Organizing the learning journey into Units and Lessons

Course Contents in Brightspace are organized and structured by Units and Lessons. Units are the biggest containers inside Brightspace. Think of it as a divider or a folder that contains learning materials such as lectures, assignments quizzes etc. Lessons act as an additional layer of organization to again contain lectures, assignments, quizzes etc.

As an example, Units can be set to house all learning materials or Lessons for an entire month. It can also be used to organize all materials relating to a certain topic. Feel free to use Units as how you see them fit to help you relay your lectures, or talk with your LMS administrator if there are standards set.

When organizing the learning journey of your students, we suggest that you take a look at your syllabus. This will help you envision how your learning materials should be divided.

Adding content to your courses is an essential part of hosting a digital learning experience on Brightspace. As a preparation, you can follow these steps to go to your Content page. In thenext sections, you’ll learn how to place contents in these folders.

1. Go to the Course you want to add Content to.

2. From the Course homepage, go to the Content page. From here you can create Units, Lessons, and Content.

Organizing Content of your Courses through Units

Now that you have learned how learning materials are organized by Units and Lessons inside Brightspace, you may now create Units that will serve as the first layer of content organization for our course. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Once inside the Content page, click the New Unit button on the left side.

2. Enter the Unit’s name and description and click Save.

3. From this point, you can now directly add learning materials. If you want to add existing files from your computer such as PDFs or PowerPoint presentations, click the Add Existing button. You can also use this button to add existing files in BrightSpace such as Assignments and Quizzes. However, if you want to add completely new materials to be developed inside Brightspace, click the Create New button.

4. Do not forget to click Save after adding your materials.

5. Check the Visibility button. If it indicates “Hidden,” this means that the Unit and all of its contents are not visible to the learners. If it says “Visible,” then it means that the content is visible to the learners.

6. Once you’ve finalized the Units and its contents, you’re all set!

Creating Content of your Units through Lessons

If you want an additional layer of organization inside your Units, you can easily add Lessons.

Instead of directly uploading or developing content into your Units, you can Add Existing Lessons, or Create New Lessons. By doing this, you can segment your course content even further, allowing you and your learners to visualize the content structure. Here’s how.

1. Once inside the Content page, click the New Unit button on the left side.

2. Enter the Unit’s name and description. Then click Save.

3. Click the Create New Button or the Add Existing button. Both buttons will lead you to options on what you can place inside your Unit. From there choose New Lessons.

4. Adding materials inside Lessons is the same as adding materials inside Units. Take a look at the Organizing Content of your Courses through Units section.

5. Do not forget to click Save after.

6. Check the Visibility button. If it indicates “Hidden,” this means that the Unit and all of its contents are not visible to the learners. If it says “Visible,” then it means that the content is visible to the learners.

Setting conditions for Units, Lessons, and Course Content

There might be situations where you opt to set conditions before the learners can access certain content. For example, if you want a user to go through a specific material before they can see the next part of the course, you can do so by setting release conditions. This is a good way to ensure that students are experiencing the learning process the way you intended it to be. The conditions feature also prevents students from feeling overwhelmed in their learning journey. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Choose the item in which you want to set release conditions. Click the icon with the three dots on the right and press View Release Conditions. A popup will appear.

2. Press the Create button to create a new release condition. From there, you’ll be redirected to select a condition type. Go through the different condition types and select the release condition you want to set. There are ten different categories to choose from.

3. Once you’ve selected the condition type, we’ll be asked to select the condition details. Once you've selected the details, you will be redirected to the previous page, and you’ll see the release condition set for the material. Press Save once you’re done. The visibility indicator will change from either Hidden or Visible to Visible if conditions are met.

4. From there, you can set release conditions for any of the Units, Lessons, and course content you created. You can also reuse release conditions set before by clicking Browse from the Release Conditions popup.

Scheduling Virtual Classrooms

In Virtual classrooms, you can conduct synchronous sessions with your students and/or other teachers. It is similar to conferencing platforms where you can conduct live classes with audio, video and screensharing. But instead of going through other tools, you can host sessions through Brightspace! Here’s how you set it up:

1. Go to the Course Offering where you want to host a virtual classroom. On the navigation bar, click Virtual Classroom.

2. If it’s your first time using the platform, you will be asked the following question:

Application YouSeeU Prod v3.5 by YouSeeU is trying to access your information. Would you like to proceed?

Press Continue to access the platform, and if you don’t want to be asked again, press the checkbox that says “Do not ask me again for this application”

3. You will be redirected to the Meetings page. On the bottom right corner of the screen, you’ll see a + button. Press it to schedule a meeting. A popup will appear.

4. You will be asked to set a title, a date, and a time. Type any name you want on the text box. Since we’re preparing sessions in advance, set a time and date for the virtual classrooms we’re hosting.

5. Change the max duration to how long you want the session to run. Please note that in some versions, the max duration can only be set up to 60 minutes.

6. There are checkboxes that you can click. Click the checkboxes that you want to enable:

   • Automatically record meeting (record the virtual classroom as soon as the session starts)

   • Publish recorded meeting (add the recording to the Recorded meetings portion automatically)

   • Allow external participants (allow people outside of your Classlist to join)

   • Invite entire class (automatically invite everyone in the Classlist)

7. Once you’re done, press Save. This will be added to the Active Meetings list. You won’t be able to launch the meeting just yet. It can only be launched once the defined date and time has been reached.