Pilots and Projects

LMS Weekly Update: Getting Ready for the Fall Semester

My Mediasite available in Brightspace on Tuesday, August 25th

My Mediasite is a new tool, replacing TechSmith Relay, with a simple interface that allows you to create, record, share, and publish your presentations easily. Mediasite will host these videos and also has a Brightspace integration that allows you to embed video content directly within your courses. Attend one of the information sessions offered by LTS, to learn about the main features of My Mediasite, what type of learning content you might create with it, and have a chance to ask questions about possible ways in which it could be used. Stay tuned for more details and documentation in the next week.

Course Copier vs Instructor

As our Support Team receives every week a large number of requests to add users to Brightspace courses, we would like to provide some help and avoid the need of sending back emails asking you to clarify the request.

Ask us to use the Course Copier role when adding faculty to previously taught courses (new instructors or faculty taking over a new course, with the purpose of familiarizing with the content or copying it).

Users with the course copier role in a course:

  • Have read-only access to all course content and NO access to students grades and assignments, protecting the integrity of the course and students’ privacy.
  • Can copy content over to their own courses, where they have instructor access.
  • Can export course components, with the purpose of importing them into their own courses.
  • Note: There are times when YOU need to add other teachers to your courses (without asking our help), with the intention of having them perform a course copy or export some content. Instead of adding them with the instructor role, please use the course copier role. Don’t forget to remove them from the course once the copy is completed.

Ask us to use the Instructor role:

  • When a Coordinator/Chair needs access to students’ grades or their assignments/quizzes.
  • When there is an urgent need to add a faculty to a course, with the purpose of teaching it (note that the instructor still needs to be scheduled in Genesis, even if the urgent access was given in Brightspace).
  • When a coordinator needs to load content for a new part time instructor, and requires the ability to add new content or modify existing one.
  • When, from any reason, an user needs to have access to the gradebook or students’ work (discussion boards, assignments files, etc).

Question of the Week – How do I transfer content in between courses?

Course Copy

  • Read the Course Copy article in our KB, for Step-by-step instructions describing how to copy the entire course content or only some components
  • Avoid copying the announcements, as you might end up having them sent as emails to students in the destination course, depending on the availability of the course. We recommend using the Select Components button, and uncheck the Announcements option.

Export/Import Course Components Process

  • Read the Export Course Components article, for step-by-step instructions on exporting content.
  • Read the Import Course Components article, for step-by-step instructions on importing content. This option can also be used when importing a zip file containing test banks from publishers.

Reminder: New Assignment Create and Edit Experience

The June Brightspace release introduced a new assignment create and edit experience, available across all your courses, on an opt-in/opt-out basis.

  • Access here the Knowledge Base article for instructions on how to turn it off or on.
  • Access here the Knowledge Base article for on overview of the benefits and limitations of the new assignment experience in its current state.

 

LMS Weekly Update: Summer News

Reminder: Turnitin Mappings to be reset on August 21, 2020

Please take a moment today to schedule a reminder for yourself to export the content you wish to keep before August 21st, 2020. If you have any questions or need assistance, please email brightspace@algonquincollege.com, with the subject line “Turnitin Export”.

Instructions on How to Export/Import your QuickMarks and Rubrics:

Reminder: New Assignment Create and Edit Experience

The June Brightspace release introduced a new assignment create and edit experience, available across all your courses, on an opt-in/opt-out basis.

  • Access here the Knowledge Base article for instructions on how to turn it off or on.
  • Access here the Knowledge Base article for on overview of the benefits and limitations of the new assignment experience in its current state.

The Release Conditions option will be added next week, followed by the Special Access next month.

Pinned Tab in the My Courses Widget

Any courses pinned, using the waffle icon, will now show on the Pinned tab in the My Courses widget, allowing you to more easily navigate to your most frequent courses.

New Evolve Link for Elsevier

We are happy to inform you that content acquired through Elsevier can now be added to the LMS by using the Evolve link External Learning Tool. You can add this link by navigating to your Course Content > Existing Activities > External Learning Tool and choosing the Evolve link from the list, or by following the instructions that came with the content you purchased from Elsevier.

A word on External Publishers and Brightspace

If you are looking to acquire content from an external publisher that offers an integration with Brightspace, please contact us before purchasing your content. Each publisher has to go through a security vetting process before their integration can be deployed. If you purchase content before contacting us, you run the risk of not being able to deploy the content that you already paid for. Vetting a new integration and deploying it to Brightspace can typically take a few months.

