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A cluster of metallic gears interlocked on a shiny surface, showcasing intricate mechanical design and engineering.

Online groups can enrich class discussion and provide a virtual environment for sharing information. You can use groups to organize users’ work on projects and assignments, or you can create special work areas for users with different learning needs. The Groups tool allows instructors to form virtual groups of students to support peer collaboration.

Users can belong to multiple groups within the same course. For example, each user can simultaneously belong to a group for class projects, a group for special interest discussions, and a group for advanced users. Each group can have its own discussion forums, assignments, and locker area to work in. You can grade members of groups individually or as a team.

Groups can be designated as Self Enrollment (allows students to add themselves to a Group), No Auto Enrollment (instructor assigns students to Groups), or random enrollment (Brightspace system distributes students equally into Groups).

Group Enrollment Type Description
# of Groups

Groups of #

Groups will be created by either number of groups (i.e., 4 groups total) or group size (i.e., groups of 4 students). Students will be randomly assigned to each group.
# of Groups - No Auto Enrollment This option allows instructors to manually assign students to groups.
# of Groups - Self Enrollment

Groups of # - Self Enrollment

# of Groups, Capacity of # – Self Enrollment

Blank groups will be created for students to sign-up for. Students will be able to see the other members of their group.
Single user, member-specific groups This option creates groups of one (1). Each group has a single user where the first name and last name of the learner is the name of the group.

To support growing class sizes, the Groups tool now allows enrollment of up to 3000 users per group within a group category. Previously, the limit was 200 users per group.

Important: Currently, there is no way to hide the names of group members from other students who are in the same group. Therefore, creating groups for remedial or disability purposes could violate confidentiality laws if group names and/or group members makes the purpose of the group obvious.

Follow these steps to do it.

To create a group category you should:

  1. On the navbar, click Groups.
  2. On the Manage Groups page, click New Category.
  3. Enter a Category Name and Description.
  4. Select an Enrollment Type from the drop-down list.
  5. Depending on the chosen Enrollment Type, enter the Number of Groups to create, the Number of Users per group, or both.
  6. To apply a distinctive prefix to each group name and code in the category, enter it in the Group Prefix field. If you do not fill in this field, the prefix defaults to "Group".
  7. Depending on the chosen Enrollment Type, to automatically enroll users to groups, select Auto-enroll new users.
  8. Depending on the chosen Enrollment Type, to randomly place users in groups, select Randomize users in groups. If you do not choose this option, users are placed alphabetically based on the Classlist.
  9. If you select an Enrollment Type that supports self enrollment, to set a deadline after which learners can no longer self enroll in the group, select Set Self Enrollment Expiry Date.
  10. Click Save.

To create a group you should:

Note: Groups reside in categories. You must create a category before you can create a group. These instructions assume you have already created a category for the group.

  1. On the navbar, click Groups.
  2. On the Manage Groups page, from the View Categories drop-down list, select the category you want to add a group to.
  3. From the context menu of the category, click Add Group.
  4. If you do not want to use the default name provided, enter a group name.
  5. If you do not want to use the default group code provided, enter a group code.
  6. Enter a description for the group.
  7. Click Save.

Want more information?

Groups Tool Quick Reference Guide (pdf)
Creating Groups in Brightspace
Create and Manage Categories and Groups
Group Enrollment Types
Create a Group (video)
Understand Group Enrollment Options (video)
Modify Group Enrollment (video)
Best Practices for Setting Up Groups

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
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.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: "Cluster of Gears" created by jflorent using Microsoft Designer AI

#LearnEverywhereXULA (#LEX) is our award winning Brightspace course that is organized around the eight General Standards for Higher Education set forth in the Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric Sixth Edition. The information, activities, and assignments in the #LEX course aids faculty in developing high quality, well-designed, objective-driven courses on Brightspace for Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) students.

hot air ballons

When faculty complete the #LEX course, they have the opportunity to expand their horizons even more through #LEX Advanced certification. With the certification, faculty learn about using design and automation features available in Brightspace to apply better pedagogical practices within their courses by making them more user-friendly, accessible, and efficient.

#LEX Advanced takes a deeper dive into tools like Rubrics, Release Conditions, Intelligent Agents, HTML Templates, Awards & Badges, and more. #LEX Advanced certification also includes topics such as accessibility, academic integrity, rethinking assessment strategies in the age of AI, securing online testing environment, online discussions, group work, and video lectures.

A #LEX Advanced badge can be earned for participation in a #LEX Advanced workshop OR for completing its corresponding module in the #LEX course.

