On-Demand Brightspace Resources for Instructors
Instructor Guides – Complete List
Jump to a topic:
- Accessibility
- Course Navigation and User Options
- Course Management
- Content
- Assignments
- Quizzes, Surveys, and Self-Assessments
- Grades & Rubrics
- Groups & Discussions
- Using Media in Brightspace: Kaltura and YouTube
- Zoom and Virtual Classrooms
- Pulse Mobile App
- Archived Video Workshops
Course Navigation and User Options
Learn more about how Brightspace tools support accessibility in teaching
- How do I set my time zone?
- How do I locate my courses?
- How can I re-order my courses on the dashboard?
- How do I Edit the Navigation Bar (Navbar)?
- How do I view my course from the student view?
- How do I add NameCoach to my course?
- How do I add my photo, edit my profile, and manage account settings?
- How can I register for a self-registration course?
Course Management
TAs must be added to your course by the Office of the University Registrar. Read more about this process here.
- How can I make my course active, so it is visible to students?
- How can I save copies of important course documents and close out my Brightspace course at the end of a semester?
- How do I combine my courses or sections into one course?
- How can I add TAs or other users to my course?
- How can I add a subject librarian to my course to help students with research? – Vanderbilt Libraries resource
- How do I email my entire class, or individual students?
- How do I create/edit a homepage for my course?
- How do I upload a custom image for my homepage banner?
- How do I change the theme colors for my course?
- How do I delete my homepage and make another tool the first page students see?
- How do I turn off course tools I do not need?
- How can I upload a profile photo to my Brightspace account?
- How to I Access Materials in the Learning Object Repository (LOR)?
- How do I Place LOR Material into my Course Content?
- How do I track attendance in Brightspace?
Content
Copyright
- Copyright and Fair Use – Vanderbilt Libraries resource
- Copyright Policy for Vanderbilt’s Course Management Systems – Vanderbilt Libraries resource
Organizing Content
- VIDEO GUIDE: Introduction to “Lessons View”
- What is the table of contents?
- How do I upload my syllabus?
- How do I move files around in my course?
- How do I insert stuff into my course?
- How do I create a reading list for my students? – Vanderbilt Libraries resource
- How do I create modules and add content to them?
- How do I make content unavailable to students?
- How do I import course materials from another course management system?
- How do I copy an entire Brightspace course to another?
- How can I copy pieces of content from one Brightspace Course to Another?
- How can I release content to Sections or Groups at different times?
Creator+
- Inserting Elements and Practices Using Creator+ (Classic Content Experience) New!
- Inserting Elements and Practices Using Creator+ (Lessons View) New!
- Inserting Layouts Using Creator+ (Classic Content Experience) New!
- Inserting Layouts Using Creator+ (Lessons View) New!
Assignments
Creating Assignments
- VIDEO GUIDE: Introduction to the Assignment Tool
- How do I create an Assignment?
- What types of assignments can I create?
- How do I link an assignment to a grade item?
- How do I give select students a different due date (special access)?
Grading Assignments
- How do I grade an Assignment?
- Video: How do I use the Annotation Tool for grading?
- How can I download Assignments?
- How can I download assignments by group?
- How can I contact students who have not submitted an assignment?
- How do I grade and evaluate a student who has not submitted an assignment?
- How do I return grades and papers to students when I collected physical copies of the assignment?
TurnitIn – Mark-up grading and Plagiarism detection
- Introduction to TurnitIn’s Quickmarks – includes video
- How do I enable TurnitIn on an assignment?
- An Overview of TurnitIn Feedback Studio
- How do I use the similarity report tools in TurnitIn?
- How do I provide feedback using TurnitIn?
- How do I manually enter grades using TurnitIn?
- How do I use a rubric in the TurnitIn Feedback Studio?
Video Assignments/Bongo
- Getting Started with Bongo/Video Assignments
- How do I create a video assignment?
- How do I view student submissions?
- How do I leave feedback on the submissions?
- How do I view peer feedback on the submissions?
- How do I grade video assignment submissions?
Quizzes, Surveys, and self-assessments
Introduction to Assessments in Brightspace
Surveys
New Brightspace Quiz Experience – introduced in Fall 2022
- VIDEO GUIDE: Introduction to the New Brightspace Quiz Interface
Creating a Quiz
- What are the steps to create a quiz? (A 9 step quiz walkthrough)
- How do I create and add questions to a quiz?
- How do I link my quiz to the gradebook?
- How do I establish restrictions such as: Dates, Time limits, Password, and Respondus Lockdown Browser?
- How do I provide special access for select students to a single quiz?
- How do I provide time accommodations for a student on all quizzes?
