Category Archives: Brightspace

Utilize Due Dates on Assignments

Academic Technologies, Brightspace, Wednesday Wisdom

When talking about Brightspace with students and their experiences, a frequent request is for instructors to post assignments with due dates so that they appear on the student’s Brightspace google calendar & /or on the work to do widget like this:

Images of Work to Do widget & Course calendar

If you currently do not have the Work to Do widget , you can add it to your Homepage by following these steps:

  1. Click on Course Administration
  2. Select Homepage
  3. If you have never customized your homepage, you will need to make a copy of the existing one
  4. Edit the homepage and in the widgets section, select “Add Widgets”
  5. Scroll all the way down and select “Work to do”

For additional information, visit Brightspace’s “Manage widgets on your homepage” guide

Known Issue: Small number of quiz attempts do not auto-grade

Brightspace

Some users have reported the following issue in Brightspace:

Issue:

In Brightspace, using Quizzes, some Instructors may encounter a very small number of quiz attempts where the quiz did not auto-grade.

This issue applies to (but may not be limited to) Brightspace 20.24.10.

Work Around:
As a workaround to this issue:

On the grade page for the attempt that did not auto-grade, please select the “Reset Evaluation” option and this will trigger the attempt to be auto-graded.

Winter & Spring ’25 Instructors – Brightspace course shells are now available!

Brightspace
Course sites have been created for all Winter & Spring ’25 (West Campus, HSC & Southampton) courses. To access your course site, go to brightspace.stonybrook.edu and click the Login button. Login with your NetID username and password. 

If you do not see a course you are teaching, check SOLAR to be sure you are the instructor on record before submitting a service ticket at service.stonybrook.edu

Students DO NOT have access! All courses are set to inactive. Your students will NOT be able to access the course until you make your class active.

Once your course is active, all students who are registered will have access & you can add TA’s and other instructors to your course if you wish.

Students assume a class is using Brightspace and think something is wrong when they do not see their courses at the beginning of the semester. If you are not using Brightspace, please let your students know

Review our Start of the Semester: Top Brightspace Tips! which our team has compiled based on questions received over the past 2 years, visit our Brightspace Checklist

Many students proactively check Brightspace just before the semester begins and contact us (& the Registrar’s office) when they do not see their classes.

Winter session begins on Tuesday 1/7 & Spring session begins on Monday 1/27

If you are using Brightspace, please make your class active & create an announcement for your students on or before the first day of classes.

Wednesday Wisdom: Customizing Each Module

Brightspace, Wednesday Wisdom

You can change what images appears for a module in the visual TOC on the Brightspace Course Home by adding/changing the image in each Module’s description.

 

 

When choosing images, here are some things to look for:

  • Images that match your course/module content
  • Images with uncomplicated visuals; avoid images with text
  • Images with content in the top left corner because the Visual TOC will only show the top left portion of larger images (The recommended size for module images is 768 pixels x 400 pixels. If your image has different dimensions it will display fully in the module, but be cropped in the visual table of contents)

For more information: https://it.stonybrook.edu/help/kb/customizing-each-modules-picture-in-the-visual-toc-in-brightspace