Our #LEX Advanced certification has five levels. Faculty can move up a certification level with every fourth #LEX Advanced badge they earn. Complete four modules to earn the #LEX Advanced Level 1 certification. Complete eight modules to earn the #LEX Advanced Level 2 certification. Complete twelve modules to earn the #LEX Advanced Level 3 certification. Complete sixteen modules to earn the #LEX Advanced Level 4 certification. Complete twenty modules to earn the #LEX Advanced Level 5 certification.

Faculty can view the badges they've earned by clicking on Activities in the NavBar and then click on Awards within the #LearnEverywhereXULA course.

Are you interested in becoming #LEX Advanced certified? Attend one of our upcoming #LEX Advanced workshops to start earning your badges. Alternatively, you can earn badges by completing modules in the #LearnEverywhereXULA course.

NOTE: Faculty who are not enrolled in the #LearnEverywhereXULA course can request enrollment using this enrollment request form.

#LEX Advanced Certifications

#LEX Advanced certificate

Congratulations to those faculty who have earned #LEX Advanced Certification!

#LEX Advanced Level 1 Certificate Awardees

  • Ayyad, Dr. Ahlam
  • Bailey-Wheeler, Dr. Janel
  • Bellone-Hite, Dr. Amy
  • DiMaggio, Dr. Stassi
  • Earls, Dr. Martha
  • Edwards, Dr. Andrea
  • Farudi, Dr. Giti
  • Gaudin, Dr. Wendy
  • Gstohl, Dr. Mark
  • Hammer, Dr. Elizabeth Yost
  • Helm, Dr. Amanda
  • Laborde, Dr. Katheryn
  • Ma, Dr. Timmy
  • Manley, Dr. Elizabeth
  • McFerrin, Dr. Harris
  • Nguyen, Dr. Nam
  • Plaisance-Meyers, Dr. Sierra
  • Ratnayaka, Dr. Harish
  • Rousselle, Dr. Elizabeth
  • Salm, Dr. Steven
  • Sirohi, Dr. Sunil
  • St. Julien, Dr. Danielle
  • Taylor, Dr. Ashley
  • Todd, Dr. Jason
  • Verma, Dr. Abha

#LEX Advanced Level 2 Certificate Awardees

  • Ayyad, Dr. Ahlam
  • Bailey-Wheeler, Dr. Janel
  • Earls, Dr. Martha
  • Edwards, Dr. Andrea
  • Gstohl, Dr. Mark
  • Hammer, Dr. Elizabeth Yost
  • Helm, Dr. Amanda
  • Ma, Dr. Timmy
  • Ratnayaka, Dr. Harish
  • Rousselle, Dr. Elizabeth
  • Todd, Dr. Jason

#LEX Advanced Level 3 Certificate Awardees

  • Ayyad, Dr. Ahlam
  • Edwards, Dr. Andrea
  • Gstohl, Dr. Mark
  • Hammer, Dr. Elizabeth Yost
  • Ma, Dr. Timmy
  • Todd, Dr. Jason

#LEX Advanced Level 4 Certificate Awardees

  • Ayyad, Dr. Ahlam
  • Hammer, Dr. Elizabeth Yost
  • Todd, Dr. Jason

Image credits:
image by PDPhotos from Pixabay
"#LEX Advanced Certificate of Completion" by Bart | CC BY 4.0

Learners sometimes have a hard time keeping track of everything they need to get done. They may have to jump in and out of multiple courses to figure out if there are upcoming assignments or projects with due dates in the near future (or in the past!). This can be frustrating for them, and it can also lead to missed deadlines.

The Work To Do Widget is a simple way you can help students stay on top of their work.

Example of the Work To Do widget
Example of the Work To Do widget

How the Work To Do Widget Works

The Work To Do widget is designed specifically for students and displays all their overdue and upcoming learning activities in one place. Overdue work appears at the top of the list, and upcoming items are listed below. This makes it incredibly easy for students to see what's most urgent.

All quizzes, assignments, checklists, and other activities with due or end dates automatically appear in the widget. Students can see the widget on their My Home page in Brightspace, as well as on their individual course homepages. This means they can get a quick overview of all their courses at once, or focus on just the tasks for your specific course.

Example of the Work To Do widget with no activities due
Example of the Work To Do widget showing no activities due

Making It Visible for Your Students

To ensure your students can take advantage of this helpful tool, all you have to do is make sure the Work To Do widget is enabled on your course homepage. When you use the default course homepage in Brightspace, the widget is automatically included. If you’ve customized your homepage, you may need to add it. A few minutes of effort on your part can save your students a lot of stress and help them stay organized all semester long.

The Work To Do widget can be seen by users with the role of student. Instructors will see the Work To Do widget when they view the course as a student.