Brightspace Satisfaction Survey

The Brightspace satisfaction survey is coming, but it’s also changing. Since the response rate of the previous survey was very low, we are looking at ways to simplify the survey and boost the response rate. This survey is for you and will be used to make Brightspace and the Brightspace support better. I am interested in hearing from you: What would you like to see in this survey? How can we make you want to provide feedback? Is there a better way to get your feedback and comments on Brightspace than the survey model? I am open to anything – please let me know by emailing me at marchem@algonquincollege.com

Digital Learning Environment Knowledge Base (DLEKB)

Do you have a quick Brightspace question and support is closed? We have recently launched our knowledge base providing you with articles based on your most frequently asked questions.
This knowledge base does not replace our support team, who is still available to provide the assistance you require through brightspace@algonquincollege.com. Our goal for this is to augment our ability to easily get you what you need, when you need it.

Faculty PD

LTS will be offering several Brightspace sessions in the next couple of weeks.

 

LMS Weekly Update: Brightspace Symposium and the Discussions Tool

Reminder – Brightspace Symposium

Don’t forget to sign up for the Thursday, February 27th, from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. The goal of the event is to create visions for effective teaching and learning in Brightspace, by showcasing faculty successes and highlighting additional features and integrations in the system. The event is part of the LTS PD Break Week offerings, which you can check out in full on their website.

The Discussions Tool in Brightspace

This tool provides an area for collaboration and communication, allowing learners to post, read and reply to messages on different topics, share thoughts about course materials, ask questions, share files and work with peers or colleagues.

Discussions can be broken down into 3 elements:

  1. Forums – The forum is an area (heading or category) where one or multiple discussion topics exist. Discussions can NOT happen in an empty forum without one or more topics. Look at a forum as being a garage that can hold one or multiple cars (topics)!!!
  2. Topics – The topic is where you state what is to be discussed and it MUST be part of a forum.
  3. Threads – Students can create a discussion thread or just comment to a thread started by a classmate. A thread is part of a topic and a topic belongs to a forum.

Questions and Answers:

  1. How do I create a forum? From Activities/Discussions in the course navigation bar, click on New Forum. This video has step by step instructions.
  2. How do I create a discussion topic? There are open topics, where all learners from that course can contribute to, and topics restricted only to groups or sections (for combined courses) contributions. You can create anonymous or moderated topics. Learn more about this.
  3. How do I grade a discussion topic? Go to Activities/Discussions and choose “Assess Topic” from the contextual menu for the topic. Note that you will see that option ONLY if you have associated a grade column with the topic from the “Assessment” tab. Also, you will have the option to grade using a rubric. Watch this video for detailed instructions.
    Important: Quick Eval can also be used to grade discussions.
  4. How do I add a rubric to a discussion topic? Watch this video to learn how to add a rubric to a discussion topic.
  5. How do my students access a discussion topic? They can access it from the Activities/Discussions or from a Content area – You need to use the”Existing Activities” button to create a link to the topic.
  6. Why can’t my students post a thread? Start by making sure you have a topic in the forum, then check the topic date restrictions, and also if the topic is locked or not. The last step is to verify if the forum where the topic exists does not have availability restrictions, as all the topics contained in that forum will inherit the forum restrictions.
  7. How do I restrict my students from viewing the discussions until they first post a thread? When you create the topic, in the topic’s properties you must have the “Users must start a thread before they can read and reply to other threads” checked off.
  8. I gave feedback on the discussion topics, but my students don’t see it. Make sure your forum is not hidden or has an end-date restriction. Students won’t be able to see your feedback after the end date. The solution is to lock your forum, in which case the students will be able to view the forum and the feedback, but won’t be allowed to post.
  9. How do I keep a forum available to students for read-only access? You have the option to lock the forum.
  10. My students can not seem to be able to reply other students’ threads. First, verify if the forum/topic is not locked. Also, in some situations the Reply button is not visible when you just view the threads. Students will actually need to click on the title of the thread first and then the Reply button will show up.
  11. Can I have students part of a group see only their own group’s threads? When you set up a topic, create it as a group topic type by checking off the “Group or section topic, everyone can access this topic but students only see threads from their own group or section”.
  12. How can I create private discussions for Journaling? Using a combination of the Groups and Discussions tools will allow you to create a private discussion (journal) between a single learner and the instructor. Step by step instructions are provided here.
  13. How do I moderate discussions? Click here for details on this.
  14. How do I make sure I keep up to date when new discussion posts are made? You and your students must subscribe to the thread, topic or forum in question. Students are automatically subscribed to a thread that they create, but not when they reply to the threads of others. They must manually subscribe using the star icon at the top, and can either receive notifications within Brightspace or by email.

 

LMS Weekly Update: Satisfaction Survey, PD sessions and the Assignment Tool

Satisfaction Survey

We would like to have your responses to a few simple questions about the Learning Management System. By responding to the survey, which should take less than five minutes of your time, you can help the LMS team understand how satisfied you are with Brightspace, which elements are most useful to you in your work, and which features you feel can be improved. By completing the survey, you will be entered into a draw for a $25 gift card for Connections. Access the survey from here.

