What is the Brightspace Starter Course?

The Brightspace Starter Course is a pre-built course outline designed to give you a jump start on building your course. It contains pre-built Modules, Assignments, Discussions, Quizzes, and Gradebook. All you need to do is personalize it and add your course materials.

Get the Brightspace Starter Course

Check out a demo version of theĚý.

If you are interested in using the Brightspace Starter,Ěý.

What is in the Brightspace Starter Course?

• 15 Pre-built Assignments
• 15 Pre-built Quizzes
• 15 Pre-built Discussions
• 3 Pre-built Exams
• 15 Pre-built modules in Content
• Pre-built weighted Gradebook

You don’t need to use all of this! We have hidden everything listed above from students. As you personalize and use different items, you can then make them visible to students. You can also delete anything you don’t want to use!

Who is the Brightspace Starter Course for?

• Practitioners
• Adjunct Faculty
• New Faculty
• Or anyone starting a new course!

The Brightspace Starter Course is designed so you don’t have to start with a completely blank slate. Instead, when you use the Brightspace Starter Course, you will start with a basic class structure that you can add to, personalize, and adjust. This is especially helpful if you are new to Brightspace and haven’t had a chance to learn the program yet.

Why use the Brightspace Starter Course?Ěý

There are several reasons you may want to use the Brightspace Starter Course. Below we list some of our favorite reasons to use it.

• Custom tutorials and support documents are included right in the course.
• This course is a backbone structure designed for you to easily modify. For example, each module has a template assignment, discussion board, and quiz that you can customize or remove.
• Each pre-built assessment is already linked to the gradebook (this saves a lot of time and confusion).
• A pre-built weighted gradebook is provided for you to adjust to match your syllabus.
• Instructions for adding your syllabus are in the course, along with the required syllabus statements.

What is Changing

We are transitioning the consultations to a by-request model. Instead of having a calendar with pre-set times, you now email Faculty Support at citl@maine.edu and ask for a consultation. By doing this we hope to provide more flexibility in our available consultation times and be able to support more people.Ěý

Who to Reach Out To

There are many people you can reach out to if you need help. Below is a list of some that may be helpful to you.

Instructional Designers

Ask an expert Instructional Designer for advice on building and/or running a course. Their mission is to help you achieve your teaching and learning goals, even if you are not 100% sure what those are yet. To request a consultation, please Click Here to Fill Out an Appointment Request Form.

Faculty Support

Faculty Support can help you with Brightspace, Kaltura, Zoom, and so much more. They can teach you how to use any of the digital learning tools we have partnered with. Whether you want to schedule a consultation, or need a quick answer, email faculty support at citl@maine.edu and they will get back to you in minutes! (as long as you email during business hours)

IT Support

Are you having issues with your computer? Is there something wrong with your monitor, camera, or microphone? IT Support can help you with any technical issues you may have and help get you up and running. You can contact them by emailing help@maine.edu.

IT Media Services Support

Do you need help with on-campus classroom audio or video equipment? Media services support is here to help you with that! Whether you need to borrow equipment, schedule a classroom, or are running into issues with the classroom equipment they can help you. You can contact them by calling them at 207.581.2500 during normal business hours or visit their website at /it/media-services/.

Other Brightspace Resources

Click the links below to explore our other Brightspace resources.

Tutorials

Recorded Workshops

Live Workshops

Self-Paced Learning

91¸ŁŔű this New Feature

Up until now, when you got an accommodation request from a student for extra time, you needed to go into each of your quizzes to grant that student extra time through “Special Access”. This new feature now lets you define an accommodation through Classlist once. Granting an accommodation through Classlist will allow you to specify how much extra time a student needs, for example 1.5 times standard time allowed, on all quizzes in your course.Ěý

This feature is new, and currently only has 2 accommodations you can define:

1. Give students extended time on a quiz
2. Allow students to right-click in a quiz

For other accommodations, you will still need to use the “Special Access” to fulfill those requests.Ěý

A Note on Synchronous Quizzes

Even though this new feature allows you to give students extra time on a quiz, it does not extend a student’s due or end date time. That will still need to be done in “Special Access” in the Quiz Editor.

