As we transition to using Brightspace as our only LMS we continue to tweak settings and the interface to better support our users.

For the fall semester,  we’ve made some small but noticeable changes. On the navbar in courses, everyone will see that the course tools has changed. Due to comments that the tool list was too long, and recommendations from a course audit during the spring, we’ve changed the link to All Course Tools and moved it to the end of the navbar. We’ve added a Quick Tools link and reduced the number of tools to the 7 most commonly used ones. We hope this change will make it easier for students to navigate their courses.

Over the summer we added the Work To Do widget to the main home page. Given positive response, we’ve now added the widget to course home pages. The widget is context sensitive so it lists the work due in the course where it is located. The widget on the main page will list items due across all a student’s courses.

Brightspace has continued improving features including:

• Improved LaTex formula rendering in quizzes. Instructors can now enter the LaTex code directly in the quiz editor without using the insert formula button.
• Rubric editing has been updated to allow easier adding of criteria, reording of criteria and the option to print to pdf. Inline grading with rubrics has also been improved with a slider to select a level and clear indication of the level selected. Overall rubric score visible from Pulse app.
• Assignment workflow improvements including adding categories in the assigment creation workflow.
• Improvements in Quiz tool including, removing the introduction field, moving the quiz reports to the action menu for a quiz, a new quiz status for quizzes with manually graded items, and a grace period to allow a specified number of minutes before a quiz is marked late.
• New Discussion Experience released. This change aligns the discussion evaluation workflow with the earlier enhancements to the Assignments workflow.

In September some additional changes will occur, including:

• Consistent references to the grade center instead of grades.
• Instructors can restrict file types for assignment submissions.
• Instructors can delete file submissions.
• User pronouns can be designated in the user profile.
• Additional information available on rubric tiles indicating the number of criteria assessed and assessments complete. Additional rubric editing functions, copy and delete criteria groups.

Follett Discover has been integrated into Brightspace so that instructors can specify text books and other course materials through a link on the main navbar.  Instructors can also add links to Follett Discover materials directly in their courses using the integration. Students can access Follett Discover through the Bookstore widget on the main home page to purchase textbooks and other materials.

More detailed information on these changes can be found on the Brightspace Community site.

We welcome feedback on changes we’ve made as well as changes that are needed. Please reach out to teach@wit.edu with suggestions.

There are a number of options that instructors at Wentworth have to learn how to use Brightspace. As always, TLC will offer live sessions on topics instructors need to learn about at appropriate times in the semester. These will be listed on our Events calendar.

Brightspace offers additional options, Subscription Training and Guided Training. Wentworth purchased Subscription Training as part of our license and it’s available to all Wentworth faculty and staff. Subscription Training is asynchronous self-paced training. Guided Training consists of on-demand tutorials and live webinars offered each month. These are recorded and are available after the events.

To access Brightspace Subscription Training you need an account on the Brightspace community site. Go to https://community.brightspace.com and click the sign up button. You need to create an account with your Wentworth email address to have access to the Subscription Training under our license agreement.  Once you create an account, then log into the community site with your Wentworth email address. Click on the link in the navbar titled, “Learning Center,” to access the Subscription training. In the Learning Center, select the Big Blue Button labeled “Subscription Training Access Now.” On the Subscription Training page, select the playlist you want to explore. The options appropriate for Wentworth user are:

• Getting Started with Brightspace
• Beginner Learning Environment for HE
• Intermediate Learning Environment for HE
• Advanced Learning Environment for HE

Guided Training is a new set of offerings from Brightpace. You need to sign-up for the Brightspace Community to access these offerings. Access the guided training tutorials for instructors at https://community.desire2learn.com/d2l/home/14828.

The guided training is also available as live webinars with a D2L trainer. The schedule is posted on the community site. These webinars require registration and if you miss the session, participants are sent a link to the recording.

TLC’s instructional designers have been busy creating additional resources that are specific to best practices at Wentworth. These resources can be found on the Teaching and Learning HUB.   Some specific items of interest include:

• Brightspace Tutorial Library
• Brightspace Best Practices Tutorial
• Getting Started playlist on YouTube
• Brightspace Tools Tutorial Playlist
• Faculty Model Course. To enroll in the course search, “Faculty Model Course” in the Discovery section of your Brightspace 
• Brightspace FAQs.

Ella Howard from Humanities and Social Sciences has created and shared video tutorials based on her use of Brightspace. You can access those tutorials on our site.

Complaints about poor customer service are common. Having worked on help desks and used their services at different institutions I have seen both sides of the help desk. While help desk managers routinely provide support and training to staff on how to provide good customer service that only goes so far. One side of the interaction that we can’t control is the customer’s presentation of a problem and the state of the system they are using.

The most frequent cause for delays in fixing problems is the lack of information provided by the user so the staff responding can begin to identify and troubleshoot. Too often we get a request for help that tells us “I’m having a problem with [fill in the service], please fix it” or “My [fill in the product/service] isn’t working. I’m getting an error, please fix it.” These requests take longer to address because we have to start at a very basic troubleshooting level as we reach out to the user for more information. Sometimes users reach out to an individual who doesn’t use or know the product instead of using recognized channels to access help.

So what can users do to improve the support they receive? Lots.

