Brightspace Pulse is a mobile app that can help learners stay connected and on track with their Brightspace courses. It provides one easy view of course calendars, readings, assignments, evaluations, grades, and announcement items. The app can help learners make better decisions about how to handle their workload, when to submit assignments, and when to prepare for tests. Real-time alerts can let learners know when classes are canceled, class is meeting in an alternate location, or new grades are available. The schedule view and weekly visualization enables learners to quickly at a glance view what is due today, this week, and upcoming across all their courses.
While the Brightspace Pulse app is designed for the learner, instructors can benefit too.
While the Brightspace Pulse app is designed for the learner, instructors can benefit too. When instructors enter due dates or end dates for assignments and activities the information is populated in the Pulse app enabling learners to stay connected and on track. Thus, instructors can spend less time reminding and more time teaching.
Additionally, using Quicklinks provides direct, easily clickable links to specific course content, assignments, announcements, and more, within Brightspace. This makes it significantly easier for students, especially when using the Pulse app, to quickly find the information or activity they need without having to manually search through modules and sub-modules. This enhances the overall navigation and accessibility of the course for all students, including those who may be using assistive technologies or have learning differences.
Instructors can make their courses Pulse friendly by including due dates or end dates for assignments and activities. When instructors do not enter due dates or end dates, no associated information is available in the Pulse app.
The Pulse app is great for helping students stay on track in face-to-face classes as well. Instructors can set up their face-to-face assignments and activities as events in the Brightspace course calendar. Students will get those date feeds in the Brightspace Pulse app.
Help keep students on track for success in all their courses by using Quicklinks and including a due date or end date for assignments and activities.
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Did you know you can easily insert files directly from OneDrive into your courses? The Microsoft OneDrive Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) App is integrated into our Brightspace system. Using the LTI could be helpful if your files are already stored in your Microsoft OneDrive.
The Microsoft OneDrive LTI is a significant shift from the traditional method of uploading files directly from your hard drive. When you insert a OneDrive file into Brightspace using the OneDrive LTI integration, a copy of the file is created for the course. This means the file in Brightspace is independent of the original file in your personal OneDrive.
A content area showing the Existing Activities menu with the Microsoft OneDrive option highlighted
You can edit the copy of your Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files directly in Brightspace. Any edits made to the file within Brightspace will not affect the original file in OneDrive, and vice versa.
A PowerPoint presentation in a content module with the Edit Document link highlighted
NOTE:
The copy of the file is stored in a dedicated SharePoint site that is automatically created for the course by the LTI integration. Brightspace provides a link to this SharePoint-hosted copy, but the file itself is managed by Microsoft’s SharePoint/OneDrive backend, not Brightspace’s internal file system.
Care should be taken when copying components of a course into another course. When copying linked or associated components, you must copy all of the related components at the same time. For example, the Microsoft OneDrive LTI content topic links to a SharePoint-hosted file, you must copy both components at the same time (in the same copy operation). As long as the associated components are copied together, links between them are retained. Copying the entire course into another course will maintain the links.
The Copy Course Components page with the Select individual items to copy option selected for both Content and External Learning Tools LinksThe Select Content Modules and Topics to Copy page with a content topic selectedThe Select External Learning Tools to Copy page with the corresponding LTI selected
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Announcements are one of the first things your learners see when they enter your course. Announcements can provide timely information for your learners about class activities and time-sensitive material. Announcements can be used to remind learners of assignment and/or test dates, post changes to the course, announce upcoming events (such as a guest speaker), etc.
You can create multiple announcements when setting up your course and select a specific day for the announcement to be displayed by choosing staggered future start dates. For example, you know now that you want to post an announcement about the midterm exam and another about the final. Write both announcements now, but set the midterm announcement to display the week before the midterm and the final exam announcement to display a week before the final. Students will not be able to view either announcement until its assigned start date.
Availability End Dates
When creating an announcement, you should set an end date for it so that when the information in the announcement is no longer relevant the system will retire the announcement.