For Example, say you have a 2-hour exam from 8 am to 10 am. A student with an accommodation request for 1.5 time will need 3 hours to complete the exam and will not finish the exam until 4 pm. If you set the student’s accommodation in Classlist using the new feature, the student will be given the 3 hours to complete the exam, but the exam’s due date and end date will not change from the standard exam time. This means that the student will be shown by Brightspace they only have between 8 am and 10 am (a 2-hour window) to complete their 3-hour exam.

Setting Extra Quiz Time For a Student

1. In your navbar under Course Resources, go to Classlist.
2. Click on the down arrow next to the name of the student you are giving an accommodation to.
3. Click on “Edit Accommodations”.
4. Click on “Modify Time Limit”.
5. Click on “Multiplier of original quiz time”.
6. Ender the multiplier on the student’s accommodation request.Ěý
   • For example, if the student gets one and a half time, the multiplier would be 1.5.Ěý
   • If the student gets double time, the multiplier would be 2.
7. Click Save.
8. Now the student will automatically get that additional time on all quizzes in this course.Ěý

For a tutorial with screenshots, .

Setting up your first quiz of the semester? Finding yourself a little lost in all the settings? Check out these tutorials!

Building Question Banks

In general, we recommend building your questions in the Question Library and then importing your questions into your quiz. This is because it makes using the other tools, such as question pools, easier. Below are some tutorials to help you build out your Question Library.

(Document + Link to Converter)

Make entire question banks available for use in the Quizzes that were previously in a text document! To access the converter directly , or click the link above to read the tutorial on how to use it.

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(Document)

The Question Library is a great place to store and build questions. This document will show you how to set up the Question Library and explore different question types that you can create.

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(Video)

This video goes over what the Question Library is, how to set it up, how to add questions to a quiz, and explores different question types.

Building a Quiz

The first time you build a quiz it can be a little overwhelming. If you’ve built out your question bank beforehand though, you can focus on what you want your students’ testing experience to be like. Here are some helpful tutorials to get you started.

(Document)

This tutorial walks you through the basics of how to set up a quiz and what the different question types are.

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(Video)

This video will compare the three different tools, how to create Quizzes, and will show you the Question Library.

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(Document)

This document provides guidelines for the most common ways faculty are asked to customize quizzes/exams in Brightspace to help meet student accommodation requests.ĚýĚý

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(Document)

It’s important to make sure that your Quiz/Exam is set up the way you want before you have deployed it to students. This document provides some features of Quizzes and Exams that you may be looking for or didn’t know existed.

Building a Quiz Template

If you have a lot of quizzes to make, it might be helpful to build a quiz template. Once you build a template it is easy to copy it. To build a quiz template all you do is build a regular quiz while ignoring anything that is normally different quiz to quiz. To learn more check out the tutorial below.

(Document)

Additional Tutorials

Not seeing what you’re looking for? Check out these pages that list all our Quiz tutorials.

Written Tutorials on Quizzes

Webinars and Video Tutorials on Quizzes

One of the biggest differences between Blackboard and Brightspace is that we are going to see occasional Brightspace updates. Don’t worry though! These updates are to designed to make it easier for you to use Birghtspace and are done gradually. The latest update brought us a new Assignment Experience! If you are not ready to switch though, don’t worry! This new experience can be switched on or off depending on how adventurous your feeling that day. I highly encourage you to explore the new experience though as it has a lot of exciting features!

Below is a screenshot of the new Assignment Builder. You can see it’s a much simpler interface than the old assignment builder! If you ever want to turn off/on a new experience, look for the little down arrow in the righthand corner of your screen. This will give you an option to turn off/on the new experience.

New Assignment Builder

The new Assignment Builder is very exciting! It takes all the functionality of the old builder and displays it in a much more digestible format. You will see all the most commonly used fields such as Name, Score Out Of, Due Date, and Instructions are now front and center. Everything else is organized into drop-down menus to the right.

What is the most exciting feature though? The Score Out Of now automatically links to the grade book!ĚýYou will no longer have to make a grade item if you want an assignment linked to Grades! All you need to do is say how many points the assignment is worth!

Check out this tutorial to learn more:

New Assignment Grading Experience

Along with the new Builder comes a new Assignment Grading Experience! Functionality wise, this tool hasn’t changed too much. It mostly just simplified the interface to make it even easier to grade student submissions. I highly recommend trying it out though! Even this simple update makes it easier to give your students feedback!