PD Sessions

There will be a couple of Brightspace PD sessions on offer most weeks for the rest of the semester, starting next week with some Beyond Brightspace Essentials sessions. Check out the latest offerings in the Professional Development Registration System.

TEN Things about the Brightspace Assignment Tool

This week we have answers to your questions on the Assignment tool, in addition to the documentation that exists in the Essentials for Faculty course in Brightspace that is available to all instructors:

  1. How do I create an assignment? Click here for step by step instructions.
  2. Why do I see my course Assignments under the Activities menu on the nav bar, but not under the Content area? Once in a while we see a bit of confusion about the area where you should make your assignments accessible for your students. Regardless of the way you create your assignments, they will ALWAYS exist under the Activities menu on the course nav bar. There is nothing wrong with directing your students to access the assignments from the Activities menu, but sometimes, depending on how your course is structured, your might want to make them available under one particular module, under the Content area. This is when you will be using the Existing Activities/Assignments to create a link to the existing assignments.

    Important!     Removing the link from the Content area and choosing the second option on the confirmation pop-up screen, will delete your assignment from your course.
  3. I need to allow some of my students alternate time restrictions, due dates, etc. How do I do this? You can accomplish this by using the Special access option from within the Assignments properties screen.
  4. How do I grade an assignment using a Pass/Fail scheme? An assignment can be associated only with the numeric or selectbox types of grade columns, allowing you to grade using numeric or letter grades. For a Pass or Fail grade, ensure that you use a selectbox type of grade column at the same time with a Pass/Fail Grade Sheme.
  5. Can I make annotations when grading assignments? Assignment submissions will automatically load with the Annotation Tool bar withing the Evaluation Submission Screen.
  6. I have different points possible for the assignment and for the grade column. What do I do?
    • If there are no submissions for the assignment, you only need to edit the associated column from Grades/Manage Grades and adjust the points.
    • If you already have graded the assignment, once you edit the grade column and change the points, the existing grades won’t get automatically adjusted. You will need to go to Activities/Assignments/View Submissions and Update the grade for each student (the same screen you use when you first graded the assignment and published the grades).
  7. I deleted an assignment by mistake! To recover deleted assignments go to Activities/Assignments/More Actions/Event Log. The deleted assignment will have a Restore button available.
  8. Need to grade assignment files offline? You have the option to download all the assignments files in a zip file, grade them, save the files, create a new zip file and upload all the graded files as a package file. Go to Activities/Assignments/View Submission and then the Submissions tab. Select all submissions and click Download. When you are ready to upload them, from the same screen, click on the Add Feedback Files tab and upload the zip file.
  9. Grade Sync – When you enter a grade for an assignment submission in the standard or spreadsheet view of GradeBook, the grade will appear with the submission in the Assignment tool.
  10. How do I check students’ assignments for plagiarism? When you create an assignment you have the option to enable Turnitin. Click here to learn how to do this.

 

LMS Weekly Update: So You Think You Can Brightspace Auditions

Successful ELX Open House

ELX hosted its First Open House! It was a fun, interactive and educational event that brought over 60 College employees into our area. A huge THANK YOU to all departments and individuals who made this happen!

So You Think You Can Brightspace Auditions

The Learning and Teaching Services welcomes you to the first season of our college-wide contest “So You Think You Can Brightspace”.

“Audition” for your opportunity to win a prize along with public recognition of your hard work and success by completing the entry form using this link. We are calling on all professors (full-time, part-time, or sessional) to showcase their Brightspace skills so that we may find Algonquin College’s best Brightspace course(s). Entries will be judged by a panel including LTS, faculty, and a student representative. Submissions are due Tuesday, October 15th, 2019 at 4 p.m.

Time-savers in Brightspace

The new September addition to the the QuickEval Tool, “Activities View”, proves to be a huge time-saver for instructors. Activities view displays indicators to show the progress on submissions, progress on evaluations, and progress on publishing feedback to learners. It also includes links to the evaluation page, submission page, and a publish all action. When you click on any new submission in this view (i.e. new post, new submission, new attempt) it allows you from there to scroll through all new submissions in that screen, in the top right corner, rather than having to click ‘Back to Quick Eval’ each time (this doesn’t appear when using the Submissions view).

LMS Weekly Update: ELX Open House Reminder, New Support Hours, and PD sessions

Reminder: First ELX Open House: October 1st, 11:30 to 3:00, in C123

We are very excited to announce our first event showcasing the resources available in the Employee Learning Exchange space (C123), on Tuesday, Oct. 1st, from 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Staff and faculty will have the opportunity to tour the space, take part in our activities, demonstrations, ask questions and, most importantly, enjoy conversation, light refreshments and coffee.

Removing Users from your Course

Did you know that you can remove other users from your course and even yourself?

