Category Archives: Brightspace

Previewing Learner Grades

Brightspace, Grades

Did you know you can preview learner grades in Brightspace? As the Instructor, your grade view will differ from that of your students. This could be helpful if a student is asking a question about their grades or maybe they are unable to see a grade in the course. You can use this view to check what they see! Reminder: If a grade item is hidden – it will still show on the instructor view but your students will not see this grade.

https://it.stonybrook.edu/help/kb/previewing-how-grades-look-for-a-student-in-brightspace

Is Your Grade Book Ready?

Academic Technologies, Brightspace, Grades

The end of the fall semester is near! Is your Brightspace grade book ready for final grades?

If you need some assistance or would like a simple check of your grade book before submitting final grades in SOLAR, please submit a ticket: https://help.stonybrook.edu/TDClient/277/Portal/Requests/ServiceDet?ID=7920Turnitin

After we receive your ticket, we will send you an invite to meet and go over your grade book in Brightspace!

Brightspace Groups for Active Learning

Attendance Verification, Brightspace, Grades

This week was the first time I tried using Brightspace groups in Javits 106 Active Learning classroom. If you are not familiar with the space, it’s tables of 6 in an Octagon shaped room. There is no “front” of the room so each table has a display

I created Brightspace Groups with an attached assignment prior to class and displayed group assignments on the displays around the room so everyone knew where to sit. The students used the lapboards or worksheets (their choice) to identify various characters that they knew of who had “Followership” traits.

Types of followers

At the conclusion of class, I asked 1 student from each table to take a picture of the results and submit their groups work via Brightspace. Since I had attached the Assignment to the “Attendance” Category in my Grades, I was able to quickly update attendance for class at the end of the day.

The only issue that arose was that one of the students was not assigned a group and therefore could not see the assignment. We were able to resolve this during class.

Using this tool was not only easy but also saved me a some time. I highly recommend giving it a try!

Checking Student Progress

Brightspace

Throughout the semester, all different types of assessments are being submitted and it can become a bit overwhelming to see who is missing an assignment/quiz/exam or discussion post. Here are some ways to keep track of your students progress in your Brightspace course!

  • Class Progress: Find a high-level view of student performance on various indicators like content, objectives, and grades by clicking on Class Progress in the course navigation bar. You can then click on an individual student’s name for more detail. 

Check in on specific tools:

  • Grades: Go to the Grades tool. For a specific grade item, click the drop-down arrow and select Statistics to view class or user statistics for that item. 
  • Quizzes: Navigate to Quizzes and click the drop-down arrow next to the quiz title, then select Statistics. This view includes tabs for User Stats, Question Stats, and Question Details. 
  • Content: Go to the Content area, click the gear icon, and select View Reports to see content statistics, or click the User tab to see individual user statistics. 
  • Discussions: From the Discussions List, click on the drop-down menu next to the desired forum or topic and select Statistics. You can filter the results to view overall statistics or see individual user and group activity. 
  • Enrollment: Access Class List, then select Enrollment Statistics to see who has enrolled, unenrolled, or withdrawn from the course and view any completed grade items for withdrawn students. 

Make Your Quizzes Smarter with Question Pools in Brightspace

Brightspace

Creating a quiz in Brightspace? Take it to the next level by using question pools! This feature lets you pull a set number of questions from multiple sections in your Question Library. With this, each student gets a slightly different version of the quiz, ensuring academic integrity.

To create a question pool, start by editing your quiz and selecting “Create New” followed by “Question Pool.” From there, name the pool, decide how many questions you want to include, and set the point value. Then browse your Question Library to select the questions or sections you want to pull from. Once you’re done, click save.

Question pools make your quizzes more secure without requiring you to manually build multiple versions. You also get to reuse questions you’ve already created, keeping your course materials organized and efficient. To learn more about Question Pools, check out this KB article!

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Without students, we could not DoIT!

Academic Technologies, Technical Support, Wednesday Wisdom

When I was an Undergraduate at Stony Brook, I applied for and accepted a position as a student consultant in the Library SINC Site. Back then, there were only 15 student employees. My supervisor , Nancy Duffrin and our CIO , Rich Reeder, recognized the power of empowering students. They supported growth of the program so that 30 years later, the Division now employs over 200 students a year in all forward facing support areas.

If you have reached out for assistance or attended a workshop, chances are you have spoken with one of our superstars! Please share how awesome they are by submitting a nomination today for our Star IT Program.

Our student technologist are: Aidan, Logan, Jingyu, Michelle, Rin, Aaron, ZB, Krisha, Mysha, Ava, Tom, Perry, Martin, Raymond & Christopher. I am so proud of the work that they do!

Nominate a student for STAR IT program

Mid Semester Grade Check

Academic Technologies, Brightspace, Grades, , ,

Thinking of what you could do this fall break?
How about previewing your grades in Brightspace!
Make sure grades are accurate for your students before they return from break!

Use the Preview option to see exactly how a student sees his/her grades.

  1. In Brightspace, click the course selector near the top center and select the course
  2. Once in the course, in the Navbar select Grades
  3. Near the top left, select Enter Grades

Scroll down (or use the View By or search tools) to find the student whose grades you want to preview grades for and select the dropdown next to the student’s name and select Preview

Collecting Data in a minute

Academic Technologies, Attendance Verification, Brightspace

During class this week, students participated in a leadership compass activity**. As part of the activity, I wanted to collect the responses so everyone could see the overall results as well as use the data to figure out how much “space” was needed in the room to have students move to their most dominant direction.

Current image: Dominant Decision Making styles - Pie chart
Vevox Results after students connect via Brightspace

I decided to try Vevox and was pleased with how easy it was to collect & post the results.

Vevox Results published in Brightspace Gradebook

The only action the students had to take was to scan the QR code with their device OR access the link in Brightspace.

I now have the participation results in my gradebook & can also use this activity in future semesters to continue to collect information on dominant decision making styles of all WISE student leaders.

**Adapted from the Northwest Leader Corps training curriculum written and compiled by Nicole Trimble. An EnCorps resource.

Get Organized with Brightspace Categories

Brightspace, Grades

Did you already set up your Brightspace grade book?

If so, go in and make sure you used Categories for all of your grade items. Using Categories in your grade book allows you to organize your grade book and weight your grade items so that everything is aligned and adds up to 100%.

Are your quizzes all in the quiz category? Do you see a homework assignment that has no category and is currently an outlier? Follow the instructions in this short video to get organized today and save time at the end of the semester!

Introducing FeedbackFruits: A Toolkit for Interactive Learning in Brightspace!

Academic Technologies, Brightspace

Integrated within Brightspace, FeedbackFruits makes it simple to boost student emgagement with interactive course design. It enables you to build peer feedback sessions, group evaluations, interactive video and document assignments, and much more. For both synchronous and asynchronous modalities, the activities can be adapted to their learning contexts. FeedbackFruits takes away the strain of designing engaging activities, allowing you to focus on teaching and inspiring.

Remove the guesswork with group work and use Feedback Fruits to track student progress and provide actionable feedback with ease. It’s also important to note that some activities like Peer Review, Group Member Evaluation, and Team-Based Learning have automatic assessments, while others like Interactive Document and Interactive Video require grading to be manually added by you.

Want to learn how to use it? We’re holding training workshops to get you started. Sign up for a session through our Workshops page and see how FeedbackFruits can brighten up your course!

We’re excited for you to start using FeedbackFruits! For more info and FAQs, visit our FeedbackFruits service page.

FeedbackFruits banner with activities listed