brightspace can only show so many Grade Objects (i.e., grade items and categories) on the screen in Enter Grades, so if your course has a lot of displayed grade items/columns, you might not be able to show more students per page. You can either collapse grade category columns or hide some grade items/categories to be able to show more students per page:
- Collapse Category columns:
- If your Grades use Categories, you can collapse category columns by selecting the category - minus button at the top (e.g., - Quizzes will collapse quizzes and only show the Quizzes subtotal column)
- If you collapse a column, you will only see the Subtotal column for that category. Click + to expand the category again
- If your Grades use Categories, you can collapse category columns by selecting the category - minus button at the top (e.g., - Quizzes will collapse quizzes and only show the Quizzes subtotal column)
- Hide grade items/categories:
- You can temporarily hide grade items/categories. In Enter Grades, select More Actions and then Hide/Show Columns
- Check and uncheck the boxes for the columns you want to show and hide. Click Save
- When you have hidden grade items/categories in the Enter Grades view, the top will show a Note indicating there are hidden columns:
- Once you've hidden some columns, try selecting to see more students per page
A grade scheme enables you to organize learners performance on grade items into levels of achievement. For example, you can apply a scheme to show letter grades on all, or individual grade items.
To learn how to create a scheme, please view these slides. Or, you can watch this video:
When an instructor creates assignments, discussions, quizzes/exams in Brightspace, they don't automatically appear in grades; the instructor has to link them. See these links for how to link each type of gradable activity to grades:
Linking a Brightspace Assignment to Grades
Even if an Assignment, Exam / Quiz, or Discussion grade is published and linked to Grades, students won't always see a grade if the Grade Item has a Restriction.
As an instructor, you'll know a Grade Item has a restriction if, in Manage Grades, you see a stopwatch icon or hidden icon next to the Grade item OR in in the Grade Item's Restrictions, the Grade Item shows ☑︎ Hide from Users, ☑︎ Has Start Date, or ☑︎ Has End Date.
Tip: For how to release final grades, see Releasing Final Grades in Brightspace
Remove or Add Restrictions on Grade Items
Use restrictions (e.g., Hide or apply a start/end date) on Grade Items if you want to restrict when/if students can see that Grade Item in Grades. Alternatively, remove restrictions so that students can see the grade item without restriction.
- In Brightspace, *click the course selector near the top center and select the course
*only Instructors and Graduate TAs can add/remove grade item restrictions - Once in the course, in the Navbar click Grades
- Near the top left, click Manage Grades
- Click the dropdown ⌄ next to the Grade Item you want to change and select Edit
- Near the top, click the Restrictions tab
- To hide/show the Grade Item from students, check or uncheck Hide from Users
- To make the Grade Item visible to students only after or before a certain date, select Has Start Date and/or Has End Date and enter a time and time
- Optionally, if you add a start and/or end date, select the box for Display In Calendar
Note: If you also display the dates for Assignment, Exam/Quiz, or Discussion in Calendar, also displaying in calendar the date for the grade item could be confusing - Optionally, for Release Conditions, Attach Existing or Create and Attach a new release condition to only show this grade item if certain conditions are met (e.g., if the student has a score on a quiz, has viewed specific content, is in a certain group, etc.). Or, click Remove All Conditions to remove release conditions.
- Click Save and Close
- To see exactly how grades appear for a specific student, use the Preview option in Enter Grades.
Managing Courses
If you are using Brightspace Calculated or Adjusted Final Grade and have set up your Grading Scheme so letter grades appear, consider trying our new Import Grades tool in SOLAR.
The ability to import grades from the Calculated or Adjusted Final Grade Column in Brightspace is available ONLY for instructors who are:
Not using "merged courses"
Are displaying CALCULATED FINAL or ADJUSTED FINAL grades as letter grades via Brightspace Grading Scheme
Every student has a grade
*Please note! Students who have "I" or other grades that cannot be calculated based on percentage will need to be modified once in SOLAR.
Interested in trying the import tool? Please check out this article to make sure your gradebook is ready before starting.
We are collecting feedback on this new tool, please provide feedback here.
Importing From Solar:
Click the Import Grades option in SOLAR
Troubleshooting
If you receive an error message which prevents you from importing the grades into Solar, please check for the following:
Have you made the Grade Scheme Symbol visible to students?
If the letter grade in the final grade column is not visible to students, then you will not be able to complete the import. This can be enabled by going into the grade settings, selecting Org Unit Display Options, and selecting the checkbox under Student View Display Options that says Grade scheme symbol.
Has the final grade been released to ALL students in Brightspace?
Make sure to double check your final grade column (either final calculated, or final adjusted depending on your settings). Are there any students who cannot see their final grade? This is evident by an icon of an eyeball with a slash through it. If you see this next to a student's score, it means the grade was not released to the student. In order for the import to work, ALL final grades need to be released.
Are you using valid grade symbols?
Your grade symbol must be an accurate symbol used in SOLAR in order to import. For example, an A+ is not a valid grade that can be entered into SOLAR, so if you provided your student with an A+ in your scheme, you will receive an error message.
