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Rethinking the Checklist Tool: A Secret Weapon for Instructional Designers
When you hear Brightspace Checklist, do you immediately picture it as a student-facing tool? Most of us do. But what if I told you the Checklist tool could actually make your life as an instructional designer easier, too? Inspired by its use in the Course Blueprint product created and delivered by D2L’s Learning Services…
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Designing for Complexity
Designing effective courses is no simple task. Some may even say it’s quite…complex. And just like effective course design, learning is often complex too. Presenting your content in digestible chunks is a good first step, but complex learning also requires creating meaningful learning experiences where learners get to…
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Custom GPTs in Learning Services: A New Kind of Teammate
By Vicky Nesbitt (with considerable assistance from Mr. Smith) If someone had told me a year ago that I’d be co-writing an article with an AI assistant who corrects punctuation, quotes style guides without being asked, and gets sassy if his instructions are too vague—I might’ve smiled politely and changed the subject. And…
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Integrating AI in Course Development: Three Practical Tips for L&D Teams
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a fixture of conversations about teaching and learning. Recent research shows that 74% of organizations struggle to scale AI practices, and 52% of workers worry about AI. Trust remains a barrier to adoption – a phenomenon often called ‘algorithm aversion’. Rather than resisting,…
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Using AI with Ethics in Mind
AI is everywhere. We are reaching a point where, whatever personal misgivings we might have, using AI remains an essential skill. There is no denying the power of generative AI. But it is also clear that AI has issues. There are real ethical concerns at play: environmental impacts, data privacy and security, inaccuracies…
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AI Image Generation for Instructional Designers: A Beginner’s Guide
Did you ever try to generate an image with AI, but didn’t know where to start? AI image generation tools offer creative freedom like never before. We see hyper-realistic AI-generated images on websites, in videos, or on social media and often wonder: How do people make something so detailed without being graphic designers?…
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The Value of Teacher Guides in K-12 Classrooms: Enhancing Learning with Brightspace
When it comes to setting up a smooth-running, engaging classroom—whether in person, online, or somewhere in between—one unsung hero deserves more credit: the teacher guide. These behind-the-scenes powerhouses help educators feel confident, prepared, and supported as they deliver meaningful learning experiences. Especially…
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Finding Structure After the Dog Days of Summer
For many of us in the world of education, summer brings about some much-needed rest and relaxation. When we consider our K-12 learners, however, summer break can be enriching in some respects but lacking in others. Inequal access to activities and learning opportunities means that the gap in skills and competencies can…
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“Please and Thank You, Computer”: What Star Trek Taught Me About AI and Intentional Design
When I was a child, I watched a brief exchange from an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that has stuck with me. In “Q Who?”, a junior officer named Sonya Gomez approaches the replicator and says, “Hot chocolate, please.” Her superior, Geordi La Forge, teases her: “We don’t ordinarily say please to food dispensers…
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What We Don’t See: Designing for Learners in Real Life
There was a time when a traumatic event shook my family’s foundation. Unexpectedly, I had to work two jobs to support myself and my two young children. Homework time, in theory, should’ve been a chance for me to help them learn, but in reality, it just wasn’t possible. They were too young to work independently, and I was…
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Learning at Home, Learning at Work: How Parenthood Shaped Me as an Educator
As a parent in the education field, I thought I knew learning, but trying to teach my baby to eat with a spoon taught me that I didn't know as much about teaching and learning as I thought. Parenting brought a new awareness of what it feels like to learn: the frustration, the joy, the non-linear messiness. I like to think…
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Rewriting the Lesson Plan: Making the Leap from SME to Instructional Design
I started out as a classroom teacher back in the mid-2000s, long before online education became the norm. My lessons lived on whiteboards, in binders, and on printed handouts carefully photocopied each morning. I loved seeing the spark in students' eyes when a concept clicked. But as digital learning tools grew more…
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Giving Voice to AI: Lessons from Writing Scripts for Avatars
When I began adapting content from online learning materials into scripts for AI avatars, I expected the process to feel familiar, like writing narration for a video or voiceover. I quickly realized that scripting for synthesized speech is a different kind of challenge. What looks good on paper can sound robotic out loud,…
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Accessibility Quick Tip—WEBVTT for Captioning Audio and Video Content
Audio and Video with Audio instructional assets are incredibly popular and valuable ways to present content in your courses. I don’t think I need to say much more than that—audio and video content exists in the courses you design and build. However, audio and video content are not inherently accessible. In seeking to meet…
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Welcome to the Brightspace Community: Your Learning Adventure Begins!
Now Streaming! Step into a world of learning and connection with the Brightspace Community, where every educator, administrator, and learner is a star in their own right. Imagine it as a hit series — a mix of Abbott Elementary meets The Mandalorian — but for edtech enthusiasts. Here’s your exclusive behind-the-scenes tour.…
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Foreign Language Class
Hello Everyone, We have an online Arabic class that is using quizzes. Some of the questions are multiple choice others require the students to answer in Arabic. I am currently at a loss as to how the students will write in Arabic to answer the questions. Any thoughts about how student can use the HTML editor to write in…
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End-of-Year Reflections: Making Space for Celebration, Gratitude, and Growth
A Season for Reflection For me, as an educator, the end of the school year smells like bumblebees visiting spring blooms—bursting with the excitement of summer, yet tinged with nostalgia. It’s a time to look back on the progress and accomplishments of the past months, to celebrate the hard work of both myself and my…
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Taming AI Hallucinations: A Guide for Instructional Designers
“It sounded so confident… but it was totally wrong.” If you’ve used ChatGPT or another AI chatbot, you’ve likely seen it confidently provide incorrect information. That’s an AI hallucination—when the model invents facts or distorts details. As instructional designers, we’re increasingly using large language models (LLMs)…
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Let’s Build Together: A Friendly Guide to the HTML Template
As your course development journey continues, we're excited to share a tool that can elevate your course experience—our HTML template. Whether you're an experienced course designer or just getting started, this walkthrough will help you confidently use, customize, and share back your HTML templates in Brightspace. This…
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Why Instructional Designers Are the Master Chefs of Online Learning
Just because someone has access to a kitchen and ingredients doesn’t make them a chef. The same is true for course creation. While many professionals have access to tools, like the many features of Brightspace, and plenty of content at their fingertips, turning those raw materials into an engaging, effective learning…
