Brightspace Course Quickguide for Instructors

All credit courses automatically get a Brightspace site. You can find your course under the “My courses” widget on the UVic Brightspace homepage and use the term tabs to locate the course. Students cannot access the site until you activate it and the course start date has passed. If you need a site for a specific group or for experimentation, submit a request.

If you are teaching multiple sections of the same course, you can merge them into a single Brightspace site. Submit a cross-list request form before the term starts to set this up.

By default, the start date is the first day of term, but you can adjust this as needed. In your Brightspace site, you can set a start date to control when students get access to your course site. Giving access early to students helps them find your site and course outline on day one.

There is no need to set an end date. Course sites stay in Brightspace for at least a year and are automatically archived. To close access earlier, choose a date after students can access all activities, exams, feedback and grades (usually after the last day of classes). Get step by step instructions on setting. your start and end dates for the site.

You can add auditing or waitlisted students to your course site through the Course Management page in Online Tools – see step by step instructions. Students will be removed when the waitlist closes or they drop the course. 

The front page is called the “course homepage.” You have four options for how it is laid out: standard; activity feed; visual table of contents; or, grid table of contents. Learn more about how to customize your home page. There are also two layout options for the content area of your course: Classic Experience (default) and New Content Experience. Here is a tutorial on how to switch layouts.

Make the first module or unit in your course site a “course information” topic that includes important information that students will need through the course. In the course template, this module/unit is called “Course Info & Outline.” This includes: the course syllabus/outline, schedule and dates, contact information and office hours, as well as student support information.

It’s helpful to organize your content with a consistent structure, such as by topic or by week, so that students know how to navigate the course. A weekly structure is already built into the course template.

You might already have existing content to add to your course, if so you can import from a previous course. Keep in mind that if you are using the course template, your existing content will not be automatically reorganized. It’s easy to integrate your existing content into the template and we can help!

If you are adding new content to your course, you can look up different types of activities and instructional materials in our Brightspace Examples database. 

There are various ways to communicate to students such as with email, announcements, discussion forums, chat and more. Start by learning seven ways to communicate with students in Brightspace and then pick methods that will work with you.

As an instructor, it is important to create a respectful, inclusive and positive learning environment that clearly communicates your expectations. Building trust, empathy and shared values can be more challenging online, but there are many strategies to promote a positive learning environment. Learn some strategies in our post on creating a respectful classroom.

Send students a welcome email in the week prior to the first class. Let them know the mode of instruction you will use and where to find your course, when they can access it, and what will be expected in the first week. We recommend sending an email the first week as students will not receive announcements to their email until they log in to Brightspace for the first time. Learn how to send an email in Brightspace.

Post an engaging welcome announcement on the first day of class. Consider including a picture or video rather than just text. You can even create it in advance and schedule it for the first day.