The first step in your journey with Brightspace is to log in and learn how to find your way around. By the end of this unit, you will be comfortable accessing Brightspace and locating your courses.

The Brightspace LMS is made up of layered “organizations” (“orgs”, for short), and courses are created within orgs. At CUNY, we have the university-level org, and within it, each college has its own org. Orgs and courses all have their own homepages: there is a CUNY Homepage, each college has its own homepage, and each course will have its own homepage.

To orient yourself within Brightspace, you can identify which org you are in by looking for the name of the college in the top left corner of the window. If you are in a course, you will see the course name at the top of the window, just to the right of the college name.

Glossary

Homepage

The front page, or landing page, for a Brightspace org or course. It will display different widgets, or modules, for commonly accessed places and tools, such as the My Courses widget on the org homepage, and the Visual Table of Contents widget on the course homepage.

Minibar

A toolbar along the top right side of the Brightspace browser window that is accessible from anywhere in Brightspace. It includes the Course Selector, messaging tools, notifications, and settings.

Navbar

A toolbar displayed at the top of a homepage, above the banner. The tools in the navbar vary depending on whether you are on your organization homepage or on a course homepage.


Quick Tips

Getting oriented

Look at the top of the Brightspace window. The name of the ‘org’ you are in will be displayed in the top left corner (CUNY or your college). To the right of the org name, if there is blank space, you are on the org homepage. If you see the name of a course, you are in that course.

Finding your courses

You can always find the full list of your courses by clicking on the waffle icon (the “Course Selector”) at the top of your browser window. The waffle icon is visible from anywhere in Brightspace.

The Course Homepage link

When you’re in a course, the name of the course will be displayed as a link at the top of your screen. Clicking on this link will take you to the Course Homepage.

How to

Access CUNY Brightspace
  • Click on CUNY Brightspace
  • Bookmark this page and add it to your browser’s bookmarks toolbar. (You may want to rename the bookmark “CUNY Brightspace”.)

Or

  • Choose Log into Brightspace
Login

Troubleshooting: If you encounter any issues logging in, look for a Forgot Password or Forgot Username option on the CUNY Login page. You will then be guided through the process of resetting your password or solving other login issues.

Navigate the Brightspace Homepage
  • At the very top of the Brightspace window, from left to right, you will see the name of the college or ‘org’ that you are logged into and the “Minibar.”
  • The next element is called the Navbar, a navigation menu that runs across the screen horizontally.
  • Next down is the Banner.
  • Below the banner you will find the Homepage Widgets, including My Courses, Announcements, Practice Sites, and any other widgets your school has chosen to put on the homepage.
Use the Minibar

The minibar is a toolbar that is always visible on the top right side of the Brightspace window. You can access the minibar from anywhere in Brightspace.

The Minibar, from left to right, includes:

Course Selector: A waffle icon that opens a dropdown menu of all your courses

Message Alerts: An envelope icon for email and instant message alerts. An orange dot appears when you have new messages to read. You can also send email and instant messages from here.

Subscription Alerts: A speech bubble icon for subscription alerts. An orange dot appears when there are new posts in discussions that you are subscribed to.

Update Alerts: A bell icon for updates to content. An orange dot appears when content is added or updated in your courses, including new announcements.

Your Username: Your initials, or your profile picture, followed by your name for all settings related to you personally. Clicking on your username allows you to modify your profile, notifications settings, and certain account settings. You can also see your progress in any courses in which you are enrolled as a student, or, for courses in which you are an instructor, you will find the View as Learner tool here. You can also log out of Brightspace from this menu.

Admin Tools: A settings gear for any other settings or tools, including the Media Library

Locate courses

Option A: On the Homepage, you’ll see the My Courses widget. Click on one of the courses to open it.

Option B: You can also access a list of all your courses by clicking on the waffle menu icon in the Minibar at the top of the screen to open the Course Selector.

Create a Practice Site (for Faculty)
  • Locate the Practices Sites widget on the Brightspace Homepage.
  • Click on Get Started.
  • Name your Practice Site by typing in the “Course Name*” field.
  • Choose a course type—CUNY Practice Site is the only option.
  • Click Next.
  • On the confirmation screen either click Finish to confirm or click Back to change your site name.
  • On the next screen, you’ll see a message that your practice site has been successfully created. To enter your new practice site, click on “Go to course home.” You can also now access your new practice site from the My Courses widget or the Minibar Course Selector (the waffle).
    • On this screen you’ll also see an option to enroll students. You cannot enroll anyone in your practice site, but you can get to the site’s Classlist from this link.
Request a Practice Site (for SPS Staff)

SPS Staff can fill out this form (opens in new tab) to request a practice site from OFDIT.

Return to Course Homepage

From within a course, you can return to the Course Homepage by clicking on the name of the course at the top of your screen.

View Course as Learner

You can view a course as your students see it by using the View as Learner tool, which appears as one of the options in the dropdown menu under your username in the Minibar.

  • Click your name in the Minibar.
  • From the dropdown, click on View as Learner.

To go back to viewing as the instructor, click on your name again. You’ll see that you are “Viewing as Learner”, and you can click the X next to that message to exit learner preview mode.

Log Out of Brightspace

Click on your username in the Minibar at the top right of the window and a dropdown menu will appear. Then click on the Log Out option.

Test Your Knowledge

Take Action

Your turn!

  • Log into Brightspace using your CUNYfirst credentials.
  • Check for new messages and updates using the Minibar icons at the top of your screen.
  • Next, locate one of your courses and enter it, using either the Course Selector (waffle) or the My Courses widget on the Brightspace Homepage.
  • Then return to the Brightspace Homepage and create a new practice site.

Resources

Text

Brightspace Community: Navigate Brightspace and find your course
CUNY Brightspace Transition: Training and Resources
CUNY SPS Accessibility Toolkit

Video

Brightspace Tutorials: Navigate Brightspace | Instructor

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