Getting Started with Brightspace: An Educator's Guide

Getting Started with Brightspace: An Educator's Guide

This tutorial introduces the main areas of Brightspace and walks you through the first tasks you are likely to complete when preparing a course. You will learn how to adjust your settings, find and review a course, organize content, create accessible pages, add images and links, and build a basic quiz.

By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to:

• Navigate the Brightspace homepage and course interface.
• Use learner and facilitator views to check the student experience.
• Review files, grades, and quizzes in a migrated course.
• Create units and add documents or responsive HTML pages.
• Add accessible images and Quicklinks to course resources.
• Create, preview, and connect a basic quiz to the grade book.

1. Sign In and Explore the Homepage

Sign in to OC Brightspace using your Okanagan College account. The homepage provides access to your courses, alerts, profile, settings, and media.

Across the top of the page, you may see:

• Message or subscription alerts: notifications about activity in communication tools such as discussions.
• Update alerts: notices about course updates or background processes, such as a video becoming ready to view.
• Your name or profile image: access to role switching, your profile, notifications, and account settings.
• My Media: your personal Kaltura media library, including Kaltura videos migrated from Moodle.

Adjust your personal settings

Select your name or profile image to open your personal options:

• Profile: add a profile image, tagline, or short biography.
• Notifications: choose whether Brightspace activity should also be sent to you by email.
• Account Settings: adjust personal display settings, including font size and pronouns.
• Account Settings > Email: add a signature to messages sent from Brightspace.

2. Check the Course Using Another Role

The View as option lets you check how a course appears without your full educator editing controls.

1. Select your name or profile image in the upper-right corner.
2. Select View as or Change.
3. Choose Learner to view the course as a student, or Facilitator when presenting course content without exposing hidden educator material.
4. When finished, select the X in the orange role banner to return to your educator role.

3. Find, Pin, and Personalize a Course

Use the course selector or the My Courses area to open a course or sandbox. If you have many courses, pin the ones you use most often. Pinning a course is similar to starring it in Moodle and moves it near the top of your course list.

1. Open the course selector or locate the course tile under My Courses.
2. Select the pin icon or use the course’s options menu to pin it.
3. To change the course image, hover over the course tile and select the three dots.
4. Select Change Image.
5. Search the stock image library or upload an appropriate image, then select Use Image.

The course image is visible to students, so choose an image that represents the course and remains clear when cropped to the course-tile format.

4. Learn the Main Course Areas

When you enter a course, its name appears in the course navigation bar. The exact tools you see may depend on your role and the course setup.

• Course Home: returns to the course homepage, where upcoming activities and course information may be displayed.
• Content: opens the course’s units and learning materials.
• Discussions: displays discussion forums and topics.
• Class Progress: provides information about course access, progress, and completion once students are enrolled.
• Communication: provides access to announcements, groups, the classlist, and email tools.
• Assessments: provides access to quizzes, grades, Quick Evaluation, and rubrics.
• More: may include Kaltura My Media and other course tools.

Useful communication shortcuts: Open Classlist to identify and email selected students. Within an assignment, use Email Users Without Submissions to contact students who have not yet submitted their work.

5. Review a Migrated Course

Before teaching from a course migrated from Moodle, review the following areas under Course Admin.

Manage Files

Open Manage Files and look for the content folder. This area may contain migrated PowerPoint files, Word documents, PDFs, and images. If a file appears to be missing from the visible course content, check here first.

Grades

Open Grades, then review both the Setup Wizard and Manage Grades. Confirm that the grade book uses the intended calculation method—such as weighted grades or points—and that category and item weights add up correctly. Brightspace displays a warning when a weighted grade book does not total 100%.

Quizzes and Question Library

Open Quizzes to review migrated quizzes, then open the Question Library to review question sections. The Question Library is the Brightspace equivalent of Moodle’s question bank.

Questions created directly in a Brightspace quiz are not automatically added to the Question Library. Store questions in the library when you want to organize or reuse them. If you use Brightspace Lumi to generate questions, review every generated question for accuracy before using it with students.

Import, Export, and Copy Components

Use Course Admin > Import/Export/Copy Components to copy material from a development or ready course into the course you will teach. Search for the source course, choose whether to copy everything or selected components, and review the destination course after the copy is complete.

6. Create and Manage Course Units

In Brightspace, a unit is similar to a topic or section in Moodle. Units can represent weeks, modules, chapters, or major course themes.

1. Open Content.
2. Select New Unit.
3. Enter a clear unit title.
4. Add an optional description or overview.
5. Select Save and Close.
6. Use the visibility toggle when the unit is ready for students.

New units, pages, quizzes, and assignments are hidden from students by default. A crossed-out eye icon indicates that an item is hidden.

Be careful when deleting content

From a unit’s three-dot menu, Brightspace may offer two different delete actions:

• Remove the unit from Content: removes the unit from the visible course structure but may leave linked activities or files elsewhere in the course.
• Permanently delete the unit and its content: removes the unit and the items it contains. Read the confirmation message carefully before proceeding.