Check out this tutorial to learn more:

The Spring Semester is coming right up! Here are a few things you can do to make sure that your course is ready to go.Ěý

Copy Course

Do you want to use materials from a previous course? You can copy items right into your Spring course! If you don’t want to copy an entire course, you can pick and choose which items you want to copy. After the copy, make sure that you check your items to make sure they are there and working!

1. Go to your Spring course
2. Select Course AdminĚý
3. Select Import/Export/Copy Components
4. Select Search for Offering and add the course that you want to copy
5. Select Copy All Components or choose Select Components to pick what you want to copy

Want more information? Visit

Make Course Active

You will need to make your course active for students to be able to access it. Make sure that you are ready for students to access the course. Once you activate it, the course will be available immediately to students.

1. Select Course Admin
2. Select Course Offering InformationĚý
3. Select the checkbox next to Course is Active
4. Select Save

Want more information? Visit:

Add TAs and/or others to your Course

If you are working with TAs, MLAs, or other instructors there is a chance you will need to manually add them to the class list so they can be part of your course. Follow the instructions below to add additional people to your course.

1. Go to your Classlist in Brightspace
2. Click Add Participants
3. Click Add Existing Users
4. Type the name of the person you want to add in the search box and click Enter
5. Select which Role you want them to have (i.e. TA)
6. Click the select box next to their name
7. Click Enroll Selected Users

Advanced: Intelligent Agents

Do you want to make sure that students are accessing your Spring course? Set up an Intelligent Agent to automatically monitor whether or not students are accessing the course! You can also choose to have it send an email to those students.

Want to learn more about how to set this up? Read this document: or watch this video:

Working with a 3rd Party Publisher?

The best way to get your 3rd party publisher tools set up in Birghtspace is to reach out to your publisher representative.

Have More Questions?

Schedule a one-on-one consultation:ĚýRequest a One-On-One Consultation

Do you want the ability to let your students retake quizzes and only encounter the questions they had previously gotten wrong? A new feature in Quizzes will allow you to do just that! This setting makes it easy for students to focus on the just questions they got wrong. This is especially helpful if there are a lot of questions in the Quiz.Ěý

What will students see?

The experience for students will mostly be the same as it was. Here is some important information on what the students will need to do and what they will see:

• Students will take their first attempt of the quiz as they normally would.Ěý
• Once they have submitted their quiz, they will be able to start the quiz again (they can take the quiz as many times as you have allowed).
• They will only be allowed to retake the questions that they have gotten wrong.

• They can view the other questions, but will not see the answers. They will only be able to see that they got the question correct and the question text.

• When you go to Grade the Quiz, you can view how they did on each attempt.

How do I set this up?

Step 1 – Go to the Quizzes area.

Step 2 – Edit an existing quiz or create a new one.

Step 3 – Go to the Assessment tab in the Quiz Setup.

Step 4 – Change Attempts allowed (it must be more than 1).Ěý

Ěý

Step 5 – Select the Retake Incorrect Questions Only option.

Step 6 – Choose how the grade will be calculated and set up any Advanced Settings.Ěý

Step 7 – Select Save and Close.

Want more information?Ěý

Please visit:

When we give a quiz or exam we usually have a few students who need accommodation. Often times that means giving a student time and a half on a timed exam. In this post, we are going to quickly walk through the steps necessary to give these students the time they deserve. If you would like to view these steps with screenshots, check out this tutorial: .

1

Go to Quizzes in the Navbar, choose the test you wish to edit, then click Edit.

2

Navigate to the Restrictions tab in the Quiz editor.

3

Scroll down to Special Access, choose the type of access, and click Add User to Special Access.

4

Scroll to the bottom and select the student(s) requiring Special Access first. We recommend this since every time the page refreshes it resets the time limit. You will run into the least amount of refreshes if you select students first.

Note: Groups are not private, so you cannot add students to an “accommodations group” then give the group access. You must add the students individually.Ěý

5

Choose the Special Access options the user(s) require. There are options to change Date Restrictions, Time Allotments, and Number of Attempts.

