All posts by Diana Voss

Attendance Tool in Brightspace?

Some  Instructors are asking about the Brightspace Attendance Tool.

After exploring this tool, I have constructed the following If…Then  statements:

If attendance is part of your grading criteria, Then do not use this tool.  Instead post attendance in the Grades area so it’s part of the automatic calculation.  Mine looks like this:

Screenshot of attendance in grade center

 

Interested in learning more about Grades in Brightspace?  Check out DoIT Training’s Minibyte slideshow/videos

If you aren’t concerned about incorporating it into grades, then read on!


Brightspace Attendance

The attendance is a tool that you will find in  Course Admin

Directions on how to  set it up can be found here.

I could not find any directions on how the students can view it but I did figure out that you can add it to your Nav bar. if you want the students to see the available Attendance data.

Note that this tool will work fine without the students having access to view it.  The students do not check themselves into class, this is a manual process that the instructor must enter, one by one. (This is a large reason why simply using the Grades area and marking off any absences may be less time consuming.)

This shows the pull down process for marking each learner present or absent:

It is easy to see how a long class roster would be a burden.

… and If you choose to enter this into the Course Nav Bar, this is what a student sees:

While it does not connect to the grade center, you can export the information out if you would like into a csv file.

The file looks like this:

export of attendance roster contains Name, username, ID#, Weekly attendance and summary of how many Present, Absent, Late & Excused.

 

3rd Party Tools being added to Brightspace

Thank you to all who have reached out asking about 3rd party tools

The following list will be updated as more tools become available in the system.

Tools that are working:

  • Echo360
  • Lumen
  • McGraw Hill Connect
  • Respondus
  • Turn It In (this is the replacement for SafeAssign in Blackboard)
  • VoiceThread
  • Wiley
  • Zoom

Tools that are still being configured:

  • Ally
  • Cengage
  • Digital Desk
  • Jones & Bartlett Learning
  • Macmillan Learning
  • MindLinks
  • MyLab & Mastering
  • Vital Source
  • W.W. Norton & Company

KB articles for tools that are in production are available on the Brightspace service page : https://brightspace.stonybrook.edu

Brightspace has arrived!

This blog has been “quiet” for some time but now, thanks to Brightspace & the return to campus, it seems the perfect time to re-ignite it!

In case you haven’t heard .. Brightspace has arrived!

Later this week, I will post a  video highlighting some of my favorite tools that I tried this Spring, which include: Quick Eval, Course Progress, Checklists and Intelligent Agents.

Once you add the pieces (that you already have from your Blackboard course) :

pieces
Pieces needed to use Brightspace

The built in tools mentioned above will work for you with minimal effort on your part.

To see what I’m talking about, view Brightspace – Start with the _pieces   ..  Video coming soon!

Stay tuned….

Diana Voss
Director of Academic Technology Services

Do you use clickers in your class? Please make sure you let the new bookstore know

Follett Discover
Early today, the following email was sent from our Bookstore Liason to all instructors.   If you use clickers, please make sure  you indicate that you do when you submit your request trough Follett.
***************************
Dear Faculty & Department Administrators,

We have begun to transition to our new official bookstore provider, Follett, and we invite you to select the course materials you need through Follett Discover Adopt, the online course material requisition tool.

Remember, there will not be a brick-and-mortar bookstore on campus. All of your “required and recommended” course materials will be available for students to purchase in time for the Summer I, II and Fall 2018 semesters on the stonybrookshop.com website with available shipping to their home, campus store or campus address.

Our goal is to have all of your course materials up on SOLAR by the time class registration begins. Providing your requisition on time ensures that the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) compliance is met and that students can shop early to obtain their course materials at the best prices. By letting Follett know if you will be using the same course materials in upcoming semesters, they can offer our students more money for their course materials at buyback.

The due date for submitting course materials requests for Summer and Fall 2018 is Monday, April 2nd. If you do not require any course materials for your class, please indicate “No Text Required” in the online portal. Additional information and reminders about placing your course material requisitions will be sent to you via subsequent emails.

Open House

Follett will be hosting an Open House event on Wednesday, March 7th from 12:00pm – 2:30pm at Charles B. Wang Center, room 301. We invite you to attend so that Follett can introduce you to the new course material requisition tool and how to log into the portal.

 
Please click the invite below to RSVP:

https://form.jotform.com/80514357000141

Book Buyback

Please remind your students that Follett will be hosting book buyback events at the end of the spring semester at Shop Red West and Shop Red East. When they sell back their textbooks to Follett, it helps other students get the best prices for used books next semester. Textbook rental returns through Amazon@StonyBrook can be dropped off at the campus pickup point location in the Melville library.

Desk Copies

If you would like a complimentary desk copy for the course you are teaching, you can request a digital copy of the book through the Follett Discover Adopt online portal.

The Bookstore Liaison’s Office is here to support you and will answer any questions or concerns you may have. Please reach us at Bookstore_Liaison@stonybrook.edu or call 631.632.9828.

Sincerely,

The Bookstore Liaison Team

Office of the Bookstore’s Liaison
We are located at the following address:

Office of the Bookstore Liaison — Faculty Student Association
East Side Dining
157 Circle Drive
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY 11794-4180
C2E: Committed to Excellence!