Brightspace - Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning

Prepare for the Brightspace Transition Now!

May 12, 2024 - Teaching courses with Blackboard Ends

May 13, 2024 - All courses being taught use Brightspace

May 31, 2024 - Blackboard access ends
Content migration & all downloads (data/gradebooks) completed.

June 1, 2024 - Blackboard LMS retires.

Register for Training Now!

View All Upcoming Trainings (printable pdf)

D2L Brightspace Training Series

The immersion series offers 1-hour virtual sessions focused on offering quick-start guidance to help faculty get started using Brightspace.

Brightspace Quick Start: Getting Started

Overview of Brightspace and how to get started.
- April 9 – 2:30 PM
- April 10 – 2:30 PM
Brightspace Quick Start: ABC’s of Content

Creating content in Brightspace.
- April 16 - 10:30 AM
- April 17 – 2 PM
Brightspace Quick Start: Assignments

Using the assignment tools in Brightspace.
- April 18 – 10:30 AM
- April 18 – 12:30 PM
Brightspace Quick Start: Discussions

Setting up and grading discussions in Brightspace.
- April 23 – 12 PM
- April 23 – 2 PM
Brightspace Quick Start: Quizzes

Creating and grading quizzes in Brightspace.
- April 24 –12 PM
- April 24 –2 PM
Brightspace Quick Start: Grades

Brightspace Gradebook and grading.
- April 25 – 10 AM
- April 25 – 2:30 PM

Visit a Brightspace Open Lab

Have questions about Brightspace? The FCTL is hosting a series of open labs devoted to answering questions and assisting with issues you may be having with migrated content, building new content, or navigating Brightspace. The labs will be BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) sessions.

Date	Time	Location
Friday, April 12	10:00 a.m. – Noon	Meyer Library, Room 206
Friday, April 19	10:00 a.m. – Noon and 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.	Meyer Library, Room 206
Friday, April 26	1:00 – 3:00 p.m.	Meyer Library, Room 206
Friday, May 17	10:00 am - Noon	Meyer Library, Room 206
Friday May 24	1:00 pm - 3:00 pm	Meyer Library, Room 206
Friday May 31	10:00 am - Noon	Meyer Library, Room 206
Friday, May 31	1:00 am - 3:00 pm	Meyer Library, Room 206
Friday, June 7	10:00 am - Noon	Meyer Library, Room 206
Friday, June 21	1:00 pm - 3:00 pm	Meyer Library, Room 206

Facilitators

Person item component: stacyrice@missouristate.edu

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Person item component: erictaylor@missouristate.edu

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

All faculty will have access to Brightspace when they return from fall break on Monday, October 16th.
The web address for Brightspace is https://brightspace.missouristate.edu.

You will log-in in with your Missouri State Account.

Instructions for logging into Brightspace are located in the Knowledge Base article, Accessing Brightspace.
Coming Soon!

Much like a master course in Blackboard, a source course is created in Brightspace for the purpose of developing course content. It is essentially a template that you keep up to date, which is then copied into your live courses each semester. There are no students enrolled in a source course providing you the freedom to make updates at any time as well as test out various elements to see how they will work.
Several resources are available for learning about Brightspace.

Virtual Training

Multiple training sessions will be offered by D2L during the Fall 2023 semester. These will be repeated during the Spring 2024 semester.

See "Fall" or "Spring" Training sections above for specific details. Training dates and registration can also be found through My Learning Connection.

Brightspace Community

The Brightspace Community includes training information and resources, as well as opportunities to engage with other Brightspace users. The Brightspace Community can be accessed from the LMS platform by selecting the "Brightspace Help" tab in the top navigation bar.

Brightspace Guided Training

The Brightspace Guided Training is available to faculty within the platform and provides access to self-guided content, instructional videos, and training webinars. The guided training resource is avaiable wihtin the LMS platform by selecting "Brightspace Guided Training" tab in the top navigation bar.

Brightspace Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs)

There will be faculty learning communities (FLCs) available throughout Fall 2023 and Spring 2024. Brightspace FLCs will be facilitated by MSU faculty members who were part of the early adopter group. FLCs provide a community experience for faculty members to learn together as they begin teaching with Brightspace.

You can find a community by visiting: Join an FLC
Brightspace Virtual Assistant

Brightspace includes 24/7 support for faculty and students. The Brightspace Virtual Assistant is available within the platform through the Get Help button located in lower right corner of the page.

For more information on the Brightspace Virtual Assistant visit the Accessing the Brightspace Virtual Assistant in the Knowledge Base.
You will still be able to teach using Blackboard during the Spring 2024 semester if you choose. However, summer and Fall 2024 courses will exclusively be taught using Brightspace.

The last day you will have access to Blackboard is June 1, 2024.
The past academic year's content from Blackboard will be migrated to Brightspace. From there you will be able to copy your content into your Brightspace courses.

Master courses will not be migrated into Brightspace.

You will need to request a source course for Brightspace and then you will be able to import your content from the Blackboard master course.

