Quick Start Guide for Instructors
Are you trying to get your courses up and running in a hurry? Here are a few resources that might help.
Please note: In addition to the resources linked here, we offer workshops and drop-in hours for face to face support. Find that schedule here. If you can’t make our in-person Intro to Brightspace workshops, consider watching our Video Workshops series to get a detailed tour of Brighstpace and how to use the tools.(And unlike our in-person workshops, you can pause, rewind, and mute Stacey in the videos!)
Quick Start Guide
Organize your Brightspace dashboard
You can choose which courses you see when you log on. The courses that show up on your dashboard are your pinned courses. This resource will teach you how to pin (and unpin) courses.
Once you have your current courses pinned, choose the image for the front of your course. The image that you choose for the front of your Brightspace course is the first thing students will see before they enter your course. The image you choose can convey information about the course, or just be a decorative image. If you want to choose one of the thousands of images already available in Brightspace, hover your mouse over the course image, and look for the three dots. When you click on those dots, one of the options is Course Image. This link will allow you to search for a new course image from Brightspace’s collection.
Add Content
When you click on your course, you will see the navigation bar, or NavBar, near the top of the screen. Click on Content. This is where you will post all the materials your students will read, watch, or listen to and all the activities you have planned.
- Upload your syllabus
- Create modules and add content to those modules
- Move files and modules around
- You can also add links, files, and activities like discussion boards and assignments by clicking the blue Upload/Create button in any module.
Look over your Classlist
If you click on the tab in the Navbar called “Classlist” you can see all the students, instructors, and TAs enrolled in your course. You can also email your whole Classlist at once using this tool.
Make your course active
Once your course is ready for students, you will need to go to Course Offering Information and make the course Active. Here is step-by-step guide to the process.
Communicate with students
If you are wondering what students need to know about Brightspace, we are here to help. This blog post walks you through the four most important Brightspace features for students, and also provides suggestions for how to talk about Brightspace in an email or on your syllabus.
Contact Brightspace Support
Please reach out to our team whenever you have a question – no matter how big or small. We are always glad to help!
Our support hours are:
Monday – Thursday 7am – 11pm
Friday 7am – 5pm
Sunday 5pm – 11pm.