- How do I determine what the student sees upon completion of the quiz (Quiz Results Displays)?
- How do I use the Question Library?
- How do I place an image in a quiz question?
- Can I integrate quiz questions into a video? (the answer is yes!)
- How can release a quiz to Sections or Groups at different times?
Grading a Quiz
Lockdown Browser is a tool to facilitate online test-taking in a more secure environment. The company that provides the tool offers webinars to train faculty in using the Lockdown Browser. You can find their schedule here
- How do I edit a quiz or question after students have already taken it?
- How do I view specific quiz questions after the quiz is submitted?
Respondus Lockdown Browser
- Video: What is Respondus Lockdown Browser?
- How do I implement Respondus Lockdown Browser for a quiz?
Grades & Rubrics
- VIDEO GUIDE: Introduction to Grades
- Step 1: How do I set up my gradebook?
- Step 2: How do I create or delete grade categories and items?
- Example of a Weighted Gradebook
- Example of a Points Gradebook
- Where do my students see their grades?
- How do I release final grades in Brightspace?
- How do I associate an assignment with a grade item?
- How do I exclude a grade category or item from the final grade calculation?
- How do I create and use rubrics?
- How do I enter all grades for a specific Grade Item?
- How do I import a custom grade scheme from another course?
- How do I Export my Gradebook into Excel?
- How do I award extra credit? Extra credit, bonus items, and exceeding 100%
- How do I drop the lowest grade from a Grade Category?
- How can I calculate a mid-semester/midterm Grade?
Groups & Discussions
Discussions
- Getting started with the Discussion tool
- How do I create a discussion Topic? – updated May 2023
- How can I create private discussions for student journaling and one-on-one communication?
- How do I create group discussion topics?
Groups
USING MEDIA IN BRIGHTSPACE: KALTURA AND YOUTUBE
An Introduction to Media on Brightspace – the Kaltura app
Is there a guide you’d like to see, but it isn’t here? Let us know! We are always looking for ways to improve our documentation.
- What is Kaltura? – read first!
- How do I access Kaltura? What if I’m getting an error?
- Kaltura Quick Start Guide – a printable guide to Kaltura and Kaltura Capture
Uploading video files to Kaltura
- How do I upload videos to Brightspace? (How to use Kaltura)
- How do I upload a video in My Media?
- How do I use the Media Gallery in my course?
- How do I add a Kaltura video to a Content module?
- How do I control access to videos I’ve uploaded?
- Help! My Kaltura Capture video has been uploading for a long time!
Record, edit, and caption videos
- How do I record a video with Kaltura Capture?
- How can I turn my lecture slides into a Kaltura Capture video?
- How do I make edits to an existing Kaltura video?
- How do I add and edit captions in a Kaltura video?
Kaltura Video Quizzes
- How can I create a video quiz using a video in My Media?
- How can I grade student responses to a Kaltura Video Quiz?
Sharing Kaltura Videos
- How can I share my Kaltura video with a specific person or with an entire class?
- How can I download Kaltura videos?
Using YouTube videos in your course
Embed videos that you have stored in Vanderbilt Box
- VIDEO GUIDE: Upload a video to box, and embed it in Brightspace
- How can I add a video or other file from Vanderbilt Box into Content?
Video Conferencing: Zoom and Virtual Classrooms
VIDEO GUIDE: How to create a whiteboard demo video using Zoom and a tablet – a tutorial video by Owen faculty member Jesse Blocher
- Everything you need to know about Zoom – Vanderbilt Hustler article, March 2020
- Zoom Best Practices – VUIT resource
- Should I record my live class meeting?
- How can I record and share my class meetings with my students?
- How can I record and share my class meetings with future students or people outside of the course?
- How can I prevent students from sharing videos outside of class?
Creating a Zoom Meeting in your course for live remote class meetings
- How do I create a Zoom Meeting for my course? Should I create it in Brightspace?
- How do I activate the Zoom tool in my course?
- Zoom Quick Start Guide
- An Overview of Zoom Meetings
- How do I host a Zoom Meeting?
- How do I create Breakout Rooms in Zoom?
- How do I create Zoom Polls?
- How can I record my Zoom Meeting?
- How do I change my Zoom background?
- How to I prevent and respond to Zoombombings?
- How do I enable Live Transcriptions for my Zoom meeting?
Creating a Virtual Classroom in your course for live remote class meetings
- How do I activate the Virtual Classroom tool in my course?
- How do I create a Virtual Classroom session?
- How do I host a Virtual Classroom session?
- Hosting a Virtual Classroom – Quick Start Guide
- How do I access my recorded Virtual Classroom sessions?
Pulse Mobile App
Archived Video Workshops