Workshops for Brightspace Users
The Office of Online Learning and Academic Technologies is offering the following
workshops throughout the year. Except where noted, all workshops are led by Todd Taylor, Online Learning Manager.
You may sign up for either the live session or the asynchronous online resources.
Register for all sessions here.
Adding and Structuring Content
Thursday, August 21 from 3pm - 4pm
The Adding and structuring content workshop will provide exercises on adding modules,
embedding existing videos and audio files, adding existing graded activities to modules,
and adding new pages. You will also be provided with exercises on moving content within
a move as well as how to change a module title. This workshop will outline how to
ensure content is released to students.
Adding a Syllabus
Friday, August 22 from 11am - 12pm
The Adding a Syllabus workshop provides resources and step-by-step instructions to
help you setup and configure your syllabus using the Syllabus tool in Brightspace.
Adding Assignments
Thursday, August 28 from 3pm - 4pm
The Adding Assignments workshop will focus on building out basic assignments in Brightspace.
You will be provided with an example of an assignment. The exercises will outline
how to create a basic assignment with an appropriate title, score, description, submission
method, and visibility.
Setting up the Gradebook
Friday, August 29 from 11am - 12pm
The Setting up the Gradebook workshop aims to provide you with a show-and-tell of
the gradebook from the perspective of the student. In doing so, the workshop will
aim to explain how the gradebook communicates to the student their performance. The
workshop will then provide exercises on how to set up the gradebook. First, the workshop
will outline the recommended settings for the gradebook. Then, the workshop will guide
participants through the process of creating high level categories. Finally, the workshop
will show how to associate assignments, discussions, and quizzes with those categories.
Ad Hoc Communication (new)
Tuesday, September 2 from 11am - 12pm
Friday, September 5 from 3pm - 4pm
Are your messages met with tumbleweeds and the sounds of crickets? Are your students
misinterpreting your announcements? This session will review a 2 x 2 matrix to provide
a framework to analyze ad hoc (course logistic) communication tools in Brightspace.
On one dimension, we will compare synchronous and asynchronous tools. On the other
dimension, one- and two-way communication tools will be outlined. Upon review, it
may be discovered that the most versatile tools for course communication, such as
Padlet and Discussions, may be overlooked. The session will demonstrate how to set
up and use each tool.
Performance Communication (new)
Tuesday, September 9 from 11am - 12pm
Wednesday, September 10 from 3pm - 4pm
Performance communication is communication related to tasks set in the course. Performance
communication is often based on feedback and grades. This session will outline various
methods for providing multimodal feedback in Brightspace, including annotations, video-based
overall feedback, video-based think aloud feedback, and whole-of-class feedback. Awards,
as an alternative form of performance communication, will be introduced and an attendance
tool will also be demonstrated.
Soliciting Feedback (new)
Tuesday, September 16 from 11am - 12pm
Wednesday, September 17 from 3pm - 4pm
Body language gives us insights into student engagement in an in-person class. This
workshop considers how we might garner similar insights for the online components
of our course. It will provide a deep dive into the survey tool in Brightspace. The
session will also explore how to set up reports, use AI to analyze survey data, and
build a feedback discussion forum.
Automated Communication (new)
Monday, September 22 from 11am - 12pm
Friday, September 26 from 3pm - 4pm
Is your time wasted chasing up non-responsive students? This workshop will explore
automated messages in Brightspace. You will automate emails to students who have not
logged into your course, as well as provide support resources to students whose grades
fall below your benchmark. Automation can also be used to recognize students. You
will set up rules to send emails to congratulate students. You will also explore how
to use Awards to get a treasure hunt in your course, rewarding students for completing
activities.
Signaling with Color and Formatting (new)
Tuesday, October 7 from 11am - 12pm
Wednesday, October 8 from 3pm - 4pm
Color is a critical tool for signaling important information to students. A color-related
accessibility issue is also the third most prevalent accessibility issue that is controllable
within Brightspace. The workshop will focus on the accessibility issue:
“The HTML content contains text with insufficient contrast”
You will fix this issue using the Accessibility Report as well as using the Brightspace
color picker. You will also explore a variety of ways to signal information in addition
to color.
Describing Images for all Learners (new)
Tuesday, October 14 from 11am - 12pm
Wednesday, October 15 from 3pm - 4pm
A picture is worth a thousand words. Images are a critical tool for communicating
information. This workshop will review how to provide an equivalent experience for
people who cannot perceive images. You will fix two issues:
“The image does not have a description”
“The HTML content contains images without a description”
These are the second and fourth most prevalent accessibility issues that are controllable
within Brightspace. You will apply a flow chart to determine if a description is required,
use tools within the Accessibility Report and Brightspace to update alternative descriptions,
convert standalone images to webpages, and add file links for proprietary file types
(PSD, AI, etc) to webpages.