Benefits of using availability end dates for announcements:
Reduces Clutter: Old, irrelevant announcements disappear, keeping the page clean and less overwhelming.
Improves Focus: Students are more likely to read current announcements because they aren't scrolling through stale announcements.
Creates Urgency/Relevance: An expiration date clearly defines how long an announcement is important.
Manages Information Flow: Prevents a logjam of information, especially early in the semester when many start-up messages are posted.
Increases Effectiveness: Makes it easier for students to find what's currently important, improving engagement with important content.
Reduces Course Copy Issues: Setting an end-of-semester date for announcements is good practice if you are planning to copy your course content into another course in an upcoming semester. This will force you to update the announcement start and end dates in the course you are copying to. Thus reducing the possibility the system will display an announcement before you want it to.
How to implement:
Schedule in Advance: Use Brightspace to schedule announcements to appear and disappear on specific dates and times.
Be Consistent: Set a regular cadence (e.g., weekly overviews) and stick to it so students know when to expect updates.
Use End Dates for Timely Info: Set an availability End Date for deadlines, event reminders, or weekly summaries.
Leave Blank for Evergreen Content: If an announcement (like a welcome to the course or instructor contact information) should always be visible, leave the availability end date blank. If the announcement being immediately available (in the destination course) after a course copy would present a problem, the announcement is NOT evergreen. In that case, you should set the announcement availability end date to the last day of the current semester.
Communicate Schedule: Let students know your announcement schedule in the syllabus.
By using availability end dates, instructors can manage the "information dump" and make their communications more strategic and impactful.
NOTE: You can use the Manage Dates tool to edit dates in bulk.
Email a Copy of Announcement
You can email a copy of the announcement to all users in your Classlist by selecting the "Send email copy" checkbox. When the checkbox is selected, the system emails the content of the announcement to all users in the Classlist, including those who have opted out of announcement notifications, upon publishing.
The Send email copy checkbox in Brightspace announcement
NOTE:
The checkbox will be automatically deselected when an announcement is copied or edited, and must be selected again before republishing.
The email will originate from the email address of the person who publishes the announcement.
For announcements scheduled to publish at a later date, clicking the Send email copy checkbox emails the copy to users in the Classlist at the time that the announcement is published.
Quicklinks
Instructors can use Quicklinks within the announcement to direct students to content that is inside or outside of their course. For example, instructors can create an announcement with quicklinks that take students directly to specific content files or assignments inside of the course.
Release Conditions
You can display (release) announcements based on conditions you choose by using Release Conditions. For example, instructors can add a Release Condition to an announcement that will display (release) the announcement when students complete an assignment.
Video Announcements
Consider using Video Notes (built-in media recording tool in Brightspace) or your favorite video sharing service to create video announcements for your learners.
In the Faculty Focus article, Building Community and Creating Relevance in the Online Classroom, Amy Erickson and Catz Neset suggested creating video announcements as a way to build community in your online courses. Their formula for successful announcements are:
Provide an introduction each week and share your availability
Give feedback and answer questions from the previous week
Showcase exceptional student work from the previous week
Highlight the objectives of the coming week and any special preparation or required resources
Connect your coursework to relevant current events
In another Faculty Focus article, Using Announcements to Give Narrative Shape to your Online Course, Dr. Nathan Pritts suggests using announcements to create a narrative that increases student engagement. He starts the semester by letting his students know that he will post around three announcements per week—on the first day of the week (to kick things off), then about three days later (positioned to help motivate and encourage forward progress), and finally, at the end of the week (to provide some closure and open a channel for any last questions). He labels the subject lines of his announcements so students can process and sort them at a glance. For example, some labels that he uses in the subject line are Course Policy, Instructional Content, and Dig Deeper. He uses the announcements as a roadmap to help his learners navigate the course.
Dr. Mark Gstohl uses video announcements in his courses. In the video announcement, he gives his students a tip that will help them with an upcoming assignment. He also uses humor in his announcement which goes a long way to building a rapport with his students.
