On-Demand Resources for Instructors
Highlighted CFT Resources – Summer 2021
- Never Going Back: What Online Teaching in the Times of COVID Can Add to Our Teaching Toolkits
- Two new internal funding programs to support classroom excellence announced
- Leading Lines Podcast: Active Learning Online: Five Principles that Make Online Courses Come Alive with author Stephen Kosslyn
- CFT Offers New Guide for Writing Science Exams
Jump to a topic:
Is there a guide you’d like to see, but it isn’t here? Let us know! We are always looking for ways to improve our documentation.
- Accessibility
- Course Navigation
- Course Management
- Content
- Assignments
- Tests, Quizzes, and Surveys
- Grades & Rubrics
- Groups & Discussions
- Using Media in Brightspace: Kaltura and YouTube
- Zoom and Virtual Classrooms
- Pulse Mobile App
- Archived Video Workshops
Instructor Guides – Complete List
Accessibility
Start here:
- Accessibility in Brightspace (1:24) – A short introductory video by D2L
- Webpage Accessibility – An overview from Vanderbilt University’s Student Access Services
Vanderbilt University resources on Accessibility
- Student Access Services at Vanderbilt University
- Accessibility and Remote Teaching – A CFT blogpost by Stacey Johnson, March 2020
- Accessible Teaching in the Time of COVID – A blogpost by Vanderbilt faculty member Aimi Hamraie
Accessibility in Brightspace
- How do I use the Accessibility Checker to make sure my content is accessible?
- D2L Resource Library – A collection of webinars, eBooks, and testimonials
- How do I provide extra quiz time to a student with accommodations?
Course Navigation
- How do I set my time zone?
- How do I locate my courses?
- How can I re-order my courses on the dashboard?
- How do I Edit the Navigation Bar (Navbar)?
- How do I view my course from the student view?
- How do I add NameCoach to my course?
- How do I add my photo and edit my profile?
Course Management
TAs must be added to your course by the Office of the University Registrar. Read more about this process here.
- How can I add TAs or other users to my course?
- How can I make my course active, so it is visible to students?
- How do I combine my courses or sections into one course?
- How do I email my entire class, or individual students?
- How do I create/edit a homepage for my course?
- How do I upload a custom image for my homepage banner?
- How do I change the theme colors for my course?
- How do I delete my homepage and make another tool the first page students see?
- How do I turn off course tools I do not need?
- How can I upload a profile photo to my Brightspace account?
- What is the e-Portfolio?
- How to I Access Materials in the Learning Object Repository (LOR)?
- How do I Place LOR Material into my Course Content?
Content
Copyright
- Copyright and Fair Use – Vanderbilt Libraries resource
- Copyright Policy for Vanderbilt’s Course Management Systems
Organizing Content
- VIDEO GUIDE: Introduction to “Lessons View”
- What is the table of contents?
- How do I upload my syllabus?
- How do I move files around in my course?
- How do I insert stuff into my course?
- How do I create modules and add content to them?
- How do I make content unavailable to students?
- How do I import course materials from another course management system?
- How do I copy an entire Brightspace course to another?
- How can I copy pieces of content from one Brightspace Course to Another?
- How do I set Rules or Release Conditions to restrict content?
Assignments
In June 2020, D2L changed the Brightspace interface for creating assignments. Learn more about the “New Experience” here.
Creating Assignments in the New User Experience (effective June 2020)
- VIDEO GUIDE: Introduction to the Assignment Tool
- What is the “New Experience” in the Brightspace Assignment tool?
- How do I switch to the old/new Assignments interface?
- How do I create an Assignment?
- What types of assignments can I create?
- How do I link an assignment to a grade item?
- How do I give select students a different due date (special access)?
Creating Assignments in the Old User Experience
- How do I switch to the old/new Assignments interface?
- Assignment Submission Type Overview (old version)
- How do I create an assignment with the Assignment Tool? (old version)
- How can I quickly create an assignment from the Content Module area? (old version)
- How do I link an assignment to a grade item? (old version)
Grading Assignments
- How do I add feedback and evaluations to assignment submissions?
- How do I use the Annotation Tool for grading?
- How can I download assignments?
- How can I download assignments by group?
- How can I contact students who have not submitted an assignment?
- How do I grade and evaluate a student who has not submitted an assignment?
- How do I return grades and papers to students when I collected physical copies of the assignment?
TurnitIn – Mark-up grading and Plagiarism detection
- VIDEO GUIDE: Introduction to TurnitIn’s Quickmarks
- How do I enable TurnitIn on a new assignment?
- How do I enable TurnitIn on an existing assignment?
- An Overview of TurnitIn Feedback Studio
- How do I use the similarity report tools in TurnitIn?
- How do I provide feedback using TurnitIn?
- How do I manually enter grades using TurnitIn?
- How do I use a rubric in the TurnitIn Feedback Studio?
Tests, Quizzes, and Surveys
Creating a Quiz
- VIDEO GUIDE: Introduction for Quizzes
- 9 Step Quiz Overview
- FAQs for Brightspace Quizzes
- Create and add questions to your quiz
- How to Quickly Create a Quiz Placeholder?
