This document discusses tools in Brightspace that can increase student engagement and instructor presence. It defines student engagement as time on task and willingness to participate, and instructor presence as communication and interaction based on the Community of Inquiry framework. It highlights the Brightspace mobile app, Pulse, which allows students access to course content on any device. It also discusses using custom widgets, badges/certifications, and conditional release settings to personalize the learning experience and encourage participation.

1. Using Brightspace Tools to Increase
Student Engagement and Instructor
Presence
Barry Dahl
Senior Community Mgr.
D2L

2. Pulse D2L Awards Custom Widgets
”NOT” Release ConditionsReplacement Strings
Five D2L Tools

3. What is Student Engagement?
• Stovall (2003) suggests that engagement is defined by a
combination of students‟ time on task and their willingness
to participate in activities.
• Krause and Coates (2008) say that engagement is the
quality of effort students themselves devote to
educationally purposeful activities that contribute directly
to desired outcomes.
Source: bit.ly/D2Lengage

4. What is Instructor Presence?
Based on
Community of
Inquiry
Framework
Theory, by
Cleveland-
Innes,
Garrison &
Vaughn
(Athabasca U.)
Source:
bit.ly/D2Lpresence

5. Brightspace Mobile
RESPONSIVE WEB
The entire LMS, made
available to everyone on
every device
NATIVE APPS
Specific user workflows,
made better on mobile

6. College students love their
mobile tech…
Sources:
1. http://www.informationweek.com/interop/bring-everything-byods-evolution-in-higher-education/d/d-id/1114042
2. http://www.tnsglobal.com/press-release/millennials-spend-one-day-a-week-on-their-phones
3.2+
hours per day on mobile phone2
2.7+
devices owned1

7. Mobile is (obviously) big…
23%
42%
60%
78%
84%
2010 2011 2012 2013 2015
84% of Campus Computing
survey respondents have
already activated mobile apps
or intend to do so in the coming
year at their institutions.
Source: Campus Computing Survey, 2015

8. …but not everybody does it well
70%
of CIOs and senior
IT officers say
mobile computing is
a top institutional
priority
17%
currently rate
mobile services at
their institution as
“excellent”
but…
Source: Campus Computing Survey, 2015

9. Source: Horizon Report, 2016 Higher Education Edition, http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2016-nmc-horizon-report-he-EN.pdf
…today’s students expect to be able to use whatever devices they choose
to access learning content, take notes, gather data, and
communicate frequently with their peers and instructors
- NMC Horizon Report: 2016 Higher Education Edition

10. There Should be an App for That!

11. There IS an App for That!

12. D2L Confidential Themes RoadmapD2L Confidential
Pulse
Helps students find out what’s new and
what’s next across all their courses.
• More time studying
• Less time organizing
• Always up to date

13. More functionality with Brightspace Pulse

14. D2L Confidential Themes RoadmapD2L Confidential
Pulse – iOS and Android
What is it?
• Learners can see their course table of contents and content
topics in Pulse, including PDF’s and MP4’s
Why did we do it?
• To allow students more flexibility on their mobile devices
• Functionality added in January, 2017 release.
January 2017

15. Brightspace Pulse
Weekly calendar view shows
upcoming readings, assignments,
and tests to help students stay
organized
Real-time alerts help students stay
up-to-date with course news,
announcements, and grades
Discussions tab allows students to
read and reply to discussions right
from the app

16. User Testimonial
“I have to tell you that I absolutely love this app.
I have been trying different ways to stay
organized during the school year and have
failed every time. This app is super awesome!!!
Thank you so much!!!”
Crissy, Student
Brightspace Pulse User

17. Awards: Badging & Certifications
Now available in
version 10.5.1
Reward your learners
with badges and
certifications as they
achieve milestones
within Brightspace.

18. Show Badge Example

19. Awards Videos
D2L Paul Hatala, HWDSB

20. Custom Home Page Widgets
•Customize the information
on your course home page
•Lots of info available at
Widget Central in the
Brightspace Community
•bit.ly/D2Lwidgets

21. Custom Widget Contest Entries

22. Three Embedded Poll
Options
Three Embedded Polls
Replace strings

23. Countdown Widget using a Spreadsheet
Anything that you can build
with an online spreadsheet
could be made into a custom
widget.
Step-by-step
instructions at
Widget Central
in Brightspace
Community

24. Some Problems with Widgets
• Mixed content blocking in most browsers
– Check out the Firefox extension
• Lack of “https:” embed code for widgets
• Widget-building sites come and go:
– Google Gadget
– WidgetBox

25. Personalized Text with Replace Strings
Not Personalized Learning
That’s a big topic – a whole day by itself.
Let’s look at how you can make the learning space feel a bit
more personal to the students

26. Adding Names in the LE
• {FirstName}
– Each user’s first name
• {LastName}
– Each user’s last name
• {OrgName}
– College/District org name
• {OrgUnitName}
– Course name
Tools where this works:
• News: (Headline, content)
• Discussions: (subject and message)
• Content Topic: When you create a
new file
• Dropbox: Folder instructions &
feedback
• Quizzes: all custom boxes
• Checklist: Name and Description
• Groups: Description

27. News Item – with
Replace String

28. News Item – with
Replace String

29. In Quiz Introduction

30. In Quiz Introduction

31. In Quiz Introduction

32. In Quiz Footer

33. In Quiz Footer

34. In Quiz Footer

35. In Quiz Questions

36. In Quiz Questions

37. Release Conditions
• Definition: Release conditions are conditional
requirements that restrict access or visibility to specific
content, resources or areas within the Brightspace
Learning Environment. Users must satisfy the
conditions before the restrictions are removed.
• New! Additional release conditions have been added
for students who have NOT satisfied certain
restrictions.

38. Wait. What?
• Starting with the February 2016 release (10.5.6), the
new NOT release conditions are available to
institutions on Continuous Delivery
• Sorry, they won’t be available to users with older versions of the
Learning Environment.
• If you’re on Continuous Delivery (monthly updates), you won’t see
the new conditions until your institution puts 10.5.6 into production.
• New release conditions are ON by default.

39. Variables that can trigger the
release of something else
• Checklist completion
• Checklist item
• Classlist enrollment
• Competencies
•Including Learning Objectives
• Content topics
• Discussion topics
• Dropbox
• Grade items
• Quizzes
•Including score on specific
questions
• Rubric scores
• Surveys

40. Items that can be released
• Checklist
• Content modules
• Content topics
• Custom widgets
• Discussion forums
• Discussion topics
• Dropbox
• Grade items
• Grade categories
• News items
• Quizzes
• Surveys

41. Example 1: News item for those
students who didn’t view content

42. Example 1: Attaching release
conditions to News item

43. Example 2: Extra Credit
• Warning! You might not like this one. 
• Scenario: to encourage students to submit a survey,
you give them 5 points of extra credit.
• NOTE: survey cannot be anonymous for this to work.
• Examples: demographics survey or technology
usage/skills survey during first week of class.

44. Example 2: Take away bonus
points for not completing survey
• Research has shown that people can be more highly
motivated at the prospect of losing something they
already have, rather than getting something they don’t.
• Give everyone 5 bonus points in advance, but tell
them that you will take those points away of they don’t
submit the survey.
• Research source: http://bit.ly/minus5pts

45. Example 2: News item widget
displays -5 point “badge”

46. Example 2: News item settings

47. community.brightspace.com
The Brightspace Community