When creating a new user in Brightspace, keep the following points in mind:
Organization enrollment
- New users are automatically enrolled in the top-level organization.
- To give users access to a specific course, department, or other org unit, you must enroll them in that org unit.
- Enrollment is done by assigning the user a role in the selected org unit.
Roles and permissions
- A user’s role determines what they can do in an org unit.
- For example:
- A Learner role gives learner-level access.
- An Instructor role gives instructor-level access.
Cascading access
- Enrollment usually applies only to the specific org unit selected.
- It does not automatically include org units below it.
- Access extends to child org units only if the assigned role is set to cascade in the Roles and Permissions tool.
Preferred and sortable names
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To view and modify preferred names, site administrators must grant the User Information Privacy > Distinguish Preferred Names from Legal Names permission at the organization level to other administrators.
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The ability to edit user information is controlled by existing Manage Users permissions.
- Administrators can set a preferred name that displays throughout Brightspace instead of the user’s legal name.
- Administrators can also set a sortable last name when a legal surname includes prefixes, such as Van or Van der.
- Brightspace uses the sortable last name to alphabetize user lists correctly.
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The following tools currently support the Sortable Last Name:
- Classlist
- Grades
- Quizzes
- Assignments
- Discussions
- Manage Exemptions
- Content - Completion Summary
For additional information, refer to Preferred names, pronouns, and gender.
Create a new user
You can create a new user from the Users tab of the Users tool.
To create a new user
- From the Admin Tools menu, click Users > New User.
- Enter an Org Defined ID.
 | Note: The maximum number of allowable characters for an Org Defined ID is 256. Do not include the following characters: / \ : * ? " < > | ' , ; |
- Enter the following:
- Legal First Name
- Preferred First Name (optional)
- Middle Name
- Legal Last Name
- Preferred Last Name (optional)
- Sortable Last Name (optional).
| Note: The maximum length for the name fields is 64 characters. Do not include the following characters: / \ : * ? " < > | @ , ; |
- Enter an email address for the user.
| Note: The maximum number of characters for email addresses is 256. Do not include the following characters: ( ) < > [ ] | \ ; : , “ |
- From the Role drop-down list, choose a role. If you select a cascading role, the user is enrolled with that role in all org units in the organization.
- Type a Username for the user based on user naming conventions (if applicable) at your organization. If you leave the Username field blank, the system creates the username as firstname.lastname. If the username is taken, the system adds a number to the user’s first name: firstname###.lastname.
| Note: The maximum number of characters is 256. Do not include the following characters in usernames: / \ : * ? " < > | ' , ; |
- If you select Manually set password, you should also select Force password change on login. If you don’t type a password, the system assigns a seven-character alphanumeric password by default.
| Note: The maximum number of characters for passwords is 50. |
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To activate the user, select Make user active.
- Click Save.