Please review the accurate symbols that can be used in SOLAR by clicking this link. If you notice that your symbols do not match, you must change the symbol in your grade scheme.
Groups
In Brightspace, instructors have the ability to create groups to facilitate collaboration amongst their students. Once groups are created, instructors can use the groups for various purposes. Examples include, assignments, discussions, and file sharing amongst group members.
Instructors can
OR
- Create a spreadsheet of which students go in which groups for our Admins to populate the groups
Instructor Create and Populate Groups
The Groups Tool/Basic Settings
- From the Navbar, select Course Admin
- Choose the Groups tool from the Course Admin menu
- Select the New Category button in the Manage Groups menu
- Type in the Category Name for your group. You can also optionally type in a description of this group below the Category Name.
- Choose the Enrollment Type, see below for each option:
- # of Groups - No Auto Enrollments: Selecting this option creates a specified number of groups, for which you can add any number of users using the Enroll Users page
- Groups of #: Selecting this option creates the minimum number of groups needed to place users in groups of a specified maximum size. If this option is selected, you have the ability to decide if you would like to auto enroll users into groups, or randomize users in groups.
- # of Groups: Selecting this option creates a specified number of groups. If this option is selected, you have the ability to decide if you would like to auto enroll users into groups, or randomize users in groups.
- Groups of # - Self Enrollment: Selecting this option creates the minimum number of groups needed to accommodate users in groups of a specified maximum size automatically. Users choose the group they want to enroll in from the Groups page.
- # of Groups - Self Enrollment: Selecting this option creates a specified number of groups, which users enroll in from the Groups page.
- # of Groups, Capacity of # - Self Enrollment: Selecting this option creates a specified number of groups with a specified number of enrollments per group. Users choose the group they want to enroll in from the Groups page.
- Single user, member specific groups: Using this option creates a group with a single user where the first name and last name of the learner is the name of the group. When a new learner is enrolled in the course, a group is automatically created for them.
- Depending on which Enrollment Type you chose, you will be prompted to type in either the Number of Groups, or Number of Users (or both).
- Optionally, you can type a Group Prefix which will name your groups something specific. IE: A prefix that says "Discussion Group" will make groups that say "Discussion Group 1", "Discussion Group 2", etc.
- Select Save to finish
Advanced Settings
Depending on which Enrollment Type you selected, you have access to the following advanced settings:
If you chose # of Groups - No Auto Enrollments or Single User, Member-Specific Groups
- You have the option available to you to make category and group descriptions visible to group members.
If you chose Groups of # or # of Groups
You are able to:
- Auto-enroll new users into groups
- Randomize existing users in groups
- Make category and group descriptions visible to group members
If you chose any Self Enrollment options
You are able to:
- Set start dates to allow students to begin self enrolling
- Set expiration dates that students have to enroll by
- Allocate unenrolled users after self enrollment expiration date (auto enroll users to did not enroll by the expiration date)
Additional Options
When creating or editing your groups, you can do any of the following:
- Set up discussion areas. This allows instructors to create a new discussion topic, or link to an existing discussion topic, making it a group discussion directly from the groups tool.
- Set up lockers. Lockers allow group members to share files with each other within the groups tool. These files are only available to those enrolled in the group, and the instructor.
- Set up assignments. This allows you to create an assignment for the group to complete directly from the groups tool.
Locating Groups
Once your groups have been created, you can view them in the Manage Groups menu. Here you can see a table with the following information:
- The name of each group
- The amount of members in each group (clicking on this number will show the individual students assigned to the group)
- The amount of assignments assigned to each group (clicking on this number will show the names of each group assignment)
- The amount of discussions assigned to each group (clicking on this number will show the names of each group discussion)
- A link to each groups locker (clicking on the link that says Group Files will show the files uploaded to the locker by each team member)
Populate Groups by Spreadsheet
I. Create the groups
- In your course Navbar, select Course Admin (or select More and then Course Admin), select Groups and select New Category
- For Category name, type whatever name will help you know the group category
- For Enrollment type, select # of Groups - No Auto Enrollment
- For Number of Groups select whatever number of groups you need
- For Restrict Enrollment to select No restrictions
- For Group Prefix, choose what you want each group name to begin with (e.g., Subgroup)
- click Save
II. Find the Group Code
- Click on the first group within the category (e.g., Subgroup 1) to see edit view for the group
- Find the Group Code field - write down/copy out the Group Code
For example, for Subgroup_6937_1, '6937' is the org unit ID for the course; Groups IDs therefore follow a pattern, in this case:
Subgroup_6937_1
Subgroup_6937_2
Subgroup_6937_3
Subgroup_6937_4
... - Keep the noted Group ID -you'll need it for the spreadsheet (you don't need to copy every one out as they follow the above pattern)
III Create csv file
- Create a csv file with 5 columns (no headings) for
Enroll, NetID, Stony Brook ID (aka OrgDefined ID), Learner, GroupID - Be sure the list is only Learners (no Instructors or Teaching Assistants, for example)
- In the column for GroupID, paste in the group name using the GroupID format described above (e.g., subgroup_6769_1, subgroup_6769_2, subgroup_6769_3,)
It'll look something like this: - Save the file as a .csv file
- Create a help ticket requesting we populate your groups and attach the csv. Be sure to specify which course the groups are in
Reporting Tools
The Class Progress tool helps track your student's progress in a course by measuring the completion of different progress indicators. To access the class progress tool, select Class Progress in the Navbar of your course:
This will direct you to the Class Progress dashboard. By default the dashboard will display four dashboard indicators which include:
- Content Completion Summary: This shows how many required content topics each student has completed.
