Relevant to: faculty and staff
This article contains information considered accurate at the time of publishing. Technology updates, changes in University security practices, policies and procedures may effect the information in this article - updates to articles are scheduled on a periodic basis and will address any required changes.
Introduction
Brightspace is Empire State University's Learning Management System (LMS). This article will provide a quick tour of the platform and what you can expect when you log in.
Terminology
- Widget: Main links to important categories of information. Examples include links to your courses on the Brightspace homepage.
- Accordion: A menu with headers that can open to display more detailed information, or remain closed to keep the page less cluttered.
- Breadcrumb Trail: Found in the inner pages of a course, a breadcrumb trail is a path of links that allow you to “back out of" the pages you have visited. Appears right under the navbar.
- Ellipses: Three dots in a row (…), often used to hide more options. Select the ellipses to see the options.
- Chevron:A “V” shaped symbol, either on its side (“>”) or pointing downward (“v”). A chevron is sometimes called a carrot or a dropdown arrow. Chevrons reveal hidden contents or a dropdown menu of options/actions.
- Dropdown/contextual menu: Hidden menus that appear when you select a chevron or ellipses.
The Brightspace Landing Page
When you log into Brightspace, you will be on the Brightspace landing page.
At the top of the page you will find the minibar. The minibar appears in this spot wherever you are in Brightspace and includes the following links, going from left to right:
- The Empire State College shield icon, which links to the Brightspace landing page.
- A waffle or grid-shaped icon called the course selector, allows you to search for courses that you are enrolled in.
- An envelope icon, containing message alerts and links to your email and instant messages.
- A conversation bubble icon, containing subscription alerts and links to your discussions.
- A bell icon, containing update alerts such as new or updated announcements, due dates, end dates, and grade updates.
- Your name, containing links to your profile, notifications, account settings, and log out.
Right below the minibar is the navbar. The links on the navbar change depending on whether you are on the Brightspace landing page or inside a course. On the Brightspace landing page, the following links appear from left to right:
- MySUNYEmpire
- Library
- Student Support
- Policies
- Discover
- Help
- Student Training
Below the navbar is the My Courses area, where you will find links to your courses.
To the right of the My Courses area is the Calendar, where upcoming events are shown.
Below the My Courses area is Announcements.
The Course Landing Page
From the Brightspace landing page, choose one of the links in the My Courses area to get to the course landing page.
At the top of the window is the minibar, with the same links as on the Brightspace landing page. The only change is that there is now a link to your course homepage next to the SUNY Empire shield icon.
Below the minibar is the navbar. Notice that the links are different than on the Brightspace landing page – inside a course the navbar contains links to major areas of the course such as the course content, assignments, discussions, and grades.
Below the navbar the page divides into two columns. Moving from top to bottom, the left column contains the following:
- Visual TOC (table of contents) - widgets that link to the main sections of the course.
- Quick Eval - student submissions that need evaluation.
- Work to Do - activities that have upcoming due or end dates.
Moving from top to bottom, the right column contains the following:
- Welcome
- Announcements - messages from the instructor to the entire class
- Calendar - important dates and events
- Teacher Profile, with a profile of the course’s instructor