As an Instructor, your course preparation directly impacts your learners’ success. This guide walks you through the most common questions and fixes at the start of term.
Learn how to prepare your content, configure assessments, publish grades, and resolve common start-of-term issues.
Most popular resources for Instructors getting started with Brightspace
Here are some of our best introductions to Brightspace for instructors.
Resource | Description | Link |
|---|
New Brightspace Instructor Learning Path | A structured learning path through D2L Academy featuring self-paced modules designed to help you succeed in planning, building, and facilitating courses. | New Brightspace Instructor Learning Path |
Brightspace Guided Training Courses (Instructors) | Collections of short tutorials, animations, and interactives guiding you through key Brightspace tools—ideal for learning specific tasks quickly. | Brightspace Guided Training Courses (requires Community account) |
Getting Started with Brightspace (D2L Academy) | A list of all free downloadable resources across several D2L Academy Courses that can be accessed and downloaded for use in your own Brightspace environment. | Downloadable D2L Academy Resources |
Brightspace Resource Guide (Higher Ed) | A PDF one-pager tailored for higher-ed instructors. Includes essential resources like D2L Academy tools, community webinars, tool maps, and more. | HE Instructor Resource Guide |
Higher Education Instructor Knowledge Base | A centralized hub of topic-specific help articles—everything from course setup to grading, content creation, and learner engagement. | Higher Ed Instructor KB |
Instructor Tutorials Playlist (YouTube) | A curated playlist of instructional videos covering navigation, tool usage, content creation, grading, and more—great for visual learners. | Instructor Tutorials Playlist |
Getting Started with Brightspace Data: Instructor Usage | A step-by-step guide for using Brightspace export data to track instructor engagement—includes downloadable Excel templates for visualization. | Getting Started with Brightspace Data |
Getting Started with Analytics Builder | A course help you get started with D2L Analytics Builder. | Getting Started with Analytics Builder |
Most Frequent Instructor Activities at Start-of-Term
This section lists the most common activities Instructors perform during the beginning of each semester, with links to resources to instructions you can use to accomplish each.
Create and configure a quiz
For guidance on setting up quizzes, defining questions, applying release conditions, and configuring timing, see:
Create and preview arithmetic questions
To create an arithmetic question:
- Navigate to the Question Library.
- Select New > Arithmetic Question.
- Enter the question and formula.
- Configure the precision, tolerance, units, and variables.
- Preview/test the question to verify the formula and generated values.
- Click Save.
Best Practices:
- Always preview and test the question before saving to confirm the formula works as expected.
- Define variables with appropriate minimum, maximum, decimal places, and step values to generate meaningful variations for learners.
- Set Answer Precision to control the number of decimal places accepted, and use Enforce Precision when a specific number of decimal places is required.
- Use Tolerance when rounded, estimated, or near-accurate answers.
- If units are required, configure the unit type and evaluation option to ensure responses are graded correctly.
- Keep the Question Text with a maximum of 512 characters.
- Use Question Hints and Feedback to provide learners with helpful guidance or explanations.
Update Question Library questions used in Quizzes
Deleting a question from Question Library
Questions imported into a quiz from the Question Library are copied, not linked. If you delete a question from the Question Library, it will still exist in any quiz where it was previously added.
To remove it from a quiz, you must edit the quiz directly and delete the question there.
Editing a question or its options
Changes made in the Question Library do not automatically update quizzes.
To apply edits (e.g., updating answer options), you need to:
- Remove the question from the quiz.
- Edit the question in the Question Library.
- Re-add the updated question to the quiz.
Past attempts remain unaffected; edits only impact future attempts.
Important Notes: When you import questions from the Question Library into a quiz, you create a duplicate version—one in the quiz and one in the library. Updates in the library do not automatically cascade to quizzes.
Evaluate Quizzes by question
The Questions tab allows you to efficiently grade learner responses to individual quiz questions. You can grade responses individually or update all attempts for a specific question with the same score.
Best Practices:
- Use Hide learners' names when evaluating responses to support more objective grading.
- Use Save Draft if you need to pause grading and continue later.
- Review and provide feedback where appropriate.
- Use Publish Feedback when you are ready to release grades and feedback to learners.
