What is this resource?
This resource is a guided course on Intelligent Agents in Brightspace, designed to help educators transition from basic awareness to confident implementation. The course provides step-by-step instructions, troubleshooting advice, and real-world examples that demonstrate how Intelligent Agents can automate communication, personalize support, and improve learner outcomes.
Why did we create this resource?
We created this resource to help faculty and staff enhance student success while reducing the burden of manual outreach. Intelligent Agents offer a practical way to keep learners connected and motivated by automating reminders, celebrations, and re-engagement messages. With this tool, educators can build a more supportive learning environment at scale, ensuring students feel guided and encouraged throughout their journey, while freeing faculty to focus on teaching and meaningful mentorship.
Who is this resource for?
This course is designed for:
- Instructors who want to strengthen student care and engagement through automation, freeing up time to focus on teaching while still providing timely, personalized support.
- Administrators responsible for setting permissions, ensuring compliance, and supporting faculty with effective communication tools.
Note: To use Intelligent Agents, the appropriate permissions must be enabled in your Brightspace environment. Without these permissions, users may not be able to create, edit, or run agents. For more details, see the Intelligent Agents permissions.
About Dr. Elizabeth Pearsall
Meet Dr. Pearsall
Dr. Elizabeth Pearsall is the Assistant Provost for Teaching and Learning at the American College of Financial Services. She contributed her expertise and practical insights to the development of this resource, helping shape strategies that reflect real-world application and impact. She leads a cross-functional team specializing in instructional design, educational technology, learning management systems, and course materials, focused particularly on adult learners in the financial services industry.
Why Intelligent Agents?
Through her leadership, Intelligent Agents have become a “quiet workhorse” in her institution, supporting student engagement, re-engaging learners who may have slipped behind, and reducing faculty workload through thoughtful automation.
What does the course offer?
You’ll learn how to use tools like Welcome Messages to Students, Missing an Assignment prompts, Way to Go Reminders, Inactive Student alerts, and Instructor notifications to re-engage learners.
What is the impact of the use of Intelligent agents?
Dr. Pearsall’s results highlight the effectiveness of this approach. Early implementations of Intelligent Agents have shown measurable success. For example, an agent that reached out to students who had not logged in during the first week of class resulted in 70% re-engagement, with one-third submitting work within seven days.
By the end of this course, you’ll be able to apply the following Intelligent Agents use cases:
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This module guides instructors through the steps to create a personalized, automated welcome message using Brightspace’s Intelligent Agents. Ideal for the first week of class, this setup ensures that newly enrolled students receive timely communication that sets the tone for a positive learning experience.
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Languages Available: English
Tip: Keep an eye out for the D2L Academy school bus icon throughout the Brightspace Community—it’s your ticket to even more great learning opportunities!
Additional Resources
https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/3499-about-intelligent-agents#visual-tour-of-intelligent-agents
https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/3496-set-up-intelligent-agents?searchString=intelligent%20agents
https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/22957-tips-tricks-intelligent-agents?searchString=intelligent%20agents
https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/4424-intelligent-agents-configuration-variables?searchString=intelligent%20agents
https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/3647-run-intelligent-agents#perform-a-practice-run-on-an-agent
https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/5874-intelligent-agent-templates-increase-instructor-to-learner-engagement?searchString=intelligent%20agent%20temapltes