Author: Fallon Saratovsky

The OFDIT team will be offering Brightspace support hours throughout the Summer.

Between Monday, May 6th to Friday, December 20th faculty and staff can drop by to ask us anything about Brightspace to prepare their course sites.

Office Hours Schedule:

This training will cover the basics of communication tools such as announcements, email, notifications, and discussions in Brightspace. There will also be an introduction to grading and viewing student progress. 

Date(s): Tuesday, May 28 and Thursday, May 30
Time: 2 PM – 3 PM
Location: Virtual
Audience: SPS Faculty and Staff

Dear SPS Community,

As the Fall semester draws to a close, you may be looking ahead to January as a time to explore the new Brightspace learning environment. To support your exploration, we have assembled the following opportunities for your consideration:

Brightspace Demos for Faculty

Take a peek into Brightspace with an expert.  This 1-hour webinar will demo the new Learning Management System. The session will cover basic navigation, course navigation, the student experience, a look at a sample course and accessibility in Brightspace. Register now to join one of the virtual sessions on January 10th, 18th, or 23rd. Staff are welcome to attend.

Explore Migrated Courses 

Currently all SPS Faculty may access Brightspace using their CUNYFirst login. Your past courses are being migrated for you, and you may use them to gain an understanding of how content has transitioned into Brightspace. Familiarizing yourself with these courses takes you one step closer to a smooth transition.

Create a Practice Course 

Experimentation is key to mastering any platform. Faculty can create practice sites using a widget found on the dashboard after logging in. There are two limitations: practice sites may not include SPS-specific tools like VoiceThread, Digication, and Panopto, and faculty cannot enroll students despite the default text in the widget. Staff cannot create practice sites, but are welcome to reach out to the SPS Transition Team if they would like to set up practice sites for their unit.

Upcoming Brightspace Essentials Workshop

Brightspace Essentials, a self-paced, asynchronous workshop organized in bite-sized chunks of micro-learning units, will be available to SPS faculty and staff by January. Stay tuned for further details.

Finally, the LMS Transition website is growing each day.  Keep an eye on the new Training page for regularly updated resources and event details.

Warm regards, 
Your SPS Transition Team