- If needed, you can retract published feedback to temporarily hide scores and feedback from learners.
Give Special Access or Extra Attempts for Quizzes
To grant special access or extra attempts for a quiz, follow these steps:
- Open the quiz and go to Availability Dates & Conditions.
- Select Manage Special Access.
- Select Add Users to Special Access.
- Adjust date/time or attempt settings as needed.
- Click Save.
Important: If your institution uses Respondus LockDown Browser, you must enable it in the Respondus Settings section for the quiz. Remember to inform learners in advance that they must download and install the LockDown Browser before attempting the quiz.
Reset or delete a quiz attempt for a learner
To make it possible for a learner to attempt a quiz again, you must delete their previous quiz attempts.
Before you start, make sure the quiz is no longer in progress.
- On the navbar, click Quizzes.
- On the Manage Quizzes page, find the quiz you need to reset attempts for.
- In the option menu for the quiz, select Grade.
- Click to select the attempts you want to delete.
- At the top of the list of quiz attempts, click Delete.
Important: If your institution uses Respondus, learners must still launch the quiz through the LockDown Browser when they try to take the quiz again.
Submit an in-Progress quiz for a learner
When a learner forgets to click Submit during a quiz, their quiz attempt appears to be missing and you may need to submit the quiz on their behalf.
To submit a quiz attempt for a learner, follow these steps:
- On the navbar, click Quizzes.
- On the Manage Quizzes page, find the quiz you need to submit for the learner.
- Click the dropdown next to the quiz, and then select Grade.
- On the Users tab, click Show Search Options.
- From the Restrict to drop-down menu, select either All users or Users with attempts in progress.
- Locate the in-progress quiz for the learner.
- To submit the quiz on behalf of the learner, click Enter Quiz as User icon and then click Submit.
Set up and manage Assignments
For instructions on creating, organizing, and configuring assignments, linking assignments to grades, and setting release conditions for an assignment, see:
Troubleshoot missing learner Assignment submissions
Before submitting a support case, check the following information to help determine whether the learner's submission was recorded in Brightspace.
Step 1: Check the Assignment Submission Log
The Submission Log is the most reliable place to check whether Brightspace recorded a learner's submission.
Path: Assignments > select the drop-down menu next to the assignment > Submission Log
The Submission Log shows:
- Each recorded submission attempt and its timestamp.
- Whether Brightspace recorded a submission for the learner.
If the Submission Log is empty for the learner, Brightspace did not record a submission. This may mean that the learner did not click Submit, or that the submission failed before it reached the server.
Step 2: Check whether the learner accessed Brightspace
Administrators can use User Tracking to confirm whether the learner accessed Brightspace around the time they say they submitted the assignment.
Path: Users > search for the learner > Edit User Information > User Tracking
Review the learner's activity to determine whether they were logged in to Brightspace at the reported submission time.
Step 3: Ask the learner for their submission receipt
If the learner says the assignment was submitted successfully but no submission appears in Brightspace, ask them to provide their submission email receipt.
Submission receipts are available when the following configuration variable is enabled:
d2l.Tools.Dropbox.SubmissionReceiptEmail
If these checks do not resolve the issue, open a support case with D2L Support and include the information you gathered during your investigation.
Submit Assignments on behalf of a learner
Note: You must have the required role permissions granted to your role to impersonate another user. Contact your administrator for more details. While impersonating another user, you are restricted from using the Google Workspace integration or viewing the Google Workspace Widget.
Submitting an assignment on behalf of a user involves impersonating the learner from the Classlist and then submitting the assignment for them.
- To impersonate a student, go to Classlist and find the learner you want to submit the assignment for.
- In the options menu for the learner, click Impersonate and then click Yes to confirm. In the upper right, the system updates to show the user profile and permissions of the learner you are impersonating.
- Go to Assignments.
- Click the folder.
- Click Add a File and upload.
- Submit on behalf of the learner.
- To stop impersonating the learner, select your profile picture then select X next to the user name.
