When you have a student that has an “extended time on exams and quizzes” accommodation, there is a single process to set up modified time for every Brightspace quiz.
To set modified time, use the Classlist in Brightspace and the Edit Accommodations feature beside an individual student’s name. Activate Modify Time Limit and then apply a multiplier of original time or add extra time in minutes. These modifications will apply to that student for the duration of the course.
To allow a student or group to write an exam or submit an assignment on a different day, use Special Access.
The Accommodation tool is one of many Brightspace features designed to manage your workload and assist your students. Visit Langara’s Brightspace Instructor Help site for more!
As of August 28, 2023, Brightspace Discussions has a new look and feel, as well as some changes to functionality. Below we summarize the most important changes to the new version of Discussions.
Look & Feel
New Experience Discussions has been changed to bring it into alignment with how Assignments and Quizzes in Brightspace look and function. This consistency across tools is meant to make it easier for new users to Brightspace.
On the create/edit topic page, the main settings (title, grade out of, description, etc.) are on the left side of the page (1), and the more advanced settings (availability dates, restrictions, evaluation settings, etc.) are in the expandable tabs along the right (2).
Functionality
The are several changes to functionality and locations of settings that are significant in New Experience Discussions.
Automatically Create New Forum When Creating New Topic
All discussion topics need to sit within a forum (a container for topics). In New Experience Discussions, creating a new topic will automatically create a new forum of the same name. This eliminates the necessity of creating a forum prior to creating a topic. After the topic is created, instructors will be able to edit the name of the newly created forum or associate the current topic with another existing forum, if wanted.
Post and Completion
The Post and Completion settings are where you can allow anonymous posts and specify posting requirements. In New Experience discussions, only one of the following three options is possible:
1. Default participation, which is a new option and has been added so that the default settings are clearly stated. The default settings do NOT allow for anonymous postsor require that users must start a thread.
2. The option of Allow learners to hide their name from other learners is the setting that allows anonymous posts.
3. The last option is Learners must start a thread before they can view or reply to other threads.
Manage Restrictions (replaces “Topic Type”)
The default for discussions is an “open topic” that all learners in the course can participate in; however, accessing the Manage Restrictions settings allows instructors to restrict discussions, if needed, so that learners can only see and reply to their own group or section’s posts. To set topic restrictions in New Experience, go to the Availability & Conditions settings on the right side of the edit page and look for Manage Restrictions.
Note: In Classic Experience, topic types could not be revised once set; however, in New Experience topic restrictions can now be revised up until a topic has an associated post, providing greater flexibility.
Restricting Topic and Separate Threads
To restrict a topic so that learners can only view threads from their group or section, go to Manage Restrictions and choose the option Restrict topic and separate threads. Then select which group category or section will have their threads separated.
Restrict Topic
To restrict a topic so that only selected groups or sections can view a topic and all threads, choose the radio option Restrict topic in the new Manage Restrictions workflow. Then select which sections/groups can see and participate in this discussion.
Availability Dates
Managing availability dates in Discussions is now similar to Assignments. Once a start or end date is added, additional settings can be adjusted to specify how learners see and access the topic outside of the availability dates.
Questions?
If you need assistance with Brightspace Discussions, please contact EdTech.
Changes coming to Brightspace in the next few weeks:
Brightspace Course Request and TA/Marker Forms: December 18th, 2019
On December 18th, myLangara Classic is being retired, so our Brightspace course request and TA/Marker Request forms are moving. You can find them on the EdTech Sharepoint site (you will need to log in with your Office 365 credentials).
Brightspace Email: December 23rd, 2019
Brightspace email will change on Dec 23rd, 2019. It will no longer be possible to receive email messages in Brightspace. Your message will be sent from your @langara.ca email address and sent to your students’ @mylangara.ca email address. When they respond to the emails you send from your course, the message will go to your Langara email address, and your replies to them will be sent to your students’ MyLangara email address.
On January 2nd, the way you access Brightspace is changing. Instead of your Computer User ID (jdoe), you will log in using your Office 365 email address and password (jdoe@langara.ca), and verify using 2-factor authentication, just as you do now for your @langara.ca email.
This change affects all Langara employees, including TAs or markers (or anyone who needs to log in to Workday for timesheets, income tax receipts, etc.).
The Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) and Desire2Learn ( D2L) invite submissions for the 2018 D2L Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning.
This award celebrates and recognizes innovative approaches that promote student-centred teaching and learning.
Awards are open to all instructors currently teaching at a post-secondary institution, regardless of discipline, level, or term of appointment. Applications in French or English are welcomed. Applicants do not need to be members of STLHE to apply.
Award recipients are expected to attend the 2018 STLHE conference, which will be held in Sherbrooke, Quebec, on June 20 – 22, 2018 and a retreat which will be held the day before the conference.
