Training for Instructional Technology

This workshop will introduce attendees to the Brightspace Learning Environment. We will look at system navigation, course homepages, and the Content tool. Each participant will have their own sandbox and will be able to add an announcement in the Announcements widget and explore other widgets that can be added to the homepage. Participants will also work inside the Content Tool to be able to add modules to the Table of Contents, as well as upload content and manage module settings. Participants will be able to build a basic course by the end of this workshop.

The Brightspace Learning Environment provides a number of options you can use to communicate with students both inside and outside your course. This workshop will cover the email, instant messages discussions, and chat tools. The Intelligent Agents tool, which can be used to send personalized emails to students automatically based on criteria you define, will also be discussed.

The Assignments tool allows users to submit assignments or documents through the Brightspace Learning Environment. In this workshop you will learn how to set up a submission folder (dropbox) and manage its settings. You will also learn how to grade submissions, and how to download/upload graded assignments back into the course space.

The Quizzes tool provides the options for formative and summative assessment and provides auto-grading for most question types. In this workshop, participants will learn how to add questions to the Question Library and set up a randomized quiz. Advanced settings and options will also be discussed.

This session will introduce the groups tool in Brightspace. Topics covered will include setting up randomized group sets, creating manual groups and assigning students to them, and creating group signup sheets so that students can self-enrol. You will also learn about the different ways that groups can be used throughout the learning environment after they have been created, such as group discussions, group assignments and group release conditions. This session will also introduce the class progress tool which you can use to monitor student progress on activities throughout the course.

The gradebook allows you to manage and display grades for individual gradable items and lets you calculate your final grades for release to the students. The gradebook also allows you to export to a spreadsheet for import to the Banner System. In this workshop, you will learn how to work in the gradebook, create categories and grade items, assign grades to students, and calculate final grades.

Panopto is Dalhousie’s lecture capture and audio/video recording, editing, and hosting software. Panopto allows for the simultaneous capture of audio, video, and applications (e.g., Microsoft PowerPoint). The recording can be edited, captioned, and shared in a variety of ways during or after the presentation.

Collaborate Ultra is a real-time video conferencing tool that lets you add files, share applications, create smaller breakout rooms, and use a virtual whiteboard to interact. Collaborate Ultra is integrated within Brightspace and opens right in your browser, so you don't have to install any software to create or join a session.

Turnitin is an add-on tool for Brightspace that is an automatic text-recognition system made for detecting text similarly between a student’s submitted work and other students’ previously submitted work, the internet, and published materials. Turnitin seamlessly connects to and is set up through the Assignments area in Brightspace. You also have the option of similarity reports with students as formative learning opportunities.

This workshop will introduce some of the more advanced features and tools available to you in the learning environment, such as course builder, checklists, release conditions, and advanced widgets for the homepage.