You may choose to rebuild content into your new Brightspace source course, which would likely be an opportunity to discover features not available in Blackboard.

FCT: How-To Guide

Migrating Content to Brightspace

FCTL How-To Guide

Downloading Blackboard Grade Book

Teaching & Learning with Brightspace

Personalize & Individualize Learning

group of white paper airplanes with one red one leaving the group

MSU values individualized instruction, which provides students with unique pacing and/or personalized courses of study. MSUs new learning management system, Brightspace includes tools to support faculty in personalizing learning experiences to meet individual student needs.

Brightspace Features for Providing Personalized and/or Individualized Learning

Release conditions allow you to hide course items (content, assignments, quizzes, discussions, awards, etc.) from student view until certain criteria have been met. This tool can be helpful in creating pathways through the content, which may be determined by conditions. When this feature is used with a grade item, faculty can release differentiated content for students based on set grade or score thresholds.

For example, a release condition can be used to release supplemental resources and content for students who score below a specific score while another release condition may be set to release the next content item for students who have obtained the required score to move forward in the course.

Visit the Brightspace Community to learn more about using Release Conditions (log-in required).
Brightspace includes the option for creating different kinds of groups. Groups allow faculty to differentiate content and increase student engagement. The grouping tool can be used to offer students spaces for learning based on interest, role, or need.

Visit the Brightspace Community to learn more about creating categories and groups (log-in required).
Brightspace includes information in the form of "replace strings", which allows faculty to personalize communications with students. One example of this is including the replace string {first name} when creating an announcement. When student's view the announcement, they will see their own name replaced where the {first name} string was included. This makes adding a personal touch for all students quick and easy with one step!

Visit the Brightspace Community to learn to: Automatically customize course content using replace strings. (log-in required).

Engage Students in Learning

Gamification

Gamification is an instructional method focused on embedding game principles, such as creating levels, including points, and offering rewards to mark progress and achievement. The Brightspace platform can be used to build gamification elements into your course. Some ways to gamify the student learning experience within Brigthspace include:

Releasing Announcements with Release Conditions
Releasing Awards (Badges & Certificates) with Release Conditions
Releasing different content pathways based on multiple choice question responses by using Release Conditions

Visit the Brightspace Community to learn: How to step up your engagement with gamification

Storytelling

A Brightspace Learning Module

Learning Through Story

Image Credit: Pixabay

Access & Use Data

When data is collected, analyzed,prioritized,and synthesized, it becomes “actionable knowledge” for making decisions. - Mo-Edusail

The Brightspace LMS provides faculty with access to various types of student data. Statistics features are included for assignments, quizzes, surveys, and grades. Faculty can access information about individual student performance as well as how a class is progressing as a whole.

24/7 Help!

Brightspace Virtual Assistant

Tips from Stacy!

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How-To Guides

Logging Into Brightspace

Quick Start Resource Guide

Migrating Existing Content

Download Blackboard GradeBook

Crosswalk of Terminology from Blackboard to Brightspace

What Early Adopters are Saying about Brightspace

Easy Course Builds

The Brightspace module templates and interactive layouts allow for easy course builds and more flexibility than a static folder structure. Brightspace layouts include features that are commonly used in web design platforms, which makes organizing course content easier.

Image Credit: Pixabay

24/7 Live Chat Help

The Brightspace system includes 24/7 live chat help. Early adopters are enjoying the ability to ask questions and receive answers or documentation in real time.

Image Credit: Pixabay

Accessibility

Built-in Multimedia Tools

Brightspace includes built-in video tools with closed captioning and media storage. This eliminates the need for extra systems to create videos and closed captioning, and faculty will no longer need to house video content on YouTube or other platforms.

Image Credit: Pixabay

Articles & Information from Across Campus

Office of the Provost

Learning Management System Review Project

Office of the Provost

Academic Expressions: On the Bright Side

The Standard

University to Switch from Blackboard Learn to Brightspace in Summer 2024

April 10, 9:00 am - 11:00 am	Session 5: Yes, We Can!	Building course activities and assessments. Includes effective practices and how to use the assignment, quiz, and discussion tools to reflect course objectives.
April 15, 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm	Session 6: The End is the Beginning	Dives deeper into practices and tools of high interest and answers questions not covered in earlier sessions.

Teaching & Learning with Brightspace

Prepare for the Brightspace Transition Now!

Register for Training Now!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Virtual Training

Brightspace Community

Brightspace Guided Training

Brightspace Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs)

Brightspace Virtual Assistant

Teaching & Learning with Brightspace

Personalize & Individualize Learning

Engage Students in Learning

Access & Use Data

Tips from Stacy! missouristate.requireScript("https://missouristate.info/ou/_resources/js/feed.min.js"); Loading <a href="https://blogs.missouristate.edu/brightspace/">View all</a>

How-To Guides

What Early Adopters are Saying about Brightspace

Articles & Information from Across Campus

Tips from Stacy!

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