If you make your videos generic (i.e., don't reference the semester, time of year, seasons, day of the week, etc.), you can re-use the announcements from semester-to-semester. That way you don't have to worry about recording when you are having a bad hair day. 😀
Follow these steps to do it.
Watch this short video for instructions on creating announcements:
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Instructors can use the Manage Dates tool to view, edit in bulk, and bulk offset date availability from one central location. You can also set the calendar status of all content topics and modules, discussion topics and forums, assignment submissions folders, grades categories and items, announcement items, quizzes, checklists, and surveys in their course in the Manage Dates tool.
Course objects display in a grid that you can sort by any of the column headings. You can also use the Type column to sort the Manage Dates page based on the tool-specific order and use advanced filter options to work with smaller sets of objects. If you filter your course objects, any bulk changes you make apply only to the filtered results. This enables you to update multiple availability dates based on specific criteria.
In addition to managing dates, you can open each course object in a new window by clicking on its name. This launches the object's edit page where you can edit additional properties for that object without leaving the Manage Dates tool.
The Manage Dates tool can be very useful after a course copy. For example, if you copied content from one course into another course, you can use the Manage Dates tool to easily adjust dates after the course copy. Additionally, if you've entered dates on items in your course and later need to adjust dates in bulk, try using the Manage Dates tool.
Follow these steps to do it.
To edit dates in bulk:
Get into the course you want to change the dates of course objects.
On the NavBar (of the course you want to change dates in), click Course Admin.
Click Manage Dates.
Select the check box of the items for which you want to bulk edit dates.
Click Bulk Edit Dates.
In the Bulk Edit Dates dialog box, update the due dates and availability dates.
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There are a some situations where you may want to copy components of a Brightspace course OR copy an entire Brightspace course into another one. For example,
You have a course from a previous semester and you would like to copy the course contents into your empty course shell for the current semester.
You have a Master Course Shell that you input content into and would like to copy the course contents into your empty course shell for the current semester.
You are teaching multiple sections of a course, you created all the content in one Brightspace course section and want to copy the content into the other sections.
You created content in one course (e.g. rubrics, discussions, quizzes, etc.) and would like to copy that specific content from one Brightspace course into another.
Copying an entire Brightspace course OR copying components of a Brightspace course into another Brightspace course is not hard. As long as you are the instructor for both courses, it is a simple process you can do.
Notes About Copying Between Courses
Here are some things to consider when copying a course or copying components of a course.
Overwriting and Duplicating Items
In general, course components already in the destination course will not be affected by copying course components. The only course component that can be overwritten is a course file, i.e., HTML pages that have been created in the course site or files that have been uploaded to it. A course file is overwritten if one of the files being copied into the course has the same name as an existing file.
If copying components from the same source multiple times, be careful not to copy the same items more than once, or this will create duplicates that may be visible to users in the course.
User Data
User data is not copied from one course to another; only the course structures are copied. For example, if a Discussion topic is copied, only the prompt and discussion settings are copied, not the posts inside the topics. Similarly, if you copy Assignments folders or quizzes, user submissions and quiz attempts are not copied.
Links and Associations between Components
If you are copying linked or associated components, you must copy all of the related components at the same time. For example, if a discussion topic has release conditions based on the results of a quiz, you must copy all three components—discussions, quizzes, and release conditions—at the same time. Similarly, if you have a quiz that is associated with a grade item, be sure to copy both the quiz and the grade item at the same time. As long as the associated components are copied together, links between them are retained.
Copying VoiceThreads
We have integrated VoiceThread using LTI 1.3 with deep linking, that means that your VoiceThread activities will copy automatically when the course is copied in Brightspace. Review this VT Course Copying FAQ for some important things to know about how VoiceThread course copying works.
Respondus LockDown Browser (RLDB) Settings
Copied courses that have tests/exams with RLDB enabled require instructors to access the Respondus LockDown Browser Dashboard once after the copy to update the RLDB settings in the destination course. This has to be done before students will be able to take exams that require RLDB.
