Course Overview
Brightspace does more than host files. When you know where to put content and why it matters, you can turn the materials you already use into something learners actually engage with.
Designing Interactive Learning Experiences in Brightspace is a practical, hands-on guide to building interactive HTML Topics. In this course, you will learn to use AI tools, a small set of design principles, and techniques you can apply to any discipline.
No prior coding experience needed.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Explain how location in Brightspace determines what content can do, and use that mental model to make better design decisions.
- Distinguish between classical Brightspace tools and HTML-capable areas to choose the right one for the task.
- Transform existing teaching materials like slides, PDFs, images, and video, into interactive HTML Topics.
- Build a low-stakes formative interaction with immediate feedback into any content page.
- Use an AI tool to generate, refine, and troubleshoot Brightspace-ready HTML.
- Apply a practical redesign framework to plan and build a course that survives term rollover and NCE migration.
- Evaluate accessibility and mobile responsiveness in your HTML Topics before publishing.
- Describe five engagement design techniques that target thinking and effort, and connect each to specific things you can build in Brightspace.
Meet the Course Creator
The techniques, walkthroughs, and planning tools in this course were built by someone who has worked on both sides of the classroom and behind the systems that support it.
Kumar Chandrasekhar, PhD
Educational Technologist & Faculty on Contract
Academic Development Centre | Department of General Education | Mount Royal University, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Kumar spent more than fifteen years in biomedical research before moving into teaching. That background is still in the room. He approaches course design the way a researcher approaches a problem: start with what the evidence says, then build something you can actually test.
He has taught undergraduate courses for over a decade across biology, genetics, environmental health, and general education. At Mount Royal University, he holds two connected roles: supporting the Brightspace environment as an LMS administrator in the Academic Development Centre, and teaching in the Department of General Education. The combination matters. The administrative side shows him how the platform actually behaves at scale. The teaching side shows him what faculty and students run into when the design gets it wrong.
AI runs through his practice not as a shortcut but as a tool he has learned to use carefully. Every technique in this course was developed with AI in the loop, but the judgment calls are his.
Course origins. This course grew out of a session Kumar led at the Mount Royal Faculty Association Retreat in May 2026, developed in collaboration with Tim Magee, MS, and Glen Ryland, PhD.
Unlock an Award
Complete all course units to unlock the Content Wizard badge.
This badge recognizes your hands-on progress in building interactive, learner-centered content in Brightspace using HTML Topics, AI tools, and practical design principles. Earn it by visiting all required content pages through tracked course navigation.
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Languages Available: English
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