You can do this via Tools > Classlist for any course in which you are an instructor. Check the user you need to unenroll and then click on the Unenroll button. Please note that student enrollments are managed by GeneSiS – if students are enrolled in your course via GeneSiS and you try to unenroll them in Brightspace, they will be automatically re-added the next day.

Product Idea Exchange

Brightspace runs on a continuous delivery model, with monthly updates and improvements. The next couple of months will see major improvements to the grading workflow via Quick Eval, as well as more consistency in language and navigation across tools. The majority of these monthly improvements are in direct response to community submissions to the Product Idea Exchange. Check out our page to see the suggestions that we are currently following, and use the Essentials discussion forum to suggest new submissions or existing ideas that we should follow.

Brightspace Support Hours

Brightspace Support is available from 8:00 a.m to 7:00 p.m., Monday to Thursday, and 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Friday. Employees can book an appointment here, walk in to C123, call 613-727-4723 ext. 6943, or email brightspace@algonquincollege.com for support.

Brightspace PD sessions

Next week, we will be offering three workshops on how to configure your grade book and enter grades. You can find details about this in the PD Registration System. We’ll also be delivering some custom training via Zoom, as requested by a program chair. For further details on training and how to request custom sessions, please visit our website.

 

LMS Weekly Update: Brightspace Bites Registration Now Open

Brightspace Pro Tips Week isn’t only about teaching. It’s about community involvement. Here is a reminder about the fun ways you can participate.

Brightspace Bites Workshops (May 27 – 31)

Learn the latest tips and tricks from our LMS experts at our ‘digestible’ Brightspace workshops – only 30 minutes each! Each session features refreshments and cheesy door prizes: wireless mice. We know Brightspace requires heavy clicking. Register here.

Best Practice Potluck (May 29th)

Submit your best Brightspace course by May 21 for a chance to win $50 on your employee card. Select professors will be invited to present their best practices at a special workshop. Submit your course here.

PIE Drive and Toss @ Boss (May 30th)

Donations urgently needed. Not money, not clothes – pies! These pies will be raffled away on May 30 and the proceeds will be donated to the Algonquin Food Cupboard. Sign up to donate a pie here.

Faculty who have submitted or submit an idea to the Product Idea Exchange could be chosen to throw a pie in the face of Farbod Karimi, Chair of Learning and Teaching Services! To find out how to use the PIE, start here. Enter the contest here.

View Content as Learner

This week, your LMS team would like to share more about all the ways you can preview your course content, grades and quizzes as a learner. Check out the module in the Brightspace Essentials course for Faculty: https://brightspace.algonquincollege.com/d2l/le/content/6832/Home?itemIdentifier=D2L.LE.Content.ContentObject.ModuleCO-2540712

Updates to Assignment Annotation Tool

This months release of Brightspace includes two small additions to improve user experience when annotating assignments; Instructors can now annotate in full screen and rotate assignments. In order to use the Annotation Tool, users need to check the “Make annotation tools available for assessment” box in the Properties tab from the Edit Assignment section.

LMS Weekly Update: Brightspace Pro Tips Week

Mark your calendars – Brightspace Pro Tips Week is quickly approaching! From May 27-31, the Learning & Teaching Services will be hosting a fun, food-focused week of Brightspace tips and training. Designed with convenient, bite-sized workshops and events, the full schedule will be revealed gradually as the first day nears. Until then, here’s a glimpse of our first event:

The Brightspace Best Practice Potluck

Have you served up the perfect Brightspace course for your students? If yes, submit your course and help guide our team as we push the envelope with our LMS to create engaging and consistent courses for learners. Just for submitting your course, we will enter you into a draw to win $50 on your employee card (and priceless bragging rights). Professors who submit their courses to the contest may be invited to present during Brightspace Pro Tips Week. The deadline for submissions is May 17.

To submit your course, click here.

LMS Weekly Update: Brightspace Symposium

Brightspace

The LMS team invites faculty to participate in the Brightspace Symposium on the Ottawa Campus Thursday, Feb. 21, presented by the groups who led the transition to a new Learning Management System: Information Technology Services (ITS), Learning and Teaching Services (LTS), the Centre for Continuing and Online Learning (CCOL), and D2L.

The event will showcase featured speakers, presentations and workshops. The keynote address will be given by Shaun Iles, Professor and Educational Technology Facilitator for the School of Liberal Studies at Mohawk College. Attendees can share knowledge during the symposium and discover how the easy-to-use Brightspace technology can help teachers reach learners at all levels.

Meet the LTS team and learn how our solutions can help you address your unique educational challenges.

By sharing insights and best practices, the Brightspace Symposium will help spark the shared passion for learning that connects us all as we build a modern learning culture.

Hold the date: Feb. 21 from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. in Banquet Salon A in D Building.

Register for the event here. Please RSVP before Feb. 19.