You don’t need to worry. Instructors who teach campus courses can use D2L Brightspace if the campus is closed or you are unable to meet on campus. Using Brightspace allows you to communicate with your students and put some activities online, so your students don’t miss out on valuable instruction time.

Note: Activate your Brightspace course

To use Brightspace, you first need to activate your course. Follow these directions to activate your Brightspace course.

6 easy things you can do for a campus class

1. Email class from the classlist

Go to your Brightspace course to send email to your students. The email you send from Brightspace will go to your students’ PCC email. Follow these directions to learn more about sending email from your class and organize your Gmail.

Note: If you plan to write a long email, use Word or Google Doc first before you compose the email as Brightspace does not have Autosave feature for email.

2. Create an announcement on homepage

Once you’re inside your Brightspace course, you can quickly for your students.

“I’ve posted some files for this week’s class. You can find these materials…”

An announcement item stay on the homepage of your course and will not be email out to your students unless they .

3. Add files to your course

You can add files to your course using the Content tool found on the navigation. Brightspace allows you to upload any file type with no file size limitation. Text, Word, PDF, PowerPoint, and Images will display directly in Brightspace and not require students to download. Follow these directions to add files to the Content. Don’t worry if you make a mistake and upload the wrong files, learn how to rename, reorder, or delete files from your content.

You can also link to websites, YouTube videos, a Google Doc, and more! (Read Peter’s blog post about sharing GoogleDocs to your course and don’t forget to give students the correct ).

4. Have students submit work to an assignment folder

You can quickly set up a folder for students to submit assignments online rather than having them clutter your email. Instructors can view, grade, and leave feedback for each student’s submission. You can even set a date and time for the folder to lock. Here’s how to .

You can write up the assignment description right in Brightspace or attach an already created file. Make sure you let student know what type of files you’d accept, e.g. .doc, .docx, .txt, .pdf, or a GoogleDoc file.

5. Host an online class meeting

You can quickly set up an online meeting room so that your students can join you virtually instead of coming to campus. It saves travel time for you and your students, and only requires internet access and a computer, tablet, or phone to access. Within Brightspace, you can use the Zoom online room.

What you need to do to set up a Zoom online room: add an Online Room to your D2L Brightspace course and create a meeting.

What your students need: provide them with this Zoom Student Guide (how to access Zoom in D2L Brightspace). They can contact the Student Help Desk (971-722-8222 or email shd@pcc.edu) for further questions.

Additional Zoom resources:

• Learn about
• Learn about ()

If you are not using D2L Brightspace, you can use () as an alternative online meeting room. You can quickly create a meeting session where you can still meet your students during your class time from home. You can easily share your screen and invite anyone to the session.

6. Record a quick video lecture

If you need to record a video lecture for your students since they missed your class lecture, you can use CaptureSpace from inside Brightspace to record your lecture and post it in the Content area. Remember to add the tags with keywords so that you can reference the video later (e.g. ba101, week 6 lecture, feb 2020, intro to business, business proposal).

Note: your recording file may not be available right away for posting as it takes time to process, especially if your lecture is longer than 15 minutes.

How do I check if my students can see what I have in my course?

You can access your course as a student to make sure that your students can view your content. Here’s how:

1. Log in to Brightspace and click on your course.
2. Click on your name at the top, right corner of the screen and click View as Student. If you have never done this before, click Change and select Student from the list.
   
3. Check your course as a student. When you’re done and need to go back as an instructor, click on your name again at the top, right corner and click the X next to Viewing as Student.
   

Still have questions?

Don’t worry, if you still have any questions or need more guidance, contact the Online Faculty Help Desk (email dlhelp@pcc.edu, 971-722-8227) or contact an Instructional Technology Specialist or join them for training. They are there to help you every step of the way. Good luck!

Happy May! The Spring term is almost over, and preparation for the Summer term is about to begin.

Why would you want to use Google Docs to create your syllabus?

• Google Doc files can be created and edited on any computer or mobile device with an internet connection.
• Files edited in Google Docs automatically update saving you from having to upload a revised Word document to D2L Brightspace.
• The share function within Google Docs allows you to share a link to the document with your students before the term starts, or provide collaborative access to an administrator in your department with ease.
• When it comes time to update your syllabus for another term, you can easily make a copy of your current file, which will retain all the format and settings, without losing your previous version.
• Since your files are saved to your Google Drive account, you do not have to worry about losing your syllabus if your computer crashes or you lose your device or flash drive.
• Google Docs allows you to download your file in multiple format types, such as Microsoft Word (.docx), PDF (.pdf), Rich Text Format (.rtf), and more.
• Your students can easily save a copy of the Syllabus created in Google Docs to their own Google Drive account, or print the file for their records.

Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under

How do you get started?

Convert your Word syllabus to a Google Docs

1. Log in to your Google Drive and .
2. Once you uploaded the Word file, it will need to be converted to a Google Docs. Double-click on the file, select Open with at the top of the page and choose Google Docs.
   
   • Alternatively, if you currently don’t have one, you can download and save   or make a copy of .
   • Follow directions on how to file.
3. Check the formatting and make any changes
   • Follow directions on how to make your Google Docs accessible.
   • Note: if you used the syllabus template I linked above, then the document will already be in an accessible format. All you need to do is update the text and make it yours!

Share and post your online syllabus in D2l Brightspace

that’s now already in Google Docs.

1. Open your Syllabus via Google Drive
2. Click the Share button at the top right
3. Click Get shareable link
   
   
4. Click the drop-down for “Anyone at ˿����Ƶ with the link can view”
5. Select �Ѵǰ���….
   
6. Change the option to and choose Anyone with the link and click the Save button. This will allow anyone to view the document without the need to log in to PCC first.
   