Turnitin-enabled Assignments
When you copy course components from one course to another, confirm that all settings are configured for the Turnitin-enabled assignments in the destination course.
Turnitin PeerMark Assignments
Our Turnitin integration does not support copying of PeerMark Assignments. You will have to recreate your PeerMark assignments in the destination course.
Follow these steps to do it.
If you want to copy an entire Brightspace course OR copy components from a Brightspace course into another course, you should:
Get into the course you want the content copied into (i.e., the target course).
In the NavBar (of the course you want the content copied to), click on "Course Admin".
Click on the "Import/Export/Copy Components" link.
Click on the "Copy Components from another Org Unit" radio button.
In the Course to Copy option, click the "Search for Offering" button.
Enter the name of the course you want to copy from (i.e., the source course) in the search field and click on the Search button.
Click on the radio button to the left of the course you want to copy content from and then click on "Add Selected".
Verify your selections are correct before proceeding.
At the bottom on the browser window you will click on either "Copy all Components" OR "Select Components" and follow the prompts.
Important:
Double-check to make sure that you are in the course you want the content copied into AND that you have selected the correct course you want to copy content from. There is no way to reverse the copy process once the wrong course is selected and the copy request is submitted.
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Image credit: image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
Faculty can request to have two or more of their courses combined into a single course. Combining courses can be useful when you are teaching multiple sections of the same course or when you are teaching a course that is cross-listed. Merging courses allows you to have all the students in a single Brightspace course which can be useful for collaborative work. Merging courses reduces the number of courses an instructor has to manage within Brightspace, especially when each section has identical content.
Once your courses are merged, you can upload your course content and assignments into the merged course; communicate with the students in the merged course; setup collaborative course work; and have one Grade Book for the merged course. You can create groups within your merged course that correspond to the original course sections. This way you can target a particular course section (group) of students for specific things (e.g. send email to a specific group, make content available to specific group, enter/view Grade Book entries for a specific group, etc.)
NOTE: Merging of courses is typically done at the start of the semester before content is added and before students submit course work. You should wait to request your courses be merged if there is a possibility that there will be last minute changes to instructor course section assignments. You can request a Master Course Shell to build your course and then transfer the content into your merged course.
You should carefully consider whether merging courses is right for you. Some things to consider are:
There are Simple Syllabus considerations for merged courses:
If there is one instructor for the merged courses, no additional action is necessary.
If there are multiple instructors for the merged courses, the Brightspace Administrator will have to add all the instructors to the merged course. Doing so will give them edit access to the Simple Syllabus for the merged course.
Course enrollments for the merged courses will be combined which can make grading student work a challenge. If you create groups for the different sections, you will be able to view your Grade Book by groups to make grading easier.
Only one due date and start/end date can be assigned to an assignment, discussion, quiz, etc. Therefore you will not be able to assign different due dates and start/end dates to the activity (e.g., assignment, quiz, discussion, etc.).
If you decide you want to unmerge courses after students have submitted course work, student work and grades will be lost. Only student enrollments are retained when courses are unmerged.
Follow these steps to do it.
A system administrator will have to merge your courses. Send an email to Karen Nichols (knichola@xula.edu) if you want to merge courses. You should include the course ID (including CRN) for all the courses you want merged together.
NOTE: When courses are merged, one of the existing courses will serve as the "merged" course. If all the course sections are empty, it won't matter which one is used as the "merged" course. If you have already created content in a course, you should request that the course with the content be the "merged" course. This will reduce the need to copy content.
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Image credit: "why merge" by jflorent is dedicated to the public domain under CC0 and is a derivative of merging by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
Our Information Technology Center (ITC) has created the spring courses in Brightspace.
NOTE: You should see your spring courses in the My Courses widget. If you do not see your spring courses in your My Courses widget, you should click on the link to "View All Courses" (located at the bottom of the My Courses widget). Verify that you are listed as the instructor for the course in Banner. You can find more information about the updated My Courses Widget sort logic at this link.
