By Ted Haag, End User Support Manager
The start of a new semester can be an intimidating time for students, especially if you’re working in a new and complex system for the first time. In this aid brought by the Brightspace end user support team, we wanted to put together a few resource links for some of the tools we most often see students have questions or issues with and some information that will hopefully make your use of Brightspace smoother.
Finding and Accessing Courses
Your courses can be accessed through either the My Courses widget, which you may be able to find on the main homepage of the learning environment site, or the Course Selector, which is located within the Waffle icon to the left of your name in the top right corner of the site.
You may notice that some of your courses are greyed out and inaccessible. Courses have settings that limit access to them prior to their start date and after they’ve ended. If you can see it but it’s grayed out, it means the course has not started.
If your course is missing entirely, it may mean the enrollment has not yet been processed. When in doubt, we would recommend reaching out to the registrar’s office. You can also contact our support team, who can take a look at things and connect you with the appropriate team for your institution for additional assistance.
For more details and additional information, we would recommend reading our community article on navigating Brightspace and finding your courses:
https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/18103-navigate-brightspace-and-find-your-course
Submitting assignments
For a general overview of the assignments tool and navigating it, we would recommend reading our community article on the assignments tool here:
https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/18102-assignments
When you are submitting an assignment, If you get an error message saying ‘Oops, your file name could not be uploaded', there are a few possible causes:
- Your file name contains forbidden characters. Simply renaming the file so that it does not have any of these characters should get around this issue.
- Examples of forbidden characters: \ / : * ? ” < > | \ ~ # % & ’ { }
- How to rename a file:
- Your file is too large. The maximum upload size supported is 2GB per file, depending on your institution’s settings.
- Depending on the scope of the project and type of file there are a few ways to reduce file size.
- Reduce the resolution of images
- Compress the file
- Split it into multiple files (this may not be possible with assignment submission settings, so you may need to contact your instructor if this is needed)
- Network issues causing a timeout.
- This is dependent on your network connection. We would recommend doing submissions in an area with a strong and stable internet connection when possible.
For additional information on submitting assignments, we would recommend reading our community documentation on submitting assignments:
https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/18122-submit-and-manage-assignments
Content
For general guides on how to navigate the Content tool of your course, we would recommend reading our community documentation on navigating course content:
https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/6051-navigate-course-content-in-the-new-learner-experience-or-in-the-new-content-experience-lessons
Can’t find a piece of content?
- To allow for a more streamlined course material experience, instructors are able to render course materials (content, quizzes, assignments, etc.) invisible either indefinitely or for a specific time frame. If you are ever in doubt about where a piece of course material is located or if you are unable to access it, your instructor should be able to assist you with locating it.
Why does it say that you haven’t completed a content item even though you have (or vice versa)?
- Content item completion is measured as something distinct from the completion of other things that might be attached such as quizzes, assignments, or any external activities. If you’re sure you’ve completed a course activity.
Final Words
If you’re ever in doubt about whether you should or should not be able to see or access a piece of your course or have questions about navigating your course materials, it’s never a bad idea to reach out to your instructor for guidance and assistance. Other students might also be having the same issue.
If you can see our Homepage Support Widget (pictured below) on your Brightspace homepage, navbar support link, or Brightspace Virtual Assistant widget located in the bottom right corner of the Brightspace site, this means you have access to the D2L Brightspace End User Support helpdesk. You can contact us for support with any inquiries or issues you might be experiencing relating to the site and its many tools and features!
Brightspace End User Support Widget
Brightspace Virtual Assistant
