A BRIGHTSPACE
MINUTE
And we're off!
After over a year of preparation, we're now a Brightspace campus! In this edition, we're sharing a few tips for a successful start of the semester.
Just beginning?
If you haven't had much time to learn Brightspace yet, we have some suggestions:
Talk to students about how you'll use Brightspace
Because this is new for them, too, and every teacher has a unique way of using Brightspace, you can avoid confusion for your students if you take a moment to show them how you've set up your course and where they can go to get help.
Here are some examples
- Share this Knowledge Base article: Brightspace for Students.
- Let students know that, if they have questions, they can get help from the Tech Team by clicking Submit a Help Ticket on the Brightspace for Students page linked above.
- Advise students to set their notifications to allow alerts about announcements, quizzes, etc.
- If you've set date restrictions on items of content (or activities), explain to students that they'll see the item but it won't become an active link until the start date that's indicated beneath it.
- Tell students that they can get an overview of their course activities and grades by clicking Class Progress under Grades & Feedback (Here’s a brief overview video of that tool you might share with students).
- If your class is fully online, consider making a short screencast tour of your course space.
Finally, learn more over time
Rome wasn't built in a day, and you're in good company if you don’t know everything about Brightspace yet. Throughout the semester, the CTL will host workshops for instructors and TAs on a variety of Brightspace topics and we'll be available to answer your questions as they emerge (by email or in a consult).
If you have any questions, please let us know. We're here to support you.
Center for Teaching & Learning
www.uvm.edu/ctl
ctl@uvm.edu