LMS Update: Wrapping up the Fall Term and Unwrapping the Winter
As the fall term draws to a close, Teaching and Learning Services (TLS) has some tips and resources to help you wrap up your fall term courses and launch your winter ones successfully.
Wrapping up your fall term in Brightspace
- Drop-ins are available for sign up: It’s grading time for the fall. If you have gradebook questions, or want TLS staff to check over your settings, we are ready to help. Register for one of our drop-in sessions:
- Tips for communicating with your students: All Brightspace courses have start and end dates based on the first and last day of class. If you want to communicate with your students after the course end date has passed, or before the winter 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.
- Explore grading tutorials for Brightspace: TLS has created a Brightspace channel for instructors and students in Mediaspace. Watch the tutorial on grading assignments, dive deeper in the Gradebook training workshop or share the video tutorial of accessing grades and feedback with your students.
Unwrapping the winter 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. If you get stuck, complete a course consultation request form and TLS staff will meet with you to help you stay on track.
- 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 early, 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 by ITS. You’ll need to activate your course to share it with your students. For instructions, see make courses active.
- 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 fall or unwrapping the winter 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.