On-Demand Resources for Instructors
Highlighted Blog Posts – Spring 2021
- New Blog Series Asks Faculty to Share What Practices They Will Carry Forward in Post-pandemic Teaching
- CFT Offers New Guide for Writing Science Exams
- Never Going Back: What Online Teaching in the Times of COVID Can Add to Our Teaching Toolkits
- Leading Lines Podcast Features Jesse Stommel
Jump to a topic:
- 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
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.
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
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
- 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 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?
- Accessing Harvested Repository Material in the Learning Object Repository (LOR)
- Placing Harvested Repository Material in 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
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.
- What is Respondus Lockdown Browser?
- How do I implement Respondus Lockdown Browser for a quiz?
- Where do I get support for problems with Respondus Lockdown Browser?
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