Note: Instructors who have opted to customize their course homepage and want their students to be able to see the Work To Do widget on their customized course homepage, will have to add the widget to the course homepage.

For additional information and frequently asked questions about the Work To Do widget, see the following article in the Brightspace Community: Introducing the Work To Do Widget.

Want more information?

Brightspace Tip #50: Customize Your Course Homepage
Homepages and Widgets
Design a Course Homepage with Widgets (pdf)
Adding the Work to Do Widget to Course Homepage (video)
Brightspace Tip #533: Due Dates

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
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.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Use due dates in Brightspace to help students stay on track. Students will see due dates when they look at entries in the course calendar, Work To Do Widget, and in the Pulse App.

Due dates and availability dates are generally entered when the instructor creates assignments, assessments, discussion topics and forums, etc. The dates automatically populate into the course calendar.

calendar with due today circled on Thursday the 9th

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.

Follow these steps to do it.

To add availability and due dates in Content:

  1. Get into the course you want to add availability and due dates to course objects.
  2. On the NavBar (of the course you want to change dates in), click Content.
  3. On the Table of Contents page, click Bulk Edit.
  4. For any topic or module that you want to add availability or due dates to, click Add dates and restrictions.
  5. Do any of the following:
    • Click Add start date. Enter your start date details.
    • Click Add due date. Enter your due date details.
    • Click Add end date. Enter your end date details.
  6. Click Update.
  7. Click Done Editing.

Want More Information?

Add Availability and Due Dates in Content
Set Availability and Due Dates for an Assignment
Manage Dates
Pulse App

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
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.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: “due today” by jflorent is dedicated to public domain under CC0 and is a derivative of calendar by tigerlily713 from Pixabay 

the word update written on a chalk board

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 August 2025/20.25.08 release that were added to our system this month:

1) Brightspace – New Window icon for all menu items

To help users better anticipate navigation behavior in Brightspace, a New Window icon now appears next to all menu items that open in a new tab or window. This change applies to all applicable menu items across the platform interface.

The icon design is also updated to better align with current styles used in Brightspace.

View an example of this change in the Print Thread menu in a discussion topic (see image).

The New Window icon appears in a menu. The icon is a diagonal arrow in a partial box.
The New Window icon appears beside a menu item.

From a course, navigate to a topic in Discussions, select the actions drop-down for a thread, then view the New Window icon appears beside Print Thread.

2) Groups – Enrollment limit increase

To support growing class sizes, the Groups tool now allows enrollment of up to 3000 users per group within a group category. Previously, the limit was 200 users per group.

This increased limit applies to all enrollment workflows, including:

  • Automatic enrollment during group creation
  • Automatic enrollment during Classlist enrollment, where automatic enrollment group types exist
  • Manual enrollment using the Enroll Users and Import options within the Groups tool
  • Groups enrollment via the Bulk User Management tool
  • Enrollment using Brightspace APIs

The 3000-user limit is now strictly enforced across all methods of group enrollment. Previous workarounds that bypassed the former enrollment limit will no longer function for any group that has reached the 3000-user limit.

Currently, the automatic enrollment overflow functionality enrolls users into other groups in the same category if the selected group is full. However, when the 3000-user limit is reached in all groups, further enrollment attempts will fail. To continue processing enrollments, you must add additional groups to the category.

In cases where enrollment fails due to the user limit, the following indications appear:

  • Brightspace APIs return an error
  • Bulk User Management and Group Import CSV display user-specific errors in the import results
  • IPSIS and Banner integrations report failures
  • In the Groups tool, additional users cannot be selected without deselecting users already enrolled in the group

For more information about this feature and future developments, refer to the Improving groups with increased enrollment limits blog post.

This feature implements the following PIE items:

  • D6942 (Allow for more than 200 people in a group/section)
  • D4750 (Remove 200 member cap on Self-enrolling Groups)

3) Quizzes – Print your quiz

In response to customer feedback, this update provides instructors with a simple way to print an offline quiz that supports all native Brightspace quiz question types, shuffling and randomization options, question pools, multiple versions, and an Answer Key.

The Print option selected next to a quiz name on the Manage Quizzes page.
From the Manage Quizzes page, click the drop-down beside the quiz name and select Print.
Print preview of a quiz showing formatting options.
From the Print Quiz page, select a version tab, configure formatting, and click Print [Version].

