Create great looking, responsive, accessible, and interactive content topic pages using the page layouts provided in the attached template package. The included instructor-friendly layouts are designed to be edited using the HTML Editor in the Learning Environment.
What's New?
We are excited to announce a series of new features in our Template 5 package designed to make creating exciting content even easier than before! To accomplish this, we gave ourselves two (2) goals to meet when designing the user experience:
1 . Instructor First - Improved Editing Experience
Template 5 is designed with instructors first in mind - our goal was to create a way for any instructor to be able to author a beautiful and effective content page without having to have a background in web development. To assist with this, we have introduced an improved editing experience in our static, dynamic, and complex typographic elements to aid users in editing the content without the worry of accidentally removing parts of the element structure!
2. Creator+ Friendly
Our second goal was to build a template that was designed with an eye to the future. With that in mind we set out to create a template that would allow us to seamlessly integrate our own elements with D2L's Creator+ offering. We are pleased to share that not only are the elements found in this template designed to look like their Creator+ counterparts but we have also designed the template to respond to changes made in Content Styler as well!
Why Version 5 instead of Version 3?
We understand that new templates are exciting but also bring questions about why to change versions, especially when you already have content authored in the previous version.
Benefit From Our Learnings
The biggest motivation we can give for trying Version 5 is to benefit from the learnings of our D2L teams. Our Version 5 template was developed by our very own Learning Services and is built on years of creating instructor-friendly templates for our clients.
Shift Away From 3rd-Party Libraries
A major shift in our Version 5 templates was the removal of our template dependencies of Bootstrap and jQuery in favour of our own framework. This allowed us to deliver a more streamlined template and ensured that all elements of the template were contained in the template package itself.
What Happened to Version 4?
You may be asking why we went from Version 3 to Version 5 and if there ever was a Version 4. The short answer is yes, Version 4 existed but was used internally by our Learning Services team for their clients. When Learning Services began work on their Version 5 templates we decided to wait until it was ready to release the next Community version and adopted the Version 5 terminology to avoid confusion and align with the latest Learning Services template version.
Getting Started
We recommend having your Brightspace administrator assist in deploying the template to your Brightspace instance as it involves uploading files to your instance's public files.
Can I Use the Template from the Course Offering?
Although this was possible with the Version 3 template, at this time we do not recommend deploying the template at the course offering level.
Setting Up the Template Package
- Download the template package:
- Follow the step by step instruction document within the package
Setting Up the Course Offering
For ease of viewing your elements and pages in a centralized location, we have included a course package that can be imported into your Brightspace instance to serve as a reference material.
If setting up a course offering is not possible, Brightspace Instructors and Administrators can also use the pre-loaded resources in the Learning Center (on one browser tab or monitor) and access the copy code buttons from that environment and paste this interactive code into the page they're creating (in another browser tab or monitor).
- Download the course package:
- Create a new Course Offering
- Once complete, select the Import/Export Course option and upload course.zip
- View your content
Known Issues
- These templates are currently not recommended for learning material that is intended for printing and saving outside of the learning environment.
- We recommend adding images into a template page using the "Insert Image" or "Insert Stuff" buttons in the HTML Editor. This makes it easier to add your Alternative Text. If you paste an image inside of the template, you will not be prompted to add the alt text until you run the accessibility checker.
- When adding templates for use in the New Content Experience/ Lessons, it is recommended that you type the file path for the templates in the config variable browser value (step 2, #5 in the Brightspace_HTML_Template_Guide) copying and pasting the file path can lead to formatting problems that will prevent easy access to the templates from within a course.
What Do They Look Like?
This is just a small sample of the page styles you get in this free download!
You can see a live version of the templates in Brightspace.
Learn More About the Updated Templates in the Learning Center
Stop on by the Learning Center to browse through the templates.
Note: Learning Center Access is provided to Instructors and Administrators who are currently using Brightspace. You must be signed into the Community with your School or Organization's email address to verify your access to freemium and premium Learning Center content.
Current Version 5.0
File Name:
shared.zip
Date Published: August 2024
Date Updated: October 2024. HTML Template Guide Updated to refer to "Public Files" vs. historically named "Shared Files"
Description: This template is designed to help non-developers create responsive, accessible, and interactive content pages using the Brightspace HTML Editor (WYSIWYG editor). This version now includes:
- Interactive elements including accordions and tabs
- Updated Sample page styles
- Template Install Instructions now located outside of the zip package
- Additional resources in the Learning Center including new Copy Code buttons to make it easier to copy and paste elements
Previous Version 3.0
File Name:
Brightspace_HTML_Template_v3.zip
Date Published: May 2020
Description: This template is designed to help non-developers create responsive, accessible, and interactive content pages using the Brightspace HTML Editor (WYSIWYG editor). This version now includes:
- Interactive elements including accordions and tabs
- Updated Sample page styles
- Template Install Instructions now located outside of the zip package
- Additional resources in the Learning Center including new Copy Code buttons to make it easier to copy and paste elements
Access the Course
📝 You must be a Brightspace client and logged into the new Single Sign on for Community to access this resource
Languages Available: English
Feedback and Support
We welcome your feedback and encourage you to share tips, tricks, extensions, etc., with your fellow Community members in our Community Discussion forum, or by connecting with your D2L support team.