7. Add Existing Documents and Files

You can upload Word documents, PDFs, PowerPoint files, and other resources directly into a unit.

1. Open the unit where the file should appear.
2. Select Add Existing.
3. Browse to the file on your computer, or drag a downloaded file into the unit.
4. Wait for Brightspace to upload and process the file.
5. Use the item’s three-dot menu > Edit to replace a long filename with a shorter, student-friendly title.
6. Make the item visible when it is ready.

PDFs, Word documents, and PowerPoint files can display in the document viewer. Students may also have options to use the document reader, open the item full screen, or download it.

8. Create an Accessible Content Page

Brightspace HTML pages are a strong choice for important course information because the text can reflow for different screen sizes and can be read more effectively by assistive technologies.

1. Open the unit where the page should appear.
2. Select Create New > Page.
3. Enter the page title in the title field.
4. Open the Select a Template menu and choose an OC content-page template.
5. Select Save before making extensive changes. Saving does not close the editor.
6. Replace the template’s placeholder text with your own content.
7. Use paragraph and heading styles to preserve a meaningful heading hierarchy.
8. Select Save and Close, then review the finished page at desktop and narrow screen widths.

Paste without bringing in unwanted formatting

When copying from Word, use Ctrl + Shift + V on Windows or Command + Shift + V on a Mac. This pastes the text without its original font and formatting so it adopts the Brightspace template style. If you are copying from a PDF, converting it to Word first may produce cleaner text and fewer unwanted line breaks.

The full-screen editor provides more space while you work. Exit full-screen mode before selecting the page-level Save controls. Brightspace does not continuously save every change, so save regularly.

9. Add Images and Alternative Text

1. Place the cursor where the image should appear.
2. Select Insert Image in the editor toolbar.
3. Choose My Computer, select the image, and upload it.
4. Enter concise alternative text that communicates the image’s meaning or purpose.
5. If the image adds no information, mark it as decorative.
6. Save the page and review the image placement.

For an image that contains important text, include the same information in nearby page text rather than relying on the image alone.

10. Add Quicklinks to Files and Activities

Quicklinks connect text on a Brightspace page to other course resources. A weekly overview page, for example, can link students directly to readings, files, assignments, quizzes, or supported external learning tools.

1. Edit the content page and place the cursor where the link should appear.
2. Select Insert Quicklink.
3. Choose the type of destination, such as Course File, Assignment, or Quiz.
4. Locate and select the item.
5. Give the link a clear, action-oriented name.
6. Save the page and test the link.

Quicklinks can keep the unit navigation concise while a well-designed overview page guides students through a sequence of activities.

11. Create and Preview a Basic Quiz

A new quiz is not automatically connected to the grade book. This allows you to create ungraded practice activities as well as graded assessments.

1. Open the unit and select Create New > Quiz.
2. Enter a clear quiz name.
3. Choose whether to connect the quiz to an existing grade item, create a new grade item, or leave it ungraded.
4. Set the due date if required. Due dates appear in areas such as Upcoming Events.
5. Review Availability Dates and Conditions, including start and end dates, release conditions, and special access.
6. Review Timing and Display, including the time limit and display options.
7. Review Attempts and Completion, including the number of attempts and submission notifications.
8. Review Evaluation and Feedback to decide what students see after submitting.
9. Select Save.

Add a multiple-choice question

1. Go to Create New > New Question > Multiple Choice.
2. Add a new Multiple Choice question.
3. Enter the question text and answer options.
4. Mark the correct answer.
5. Add general or answer-specific feedback when useful.
6. Choose whether to randomize the answer order.
7. Save the question and the quiz.

Use paste-without-formatting—Ctrl + Shift + V on Windows or Command + Shift + V on a Mac—when copying question text from Word.

Preview the quiz

Preview the quiz from the quiz editing area. Learner view does not allow an educator to complete the quiz as though enrolled as a student. In Preview, confirm the question layout, navigation, feedback, timing, and submission experience.

Check the grade book after connecting a quiz

After adding a graded quiz, open Course Admin > Grades > Manage Grades. In a weighted grade book, confirm that the category and final grade calculations still total 100%. Use Bulk Edit when you need to adjust several grade items together.

Before Students Enter the Course

Complete this quick review before the course opens:

• Open Manage Files and confirm that required migrated files are present.
• Review the Setup Wizard and Manage Grades.
• Review migrated quizzes and Question Library sections.
• Confirm that unit and activity titles are clear and concise.
• Check visibility settings and due dates.
• Test Quicklinks and downloadable files.
• Preview quizzes from the quiz editor.
• Use View as Learner to review content and navigation.
• Check important pages at a narrow browser width to confirm they remain readable on smaller screens.

Need Help?

Visit the OC LMS website for Brightspace information, training, and support resources.

For help with Brightspace course setup or educational technology, contact edtech@okanagan.bc.ca.