The award recipients (up to five per year) receive the following:
1) Up to $2,200.00 to offset the registration and travel costs to attend the Annual STLHE conference and an Award Recipients retreat the day before the conference
2) Two-year membership in STLHE
3) Certificate of Recognition
Deadline:
The deadline for submission of an application package is Sunday, 18 February 2018
For further details and award criteria please visit:
On Tuesday December 19, 2017, you are going to see a new look and a new name for D2L.
In line with other institutions, we will now be referring to our learning management system (LMS) as Brightspace by D2L. This switch makes sense as D2L is the name of the company based in Kitchener, Ontario, while their LMS is named Brightspace.
In December, along with the name-change, you will notice a new look and feel with a clean and modern layout. New fonts, icons, colours and a simpler navigation design mean that courses will adapt to different screen sizes and look equally good on different devices. This is known as ‘responsive design’ and it will make the user experience more engaging for our students as they will easily be able to access Brightspace from a desktop, laptop, tablet or phone.
Some of the key visual changes include:
– A simplified navigation design that looks equally good on screens of any size;
– A consistent, cleaner and more modern design using new fonts, icons and colours;
– A new ‘My Courses’ widget featuring rich photography in a responsive tile-based layout;
– A new image library with over 3000 images to choose from for your tiles.
Even though Brightspace will look different to you and your students after December 19, your workflows will remain the same. Tools such as Assignments, Quizzes, Discussion Forums will work the way you expect them to.
If you have any questions about the upcoming changes, please contact your EdTech team: edtech@langara.ca
Langara has purchased a campus-wide license for Turnitin to support faculty in teaching research and writing skills to their students while also encouraging academic integrity. Turnitin is a similarity checker which allows students and faculty to check assignments for matches in Turnitin’s database of papers, articles, and websites.
All Langara faculty have access to Turnitin through their Brightspace courses.
We hope that Turnitin will be used as an instructional tool to help students understand the College’s expectations for academic integrity and to practice their skills in summarizing, paraphrasing, quoting and citing their sources appropriately.
While Turnitin is a useful tool, it cannot detect all forms of plagiarism. However, if used in well-designed assignments and learning activities, Turnitin can play a valuable role in educating our students and emphasizing the importance of academic integrity.
Register for an information session: Turnitin Brown Bag Sept.14, 2017 1:00-1:45 pm
More sessions will be scheduled throughout the fall semester.
Thanks to members of the Langara School of Management, EdTech, and IT for piloting, implementing and administering this new tool.
Back in December twenty-four hardy souls braved the snow and ice to attend Ed Tech’s Instructor Gathering, one of our best turnouts yet. The broad theme of the event was tech tools and practices that benefit learning and each session proved a valuable mix of knowledge sharing and practical tips.
Pressbooks is free online publishing software derived from Wordpress that you can use to create open educational content. While primarily a tool for creating open textbooks Pressbooks can be used for other purposes such as authoring support documentation, course guides or supplementary course materials in D2L/Brightspace or iWeb.
One of the advantages of Pressbooks is that it is very easy to use and it can output accessible content in a wide range of file formats. These include ePub (iBooks, Nook, Kobo etc.), PDF (for print/digital distribution), Mobi (Kindle) and the Open Document format. This means that students can easily read content on their mobile devices and there is an option for a web version of every book for reading in a browser.
The process of creating the book is straightforward and Pressbooks includes a number of templates to give your finished content a professional look. You can import from Microsoft Word or WordPress and the wizard-like interface includes colour-coded placeholders for things like learning objectives, exercises and key take-aways. As well as text you can easily add images, audio and embed video from sites like YouTube.
Pressbooks makes it easy to collaboratively author your content with colleagues, although only one person can work on a book at any one time. You can release the book under different licenses ranging from all rights reserved to public domain. BCcampus recommend using a CC BY (attribution) license if you would like to support open and accessible content and enable others to adapt your book.
To get started using Pressbooks Langara Faculty can sign up for an account using their Langara email address (note: must be in the format @langara.bc.ca). BCcampus will be hosting a training webinar on using Pressbooks on Tuesday January 24, 10 am. For more information on using Pressbooks talk to Julian Prior (Ed Tech) or Lindsay Tripp (Copyright Librarian).
Welcome back to a new semester. D2L has made some changes to the names of tools and added a My Media tool, as well as new features for the Grades, Groups, Quizzes and Discussions tools.
Tool name changes:
Former Name
Updated Name
Dropbox
Assignments
News
Announcements
Pager
Instant Messages
Edit Course
Course Admin
In Content, New
Upload/Create
In Content, Add Existing Activities
Existing Activities
If you refer to any of the tools within your course materials, you will need to update the language.
For example, if you have instructions in your course outline for students to submit assignments to “Dropbox,” you will need to edit it to read “Assignments tool.”