Options to support multiple quiz versions include:

  • Shuffle Quiz (under Timing & Display) to shuffle quiz sections and questions.
  • The Timing and Display settings with Shuffle Quiz option enabled.
    In the Timing & Display section of the quiz settings, select Shuffle Quiz to randomize the order of questions and sections within the quiz.
  • Shuffle questions in this section (when creating or editing a section).
  • The New Section page with Shuffle questions option enabled.
    When creating or editing a quiz section, select Shuffle questions in this section to randomize questions, sections, and pools within the section.
  • Randomize answer order when creating or editing a supported question type, for example, Multiple Choice.
  • A multiple choice question with Randomize answer order enabled.
    When creating a multiple-choice question, select Randomize answer order to present answer choices in a different order for each learner.

To help instructors quickly and easily grade printed quizzes taken offline, an Answer Key is provided for each version. It includes the correct answers and, where applicable, the grading method.

Print preview of a quiz showing answer key and formatting options.
To grade a quiz, instructors can select Show correct answers and print the required version of the quiz with an Answer Key.

This feature implements the following PIE items:

  • D362 (Print Quiz and Quiz Key)
  • D3718 (Quizzes - Generate PDF of the Quiz for Printing)
  • D5909 (Make all screens which have "forms" exportable to PDF)
  • D8049 (Printing Quiz)
  • D11794 (Quizzes: Print Test for Offline Completion)

4) PIE – Enhancement to the Product Idea Exchange (PIE)

This update enhances the Product Idea Exchange (PIE) based on customer feedback and introduces a new idea submission pipeline. D2L is refocusing on using PIE for new product ideas only. For bugs, support issues, or feedback on existing features, customers should use the Customer Support Portal or speak with your Customer Success representative. Updated guidelines for PIE are available in the Community.

This update makes it easier to:

  • Engage directly with the D2L Product Management team
  • Receive faster updates on submitted ideas with simplified statuses and streamlined process
  • Gain visibility into how ideas influence the product roadmap

Released ideas are highlighted in Brightspace Release Notes.

D2L will provide feedback on submissions that do not follow the updated guidelines to provide an opportunity to update the submissions. Submitters receive a notification and have 90 days to enhance it.

D2L is also reviewing existing PIE submissions to inform migration plans. Customers are encouraged to revisit older submissions marked as Feedback Review Window and provide comments on those still relevant.

The current PIE interface remains open for commenting until August 31, after which it becomes read-only for six months to allow historical reference and migration.

If you are interested in getting more information about these and all the August Continuous Delivery updates, refer to the Brightspace Platform August 2025/20.25.08 Release Notes.

Additionally, refer to the Brightspace Release Notes for Continuous Delivery Releases, for details about current, past, and to preview upcoming continuous delivery updates.

Want more information?

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
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.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: image by geralt from Pixabay

Notifications enable you to customize what methods you want to use to receive notifications, such as email, as well as what events will trigger notifications.

A man is seated on a bench, working intently on his laptop, enjoying the fresh air and natural surroundings.

Students can control how they receive information about course activity through their notification preferences. They can customize which actions in Brightspace will trigger a notification.

The Notification tool allows users to:

  • Subscribe to a summary of activity for each course and receive a daily email.
  • Specify your preferred email address for instant notifications and announcements.
  • Receive instant notifications about course activity, such as edited content, new discussion posts, assignments, grades, course announcements and upcoming quizzes.

Instructors can help their students to keep up with their coursework by encouraging them to setup their notification preferences. Additionally, there is a Getting Started for Learners Video Playlist that students should watch to get familiar with Brightspace.

Follow these steps to do it.

To customize notification preferences, users should:

  1. From your Personal Menu (located in the Minibar), select Notifications.
  2. select notifications from personal menu

  3. Select the email address to which notifications will be sent.
  4. Select the course activities for which you would like to receive notifications.
  5. Click the Save button at the bottom of the screen.

Want more information?

Navigate Brightspace - Notifications - Learner (video)
Getting Started for Learners Video Playlist
Change Personal Settings in Brightspace

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
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.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: Photo by Jayson from Nappy.co

Did you know, D2L rolled out a modern, upgraded, responsive, and accessible Brightspace Editor? The Brightspace Editor is the primary method of creating content in Brightspace. The Brightspace Editor allows users to enter text, pictures, or embed audio/video. Advanced users can even embed HTML code.

You can create course content using the Brightspace Editor. For example, the Brightspace Editor is available when you edit discussion topics, create custom instructions for assignment submission folders, create quizzes, create announcements, and create content topics.

Brightspace Editor
Brightspace Editor

I find myself using emojis to help convey tone and emotion, which can be difficult to express through text alone. 🙂 You can easily insert an emoji using the "Other Insert Options" button in the Brightspace Editor's toolbar.

