Course content is organized by Modules and Topics. Modules organize the units of your course (for example, Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, and so on) and Topics are the content within each module (for example, readings, links to activities, and so on.)
1. Go to Content & Activities
2. Syllabus
When learners access Content & Activities the very first time, they land on the Syllabus page. Instructors can:
- Add a file attachment by dragging a file from your computer onto the upload target, or by clicking Add Attachment from the Syllabus page.
- Optionally, add descriptive text about the syllabus using the Brightspace Editor beneath the Syllabus title.
Note about what students see:
The first time a student clicks on Content & Activities they land on the syllabus page. Then Brightspace will, subsequently and throughout the course period, land them on whatever page they last viewed when they click on Content & Activities. (If you decide not to add anything to the Syllabus page, the link and page is hidden from student view.)
3. Bookmarks
Bookmarks are unique to each person in the course. Topics you bookmark appear in a list on the Bookmarks page. Click the Add Bookmark icon while viewing a topic to add it to your own bookmarks list. The number beside the Bookmarks link indicates how many bookmarks you have. Students will find bookmarks helpful when they want to return to a certain topic in the course.
4. Course Schedule
The Course Schedule page lists course material start dates, due dates, end dates, and other course events for the next seven days. If you set availability dates or a due date for a course object, it appears on the Course Schedule page and in the Calendar tool.
The dates listed on the Course Schedule page are not exclusive to Content topics; upcoming events include all events within the course from the Calendar tool. Click Full Schedule to view all past, current, and future course events. The number beside the Upcoming link indicates how many upcoming events you have.
5. Table of Contents
The Table of Contents panel lists all Modules available in your course.
Modules are essentially folders that contain course materials. Brightspace calls content placed in Modules “Topics.” You must create a Module before you can add Topics. You can create sub-modules (modules within modules) to establish a deeper hierarchy.
Creating 3 or more levels of folders is not advisable because it will create display problems on mobile devices.
- Go to the Table of Contents and click on Add a module. Add a title and press enter.
- To edit, move or delete that module, click on the dropdown icon next to the Module’s title in the page body. You can also move modules by clicking the small dot-grid symbol next to it in the left menu and dragging it between other modules or dropping it into another module.
- To add dates and restrictions, or add a description for the module, click on the area below the module title. For more details visit our Knowledge Base article on managing dates.
- To add a sub-module click on the Add a sub-module button.
You can rearrange course materials by dragging and dropping topics between modules.
You can add new topics to existing modules by dragging and dropping files from your computer onto upload targets on the Table of Contents page.
The number beside each module name in the Table of Contents left menu indicates the number of topics it contains. For students, this number goes down as they view or interact with the content topic so they can track what’s left for them to do. (Note: this is connected to Completion Tracking, described below.) Use the number totals to determine the task load being put on students per module.
Completion Tracking
Completion tracking enables instructors to set progress indicators for students as they complete course activities. You will find three options for Completion Tracking by clicking the Settings button in the upper right area of Content & Activities.
- Automatic Completion: This setting means that Brightspace automatically determines whether learners have completed a topic when they click to view it. For some activities, automatic tracking requires users to participate in a chat or discussion, submit a file or form, or complete an assessment such as a quiz or survey before completion is successful.
- Manual Completion: This option allows the student to check off topics as they complete them.
- Not required
Note: Changing an automatically-tracked topic to manual completion resets completion tracking for that topic. This means that learners might have to return to the topic to mark it complete, but they do not need to resubmit files or assessment activities.
Add Content to Modules
There are multiple ways to add things. The primary benefits of our suggestions below are that you can provide students with context for the files you’re linking to.
Brightspace is designed for students to navigate through modules using the Next/Back arrows. If you follow these suggestions, when they click the Next arrow, and they’ll see a page where you’ve written, “Here’s a PDF or Word doc I want you to read because…xyz.” Then they will be able to click the link to the file that you’ve included. (While Brightspace has more direct methods, we don’t recommend them in most cases, because you don’t have a clear way to provide context for the content you’re linking to.)
Add a PDF or Word Document
This option allows you to enter a description or context for the PDF or doc you’re linking to.
- In the Module, click Upload/Create
- Click Create a file
- Enter a page title
- In the main text box, write the context for why you’re asking them to read the PDF, if desired.
- Click Insert Stuff in the toolbar
- Select My Computer and then Choose File to browse for the file
- Click Upload, then Insert, and then Save and Close
Using this method, PDFs display within the browser window; however, Word documents are downloaded using this method. See Upload Files below and read how to add a Word document that displays within the browser window.
Pros and Cons of this alternative for Word documents
Pros: These steps will allow the Word file to open within the browser window rather than downloading it.
Cons: Even if you add a description, students won’t see it unless they scroll to the very bottom of the page.
Therefore, if you want the Word document to display within the browser window rather than being downloaded, you might consider adding your description or context at the top of the Word document itself.
- Click Upload/create
- Choose Upload Files > My Computer
- Click Upload and select the file and click Add
- Click Add Description at bottom
- To also add a description that appears on the module list, click the down arrow next to the file name in the module.
- Choose Edit Properties in Place
- Add a description or context here, as well as dates of availability if desired
Add Web Link
You might think that the best way to add a link is to click the Upload/Create button and then, “Add a Link” but we don’t recommend that! Why? Because when students navigate through the module components using the “next” or “back” arrows, they suddenly land at an external website with no explanation of why. So the best way to add a link is to:
- In the Module, click Upload/Create
- Click Create a file
- Enter a page title
- Click the link icon in toolbar. (See image.)
- Scroll down and click Url from the list. (See image.)
- Paste in the URL and enter what the link text should say. (See image.)
- Click Insert. Then click Save and Close
Connect Existing Activities or Third Party tools to Modules
- Click on the Existing Activities button within the Module and select one of the tools listed, or choose External Learning Tools where more are listed.
Audio/Video Content Type
If you have a video already created, upload it to a streaming service such as UVM Streaming, Microsoft Stream (log in with UVM NetID here: Office.com) or YouTube and follow these steps:
- Click Upload/Create
- Choose Video or Audio
- Do not choose Upload
- Under Web Video or Audio, enter the link to the video.
- After you’ve saved it, you can click the down arrow on the module page to add a description which will appear to students under the video player. (A link to the video still displays it on the page – embedding isn’t necessary.)
If you’d like to record yourself for up to 30 minute, Brightspace will caption the video for you.
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- Click Upload/Create
- Choose Create a File
- Give the page a title and then choose Insert Stuff from the text box toolbar.
- On the Insert Stuff options list, choose Audio/Video Note
- Click record on either the audio or video view
- For it to be captioned, you must choose the language type
- Save and Close – processing the media will take some minutes but after you’ve saved it you can leave that page.