Brightspace Training

The OFDIT team has designed a series of virtual training sessions, offered via Zoom, to support and enhance teaching at CUNY SPS. Sessions include strategies for managing content availability and visibility in Brightspace as well as navigating the grade book and grading. We’ll offer a session to understand how Ally supports making content accessible for all for SPS faculty and staff. There are other topics as well, see the Faculty Hub site to register.

OFDIT is offering Open Office Hours in morning, afternoon, and early evening sessions for faculty and staff. Drop by office hours as often as you like to get a question answered! Check the updated schedule here: Brightspace Office Hours

The OFDIT team has prepared a variety of Teaching Guides to help you design and teach your Brightspace course(s). New guides are added regularly, so make sure to keep checking the site for updates.

We are pleased to announce the launch of Brightspace Basics for CUNY SPS Faculty, a self-paced course hosted in Brightspace that is designed to help you learn how to navigate Brightspace and use its tools to optimize your teaching experience. This is another option for anyone who would like to enhance their comfort using the Brightspace instructor tools. If you choose to complete all the modules and quizzes, it should take about 4-6 hours and you can earn a Certificate of Completion.

To enroll in Brightspace Basics, from the CUNY SPS home page navbar, choose Discover, then select from the list of courses, or search for “Brightspace Basics for SPS Faculty.” Once you find and enter the course, you can submit an enrollment request. Please see these detailed enrollment instructions.

Brightspace Essentials is your first step in mastering the basics. It’s set up as a series of self-paced mini-lessons crafted to equip you with the fundamental skills for using the Brightspace Learning Management System (LMS). The first few lessons will help you:

• Get familiar with the fundamental navigation and functions of Brightspace
• Create content modules
• Learn about the great features in the Brightspace Editor
• Become familiar with communication tools
• Manage discussions

These 15-minute lessons are a terrific launching point for your Brightspace explorations.

Live workshops both during day and evening sessions are offered on preparing to teach in Brightspace and working with migrated courses. These sessions provide opportunities to ask questions regarding specific LMS needs. Workshops are delivered in different modules:

• Getting Started in Brightspace
• ABCs of Content
• Engaging Learners
• Assessing Learning
• Quizzes
• Gradebook

The above series of trainings have been recorded and curated into a YouTube playlist. Watch any of the session titles by visiting the Brightspace LMS Transition YouTube Playlist.

Faculty and staff can now access the new LMS at brightspace.cuny.edu. 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.

Faculty at CUNY SPS are enrolled in a Brightspace Resource Course for Instructors. This self-paced training introduces the basics of course building, assignments, and quizzes, as well as resources to get started. Faculty will see the course in the dashboard when logging in at brightspace.cuny.edu.

The Brightspace Community is an extensive resource that SPS Faculty are encouraged to explore. This resource can also be accessed by clicking the “Brightspace Help” in the upper left corner of the top navigation bar in Brightspace.