Organize the Gradebook
For guidance on creating categories and grade items, choosing calculation methods, and controlling visibility, see:
Manage Grade Categories and Items
For guidance on creating, editing, deleting, and restoring grade categories and items, see:
Manage Final Grades and Exemptions
Grade exemptions allow a learner to be excluded from a grade item without treating the item as a zero. Exempted items are excluded from final grade calculations, and if all grade items are exempted, no final grade is calculated.
Best Practices:
- Use exemptions when a learner should not be assessed on a specific grade item.
- Remember that exemptions are excluded from grade calculations and statistics, including minimum, maximum, and grade distribution.
- The calculation method matters when excluding items: Points uses Exclude from Final Grade Calculation, Weighted uses a weight of 0, and Formula requires removing the item from the formula.
- Be aware that exemptions can affect release conditions. Conditions such as Grade Value on grade item and No grade received do not trigger for an exempted grade item.
- If a learner is exempt from all items in a category, the category appears as Exempt in User Statistics.
Link Quizzes or Assignments to Grade Items
For guidance on how to make sure assessment scores automatically appear in the Gradebook, see the following online help resources:
Manage course content
D2L offers several resources to help you create accessible, engaging courses in Brightspace. If you're getting started, you can find free Community announcement templates to welcome students, guidance on making sure your written communications are accessible, and free HTML templates for courses.
If your institution supports Creator+ features, you can find best practices for using them to create instructional material here.
For guidance on how to add or edit modules and topics, apply release conditions to course content, or bulk delete content, see the following online help resources:
Manage Discussions
For guidance on how to create forums and topics, manage visibility of Discussions, or link discussions to the Gradebook, see:
Manage your Classlist
For guidance on enrolling or unenrolling course participants, managing your Classlist, or reviewing missing learners, incorrect enrollments, or an unexpected blank Classlist, see:
Activate a course
For guidance on how to make your course visible to learners when ready, see:
Copy course components
For guidance on how to copy course content, quizzes, discussions, or other settings from one course to another, see:
Remove the grade association from an LTI activity
You can remove the grade association from a graded LTI activity when you no longer want the LTI tool to send grades to the Brightspace Grade Book. The activity remains available to learners, and the associated grade item is not automatically deleted.
Best Practices:
- Confirm that you want to stop the LTI tool from sending grades before removing the association.
- Be aware that existing grades are not removed from the Grade Book.
- The existing grade column will remain in the Grade Book unless it is manually deleted.
- Use Reset to Ungraded only for the specific LTI activity that should no longer be associated with a grade item.
Troubleshoot common Instructor issues at Start-of-Term
This section lists the most common problems instructors request help with during the start of each new semester, with guidance and resources for resolving each.
- Authentication and Access Issues
- Course not Active or Visible to Learners
- Missing or Inaccessible Content
- Discussion Visibility Issues
- Duplicated Course Components After Copy
- Restore Deleted Course Data
Authentication and access issues
When you encounter problems with authentication or access, follow these steps:
- Confirm that you have the correct login URL for Single-Sign-On (SSO) or Brightspace Local Login for your institution.
- Use your institution’s password reset tool to reset your password.
- If your organization uses SSO, verify that your institution credentials are correct.
Course not active or visible to learners
If learners report that your course is not visible or active, follow these steps:
- Go to Course Offering Information and select the Course is active check box.
- Verify start and end dates are correct, and not in the future.
Missing or inaccessible content
If you observe that content which learners should have access to is missing or inaccessible, follow these steps:
- In the Content tool, confirm that the missing topics or modules are not hidden.
- Review and adjust Release Conditions and start / end dates.
Discussion visibility issues
If you observe reports from learners that they cannot view or access Discussions which should be available, follow these steps:
- In Discussions, make sure the forums or topics learners are visible and that any availability dates are correct.
- Adjust release conditions if needed.
Duplicated course components after Course Copy
If you notice duplicated course components after you copy components from one course to another, make sure that you only select the course components you need before selecting Copy.
Getting support
- Brightspace Instructors and Faculty: For support, please consult the help resources provided by your institution, including your help desk or support options available within Brightspace..
- **New to D2L Brightspace? **Join the Brightspace Community! You’ll find tutorials, tips, and support from peers and experts. Stay updated and get answers fast—register today!
We’re here to help you have the best possible start to your semester!