{"id":10136,"date":"2023-09-12T09:58:07","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T15:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/onlineteaching\/?p=10136"},"modified":"2025-05-28T11:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T15:17:08","slug":"back-to-school-with-brightspace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/onlineteaching\/2023\/09\/12\/back-to-school-with-brightspace\/","title":{"rendered":"Back-to-School with Brightspace"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you are teaching at a SUNY then chances are you are using Brightspace or are about to switch to this new LMS. I will show you a few options for your Brightspace courses that I use (a lot) and hope it benefits you and your students!<\/p>\n

First from an instructor perspective it is handy to know ways to input due dates for your assignments. There is more than one method to enter due dates in Brightspace but one of my favorite features of this LMS is how quickly I can manage the dates of all assignments. When you end up teaching the same course in a future semester this will come in handy because you will have a new date and can change them all in one shot.<\/p>\n

While there are a few ways to do this, I go to the course and find where it says Course Tools on the navbar (on top of the course site) then click on Course Admin.<\/p>\n

\"Image
(image of one of my Brightspace courses where you can see Course tools in the navbar and Course Admin highlighted on the right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the <\/span>Course Admin<\/b> area you click on<\/span> Manage Dates. <\/b>This may look a bit different in terms of the location of \u201cManage Dates\u201d on your site but you can always do a search for the term to find it if you are having trouble.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Image
(image of one of my Brightspace courses where you can see where Manage Dates is located after getting to Course Admin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once you get to<\/span> Manage Dates <\/b>there are options and filters to help you narrow down what exactly you want to see. I used the filter to see Quizzes and once it displays the items you have the <\/span>Bulk Edit Dates <\/b>feature.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Image
(image of one of my Brightspace courses where you can see where Bulk Edit Dates feature from in the Manage Dates area of Course Admin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now for something that is fun for both you and your students. If you have seen inside my courses then you\u2019re familiar with how I enjoy creating a unique experience for each of my classes and incorporating a variety of tools that add personalization (and pizazz)! That has not changed with the switch to Brightspace. I still use <\/span>Adobe Express<\/b><\/a>, <\/span>Bitmoji<\/b><\/a>, and <\/span>Animaker<\/b> <\/a>to name a few. If you have some time to play around with these free tools then you can transform your site into something you will love to look at and I believe your students will too!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are plenty of banners and images to choose from in Brightspace for <\/span>the banner, the table of contents, the html pages, and more areas on your course site<\/b>. So, if you find what\u2019s already on the site to your liking then great but you still may want to check out Adobe Express. In a few minutes you can be creating a graphic that works even better than the options given.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are a few examples of incorporating Adobe Express in Brightspace:<\/span><\/p>\n