5a Adding Time and a Half

To add specifically time and a half to a students exam:

1. After selecting students, scroll up to the “Timing” section.
2. Select “Enforced Time Limit”. (A recommended time limit is only a suggestion for students and it is not enforced.)
3. Change the time to the correct amount of minutes and assign a small grace period.
4. If your quiz’s availability window is only as long as your test duration, scroll to the top of the screen and extend the End Date time and the Due Date time to reflect the additional time this student is allowed.

6

When you are done, click Add Special Access.

7

Double-check that the student has the right special access. There should be a summary of that student’s special access at the bottom of the Restrictions tab of the Quiz Setup.Ěý

When do you want students to start the quiz? When do you want them to finish the quiz? How long do they have to take it? These are all important questions you’re probably already asking yourself about the quiz/exam/test you’re setting up. In this post, we are going to talk about all these different settings and what to do if you have a student with an accommodation request. If you would like more information please check out our “Quizzes: All 91¸ŁŔű Timing” Tutorial. To access it click the following link: .

Start, Due, and End Dates

First off, make sure you have a Start, Due, and End date. These are important because they tell students the window they have to do the exam in. Not sure what these are? HereĚýis a quick summary:

• Start Date: the first moment a student can start the quiz.
• Due Date: when students need to have the test done by.
• End Date: the last moment a student can click the start quiz button.

Please have both a Due Date and an End Date, even if they are the same time. The due date is what Brightspace uses to fill out all the calendar and scheduling tools that students rely on. The Due Date won’t close down the quiz once that date passes though. The End Date will close the quiz to new submissions.

Also, make sure your quiz is NOT hidden from students. If it’s hidden, even if the dates are correct, students will still not be able to see the assessment.

Ěý

Recommended vs. Enforced Time Limits

Do you want to have a time limit on your exam? If so, make sure you select the right type of time limit. There are two types of time limits; Recommended and Enforced.Ěý

• Recommended Time Limit: A suggested time for how long you think students should take on the quiz. Once the time limit is reached, the student can still continue working on their assessment with no penalty. (This isĚýthe option you select if you don’t want a time limit on your quiz.)

• Enforced Time Limit: You are requiring students to complete the assessment before the time limit runs out.Ěý

If you are using an enforced time limit you must provide a grace period for students. This gives students a small buffer window to submit their quiz after the time limit but before any penalties occur. The students are not aware of this grace period. You will then need to decide what happens to students after they have exceeded their time limit and grace period. You can:

• • • Allow the student to continue working (this will still mark that they exceeded the time limit on their quiz).
    • Prevent the student from making further changes.
    • Allow the student to continue working, but automatically score the attempt as zero after the deadline.

Special Access (Extending Time/Dates)

If you have students who need accommodations you’ll need to give them Special Access to the quiz. Luckily, Brightspace offers a convenient place where you can give students a different time limit, different due dates, or even add extra attempts. This Special Access setup is at the bottom of the Restrictions tab when you are setting up your exam.Ěý

Pro Tip: We recommend selecting the student(s) who are receiving Special Access first and then adjusting the dates, timing, and/or attempts for their accommodation. If the page refreshes before you have saved this, it will reset anything you have changed.Ěý

Here is a link to a document that explains how to use this feature:

Scenarios

Have more questions? Check out these following scenarios to see answers to some common questions.ĚýĚý

What happens when a student reaches the end of an enforced time limit?

It depends on how you have it set. There are three different things that could happen, and they will only happen after the grace period.Ěý

• If you have it set to allow the student to continue working, they will see their time limit run out, but they will be able to continue working. Their exam will be marked as having run over the time limit though.
• If you have it set to prevent the student from making further changes, it will record answers the student gave before the end of grace period. Anything entered after the grace period is not recorded.
• If you have it set to allow the student to continue working, but automatically score the attempt as zero after the extended deadline, the student will receive a zero if they go past the deadline. If they submit the exam before the grace period and extended deadline, there will be no penalties. Once they go past the deadline, they will receive a zero on the quiz, even if they got questions correct.

What happens if a student starts an exam right before the end time with an enforced time limit?Ěý

If you have an end date set to November 13th at 1 pm and a student starts the quiz on November 13th at 12:59 pm, they will still have the full amount of time to take the exam. However, you can view when students started and ended a quiz when you look at the Completion Summary of the quiz.Ěý

What happens when a student reaches the end of a recommended time limit?

