Body
Summary
D2L Brightspace is Minnesota State's learning management system (LMS), available to all students and employees. Brightspace course shells are created for every section of every course. Instructors can use their Brightspace courses to provide students with online access to class materials and activities. Brightspace can be used to support any course, regardless of delivery mode. Use your StarID credentials to sign in.
Information Applies to
Faculty, Staff, Current Students, New Students
Logging into Brightspace
Navigate to WSU's Brightspace.
Use your StarID credentials to sign in.
Setting Course Dates
WSU instructors can set Brightspace course start and end dates as needed. When empty course shells are created automatically every semester, default dates are added. The default start date is the first day of classes and the default end date is the last day of the semester (Thursday of finals week). Instructors can change those dates at any time, opening access to their Brightspace courses earlier than the first day of classes and/or extending the end date indefinitely.
Empty Brightspace course shells are created regularly as courses are added by the registrar's office. There are a few things to know about these newly-created courses:
- Courses are created in the active state but closed to the students. This means that as soon as a student registers for a class, it will show up on the student's Brightspace homepage but the student will not be allowed access to the course until the Start Date elapses.
- Instructors have full control over the Start Date and End Date of the class. The default dates are set the start and end of the tern in which the course is offered. These dates can be changed by Instructors. The Start Date and the End Date are defined and modified in the Course Offering Information within the course. (More on modifying dates below.)
- If a course is changed to the Inactive state, it will no longer appear on the student's homepages. The instructors will still see the course on their homepages.
- Activation and deactivation of a course is outside of the Instructor's permissions within Brightspace. For assistance or more information, contact TLT.
Option 1: From My Courses
- Locate your course in the My Courses list on the Brightspace homepage. If you don't see it listed, select the View All Courses link at the bottom of the list. Hover your mouse over the course image and select the ellipsis icon. Select Pin. Close the All Courses window to return to the Brightspace homepage.
- Hover your mouse over the course image on the My Courses list and select the ellipsis icon. Select Course Offering Information.
- Scroll down until to the Start Date and End Date headings. Adjust the dates and times accordingly.
- Select the Save button
Option 2: From Course Admin
- Open your course by selecting the corresponding course image on your My Courses list.
- Select the Course Admin link from the navigation bar at the top of the page
- Select the Course Offering Information link under the Site Setup heading
- Scroll down until to the Start Date and End Date headings. Adjust the dates and times accordingly.
- Select the Save button
Brightspace Pulse App
Brightspace Pulse is an app for both Apple and Android phones. Although it can be used by anyone, it's designed for students to access their Brightspace courses, receive notifications, check their grades, and engage in other course-related activities.
Why Can't I See My Classes?
Students
- Either your instructors have not activated their Brightspace courses yet or they do not intend to do so. They will let you know if they plan on using Brightspace.
- If the course is listed, but you cannot access it, that means it's activated, but the start date has not yet elapsed. Instructors control the date and time when access to the course opens and closes. This function and the course activation function are independent.
- You may not be registered for the course officially. It may take up to 24 hours to add you to the Brightspace course roster after you register for the course officially. If you think something is amiss with your registration, contact the Warrior Hub (Maxwell Hall 222; 507-457-2800).
Instructors
You may not be listed as the official instructor of the course. Consult with your department chair or administrative assistant to make sure the proper TCF Request has been submitted. If so, contact the Warrior Hub (Maxwell Hall 222; 507-457-2800) to check on the status of that request. Once the request has been processed, it may take up to 24 hours for the course to appear in your My Courses list in Brightspace. If you have been assigned as the official instructor of the course for more than 24 hours and you still do not see the course listed in D2L or the request is being processed, but you are in dire need of course access, contact TLT (Maxwell Hall 130, 507-457-5240; tlt@winona.edu). TLT will add people to courses manually in emergency situations.
Editing Your Brightspace Profile
In Brightspace, you can edit your profile to include additional information about yourself. You can also add a picture that will display in the thumbnail icon next to your name for your activity within Brightspace. Additional items you can add to your profile include social networks, contact information, education and work, and personal information.
Adding an image to your profile is a nice way to personalize your profile. This image will appear at the top of the homepage as well as next to your name in all of your activity in Brightspace. Once you add an image this will be applied to all of your activity in all of your courses in Brightspace. You only need to complete this process once. Most instructors will request that you use a picture of yourself and not an icon. Close up pictures of your face tend to work best. Follow the steps below to add an image to your Brightspace profile.
From the Brightspace Homepage or within any Brightspace course, select your name in the top right corner of the page. Then select Profile from the drop-down.
Add Personal Pronouns
All students and instructors can display preferred pronouns in Brightspace for others to see on their Brightspace profile card and in the class list.
Your preferred pronouns will be displayed in two locations in Brightspace:
- The profile card that pops up whenever someone hovers over your name or profile picture in various locations in Brightspace (e.g., your discussion posts)
- Next to your name in a class list
To add preferred pronouns to your Brightspace account:
- Sign in to Brightspace
- Select your name in the upper left corner of the Brightspace homepage.
- Select Account Settings from the menu.
- On the Account Settings tab under Pronouns, check the Allow others to see my pronouns checkbox.
- Select the Use different pronouns: radio button.
- Enter your preferred pronouns in the box.
- Select Save and Close.
Set Up Notifications
Use Brightspace notifications to stay on top of your courses. Notifications allow you to modify what specific information you wish to receive notifications for and for what courses. For example, you can choose to have D2L send you notifications when there are responses to your Discussion posts, when feedback has been posted on an Assignment, and when you have a grade posted from your instructor to name just a few.
- From the Brightspace Homepage or within any Brightspace course select your name in the top right corner of the page. Then select Notifications from the drop-down.
- This next page is your Brightspace notifications page. First, determine the email you would like your notifications sent to. By default, your Winona State email will be listed. If you would like to use a different email, select Change your email settings. On the next page, you can enter a different email address.
- Next, you will select which items you would like instant notifications for. To select an item, check the boxes in the column on the right side of the screen. Below are descriptions of the items you can select. It is recommended to only select the items you find the most important. You will receive separate notifications each time an item is triggered. It may become distracting to receive notifications for all of the items listed.
- Next, you can customize your notifications further by determining if you would like your score released in the notifications associated with grades. You can also determine if you would like these settings to apply to past, future, or inactive courses. To select a setting check the box on the left side of the screen.
- Next, you can decide if you would like these settings to apply to all of your courses. If you would like to exclude certain courses select Manage my course exclusions. From the next screen, you can select the courses you would like to exclude. When you are done select Save at the bottom of the screen.
Learn More
Need additional information or assistance? Contact WSU TLT by email, phone (507.457.5240, option 3), or Zoom.