How to activate your course and make it visible to students

Students can access your course when:

The course is active

The “Course is active” checkbox is checked under Course Admin > Course Offering Information

 

The course is available

It is after the start date and before the end date in Course Admin > Course Offering Information

The start date is the first day of class by default – but it’s a good idea to open your site a few days in advance if you can!

  • Once your site is active & available, students can access by logging into Brightspace at bright.uvic.ca with their Netlink ID and password.
  • Students will see the course in the “My Courses” Widget on their main page.
  • Or in the course selector (waffle) icon near their name in the top right corner.

There is no end date by default. It’s often good practice to leave the site open for students until it is automatically archived.  If an end date is needed, select one well after the end of term and exams.

Why can’t students access my course site?

Common reasons include:

  1. The course is inactive
  2. The course site start date has not yet arrived
  3. The course site end date has passed.
  4. They are waitlisted (see how to allow waitlisted students into a course)

For additional assistance, contact helpdesk@uvic.ca (students) or asklti@uvic.ca (instructors).

Step by step instructions

Follow these simple steps to open (or close) your course to students:

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Go to Course Tools, and then select Course Admin.

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In the Course Administration page, choose Course Offering Information. 

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Scroll down the page until you see a heading that says Active. To make your course active (visible), check the box next to active.

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The Start Date and End Date control student access to your site.

By default, start date is the first day of term, but you can adjust it as needed.

It’s not recommended to choose an end date for the course. Course sites remain in Brightspace for one year after the end of the course. If you want to close your course to students earlier ensure it’s well after the last date you want students to be able to access your activities, exams, feedback or grades.

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Remember to Save your changes.   

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This page was last updated:

August 28, 2025

We acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Xʷsepsəm/Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the university stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.

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