Student Help

Online Learning Best Practices

This document provides a general overview of best practices for online learning, including tips for engaging with online courses, techniques for self-motivation, and the balance of multiple online courses within Brightspace.

Etiquette in Digital Communication

This guide will provide an outline for etiquette in digital communication, or “netiquette”, as it relates to interaction with instructors and learners in online education.

Logging in to Brightspace

By following the steps in this guide, you should be able to successfully log in to the University of Central Missouri’s instance of the Brightspace learning management system using your Single Sign-On (SSO) credentials.

Navigating the Brightspace Homepage and Course Widgets

This guide will provide a brief overview of the Brightspace Homepage. It will describe the icons and drop-down menus/tabs contained within the two Navbars at the top of the page and will also provide general information about the widgets within the body of the page.

Overview of Course Layout

This guide will describe the main sections and features of a Brightspace Course page.

Setting Notification Preferences

By following the steps in this guide, you should be able to locate and set your Brightspace Notification Preferences successfully.

Identifiying Important Areas: Announcements, Content, Grades, and Calendar

This guide will describe the important sections and features of the Brightspace Course homepage and Navbar.

Locating the Syllabus

This guide will provide an overview of the course syllabus’ importance in an online course, how to find it, and how to interpret its content.

Finding Assignments

This guide will inform students how to locate assignments within the Content areas of Brightspace. 

Locate and Launch Quizzes

This guide will show students how to locate and launch quizzes in Brightspace. 

Navigating Quizzes

This guide will provide general guidance for navigating quizzes and describe the different question types encountered in Brightspace quizzes. 

Participating in Discussions

This guide will provide an overview of discussions in online courses, why they are important, how to access them, and how to participate. It will also provide some tips for producing substantive discussions in online education.

Upload Files & Submit Assignments

This guide will provide students with an overview of assignments that require uploading files, as compared to submitting via the Brightspace HTML editor. It will demonstrate how to create a file in another application (MS Word, Google Docs), convert to PDF (if necessary), and how to submit to the assignments folder for grading. 

Understanding File Types and Submission Formats

This guide will provide information about how to identify and adhere to file type requirements in Brightspace assignments. It will also provide information about the different file types supported for Brightspace assignments.

Reveiwing Feedback and Grades

This guide will show you how to review instructor feedback and grades for an assignment once it has been submitted and assessed. 

Visual Tour of the Calendar Tool

View all your upcoming events in one spot. You can also watch this short video to learn more about the Calendar Tool

Accessing Brightspace Help and Support

By following the steps in this guide, you should be able to locate and access the D2L Brightspace Community and video tutorials.