- Objectives Completion Summary: Illustrates each student's progression through the assigned objectives.
- Login History (Last 30 Days): Displays the number of logins to the system (not the course) for the last 30 days.
- Grades Performance Summary: Presents the current final grade for the student, as well as a visualization of the scores of the last 15 grade items. Hovering over each bar provides additional details for the grades.
You can choose to add any of these additional dashboard indicators in lieu of a default indicator:
- Assignments Performance Summary: Indicates the current average on all submission folders as well as a visualization of the scores of the last 15 items. Hover over each bar for additional details about the folders.
- Checklist Completion Summary: Displays how the learner is progressing through the assigned course checklists. Highlighted items indicate items that are due within the next 7 days.
- Content Visited Summary: Shows how many content topics each student has accessed by navigating within the Content tool. If users navigate to an activity outside of the Content tool (for instance, by using the navbar), it does not count as a visit.
- Discussions Participation Summary: Presents user statistics for reading, posting, and responding to discussions.
- Quiz Performance Summary: Presents the current average on all quizzes as well as a visualization of the scores of the last 15 items. Hovering over each bar provides additional details for the quiz.
- Survey Completion Summary: Displays the learner's progression through the assigned surveys in the course (anonymous surveys will display no result)
- System Access (Last 30 Days): Indicates each time the learner accesses Brightspace using a web browser or the app. System access begins when the user logs in, launches the app, or returns after 30 minutes of inactivity. It ends after 30 minutes of inactivity within the website or app.
You can also click on a student's name to view all indicators for that student, including Course Access, for how often the student has accessed your course.
Change or reorder the four progress indicators in the Class Progress dashboard
- Select "Settings" while in the Class Progress tool
- Select the downward facing arrow next to the performance indicator you want to remove or reorder
- Select "Move Up" or "Move Down" to reorder the progress indicators, or "Replace" to change this progress indicator with another
- If you selected "Replace", choose the progress indicator that you want to appear in the Class Progress dashboard
View all progress indicators for each student at once (including Course Access)
Clicking into an individual student shows the Class Progress Summary for that student (the same view that student will see when accessing Class Progress). Instructors can also modify which indicators and additional options appear in this view (learn how to adjust the individual student progress summary settings here)
- Click on a student's name
- Select the progress indicator you wish to view on the left side of the page.
Tip: An additional progress indicator available in this section is the Course Access indicator. This will show you how often a student is logging into your course.
If you would like to see statistics on which of your students viewed each module in your course, follow these steps:
- Go to the "Content" area of your course
- Select the module titled "Table of Contents"
- Click the dropdown for "Related Tools" and choose "View Reports" to view the report table
- In the "Content" tab of the report table, you will see how many users the modules are available to, the amount of users who visited each module, and the average time spent viewing each module. To export this data, click the "Export Statistics" button above the content tab. Additionally, if you click the number under the "Available To" or "Users Visited" column, you'll see reports on which of your students has access to the module, and who has accessed it.
- In the "User" tab of the report table, you will see how many content topics are available and how many were visited by specific students. If you would like specific data for each student, click the students name. Once clicked, you will have the ability to export this data above the users tab by clicking the "Export Statistics" button.
Class Progress shows various indicators on how students are progressing in a course. As an instructor, you can change which indicators and additional information you and students can see in their own view of Class Progress.
- Instructors can see progress for all learners in the class for whichever progress indicators the course instructor has enabled
- Students only see their own scores for whichever progress indicators the course instructor has enabled
As an instructor, you can change which indicators and additional information you and students can see in their own view of Class Progress. Possible progress indicators include these (all are enabled by default):
- Assignments
- Checklist
- Content
- Course Access
- Discussions
- Grades
- Login History
- Objectives
- Quizzes
- Surveys
- System Access History
Instructors can also choose to include this additional information (both are enabled by default):
- Display box plots of the class grade distribution for graded items
- Display potential final grade range as minimum and maximum final grade
Instructors: Change Which Progress Indicators You (as Instructor) and Students See in Class Progress
- In a course you are instructor of, in the Navbar select Class Progress (or select Course Admin and then Class Progress)
- On the left, select a learner's name
- On an individual student's Progress Summary, near the top right select Settings
- Check the progress indicators you want to see and you want students to see; uncheck those you don't want to see/students to see (you and students will see the same indicators)
- Scroll down and check/uncheck Progress Report Information Settings as desired and/or change the % that will show as On Track (blue) and Some Concerns (yellow)
- Click Save and Close