How are institutions highlighting assignments for students?

Heather.B.4264

We've recently had a couple of instructors ask about making assignments more prominent for students in Brightspace. Most of our instructors currently provide assignment descriptions and instructions within their course content, but some have asked whether it's possible to provide a direct "Assignments" link in the course navbar.

I'm curious how other institutions are approaching this. Do you include an Assignments link in your navbar, use a custom link, or highlight assignments in some other way? If not through the navbar, have you found effective ways to make assignments more visible through the course homepage or other navigation elements?

I'm also wondering whether there is a technically feasible way to create a navbar link that points students to assignment information, rather than simply taking them to the submission area.

I'd appreciate hearing how others have approached this from both a technical and course design perspective.

Ashley.W.615

Thanks for the Question Heather!

Two of the most common ways to ensure students can easily find and stay on top of their assignments in Brightspace include Adding the Assignments Tab to the Course Navbar and using the Work To Do Widget:

1. Add Assignments to the Course Navbar

The most direct approach is to add an Assignments link to the course navigation bar so students can access it with one click from anywhere in the course. You can do this by editing the course navbar (via the three-dot menu at the end of the navbar, or through Admin Tools > Navigation & Themes > Navbar) and adding the Assignments tool link.

When a student clicks the Assignments link in the navbar, they are taken to the Assignments List page for that course.

Students can click on any assignment to view the full details, read the instructions, and submit their work directly from that page. It gives them a single, centralized place to manage all of their assignment submissions for the course.

2. Enable the Work To Do Widget

The Work To Do widget gives students a single, prioritized list of all upcoming and overdue learning activities including assignments, quizzes, discussions, surveys, and checklists across all of their courses.

This is one of the most impactful changes you can make for student visibility into upcoming work.

By combining both of these strategies, a navbar link for direct access and a clear view of all assignments, and the Work To Do widget for a consolidated view of upcoming deadlines, you can create a student experience where assignments are easy to find and hard to miss.

Let us know if you have any more questions!