Important Brightspace Vocabulary

Start Date

If you set a start date in the future, students will be able to see the item but will not be able to access it. The title cannot be clicked on.

Grade Item

In order for an assessment to be included in the final grade calculation, it must be associated with a grade item. You can create a grade item from the assessment or Manage Grades, but associating or disassociating must be done from the assessment. Be sure the points for a grade item is the same as the maximum score on the assessment.

Scheme

A scheme is a way of labeling a grade item value. The default scheme is Percentage, but you can create your own schemes, like letter grades, a 4.0 scale, complete/incomplete, etc.

Due Date

Any item can have a due date on it, not just work that students submit. Set a due date to alert students about your expectations and the date and item will appear on the course schedule. If they miss the due date, there will be a red alert on their schedule.

Grade/Assess

Brightspace uses the verb "grade" for evaluating Assignments and Quizzes, but uses the verb "assess" for evaluating Discussion Topics.

Item/File/Web Page/Topic

Brightspace uses these terms sometimes interchangeably. Item or file often refers to uploaded objects or pages you create in your content while topic can refer to any required object within a module. When you create your own file, Brightspace labels this as a Web Page. This is not to be confused with a discussion topic.

Discussion Topic

Discussion topics are what you assign to students and they must be categorized into a forum. You can score discussions without including the score in the grade calculation or they can be unscored. To score a topic, select Assess Topic from the menu.

Category

Grade items, assignments, and quizzes can all be categorized to make it easier for students (and you) to find them. However, the categories are not connected, so if you would like an assignment to be organized on the assignments page in a category, but also be counted in the grading category, you must categorize it in both places. Categories in Grades can be used to weight groups of assessments in the final grade calculation.

End Date

Setting an end date makes an item unavailable in Brightspace but still visible. Students can see it but they can't click on it anymore.

Thread

Students create threads to respond to discussion topic prompts. Teachers can create threads, too. Ask students to title threads like they would an email subject so they are easy to scan through and have asynchronous conversations. Students participate in discussion by posting replies to threads.

Points

The is the scale of measurement you assign to a grade item in the grade book. The default is 10 so be sure you change it to match the maximum score for the assessment. Grades are calculated by dividing the points the student earns by the maximum points possible.

Score

This is the scale of measurement you assign to an assessment. A score is not included in the final grade calculation unless you associate the assessment with a grade item. Scores allow you to provide quantitative feedback to students on their submissions.

Edit HTML

This option lets you edit the content of a Web Page or item you created.

Course Schedule/Calendar

These two terms refer to the same thing. All Start Dates and Due Dates are automatically added to the calendar.

Course Selector

This button at the top of the screen looks like a rubix cube. You can click on this button to quickly access any of your classes. To keep frequently used classes at the top of the menu, click the pushpin icon to pin it to the top.

Discussion Forum

This is NOT comparable to a forum in Blackboard. Discussion forums are used to organize groups of discussions that are all on the same topic, such as peer feedback or weekly reflections. A discussion forum cannot be graded.

Syllabus

This is a special content area where you should post your syllabus so it is easy for students to find.

Widget

This is a tool on the course homepage that is populated with content, such as the visual table of contents, announcements, or the calendar.

Module

This is how Brightspace labels containers to organize content. Sub-modules can be used to further group items.

Navbar

This is the colored bar across the top of each page in Brightspace. The menu items will change depending on whether you are on the Brightspace homepage or inside a course.

Course Home

This is the home page of the course. Faculty can customize the homepage. This is where students can see the visual table of contents.

Table of Contents

This is the menu on the left side of the screen in Content that lists all of the course modules. The visual table of contents shows all of the modules on the homepage with a cover image on each one.

Assessment

This is the name that Brightspace gives to any tool that allows a submission, whether you choose to use them as an assessment or not. This includes discussions, assignments, and quizzes. You can assign assessments to students to gauge their understanding and provide feedback without including the score in the grade calculation.

Task

This refers to required content. The task can be to view content, create a thread, submit an assignment, etc. By default these are all Required: Automatic, meaning they are checked off as soon as the trigger is completed, such as viewing an item. Students sometimes lose track of what they viewed, so you can set the completion status to Required: Manual to create a checkbox that the student clicks when they are done with an item. This is not to be confused with tasks that students can create for themselves as a to do list.