Structuring a Page with Headings (new)
Tuesday, October 21 from 11am - 12pm
Wednesday, October 22 from 3pm - 4pm
Headings do more than simply signal important content. They also influence reading
patterns. This workshop will introduce the “F-shaped” and “Layer-cake” reading patterns,
as well as discuss how headings contribute to the “layer-cake” for both sighted and
unsighted learners.
You will then fix the following issues that are controllable within Brightspace:
“The HTML’s heading structure does not start at the right level” (5)
“The HTML content does not have any headings” (8)
“The HTML content has empty headings” (9)
“The HTML content has tables that don’t have any headers” (10)
“The HTML content does not have an appropriate heading structure” (11)
Captioning Audio-Visual and Handwritten Communication (new)
Tuesday, October 28 from 11am - 12pm
Wednesday, October 29 from 3pm - 4pm
Video is often a key instructional tool in Brightspace. Not only does it deliver content,
but it also builds instructor presence, especially in online courses. Some instructors
also scan student work that they hand grade and distribute that feedback through Brightspace.
Handwritten feedback is often associated with contrast and legibility issues. One
solution is creating a screen recording that summarizes the feedback. For both videos
and screen recordings, captions are critical. You will generate and update automated
captions in ScreenPal.
In sum, this workshop will address two issues:
“The HTML has videos without captions or with automated captions” (1)
“The image has contrast issues” (6)
Adding Quizzes - The Basics
Tuesday, November 4 from 10am - 11am
Thursday, November 6 from 3pm - 4pm
This workshop will provide a deep dive into quizzes. The workshop will demonstrate
a quiz, including the different types of quiz questions. You will be invited to complete
exercises on how to build out a bank of questions and releasing them as a quiz. You
will also review how to add accommodations to a specific quiz as well as across all
quizzes.
Creating Rubrics
Tuesday, November 11 from 11am - 12pm
Wednesday, November 12 from 3pm - 4pm
This workshop aims to raise awareness and build technical skills around the use of
rubrics. The workshop will be broken down into three parts:
- Rubrics from a student perspective - Instructors will be shown an assignment that has a rubric embedded. In doing so, terminology will be introduced so that faculty will be familiar with criteria, grading language, as well as the use of positive language
- Creating and inserting rubrics - Instructors will be provided with a demonstration on how to create a rubric. A rubric will be first created with all criteria equally weighted, then faculty will be shown how to add custom points
- Grading with rubrics - Instructors will be briefly provided with a walkthrough of how to grade with rubrics.
Special Presentation: LinkedIn Learning (new)
Thursday, November 13 from 1pm - 2pm
Did you know that LinkedIn Learning is integrated into Brightspace? You can leverage
this tool as a free resource to supplement your teaching materials. In this session,
Alyssa Rowe, Senior Customer Success Manager from LinkedIn Learning will explore use
cases for adding LinkedIn Learning video content to your course, outline the breadth
of materials available in FIT subject areas, demonstrate search and browsing strategies
to help you find the best content, and show you how to review feedback and ratings
from other users so you can ensure it is aligned with your needs. She will touch on
how other FIT faculty are currently using LinkedIn materials in their teaching. Finally,
Alyssa will be able to answer your questions.
Adding Quizzes - Beyond the Basics
Tuesday, November 18 from 11am - 12pm
Wednesday, November 19 from 3pm - 4pm
A purpose of quizzes is to evaluate what information students have retained. When
students do not know an answer, they may guess the correct answer, which may overestimate
knowledge retention. Students may also be tempted to look up information. This session
will propose allowing and scoring “I don’t know” responses to reward students for
self-identifying areas where information has not been retained. Advanced Brightspace
Quiz features such as scoring multiple options, custom feedback messages, quiz pools,
and setting a completion score will be explored.
Special Presentation: Helen Lane on Open Educational Resources (OER) (new)
Friday, November 21 from 1pm - 2pm
Explore how Open Educational Resources (OER) and other zero-cost course materials
can make a real difference for your students. Did you know that 20% of students choose
their classes based on costs, 22% skip buying required digital access codes, and 86%
of students experiencing food insecurity have to skip purchasing textbooks? Learn
how adopting Brightspace-compatible OER can remove these barriers and ensure all your
students have access to the materials they need to succeed from day one.
Working with Groups
Tuesday, November 25 from 11am - 12pm
The Working with Groups workshop will outline how to create groups, how to assign
a discussion to a particular group, how to enable “lockers” and group discussions
to monitor the progress of group assignments, how to create a group assignment, and
how to grade a group assignment.
Get Help
If you need assistance with Brightspace, call the SUNY Online Support Services Help Desk (open 7 days per week) at 1-844-673-6786 during the following hours:
Monday - Friday 7:00am-12:00am Midnight EST
Saturday 10:00am-6:00pm EST
Sunday 10:00am-9:00pm EST
If you are having trouble with your FIT Username and Password, call IT for FIT at (212) 217-4357.