Marist Brightspace: Start of the Semester Faculty Checklist

Brightspace is Marist's new learning management system. Brightspace will support instruction both in and out of the classroom with more innovative tools, greater integration, and the expanded ability to collaborate more easily with faculty, students and colleagues alike.  

To Access Brightspace:

  1. Visit: https://brightspace.marist.edu/d2l/home and
  2. click on Marist SSO to login directly with your Marist credentials. 

Course Content

When will your Course Site Be Available To Start Building Content?

Classes within Brightspace will be created automatically every semester. You will no longer need to manually create your course sites. If you are assigned to an additional course in Banner by the Registrar and you have access to your other classes, please allow a few hours for the information to pass into Brightspace. If you do not have the site within 24 hours of being assigned, please reach out to Digital.Education@marist.edu.  

Please refer to the list below for when your courses should become available within Brightspace for you to start editing 

Fall courses should be available by JUNE.  

Winter courses should be available by OCTOBER.  

Spring courses should be available by DECEMBER.  

Summer courses should be available by APRIL.  

When will students have access to my course?

Your site will automatically become published on the start date listed in Banner. Students will be able to see that they are registered for your course within Brightspace before then, however they will not be able to enter the site. If you need to share content with students before the start date, please refer to Email All Students 

When Do Students No Longer Have Access To My Course?

The Brightspace system is set to have all courses stay open one year for students to have access to the content. After the year the course will automatically close. 

How Do I Add a Teaching Assistant (TA) To My Course?

In order to have your TA added to your site, please email Digital.Education@marist.edu with the chair of your department CC'd, including the following information: 

  • TA CWID 
  • Class they need to be added to (CRN is preferred and can be found under course title on homepage)

Permissions they should have:

  • Read Only Facilitator - Can only read content within the site, similar to a student 
  • Facilitator - Has grading capabilities, but cannot create content, assignments, quizzes, etc 

Do You Want to Copy Content From Previous Sites?

If you’d like to reuse content from a previous site, you can use the “import/copy components” feature in your new course site to import those materials.

Helpful Guides: Overview: Import/Export/Copy Components

Tutorial Videos: Import/Export/Copy Components Overview Video

 

How Do you Merge Courses?

If you would like your courses merged, please email Digital.Education@marist.edu with the following information: 

  • Course CRNs to be merged (can be found under course title on homepage) 
  • Which course should be the main course (i.e. the course all students will access) 

Please note that all content from the merged sites will be lost, such as student submissions, so it is recommended to merge early in the semester.

Brightspace Tools

Review Your Course Content Units

Create “units” to organize your course materials sequentially for students. Units can contain content such as lessons (a folder structure), HTML documents (pages), weblinks, files from your computer, and activities such as assignments, discussions, and quizzes. If you already have a content unit structure in your new course site (typically from copying content as outlined above), review and edit those units as needed.

Add Your Syllabus To A Content Unit

If you are reusing content from a previous site, you’ll likely need to replace older syllabus information. For information on how to add your syllabus, see 

How Do I Set Up The Gradebook?

Use the “Grades” tool to centralize assessment and evaluation for your course. We recommend completing the “Setup Wizard” and creating all grade categories (where applicable) and grade items before creating assignments.

Helpful Guides:

Overview: Grades

Enter Grades

Define Settings

Link a Discussion Assessment to a Grade Item

Manage Grades

Tutorial Videos:

Video: Grades Overview

Video: Enter Grades

Video: Define Settings

Video: Link a Discussion Assessment to a Grade Item

Video: Manage Grades

Create Groups for Student Collaboration and Differentiated Content

Create groups to share content with specific students. This is useful for group assignments, projects, and discussions. 

Helpful Guides:

Overview: Groups

Create a Group Category

Create Group Work Area for Learners

Group Enrollment Type

What Happens When You Delete a Group Category?

Tutorial Videos:

Video: Groups Overview

Video: Group Enrollment Type

Video: What Happens when You Delete a Group Category

Create Your Assessments (Assignments and Quizzes)

Create a Discussion Forum and Topics

A discussion forum provides a space for students to discuss various topics asynchronously, outside of the classroom.

Helpful Guides:

Overview: Discussions

Tutorial Video:

Video: Discussions Overview

Review Other Tools

You may want (or need) to use other tools in your course site, such integrations with other third-party technologies. A full list of available integrations can be found in Marist Faculty: Getting Started with Brightspace

Marist Zoom: Checking Your License Status

Make sure to check your Marist Zoom License to maintain your active user status. For instructions, see https://my.de.marist.edu/zoomandwebinar

Check Your Classlist (Roster)

The classlist tool in your course site contains a directory of names, emails, and group settings for quick access for all participants in your course.

Helpful Guides:

Overview: Classlist

Tutorial Video:

Video: Classlist Overview

Preview Your Site as a Student

View your course as a student and make changes to your content as required before making it “active” to students. For instructions, see INSERT LINK. Note that there are limitations to the “student view” feature, and it can be helpful for checking that items are visible to students as well as how they might navigate a course site.

Manage Dates

Use the “Manage Dates” feature to review the dates (start, end, due) associated with items in your course site.

 

Send a Welcome Announcement

Post an announcement before the first day of class to greet your students and to guide them on where to begin and what to expect on the first day of class. Make sure your site is active so that students receive an email notification.

Helpful Guides:

Overview: Announcements

Enable Notifications in Announcements

Tutorial Video:

Video: Anouncements Overview

iLearn-related FAQs

Will my prior courses be copied from iLearn into Brightspace?

Faculty will have courses that were offered from Summer 2022 to Spring 2023 automatically moved into Brightspace.  If you have a need to move a different course, a form will be available to make requests later this spring.

Will my project sites be copied from iLearn into Brightspace?

Project sites will not be copied automatically. Should you want your project site transitioned to Brightspace, a form will be available to make requests later this spring. 

What will not be transitioned from iLearn to Brightspace?

Course sites created prior to Summer of 2022 will not automatically be transferred to Brightspace. A form will be available to request the transfer of additional courses. Additionally, student content will not be transferred with course materials. 

When will iLearn courses no longer be available?

You will be able to log into iLearn until the end of the Spring 2024 term, but new courses and rosters will not be fed after Summer 2023. After this time, faculty will be able to request to retrieve archived courses through Digital Education until December 2025. After 2025 requests for archived courses will no longer be granted.

Will I have access to my Panopto Videos?

Panopto videos do not live within iLearn (the LMS), they are actually in a different location and integrated. We’ll be integrating Panopto into Brightspace (the new LMS) so all faculty videos within Panopto will be available in the new system.

To access your Panopto Videos outside of the LMS: https://marist.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Home.aspx