Nothing! A recommended time limit does not apply any penalties to a students exam if they exceed it. If you choose to not show the clock with a recommended time limit, they won’t see a count down clock.Ěý

What happens if you only have a due date set, but not an end date?

If you set the due date for October 13th at 1pm, but do not have an end date, students can still take the quiz after the due date. For example, a student will be able to take that quiz on October 15th. The quiz will be marked as late, but there are no automatic penalties for them taking the quiz late. If you want to prevent students from taking the quiz after the due date, make sure to set an end date too.

What if a student needs an extension due to internet/power loss?

Follow the steps and add that student to Special Access. You can give them a new due/end date or give them a second attempt if they lost power while taking the exam.

The purpose of the Content area is to guide students through the learning materials of your course. Making sure your content is organized and easy to navigate is what makes it a learning path and not just a collection of items. If you are getting emails from confused or frustrated students or just want to refresh your course flow, this post is for you! Here are some simple ways to make your Content area cleaner, friendlier, and easier to navigate.Ěý

Why use your content area?

It’s true your students can access their Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions from the main navbar. But simply because they can, doesn’t mean they know to do so. A properly used content area leads students to the assessments instead of students having to go searching for them. It also helps students know what materials go with what assessments. The goal is to create a learning path for your students so they will know what to do first, then second, then third etc.

Simplify Content

Your modules are the stepping stones in your learning path for students. They should guide students through the Learning Materials, Assessments, and Activities that students should complete. It’s up to you how to organize your modules (by weeks, units, chapters, etc). Some good practices are:

• Organize it sequentially.
• Aim for as few clicks as possible.Ěý
  • Use submodules to organize materials within a module, but try to avoid creating too many.Ěý
  • Each item should NOT be in its own submodule. You may not need submodules at all!

Add Module Descriptions

The description of a module is an important communication tool. It is where you can explain to students:Ěý

• what is being covered,
• expectations, andĚý
• what they need to do.

Having a description helps guide students through the module. Think of the module description as the online version of starting your class with “housekeeping” items; where you remind them of what they should be doing and where they can find it.

Assign Dates

Using Start, Due, and End Dates are important because they enable your students to use Brightspace’s calendar feature to stay organized. Not sure what the difference between these dates are? Here’s a quick summary:

• Start Date: First moment a student can start the assessment.
• Due Date: When students should have the assessment done by.
• End Date: Last moment a student can click the submit button.

Due dates are the most important because they tell students when to have the assessment done by. Due dates are also what is used in the calendar features of Brightspace. Start and End dates are used to limit access to the assessment.

Use the Calendar

The Brightspace Course Calendar is an essential tool for students. It allows them to see when they need to complete assessments, when content is available, and any other important dates that you want to add (like Zoom meeting times). When you add due dates to assessments, they automatically appear in the Calendar and the Course Schedule.Ěý

Adjust Visibility and Access

There are 2 main visibility and access tools: the Start/Ends dates and the Hidden/Visible toggle. These two tools are used to determine what students have access to, but in two different ways.

Start/End Dates

• Start/End dates allow you to set when something is available for students to use or submit to.Ěý
• The item is visible, though, even outside of that availability window. For example, when you add a Start Date to a module, students can still see what items are inside before that date! They just can’t open the items up from that module yet.Ěý

• IMPORTANT: When adding Start/End dates to a module make sure you add Start/End dates to the assessments in that module as well. If you don’t, students can still access those assessments in the navbar, even if they cannot access it in Content!Ěý

Hidden/Visible Toggle

• You can manually hide items or an entire module if it’s something that you aren’t ready for students to see.
  • If students communicate with you that they are unable to see something that they should be able to, check to make sure that it is visible!

Advanced Tip:

• Use Release Conditions in your Content area to guarantee that students complete certain items before moving on to the next. Release Conditions hide the item or module COMPLETELY until students have met the set condition.Ěý

Bonus Tip: Customize Your HomepageĚý

The Course Homepage is the first thing that your students see when they enter your course and therefore it should contain the most important information for your students to know! This often means having your announcements, a calendar, and/or a little bit about you. Your home page is customizable though and you get to decide what is the most important information for your students to see.Ěý