Online Teaching

Brightspace Template


As a way to jumpstart your online course site building, a team of educational developers and instructional designers developed a model course site structure, informally known as the Brightspace template. The template aims to provide students with a consistent learning environment and to support faculty in the set up and design of their online course spaces.

Framed around the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and other pedagogical strategies considered best practice, the template includes a set of homepage widgets; a course orientation; example welcome messages, discussion prompts, and student feedback surveys; built-in supports for both students and faculty; and more. Implementing the template is optional.

Fully customizable templates are available to instructors across Dalhousie in Brightspace through a self-enrolment process (see Self-Registration Instructions, below). 

Self-Registration Instructions

The steps to self-register to access the templates are:

  1. Log into Brightspace with your NetID at https://dal.brightspace.com. 
  2. Go to menu item Academic Support > Self Registration. 
  3. Click on the link for the Brightspace site, “Template – General Use”
  4. Press the Register button. 
  5. Your registration information will be prefilled for you. Press Submit. 
  6. To complete the process, press Finish. 
  7. You can enter the course now by using the “Go to course offering...” link or press Done to return to the Brightspace homepage. You will receive an email confirmation of your enrolment.

 

Implementing the Brightspace Template

To implement the template, follow the instructions below.

Adding Template to Your Course Site

  1. From your own course site, navigate to the Course Admin menu.
  2. Click the Import / Export / Copy Components link.
  3. Press the Search for offering button.
  4. In the pop-up window, do a search for the template named: Template - General Use (you can just search for the words template general)
  5. Select the template from the list and press Add Selected.
  6. On the next screen, press Copy All Components or select components individually.
  7. You will get a message once the copy process is complete. The template has now been added to your course site. You can now upload content or customize as desired.

Other forms of support around Brightspace include:

  • Educational Developers with the Centre for Learning and Teaching, who can assist with writing learning outcomes, developing student assessments, and other aspects of course design. Contact clt@dal.ca to schedule a consultation.
  • Instructional Technologists with Academic Technology Services, who can assist with technical support and training of Dalhousie’s instructional technologies, such as Brightspace, Panopto, and more. Contact intech@dal.ca for support or visit the virtual support room.

Note: Agriculture has its own set of customized Brightspace templates. Please contact the Educational Technology and Design (ETD) office by email (etd@dal.ca) for more information.