Use our preferred process for engaging our team, email teach@wit.edu. Using this address generates a tracking ticket to make sure your request/problem gets the attention it deserves. We request that you use this system rather than directly emailing individual staff because with the ticketing system we can more easily adjust workflow when a specific team member has a time-consuming project, is out sick, or is on vacation. We triage tickets to assign work to the team member best able to address your problem and to level the workload among staff. We also monitor tickets to make sure requests/problems are addressed in a timely manner. We don’t have access to individual team member’s email accounts to monitor progress. If you ask for help while the one person you contacted is out we can’t determine where they are in the process of resolving a problem if you work outside the ticketing system.

If you have an urgent question, you can also call 617-989-4500 and select option 4 for TLC. Your call will be routed to an available staff member. You can also select 1 for Brightspace questions and your call will be routed to our 24/7 support line.

Provide details. “I’m trying to create a quiz in Brightspace and I can’t add multiple select questions to my midterm exam in ECON-1234-04. When I try to create a multiple select quiz question, the system gives me a multiple choice question page.” This statement of the problem allows our staff to quickly confirm the problem and determine if it is happening only in the course in question, only for the quiz in question, if it can be replicated, or that it might be browser-related. If we can quickly establish that the problem exists and if it’s a system bug, we can immediately reach out to the vendor for assistance. If you’re experiencing a problem in Brightspace, please tell us the course number including the section, what tool you are using, and if possible provide a link to the page in question. If you are inquiring about another tool, please provide as much detail as possible to direct us to the document, link, or item that’s giving you trouble.

If you are asking a question and want to provide additional context, please be call out the question clearly so that we can assign it correctly. Tickets that are too hard to decipher tend to take longer to get assigned and consequently longer to resolve.

If you’ve tried some troubleshooting on your own, please tell us what you’ve tried. Since many of our systems are cloud-based and accessed using a browser, if you’ve already tried a different browser and cleared the browser cache or tried incognito mode, you’ve saved us some time and you’ll be less frustrated if we don’t ask you to do those things.

Provide details of any error messages. If you are getting an error message, please either copy and paste the message or send a screenshot. Sometimes the message is more meaningful to us and points to the problem, other times we will pass the information on to the vendor support team to pinpoint the problem.

Respond promptly to requests for additional information. Often we see delays of a week or more in getting needed information to proceed with further troubleshooting. These calls take much longer to resolve than tickets for users that respond promptly.

Keep your system up-to-date. Operating system (Mac, Windows, or Linux) updates and software (browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and Safari) updates account for a significant number of problems. Letting your system update regularly keeps your files safe and will prevent a number of problems. Most of the tools we use are cloud-based and vendors write their code to accommodate recent updates from the operating systems and browser vendors. Using a system that is not updated may cause errors or may prevent an application from working on your system. Ideally, reboot your system at least once per week and allow updates to run. Check your browser(s) regularly and make sure they are up-to-date.

Please try our suggestions. If we send documentation or a link to a video showing how to do something, please make an effort to try. We send this information because we believe that users can carry out some tasks and that requiring our assistance only slows you down. While we will make appointments to walk you through using a tool when necessary, we’ll try having you walk through documentation or a video of the steps first. Your willingness to try (and hopefully succeed) can help us help more users, and you’ll learn to perform basic tasks, speeding you through your work.

Don’t use old email messages to open new tickets. When we resolve a ticket and close it, please do not respond to the message from one ticket unless it’s to request we reopen it. The ticketing system ties communications back to the original ticket. Please open a new email to teach@wit.edu. Opening a new ticket allows us to assign the correct staff to the ticket or reassign to a different team if necessary. Responding to an old ticket to open a new one, causes confusion and results in delays.

Hopefully, these tips will help you help us provide better service.

Early this summer Brightspace introduced the Work To Do widget. While targeting student success and keeping students up-to-date with their work the tool can help instructors too.

A common complaint we hear from instructors is that students don’t read before class or submit assignments on time. When students read the needed articles before class or submit assignments on time, instructors can work more efficiently. Although due dates for readings and assignments are probably already in the course syllabus having them in Brightspace tied to the activities and content can create a more efficient environment for everyone.

Using the Work To Do widget located on the system home page, students can see what work they have to complete across all their courses. Using the widget on a course home page, students can see at a glance what they need to do or what is overdue specific to that course. Knowing what’s expected can lead to better-prepared students and more on-time submissions by providing necessary information for students to manage their time better.

Work to Do widget showing overdue and an upcoming assignment.

Due dates can be added to almost all activities (discussions don’t have due dates). Having alerts for upcoming quizzes and assignments is something students have requested. If they see the dates and are reminded each time they enter the class site, the more likely they will complete them on time. AND, the more assignments completed on time means easier and more equitable grading of assignments. When you can grade an entire class’s work at one time rather than in dribs and drabs (with reference back to other students’ submissions because you can’t remember how you graded a specific point), you get time back to do what matters to you.

For content due dates, rather than placing the due date on the content item, create a checklist with a due date for all the content and ungraded work that must be completed for a specific class. While the widget will display the due date of content items, the item will not drop off the list because the system has no way to indicate completion – hence the use of a checklist. Without a way to make the item disappear when it is complete the item stays on the list, becomes an overdue item, and may cause more confusion and distress for the students. If students can’t easily tell which work actually is overdue or currently due, they will not be better prepared.

Best practices to make the Work To Do widget work for you:

• Add due dates to all assignments, and quizzes
• Create checklists of all readings and prep work and include a due date for each checklist.

Enjoy a more efficient class.