As the term draws to a close, we have some tips and resources to help you wrap up your winter term courses in Brightspace and launch your summer ones successfully.
Wrapping up the winter term
- Compile and finalize your grades: It’s grading time for winter courses. Watch the tutorial on grading assignments, dive deeper into the Gradebook training workshop or share the video tutorial of accessing grades and feedback with your students. You can also schedule a consultation where TLS staff can help with gradebook questions or review your settings.
- Communicate with your students: All Brightspace courses have start and end dates based on the first day of class and last day of the exam period. If you want to communicate with your students after the course end date has passed, or before the start date has arrived, send an email in the Brightspace Classlist. Announcements in Brightspace don’t get sent to students outside the start and end dates in a course. They can be pre-scheduled for release for the first day of class though.
- Collect and reflect on student feedback: The end of the winter term is a great time to reflect on our course. What worked well and what could you improve for the next iteration? You can collect this feedback from your students using Brightspace Surveys.
Unwrapping the summer term ahead
- Consult the course setup guide: Wondering how to start building your Brightspace course site? Work your way through the course setup guide to ensure you include all the important course elements.
- Merge your courses prior to adding content: If you’re teaching multiple sections of the same course and want to merge them into one in Brightspace, fill out the course merge request form before you’ve built any course content. Courses can only be merged prior to student activity in the course.
- Create a course overview tour: Help your students navigate your Brightspace course by creating a short video that explains where to find key course content.
- Activate your course to allow students access: Courses are hidden by default when they are created. You’ll need to activate your course to share it with your students.
- Update your Zoom software for maximum performance: If you use the Zoom client (desktop application), you will need to update to the latest version each term to ensure you have access to the newest features, fixes and settings. The desktop app offers a fuller, feature rich experience over a browser-based session. With the start of term on the horizon, it’s a great time to ensure you’re getting the most out of your tools.
Whether you’re wrapping up the winter or unwrapping the summer term, TLS is ready to help. Fill out a course consultation request to meet with support staff or submit your question to the TLS Support Portal.