As you prepare to teach this spring, you can get started setting up your Brightspace courses. To get started, you can post your syllabus, course documents, announcements, and setup your Grade Book in your Brightspace courses. You can also customize your course homepage and/or course image/banner.
If you teach a course that is cross listed you will have a Brightspace course for each cross listing. You can combine the cross listed courses into one Brightspace course so that you can post course materials and grades to one combined Brightspace course. Combining courses may also work for you if you are teaching different sections of the same course and would like to have the different sections combined into one Brightspace course so that you can post course documents and grades in the one combined course. The beginning of the semester is the best time to submit a request to merge your Brightspace courses before you add course materials or grades to the courses.
Additionally, if the spring course you are teaching is the same as one of your previous courses you can copy the entire course (or copy components) into your "empty" Brightspace spring course.
NOTE: ITC will enroll students in Brightspace courses after the first deregistration (dereg) of students who are not fiscally cleared. The dereg process usually occurs Friday after registration. The registrar informs ITC of when the dereg process is complete. While students are not initially enrolled in in Brightspace courses, instructors can still email students. This can be done by sending email to students in Banner or email the students through EAB.
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D2L (the company that owns Brightspace) uses Continuous Delivery to update our Brightspace system. The Continuous Delivery model gives us regular monthly updates allowing for incremental and easily integrated changes with no downtime required for our Brightspace system.
Our Continuous Delivery update occurs on the 4th Thursday of each month. D2L provides release notes to help users stay up-to-date with the changes.
Here are some of the updates in the December 2025/20.25.12 release that were added to our system this month:
1) Assignments – Group Assignment evaluation email enhancements
This release introduces enhancements to the Email Group button in Group Assignment Evaluation.
If a group has no members, or if the users in the group do not have an internal D2L email set up or an external email linked, the Email Group button no longer appears. The button now displays only when it is actionable, reducing confusion and improving interface clarity.
This update enhances the overall experience by aligning with accessibility and usability best practices, ensuring that only relevant options are shown to users.
Previously, the Email Group button appeared even in groups with no users, which caused confusion.
The Email Group button in Group Assignment Evaluation before this update if a group has no membersThe Email Group button no longer appears in Group Assignment Evaluation after this update if a group has no members
2) Discussions – Enforce timely learner engagement with first post due dates
To ensure timely learner participation, instructors can now specify a due date for the first post in a discussion topic. This supports course pacing, institutional policies, and consistent expectations for learner engagement. This mirrors the behavior of Assignments and Quizzes, making the course experience more consistent and predictable.
Previously, instructors could not set due dates for initial discussion posts, which made it difficult to assess timely engagement or enforce deadlines. This update improves grading accuracy, simplifies compliance with participation policies, and supports smoother course migrations from learning management systems that already include this functionality.
The first post due date follows the same behavior as Assignments and Quizzes:
Due dates must be between the start and end dates of the discussion topic.
Availability types (for example, Hidden, Visible with access restricted, Visible with submission restricted) are respected.
Additional improvements include:
Calendar tool integration: The first post due date appears in the calendar.
Notifications: Administrators can enable notifications. When enabled, the due date will trigger a notification in Brightspace and push notification (Pulse App).
Grading: Discussion due dates support automatic-zero grading.
Other enhancements:
In Manage Dates, first post due dates are visible and editable.
In the Discussion List, due dates appear next to each topic.
In New Content Experiences, Overdue and Late indicators appear when deadlines are missed. Classic content will continue to show the due date on the content topic.
In Quick Eval and Consistent Evaluation, first post due dates appear in evaluation workflows.
In the Work to Do widget, due dates appear.
Instructor view of a discussion topic with a first post due dateLearner view of a discussion topic with a first post due date
Note: Discussion due dates must fall within the topic's availability window to appear in the calendar and trigger notifications.