- How do I associate my quiz to a Grade Item in my Gradebook?
- How do I Establish Restrictions Such As: Dates, Time limits, Password, and Respondus Lockdown Browser
- How do I Provide Special Access for Select Students?
- How do I Determine What the Student Sees Upon Completion of the Quiz?
- How do I use the question library?
- How do I use question pools to create isomorphic questions?
- How do I place an image in a quiz question?
- Can I integrate quiz questions into a video? (the answer is yes!)
Grading a Quiz
- How do I export test / quiz grades to the grade book?
- How do I view specific quiz questions after the quiz is submitted?
Respondus Lockdown Browser
Lockdown Browser is a tool to facilitate online test-taking in a more secure environment. The company that provides the tool offers webinars to train faculty in using the Lockdown Browser. You can find their schedule here.
- VIDEO: What is Respondus Lockdown Browser?
- How do I implement Respondus Lockdown Browser for a quiz?
Proctorio
- What is Proctorio and how do I enable it?
- How can I review the Proctorio gradebook?
- Where do my students go for Proctorio Support?
Surveys
Grades / Rubrics
- VIDEO GUIDE: Introduction for Grades
- Step 1: How do I set up my gradebook?
- Step 2: How do I create grade categories and items?
- Example of a Weighted Gradebook
- Example of a Points Gradebook
- Where do my students see their grades?
- How do I grade work using Brightspace?
- How do I release final grades to students?
- How do I associate an assignment with a grade item?
- How do I exclude a grade category or item from the final grade calculation?
- How do I create a rubric?
- How do I enter all grades for a specific Grade Item?
- How do I import a custom grade scheme that I’ve created?
- How do I Export my Gradebook into Excel?
- How do I award extra credit? Extra credit, bonus items, and exceeding 100%
- How do I drop the lowest grade from a Grade Category?
Groups & Discussions
- VIDEO GUIDE: Using Discussions for blogging and student interaction
- Understanding the Discussion tool
- How do I create groups in Brightspace?
- How do I let students self-enroll into groups?
- How do I create group discussion topics?
- How can I create private discussions for student journaling and one-on-one communication?
- An introduction to the Chat tool
- How do I setup the Chat tool?
USING MEDIA IN BRIGHTSPACE: KALTURA AND YOUTUBE
An Introduction to Media on Brightspace – the Kaltura app
- What is Kaltura? – read first!
- How do I access Kaltura? What if I’m getting an error?
- Kaltura Quick Start Guide – printable guide to Kaltura and Kaltura Capture
Uploading video files to Kaltura
- Getting started with Kaltura
- How do I upload videos to Brightspace? (How to use Kaltura)
- How do I control access to videos I’ve uploaded?
- Help! My video has been uploading for a long time!
Record, edit, and caption videos
- How do I record a video with Kaltura Capture?
- How can I turn my lecture slides into a Kaltura Capture video?
- How do I make edits to an existing Kaltura video?
- How do I add and edit captions in a Kaltura video?
Kaltura Video Quizzes
- How can I create a video quiz using a video in My Media?
- How can I grade student responses to a Kaltura Video Quiz?
Sharing Kaltura Videos
- How can I share my Kaltura video with a specific person or with an entire class?
- How can I download Kaltura videos?
Using YouTube videos in your course
Embed videos that you have stored in Vanderbilt Box
- VIDEO GUIDE: Upload a video to box, and embed it in Brightspace
- How can I add a video or other file from Vanderbilt Box into Content?
Video Conferencing: Zoom and Virtual Classrooms
VIDEO GUIDE: How to create a whiteboard demo video using Zoom and a tablet – a tutorial video by Owen faculty member Jesse Blocher
- Everything you need to know about Zoom – Vanderbilt Hustler article, March 2020
- Zoom Best Practices – VUIT resource
- Should I record my live class meeting? New!
- How can I record and share my class meetings with my students? New!
- How can I record and share my class meetings with future students or people outside of the course? New!
- How can I prevent students from sharing videos outside of class? New!
Creating a Zoom Meeting in your course for live remote class meetings
- How do I create a Zoom Meeting for my course? Should I create it in Brightspace?
- How do I activate the Zoom tool in my course?
- Zoom Quick Start Guide
- An Overview of Zoom Meetings
- How do I host a Zoom Meeting?
- How do I create Breakout Rooms in Zoom?
- How do I create Zoom Polls?
- How can I record my Zoom Meeting?
- Changing your Zoom background
- How to I prevent and respond to Zoombombings?
- How do I enable Live Transcriptions for my Zoom meeting?
Creating a Virtual Classroom in your course for live remote class meetings
- How do I activate the Virtual Classroom tool in my course?
- How do I create a Virtual Classroom session?
- How do I host a Virtual Classroom session?
- Hosting a Virtual Classroom – Quick Start Guide
- How do I access my recorded Virtual Classroom sessions?
Pulse Mobile App
Archived Video Workshops