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Author: Janice Florent

Technology Coordinator in the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Faculty Development at Xavier University of Louisiana

About Janice Florent

Technology Coordinator in the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Faculty Development at Xavier University of Louisiana

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Published on 1 Comment on Brightspace Tip #7: Change the Name of Your Course

new name sign post

Instructors have the ability to change the names of their Brightspace courses to suit their needs. For example, if you teach two sections of English 1010, you can personalize the names to become ENGL1010 – 9 MWF and ENGL1010 – 1:15 TR.

Follow these steps to do it.

To change the name of your Brightspace course, you should:

  1. Get into the course you want to change the name of.
  2. While in the course, goto the NavBar and click on Course Admin.
  3. Click on Course Offering Information.
  4. Enter the new name in the Course Offering Name field and and click Save.

Note: Care should be taken to make sure the new name of the course can be easily recognized by the students enrolled.

Want more information?

Brightspace Migration FAQs
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Image credit: "new name" by jflorent is licensed under CC0 and is a derivative of image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #6: Keep Students Engaged Between Class Meetings Training Recap

keep calm and let's recap

This week’s “Keep Students Engaged Between Class Meetings” training focused on how faculty can communicate and collaborate with their students outside of the classroom in order to enhance the instructional environment.

in case you missed it

In case you missed this week’s training sessions or if you attended one of the training sessions and want to recap what was covered, you can review these resources:

Our Brightspace training continues through the end of the semester.

Next week's training sessions will focus on collecting and grading student work using the Assignment Tool in Brightspace. Please visit our events page for workshop details and to RSVP for upcoming Brightspace training sessions.

Want more information?

View all the Brightspace training recaps
Brightspace Migration FAQs
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #5: Introduction to Brightspace Training Recap

keep calm and let's recap

This week’s “Getting your Feet Wet: An Introduction to Brightspace” training focused on providing faculty with an introduction to the Brightspace learning management system (LMS).

in case you missed it

In case you missed this week’s training sessions or if you attended one of the training sessions and want to recap what was covered, you can review these resources:

Our Brightspace training continues through the end of the semester.

Next week's training sessions will focus on how to keep students engaged between class meetings using communication and collaboration tools in Brightspace. Please visit our events page for workshop details and to RSVP for upcoming Brightspace training sessions.

Want more information?

View all the Brightspace training recaps
Brightspace Migration FAQs
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #4: Add Profile Picture to Humanize Your Course

Humanized learning increases the relevance of course content and improves students' motivation to log-in to your course week-after-week. Whether you are teaching a face-to-face, hybrid, or online course, humanizing and personalizing your Brightspace course can go a long way to providing an inviting space for your students.

One of the ways you can humanize your Brightspace courses is to add a profile picture. By default, when you do not setup your profile picture it will appear as a blank avatar in the Brightspace system. Rather than having this faceless image, faculty and students can upload a profile picture to represent them throughout the Brightspace system.

profile picture

You can only have one profile picture at a time to be used throughout the entire Brightspace system. The recommended pixel size for a profile picture is 150 by 150. Larger images should be clipped.

NOTE: The University has the following policy regarding profile pictures:

Users may not send, display or receive pictures or other media which are copyrighted, abusive, obscene, sexually inappropriate, threatening, racially offensive, or considered harassment or offensive to human dignity.

Faculty should include this statement about what is not an acceptable profile picture when they ask students to upload a profile picture.

Follow these steps to do it.

To upload a profile picture:

  1. Click your name in the Brightspace minibar and then select Profile from the dropdown menu.
  2. Click Change Picture.
  3. Navigate to find the image you want to use as your profile picture.
  4. Click on the Save and Close button when you are done.

Want more information?

You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit the Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Published on Leave a comment on 2017 National Distance Learning Week

Individuals lined up to form the letters NDLW

November 6-10, 2017 is National Distance Learning Week (NDLW). In association with NDLW, the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) is offering free webinars on a variety of topics related to online teaching and learning. A few other organizations are offering free webinars during NDLW as well.