This feature implements the following PIE item:
D143 (Due Date for First Post for Discussions)
3) Groups – Group deletions now processed via background job
To support the ongoing expansion of the Groups tool, all group deletion workflows are now processed asynchronously to reduce timeouts and errors.
Previously, when deleting groups within Brightspace, the web request would sometimes time out when there were too many groups to process.
When a user initiates a deletion, the background process deletes all groups, categories, and their associated activities. While processing, groups and categories appear in the recycling bin indicating that deletion is in progress, and the Restore option is not available. The Restore option becomes available only after the deletion is completed, which may take a few minutes.
This feature applies to all group deletion methods, including via the Manage Groups page, Org Unit Editor, SIS integrations such as Banner or IPSIS, or API deletion routes.
4) Quizzes – Zero point quiz questions
Instructors can now assign 0 (zero) points to a quiz question to collect non-graded information, for example, feedback or personal input.
This feature eliminates the need for workarounds such as assigning 0.01 points or manually adjusting scores after submission. Instructors can enter zero points in the points field for any question type within the quiz, ensuring that these questions do not contribute to the quiz's total points. This feature is especially useful for gathering additional information from learners during a quiz or for implementing an "Honesty Code" question at the beginning of the quiz.
Previously, instructors were restricted from entering zero points for quiz questions.
Example of a quiz question displaying a statement on academic integrity with answer options for True and False, and the points field set to zero
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As we approach the end of the semester there are a few things you can do in Brightspace to wrap up for the semester.
Release final course grades
Unlike other grade items and categories in the Grade Book, final grades are not available to students by default. Final grades must be released. If you did not choose to enable the automatic release of final grades when setting up your Grade Book, you will have to manually release final grades in order for students to see their final grade.
Export your Grade Book
Student access to courses is removed two weeks after the end of a semester. This process of making the courses inactive allows student work and grades to be visible to instructors but students no longer have access to the course. Courses will remain on the Brightspace system for three semesters before they are removed. You should export (download) your Grade Book to your local computer after you submit your final grades.
NOTE: The export file that is created will NOT contain any student work or instructor feedback. Only the grades in your Grade Book will be exported.
Create a master copy of your course
Courses remain on the Brightspace system for three semesters before they are removed. You can request a Master Course Shell that you can use to develop and maintain your course materials. Master Course Shells will not be removed from the Brightspace system.
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Brightspace calculates final grades for each student based on the grading system and the students' grades that are entered into the Grade Book. If the instructor wants more control over the final grades, perhaps to adjust the final grade for a student that is on the cusp of a higher grade, then adjusted final grades can be used and released to students instead of the calculated final grade.
If the instructor decides to use adjusted final grades for one student in the course, adjusted final grades must be used for all students in the course. This does not imply, however, that final grades must be manually adjusted for all students.
Adjusting final grades are implemented by the instructor for only the student or students that are deemed to need an adjusted grade. The remaining students final grades would be the final grade as calculated in the Grade Book.
Note: The Grade Book must be configured to use adjusted final grades. If you plan to use adjusted final grades, you should make the adjustments before you release final grades.
Follow these steps to do it.
To adjust final grades for all students:
Get into the course where you want to adjust final grades and click Grades in the NavBar.
Click on the Enter Grades link.
Scroll over to the Final Calculated Grade column and click on the arrow on the right of the column name and select Enter Grades.
In the Final Adjusted Grade section for each student, enter the adjusted grades and then click Save.
Once you have ensured that students' grades are accurate, you can release the final grades.
To adjust final grades for one or more specific students:
Get into the course where you want to adjust final grades and click Grades in the NavBar.
Click on the Enter Grades link.
Scroll over to the Final Calculated Grade column and click on the arrow on the right of the column name and select Enter Grades.
Click on the arrow on the right of the Final Grades and click Transfer All, then click Yes.
In the Final Adjusted Grade section, enter adjusted scores where necessary and click Save.
Once you have ensured that students' grades are accurate, you can release the final grades.
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