Arzu Sahin, Team Lead Functional Management SEA & Jiska Bomans, Functional Consultant LMS, Leiden University: How Leiden University Prepares the New Academic Year in Brightspace

1. Discover the world at Leiden University
Discover the world at Leiden University
Arzu Sahin & Jiska Bomans | Nijmegen
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How Leiden University prepares for the new
academic year in Brightspace

2. Discover the world at Leiden University
Leiden University
Founded in 1575
Currently:
34.000 students
5000 staff
7 Faculties (Schools)
Brightspace since 2019, started off with a pilot
September 2020 university wide implementation
Different processes at the different faculties require different approaches.
Small central team and LMS admin at each faculty.
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3. Discover the world at Leiden University
Overview of our presentation
1. Creating courses
2. Master courses
3. Course content
4. User enrollment
5. Providing data to our Faculty Admins
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4. Discover the world at Leiden University
Preparing for the academic year
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Course creation
• Creating the
course in
Brightspace
Preparing course
content
• Enrolling staff
• Creating
content
Preparing for the
start of the course
• Enrolling
students
Key Point: preparing the course content influences the choices one can make for course creation.

5. Discover the world at Leiden University
Creating courses via SIS – LMS integration
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SIS
• The faculty SIS admin prepares the courses in the SIS
• Course name, roster period, activities, head instructor
• Checks a box: send course to LMS
API
• Launches a message with:
• Create course (and sections / sub courses; if defined)
• Do a course copy of this specific master course (included in the message)
• Enroll instructor if defined.
BS
• Course is created under the relevant department within Brightspace
• Including the course content of the master course of that faculty.
• Faculty LMS admin has direct access and can finish further preparations.

6. Discover the world at Leiden University
Creating courses within Brightspace
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Faculty
admin
• Fills in the defined CSV format provided by the central team
• Indicates in the format if a course copy is needed and includes source and destinations course
code.
• Hands this format in through TOPdesk (our organization’s ticketing system)
Central
admin
• Creates the course(s) via Course Management
• OR creates the courses in bulk via CCB / API
• Optionally: performs course copy in bulk, again via CCB or API
BS
• Course is created under the relevant department within Brightspace
• Optionally: inculding course content when course copy was requested
• Faculty LMS admin has direct access and can finish further preparations.

7. Discover the world at Leiden University
Master courses
Initially wish for unified course structure.
Eventually:
Master courses for each faculty
Research was done by a usabilty expert
group, who defined 2 standard course
structures:
• Theme based
• Time based
& standardized course terminology
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8. Discover the world at Leiden University
Course content
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• For both manually or SIS created
courses
Build the course from
scratch
• For both manually or SIS created
courses
Start with standard
course structure
• Only for manually created courses
Start with full copy
from template course
• For both manually or SIS created
courses
Start with full copy
from last year

9. Discover the world at Leiden University
Build the course from scratch
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• Goal: Instructor is motivated to build each
course from scratch and (re)think about their
course off next year.
• The master course only contains instructions
for the instructor
• Workload:
• Central and faculty admin offer no futher
support in the preparation fase.
• Workload rests with the instructor / course
builder
• Instructors can do their own course copy
via Copy Components if needed
• Points of attention:
• How can you control whether each course
follows the standard course structure?

10. Discover the world at Leiden University
Start with standard course structure
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• Goal: Instructor is motivated to build their
course, following the standard course structure
• The master course contains the standard course
structure.
• Workload:
• Central and faculty admin offer no futher
support in the preparation fase.
• Workload rests with the instructor / course
builder
• Instructors can do their own course copy
via Copy Components if needed
• Points of attention:
• How do you deal with duplicate modules
when an instructor performs a full course
copy from last year?

11. Discover the world at Leiden University
Start with a full copy from template course
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• Goal: Instructors start with a fully designed
course and can start teaching immediatly.
• The “template” course contains both course
content and activities (e.g. assignments).
• Workload:
• Faculty admin fills in a specific format and
requests a CCB at the central admin team
• Central admin performs a CCB
• Instructors are largly relieved from their
workload
• Points of attention:
• Why via CCB and not Postman?

12. Discover the world at Leiden University
Start with a full copy from last year
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• Goal: Instructors start with a full copy from last year,
to lower the workload.
• Workload:
• Faculty admin fills in a specific format and
requests a course copy at the central admin team
• Central admin performs a course copy via
Postman Runner.
• Instructors are relieved from their workload, but
need to actualize course content / deadlines.
• Points of attention:
• We found that time based events never comes
out good.
• We need to further develop our Postman scripts,
to eliminate the Data Hub step.
• Not all central admins can run Postman
Call:
{{BrightspaceDomain}}/d2l/api/le/{{leversion}}/i
mport/{{destination_orgunitid}}/copy/
Body:
{
"SourceOrgUnitId": {{source_orgunitid}},
"Components": [
…
],
"CallbackUrl": null,
"DaysToOffsetDates":0,
"HoursToOffsetDates":0,
"OffsetByStartDateDifference": false
}
Our D2L Postman hero – Paul Janzen
https://community.brightspace.com/s/article/Usin
g-Postman-with-the-Brightspace-API

13. Discover the world at Leiden University
Which components do we copy?
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Calendar & Announcements not adviced
Centrally managed – forced from organisation level
Tools we do not (yet) use

14. Discover the world at Leiden University
What else do we do with Postman?
• Bulk add specific content via course copy
- Brightspace Planning Tool for on campus education
- Covid exam cancelation
• Bulk make course inactive & Bulk change course end date
- As part of our yearly admin work
• Bulk delete courses or activites within courses
- Not content (!)
• Other repetitive procedures.
Any questions on what we do at Leiden University within Postman?
Please feel free to contact brightspace@sea.leidenuniv.nl
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15. Discover the world at Leiden University
Student enrollments
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Student Instructor Faculty
Admin
Central
admin
API
Enrollment
via SIS
Enrolls
within the
SIS
- - - Enrolls
student in
Brightspace
Enrollment
via CSV file
- - Prepares
enrollment
file
Processes
enrollment
file
-
Enrollment
via Discover
Enrolls
within
Brightspace
- Makes the
course
available for
Discover
- -
SIS
90%
CSV
9%
Discover
1%

16. Discover the world at Leiden University
Staff enrollments
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Instructor Faculty
Admin
Central
admin
API
Enrolment
via SIS
- Enrolls 1
teacher in
SIS
- Enrolls head
instructor in
Brightspace
Enrolment
via CSV file
- Prepares
enrollment
file
Processes
enrollment
file
-
Enrolment
via Class List
Head
instructor
enrolls other
staff
members
- - -
SIS
10%
CSV
50%
Class List
40%

17. Discover the world at Leiden University
Providing data to our Faculty Admins
• An overview of all faculty courses
- To check whether all course have been created
• An overview of student numbers per course
- To crosscheck enrollment data in our SIS
• An overview of staff enrollments per course
- To check whether each course has the right staff members enrolled
• An overview of content modules
- To get insight on the use of the standard course structure within a faculty
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18. Discover the world at Leiden University
Discover the world at Leiden University
Thank you!
Questions?
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