Brightspace Guides
Gradebook
Setting up the Gradebook
Whether you are setting up a new gradebook in Brightspace or reorganizing a migrated gradebook, this is one of the most crucial steps to take when creating your Brightspace course.
Cleaning a Migrated Gradebook
Clean up your migrated Brightspace gradebook by removing duplicate or unlinked grade items, organizing categories, and ensuring accurate grade calculations. This guide walks you through the essential post-migration cleanup steps to create a clear, student-friendly gradebook.
Creating a Weighted Gradebook
Need to build a weighted gradebook in Brightspace? This guide explains how to configure a weighted grading system, organize categories and grade items, and avoid common setup mistakes so your gradebook matches your syllabus.
Discussions
Designing and Facilitating Online Discussions
This guide explains the why before the how. You’ll find best practices grounded in sound pedagogy, along with step-by-step instructions for setting up, managing, and grading discussions in Brightspace.
Brightspace Advanced Training – Recordings
Video Tools
Brightspace offers multiple video tools to transform your content and boost engagement. This recorded webinar breaks down three options — Kaltura Media, Video Note, and YouTube.
Discover how faculty and students can use each tool, what makes them unique, and which one is best suited for the job. Whether you want to record instructional content, leave video feedback, or facilitate video discussions, there’s a tool that can do it.
Release Conditions
This session introduces you to Release Conditions in Brightspace and shows how they can help you control when and how students access content. Designed for those new to this feature, this recorded session walks you through the basics step by step: What release conditions are, where to find them, and how to set them up.
Intelligent Agents
From gentle nudges and reminders to encouragement and celebration messages, Intelligent Agents allow you to extend your teaching presence while reducing workload through automation.
In this recorded session, you’ll learn what Intelligent Agents are, see practical examples of how they can be used to keep students engaged and explore simple strategies to support student success- without overwhelming you.
Brightspace Frequently Asked Questions
The Brightspace F.A.Q. page is designed to provide quick, easy-to-understand answers to the most common questions faculty might have about Brightspace, from migration to navigation to managing courses.
Brightspace FAQSetting up your live course in Brightspace
There are currently four types of courses in your Brightspace LMS:
- Your sandbox. This is a protected space for you to test ideas and create materials. It will never be a live course. You can copy materials from here into a live course.
- Brightspace Training Resources. You are a student in this course. It contains guidance on using the LMS.
- Migrated courses. This is material imported from Blackboard courses, labeled with old CRNs. Here, you can organize, edit, and delete materials, which can then be moved to a live course as a whole or in parts.
- Live course shells. These are currently empty courses with future CRNs. The content here is what students will see and interact with when the semester begins. You need to move content into these courses.
Learn more about course types and setting up your live course in Brightspace.
Brightspace Faculty Trainers
A group of dedicated instructors from across campus who are here to help you navigate Brightspace with confidence. In partnership with CETAL, faculty trainers support colleagues through training, consultation, and hands-on guidance during our transition to Brightspace. Each trainer brings practical insights from their own teaching experience and is here to help you succeed.
Meet Your Faculty TrainersLearn About Brightspace
D2L Brightspace is a comprehensive learning management system that is modern and easy to use for faculty, staff, and students. It offers new capabilities to support teaching and learning across different modalities, supports growth in online learning, provides advanced analytics that contribute to student success, and lays a foundation for engaging learning experiences that facilitate Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI) in online courses. Brightspace is celebrated for its modern design, intuitive tools, and innovative teaching features.
Notable strengths:
- Content Creation Flexibility: Rich HTML editor with extensive template options
- Accessibility Excellence: Built-in accessibility checker that helps ensure all materials meet standards
- Intelligent Agents: Automated communications based on customizable triggers
- Plain Language: Navigation, settings, and in-tool support is all written in plain language
More resources:
Brightspace 101: Building Better Learning Experiences (Video)
Bright Ideas: Getting Started with Brightspace (Video)
Brightspace Self-Paced Training (Website)
Brightspace Guided Training (Website)
The Brightspace Timeline: How We Got Here
The Teaching Technology Advisory Committee (TTAC)—made up of faculty from every college, Torreyson Library, and the Graduate School, along with staff from IT and the Office of Accessibility Resources—led a year-long, faculty-driven review of major LMS platforms. After testing, demonstrations, and campus feedback, D2L Brightspace was chosen for its modern design, intuitive tools, and innovative teaching features. The complete timeline is available on the LMS Review website.
LMS Review Website