Navigating through “Brightspace”

The year 2021 ended, and with it so did the use of Blackboard at Avans. 

I was sitting at school yesterday when I came to the realization that we no longer have access to Blackboard. In a way, I was flooded with a bit of anxiety because on Blackboard there was an easily accessible page with direct links to all the important websites needed for school. This cannot be said for Brightspace. While in the beginning, I found it easy to use Brightspace, I must say as time progressed, it became increasingly difficult. For example, one time I was trying to find feedback from a submitted assignment, and I really did not know where to look. It was then that I decided I needed to explore this platform some more.  

Taking a journey “to” BrightSpace …

As we enter a new year, I thought it might be useful to share with you some of the things I learned about the platform during my exploration of all things Brightspace.  

1. Exam Schedule, Kaluga, Remindo:  

If you want to get quick access to Kaluga, Remindo, Service Punt, exam & regular schedule or, any other external websites linked to Avans, you can find this in the General Information ESSET widget in the “Website and Apps” file under the Essential Information folder.  

2. Quick Access to Grades and Feedback: 

While Brightspace has many ways to access an overview of the grades and feedback for the individual courses, you can quickly access this information by clicking on your profile picture in the upper right corner and then clicking “progress” to arrive at all your enrolled courses. Once there you will find an overview of all assignments you submitted and the grades you received along with a link to/explanation of where you can find the feedback.  

3. Retrieving Lost Data:

So, for some reason, I could not find the ArcGIS widget that I had enrolled in at the beginning of this school year. I tried to search for it but to no avail. Brightspace does not have a trash bin available to student users. So Pro tip, do not delete widgets!  

4. Plagiarism Scanner: 

This is by far, the most interesting thing I found on Brightspace. In the widgets for all courses, there is a possibility to see what the plagiarism percentage is of your submitted assignments. Unfortunately, I do not think that teachers make use of this tool now because no data could be found. Nevertheless, I still thought it worth mentioning, especially considering that most universities tolerate no more than 25% plagiarism. Seems quite high to me. It would be interesting to see the school’s plagiarism target and how much I actually plagiarize when I write. 

Hopefully, if you did not already know these things, this blog helped you just a bit. And to my fellow compadres out there who are having difficulties with the “Brightspace Universe”, I say to you it gets better: once you get the hang of it you will become a pro.  

Let me know in the comments if this blog was helpful to you! And as we get ready to return to school in whatever form the coronavirus crisis will allow. I bid you a prosperous year filled with joy, greatness, and a plethora of desirable experiences.