7. You can share your document with other people directly by entering their email addresses under People and choose what you want them to be able to do with it: can edit, can comment, or can view.
   • Edit: People can make changes, accept or reject suggestions, and share the file with others.
   • Comment: People can make comments and suggestions, but can’t change or share the file with others.
   • View: People can view, but can’t change or share the file with others.
     
8. When you’re ready to share, click Copy link to copy the URL so you can easily paste the link into your course shell.
9. Click Done.
   
10. Log in to your course shell on the D2L Brightspace system.
11. Go to the Content area and click on the module where you want your syllabus to be located (i.e. Course Information module).
12. Click the Upload/Create button
13. Select Create a Link.
    
14. Enter the title for the link (i.e. Syllabus) and paste the URL from Step 8.
15. Click the Create button.
    

What your students can do with your online syllabus

Your students will be able to view your syllabus and have different options:

1. Add it to their own Google Drive.
2. Print the syllabus
3. Download and save a syllabus file as: .docx, .rtf, .pdf, and others.

Options inside Google Docs for students

Still have questions?

Don’t worry, if you still have any questions or need more guidance, contact the Online Faculty Help Desk (email dlhelp@pcc.edu), 971-722-8227 or contact an Instructional Technology Specialist. They are there to help you every step of the way. Good luck!

New feature – Freeze names column

The first name and last name column is now frozen on the left side, to make it easy to view the grades when you scroll to the right. Student names are no longer repeated every few columns!

Grade exemption

Grade exemptions is used to prevent a grade item from being included in the calculation of a student’s final grade. However, you can’t exempt final calculated grade or final adjusted grade.

When and how you would use it?

For example: You have an assignment where your students can pick between 2 options: A. submitting the assignment or B. volunteering at a local shelter. Both options have their own instructions and requirements, also have their own grade item.

You would grade the students who submitted option A and put exempt on option B for those same students, and vice versa for the option B.

How to apply the grade exempt:

1. Go to Grades from the navbar
2. In the Enter Grades area, go to the grade item, click on the drop-down arrow and select Grade All
3. Check the box next to the student’s name and click Exempt at the top of the list. Click Save and Close.

When you exempt a grade item, the total grade will be minus that grade item total for the students who you set exempt. For more information, you can watch the video tutorial on .

Other useful features

You may already use or familiar with these things in the Grades tool, but not completely understand what it’s for or how to use it.

Spreadsheet vs standard view

This is one of many ways to enter grade for your students. You can quickly enter the points inside the boxes under each grade items. Unfortunately, you can’t leave any feedback to your students using this method.

Best practice tip!

Make sure to Save and when you’re done, and “always click Switch to Standard view to lock the grades,” so that you don’t accidentally change or delete the grade you had previously entered.

Calculated vs. adjusted final grade

I always suggest you choose Calculated Final Grade first, then towards the end of the term, you can switch it to Adjusted Final Grade (In Grades, click Settings → Calculation Options tab, under Final Grade Released. Click the Save button, and the Close button.)

Why you ask? Using calculated final grade is simple because d2l will automatically add up the grade and populate the column. The calculated final grade, simply means that “if class were to stop tomorrow – this would be your score in the class (without a curve – aka adjustment).

Using the adjusted grade setting is like having to curve the scores all the time and you will need to transfer the grade from the calculated to adjusted all the time. It can be a tedious chore, especially if you already release the final grade for your students.

Name vs short name

You would use meaningful name to label the grade item where your students can see their own grades. If you have a lot of grade items, you have to scroll to the right a long time. So, it’s best to also add the short name to label your grade item. Don’t worry! Your students will only see the full name and not short name of the grade item when they view their own grade.

For example:
Grade item name: Assignment 1 – Essay Response to life stories
Short name: A1

Bulk edit in Manage Grades

This is where you can quickly make changes to all the grade categories and grade items in one spot.

1. Go to Manage Grades, check the box at the very top next to the heading “Grade Item” to select everything on the list and click Bulk Edit.
2. Make your changes here, such as Name, Short Name, Max Points, checkbox for Bonus, checkbox for Can Exceed, Grade Scheme, and Category.
3. Click the Save button.

Quickly enter same grades and feedback for all students

You can only perform this for one grade item!

To enter the same grades for all students:

1. Click the drop-down arrow next to the grade item’s name and choose Grade All.
2. Check the box next to the top row header to select everyone on the list
3. Click Set Grades and enter the point in the Grade box.
4. Click the Save button.

To add the same feedback for all students:

1. Make sure you still have everyone selected on the list, click Add Feedback. If not, follow step 2 above to enter the same grades for all students.
2. Write your feedback in the feedback box. Make sure when you write the feedback, it is what you want everyone to see, such as date when you post the grade. Unfortunately there’s no undo button to remove all the feedback to the students once you did it, so you will have to update the feedback entry individually.
3. Click the Save button.

You can still make changes to the grade and feedback area for a specific student. Click Save and Close button when you’re done.

Best practice tip!

You can put the date when you post the grade & generic feedback for the students. My students sometimes ask me why their grade haven’t been updated since I let them revise their assignments to get full credit. I can go back to the feedback and note when was the last time I updated their grade and post my new one with the new date as well.  :)

Still have questions?

Don’t worry, if you still have any questions or need more guidance, contact the Online Faculty Helpdesk (email dlhelp@pcc.edu), 971-722-8227 or contact an Instructional Technology Specialist. They are there to help you every step of the way. Good luck!