The Brightspace Editor has many icons that match those of common word processing software: bold, left justify, bullets, tables, and so on. It’s important to remember the Brightspace Editor is not a word processor. When you add pictures, links or embed videos, you are creating references to items that are stored internally (in Brightspace) or externally (another web site). If those items are changed or deleted, the reference will not display properly.

A breakdown of the new features in the Brightspace Editor
Brightspace Editor: A Breakdown of New Features

Redesigning the editor provided opportunities for D2L to provide a better experience. Some new features were added to the Editor, but there was also a focus on improvements in accessibility, responsiveness, and ease of use:

  • Improved accessibility – D2L ensured that toolbars met the new WCAG 3.0 standards for button spacing and that the keyboard navigation makes sense to users, especially those using screen reader technology. They also recreated their great color picker that highlights WCAG AA compliance to end users.
  • Enhanced responsiveness – The toolbar collapses intelligently based on the size of your screen, with different breakpoints. This means that formatting options collapse together, alignment options, and 'insert' options - creating a great experience on any device.
  • Ease of use – The editor now looks more like a standard web text editor - with all formatting options at the top. Contextual menus are inside the editing experience for quick access while typing. They included the advanced code editor that makes editing html code easier. They upgraded the tables feature and added: format painter, word count, and @mentions in Discussions. All areas clients suggested for improvement in the Product Idea Exchange (PIE).

Enhancements to the Editor

  • More and different formatting options.
  • An improved color picker with WCAG compliance checking.
  • A full set of emojis and special symbols
  • The move of footer options like 'preview' ' source' 'accessibility checking' and 'expand' to the main toolbar.
  • Updates to the font size menu
  • Removal of Spellchecker*
  • Removal of Cut/Copy buttons (which no longer worked on most browsers anymore in any case)
  • A refreshed Accessibility checker
  • The Brightspace Editor now remembers the open or closed state of the More Actions button, per user, in order to reduce clicks for users that frequently use options in the expanded editor.

*NOTE: The Brightspace Editor does not have a built in spell checker. Your web browser’s built-in spell check functionality is available in the new Brightspace Editor and D2L recommends using it.

Additions to the Editor

  • Format painter that enables you to copy and apply text formatting.
  • New Advanced Tables that includes sorting options.
  • Contextual menus for editing text, links, and images (image editing is not available in all areas)
  • Word Count including character and selection word count
  • Advanced Source Code Editor that includes code suggestions and color coding for tags.
  • Lato font
  • @mentions support in Discussions
  • An 'Other Insert Options' menu for overflow items to improve responsiveness.
  • Limited text pattern support: * * for italics, ** ** for bold, ## for H2, ### for H3, etc until H6.

Want more information?

About the Brightspace Editor
Using the Brightspace (HTML) Editor (video)
Using the Brightspace (HTML) Editor

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
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.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

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.

Brightspace Pulse App on iPhone

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.

Want more information?

Brightspace Pulse App
Manage Your Course Workload with Brightspace Pulse - Learners
Brightspace Tip #528: Quicklinks
Brightspace Tip #404: Due Dates
Pulse Dates - Set Date Restrictions for Content (video)
Pulse Dates - Set Date Availability for a Calendar Event (video)
Brightspace Tip #527: Manage Dates
Brightspace Tip #248: Drip-Feeding

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
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.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

A Quicklink is a way for instructors to insert a direct link to content that is inside or outside of their course.

insert quicklink in Brightspace Editor

Quicklinks are useful because they allow instructors to provide students with a direct link to content in the course. For example, instructors can create an announcement or email for students with links that take students directly to specific content files or assignments inside of the course. When creating content, instructors can create a quicklink to a rubric so that students can have easy access to it.

Instructors should take advantage of Quicklinks, they are useful for pointing students to specific content in the course!

Follow these steps to do it.

Watch this short video for instructions on inserting Quicklinks:

Want more information?

Brightspace Tip #259: Brightspace Editor
Using the Brightspace (HTML) Editor (video)
About Brightspace Editor
Insert and Edit Images with Brightspace Editor
Insert and Edit Equations with Equation Editor

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Brightspace Known Issues
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.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

calendar

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:

  1. Get into the course you want to change the dates of course objects.
  2. On the NavBar (of the course you want to change dates in), click Course Admin.
  3. Click Manage Dates.
  4. Select the check box of the items for which you want to bulk edit dates.
  5. Click Bulk Edit Dates.
  6. In the Bulk Edit Dates dialog box, update the due dates and availability dates.
  7. Click Save.

Want More Information?

About Manage Dates
Bulk edit dates in Manage Dates
Manage Dates - Offset Dates (video)

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call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.


Image credit: calendar by tigerlily713 from Pixabay