Receive a weekly summary email of your child's activity
If enabled by your administrator, you can choose to receive a weekly summary of your child's activity in Brightspace. Each Saturday, an activity summary is emailed to you that contains notifications and reminders. For example, an activity summary may contain reminders when assignments are due and notifications when an instructor shares portfolio items.
Note: Parents or guardians receive one email per child.
To receive a weekly summary
- In the Brightspace Parent & Guardian web application, click your user profile and select Notifications.
- Under Contact Methods, enter your custom email address, if not already done. A confirmation email is sent to the custom email address, prompting you to confirm the email address.
- Under Weekly Overview for my Children, select the Yes, email me a summary checkbox.
- Click Save.
View course messages from your child's instructors
To share important course information with learners, the Latest Posts widget displays an aggregate Activity Feed from all the courses your child is enrolled in. For example, your child's instructor might post reminders about upcoming assignments and links to course materials. If Activity Feed is enabled in your child's courses, you can read posts and access shared links from Brightspace Parent & Guardian; however, you cannot access content files.
From the Student Dashboard in the web application or the Home tab in the app, the Latest Posts widget displays the latest posts from your child's instructors.
Figure: Read posts from the Latest Posts widget in the Brightspace Parent & Guardian mobile app.
View notifications for your child's upcoming work
If notifications are enabled by your administrator, you can receive notifications about your child's upcoming assignments or quizzes.
Figure: You can view your notifications by clicking the Notifications tab in the Brightspace Parent & Guardian mobile app.
To view notifications in the web application
- From the learner selector page, select the Update alerts icon.
- From the list, click a notification. The upcoming assignment or quiz displays in the learner's Work To Do widget.
To view notifications in the mobile app
- Tap the Notifications tab.
- From the list, tap a notification. The upcoming assignment or quiz displays in the learner's Work To Do widget.
View details about your child's assignments
To support your child's learning, you can view assignment details in Brightspace Parent & Guardian. For example, when an assignment is graded, you can view the assignment name, course name, assignment score, overall score, grade value, assignment instructions, written feedback left by the instructor, rubric assessments, date-related information (start date, due date, end date), assignment status (due today, overdue, completed, closed), and access attachments (internal content files, external links and files, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive files shared with everyone). You can also download your child's assignment submissions to review completed work.
To view assignment details
From the Student Dashboard in the web application or Home tab in the mobile app, do one of the following:
- From the Work To Do widget, click or tap the assignment.
- From the Recent Grades widget, click or tap the grade item associated with the assignment.
- From the Latest Posts widget, click or tap the assignment post.
Figure: You can view Assignment details in the Brightspace Parent & Guardian web application.
View your child's work to do and recent grades
To provide you with a clear view of your child's work and progress from Brightspace Parent & Guardian, the Student Dashboard in the web application and the Home tab in the mobile app include the Work To Do and Recent Grades widgets.
Figure: The Work To Do and Recent Grades widgets in the Home tab in the Brightspace Parent & Guardian mobile app displays outstanding tasks and recent grades for your child.
Work To Do
The Work To Do widget displays a summary of assigned learning activities from all their courses that are overdue or have an upcoming due date or end date. Counters for each section indicate how many learning activities remain to be completed, along with information about each learning activity's name, due date, and course name. For example, the Overdue section displays any assignment, quiz, or content that has not been completed and is past the set due date on the respective activity.
Learning activities only appear in the Work To Do widget when the activity has a defined due date or end date. By default, the widget displays activities due or ending in the upcoming 2 weeks, and overdue work from the previous 12 weeks.
In the Work To Do widget, click or tap the following items to display more information:
You cannot click or tap the following items:
Content
Quizzes
Surveys
Checklists
Tip: To view details about Work To Do items, click or tap View all work to do. Choose a date range from the calendar for the items. To view the details of an item, click or tap the name of the item.
Recent Grades
The Recent Grades widget displays released grade items for all the courses your child is enrolled in.
Note: Surveys and checklist items do not display in the Recent Grades widget, since they are not gradable.
To view the details of a graded assignment or discussion activity, click or tap the assignment or discussion in the Recent Grades widget.
To view all released grades, click or tap View all grades. If an instructor is using the Grades tool for a course and they release the final course grade to the learner, the final course grade (final calculated grade or final adjusted grade) is also visible to you. From the learner's Grades page, you can filter by course.
If an instructor provided text feedback on a grade item, click or tap view feedback.
Viewing course work with Brightspace Parent & Guardian on a mobile device
If you are using Brightspace Parent & Guardian on a mobile device, the courses your child is enrolled in appear at the top of the page. The courses in the list indicate recent grades.
Figure: Courses and recent grades appear at the top of the mobile view.
When you click to select a course option, the focus of the page automatically moves down to the grades area filtered according to the course you selected. If you want to view more than one course, you can choose All Courses, or you must return to the course list and select a different course. There is also a button to return to the course list at the top of the page where you can select a different course. It is only possible to select one option at a time.
Note: This is different behavior than the desktop implementation of Brightspace Parent & Guardian.
Figure: The focus automatically shifts to the bottom of the page where the grades appear for the selected course.
View learning evidence in your child's portfolio
Brightspace Portfolio provides an online artifact space for learners of all ages. Learners can maintain their portfolio year after year as they progress through their learning journey. For example, evidence of a child's learning can include images of their artwork or field trip activities. If Brightspace Portfolio is enabled at your school, you can access your child's portfolio from Brightspace Parent & Guardian.
Figure: A Portfolio item in the Brightspace Parent & Guardian web application.
To view your child's portfolio
- From the Student Dashboard in the web application or the Home tab in the mobile app, the Portfolio Items widget displays the two latest shared Portfolio items belonging to your child that have been shared by the instructor.
- To view one of the Portfolio items, click or tap one of the tiles. Details about the Portfolio item display. For example, learner comments or instructor feedback.
- To see all previously shared Portfolio items, click or tap View all portfolio items. Your child's portfolio appears, displaying course portfolios for all current and past courses. Click or tap a course portfolio to view the contents.