Brightspace Homepage and Course Overview

Here's an overview of the Organization Homepage. Descriptions can be found under the image.

1. Select a Course (waffle) button: There are 2 ways to access your courses from the Org Homepage. This is the first! Click this button to find a list of all your course. From here you can access any active course you are participating in. Once courses close, you will no longer have access to the course page.
2. Your Profile, Notifications, and Account Settings: From here you can access your Profile, Notifications, and Account Settings.
3. Org NavBar: From the Organization Navigation Bar you can access Learner resources and Awards. Find any badge or certificate you have achieved under Awards. Learner Resources has a direct link to where you can get Brightspace help, and links to your Brightspace Calendar, Class Progress, and Media Library where you can record or upload videos to share in your course.
4. My Courses Widget: This is the second method to access your courses. All your courses will be listed here by Term.

Here's an overview of the Course Homepage. Descriptions can be found under the image.

1. Course NavBar: Click on Content on the Course Navigation Bar to go to the Content page. Here you should find items like a course overview, syllabus, readings, and other relevant course content. The Assessments tab has links to Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions. Zoom will bring you to the course Zoom page where you can find links to the course Zoom sessions (if applicable). The Awards tab will hold any badge or certificate you earn in the course. Course Tools will give you access to your Course Progress and your Media Library.
2. Instructor Contact Information Widget: Here you can find the contact information for the course Instructor
3. Announcements: Here you can find any relevant course announcement from you instructor or program facilitator.
4. Calendar: The course Calendar will have important due dates and relevant course dates. You can subscribe to the Brightspace course calendar to automatically add these dates to your personal calendars. Find out how further down the page.

Pulse App

Brightspace Pulse is an application from D2L which gives you access to Brightspace from your smartphone device. It is available for both Android and iOS devices.

Download Pulse from the Google Play Store or Apple Store for free.

Log into Brightspace Pulse

1. From your device, tap the Brightspace Pulse icon.
2. Learn more about Brightspace Pulse by swiping left/right; otherwise tap Next.
3. Tap Pick Your School.
4. Search for Saint Mary's University PD
5. Enter your username and password in the External Participant Login Portal
6. You should now be able to access your courses.

Notifications

Brightspace offers a convenient and effective way to stay informed about the activity in your courses. Through the use of notifications, you can receive updates on new comments, posts, assignment feedback, and more. This guide will walk you through the process of customizing your notifications to fit your needs, ensuring that you never miss an important update.

How to set Notification

1. Log in to your Brightspace account.
2. Click on your profile picture or initials in the top right corner of the screen.
3. From the dropdown menu, select Notifications to access the notifications settings page.
4. Under Contact Methods, click on Change your email settings to change the email address the notifications are sent to.
5. We recommend leaving Summary of Activity as Never.
6. Then, under Instant Notifications select the item you wish to receive notifications about. Note: See list below for descriptions of the best student notification options.
7. Click Save when done.

Here is a list of notifications for students along with details on what would trigger the notification:

Announcements - new announcement available

Notification sent when a new announcement has been posted via the Announcements tool.

Assignments - assignment feedback released

Notification sent once evaluation/feedback has been published for a submitted assignment.

Assignments - assignment due date or end date is 2 days away

Notification will be sent if the due date for an assignment is days away for any active courses the user is enrolled in.

Content - content item created

Notification sent when a new content topic is added and made visible to an active course that the user is enrolled in.

Discussions - new post in a forum, topic, or thread that I subscribed to in instant notifications

Notification is sent to a user if they have subscribed to a discussion forum, topic, or thread with the option Send me an instant notification and a new post is made.

Grades - grade item released

Notification is sent when a grade item is published/released

Quizzes - quiz due date or end date is 2 days away

Notification is sent if a quiz has a defined due date and this date is 2 days away.

How to Add Brightspace Calendar Items to your personal Calendar

1. In Brightspace, click on the name of the Calendar widget to open it. From the Calendar tool, click Subscribe.
2. Under Calendar Subscriptions, select which calendar you want to subscribe to, or select All Calendars and Tasks, or Tasks Only.
3. Copy and paste the URL into your external calendar application of choice to subscribe to events for the selected Brightspace calendar(s). Below, we've provided links on where to paste the calendar link in the following applications:
   • Outlook Web Instructions
   • Outlook Desktop Instructions
   • iCalendar Instructions
   • Google Calendar Instructions
4. Once you've saved the link in your personal calendar, click Close in Brightspace.

Your external calendar is synced with the Brightspace Calendar tool.

Accessing your Certificate

Once you’ve completed your course, you may receive a certificate of completion in Brightspace. You can download the certificate as a PDF to save for your records. You also have the option to share the certificate to LinkedIn.

How to access your certificate

From the course page, click on Course Tools, then select Awards.

To download the certificate:

1. From Awards, click on the title of the certificate.
2. At the bottom of the pop-up and click Generate Certificate.
3. This should initiate a download of the PDF.

To share the certificate to LinkedIn:

1. From Awards, click Share on the bottom of the certificate
2. Click on Share to LinkedIn then, click on Share to LinkedIn a second time.
3. A new tab should open and load LinkedIn. Log in if necessary.
4. Check the information that loaded into each field and click Save.