For more information on the activities and to register for the webinars visit NDLW 2017.

Published on Leave a comment on Brightspace Tip #3: Orange is the New Blackboard!

Brightspace @ XULA logo

Brightspace (formerly called Desire2Learn or D2L) will replace Blackboard as our learning management system (LMS) starting spring 2018.

Brightspace training sessions start next week (the week of October 16th). Now is the time to sign-up for training sessions. You can sign-up for trainings on our events page.

Sandbox courses will be used in the Brightspace training sessions. Fill out the Brightspace sandbox course request form to request a sandbox course.

Additionally, our Brightspace Migration FAQs have been updated. Please review the updated FAQs, they should be able to answer your questions about our migration plan.

Want more information?

Brightspace Migration FAQs
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions

Published on Leave a comment on Bb Tip #187: Grade Center

The Grade Center is more than just a way to record students' grades. It's a dynamic and interactive tool, allowing instructors to record data, calculate grades, and monitor student progress. In addition to being able to record grades, instructors can track student work and share private comments and feedback with students throughout the semester.

image showing Grade Center

The Grade Center is integrated with gradable items such as tests, assignments, discussion boards, blogs, journals, wikis, and ungraded items, such as surveys and self-assessments. Instructors can create Grade Center columns for activities and/or requirements done outside of Blackboard, such as exams given on paper, oral presentations, and participation.

Students also benefit when their instructor uses the Grade Center. Students have the opportunity to adjust their approach to learning to improve their performance when they see their grades and instructor feedback.

Follow these steps to do it.

Listed below are links to previous Bb tips on using the Grade Center:

Want more information?

Working with the Grade Center
Try these Blackboard How-To documents
Explore Blackboard’s On Demand Learning Center
Visit our Blackboard FAQs for additional blackboard information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

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Published on 1 Comment on Share Documents Safely Using Google Drive

One of the most powerful aspects of using Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides is the ability to share documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with others, so you can collaboratively edit those documents together in real-time from anywhere in the world.

Collaborators on a document can view, comment on, or even make changes to the document, depending on the permissions you give them. You no longer have to email document attachments or merge edits from multiple copies of a document ever again. Safely share the files instead!

Here's a handy two page guide, from Oxford Brookes University, on how to share Google documents safely.

page one of share documents safely pdf

ICYMI, read Bart Everson’s “Drive Right In” blog post for more information about Xavier’s adoption of G Suite (formerly Google Apps) and sharing files in Google Drive.

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Published on 1 Comment on Brightspace Tip #2: Sandbox Courses

Experiment with Brightspace features and functions using your own Sandbox course. A sandbox course is an empty course where you can experiment with Brightspace features and functions without affecting your actual courses. The sandbox course will be your very own, and can be used as a place to experiment without affecting any real students.

Brightspace sandbox course banner

Fill out the Brightspace sandbox course request form to request a sandbox course.

Sandbox courses will be used in the upcoming Brightspace training. You can find more information about the Brightspace training as well as sign-up for the training sessions on our events page.

Want more information?

Brightspace Migration FAQs
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions

Image credit: "Brightspace sandbox course banner" by jflorent is licensed under CC0 and is a derivative of image by RAMillu from Pixabay

Published on Leave a comment on Finding Images to Use in Your Courses

Often instructors are looking for images to use in their courses because images can liven up the course and help students understand the course material.

magnifying glass clipart

Be careful using a Google search for images. Many of the images that you find in a Google search are copyrighted. Images you use for your courses should be free of any copyright restrictions.

There are several sites that I like to use to find free images that are either in the public domain or covered by licenses that allow you to reuse images under certain restrictions. Those sites are:

You may have found an image you want to use, however, you would like to make changes to it. You can find image editing software suggestions in the Xavier Library Digital Humanities Toolbox. Just make sure the image copyright gives you permission to modify the image.

What’s your favorite site(s) for finding free images? Let us know by leaving a comment on this blog post.

ICYMI, read my blog post on Digital Copyrights for copyright information.

Image credit: image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay