Brightspace Quick Tips (Spring 2025)

January 22, 2025

Check out these quick tips to help you use Brightspace more effectively!

Login to Purchase College Brightspace

Go to https://brightspace.purchase.edu
Login with your Purchase College username and password. Do not include “@purchase.edu” in your username. If needed, reset your password.
Follow the prompts to complete the login process using Duo Multi-Factor Authentication.
You will be brought to https://mylearning.suny.edu/d2l/home/219851, which is Purchase’s tenant of the larger SUNY Brightspace instance.

Courses Are Missing in Brightspace

If you notice that one or more of your courses is missing in Brightspace, please create a work order with CTS and ensure that the Registrar has tagged the course to be sent to the LMS.

Update Course End Date/Time (optional)

Instructors may notice that the course end date and time are not actually reflecting the correct end date/time. This is an issue that can easily be resolved by adjusting the Course Start Date/Time and Course End Date/Time of any of your Brightspace courses:

From the desired course’s Navbar, click on Course Tools > Course Admin
Find and select “Course Offering Information”
Scroll down to the “Start Date and End Date” parameters
Modify the Course Start and/or End Date and Time, as needed
Click the “Save” button at the bottom of the page

This adjustment will also fix the Quick Eval widget so that it displays items that still need instructor attention.

Please note that even if a course is labeled as “Closed,” the space is still accessible to students and instructors. Students can submit work and instructors can grade within the space, even if it is labeled as “Closed.”

Review Your “Account Check” Widget

Below the “My Courses” widget, you will see the “Account Check” widget. All users should review their account information and if you are a full-time Purchase student, ensure that your primary campus affiliation is with Purchase and that Brightspace is using your Purchase email account to communicate with you. If it is not, please create a ticket with the SUNY Online Help Desk to request that the information be updated.

Designate Your Pronouns

To add your pronouns to your Brightspace account, at the upper right side of any Brightspace page, click on your Name > Account Settings > under Pronouns, check the box if you’d like to allow others to view your pronouns.
Select the “Use different pronouns:” button and enter your pronouns > click on the “Save and close” button to save your pronouns.
Your pronouns will appear to others in areas such as your profile card and Classlist.

Learning Assistant / Grader Cannot be Added to Course

If your Learning Assistant / Grader does not show up using these steps, please ask them to review their “Account Check” widget to make sure that Purchase is set as their primary campus affiliation. If Purchase is not their primary campus affiliation, they will need to request that information, and their email address, be updated by creating a ticket with the SUNY Online Help Desk.

Course Librarian Can’t be Added to Course

The Course Librarian role is unique in Brightspace and needs some additional attention. Please have your library liaison reach out to Kim Detterbeck, Coordinator of Instruction, for assistance.

Manage Your Brightspace Notifications

Each student and instructor can manage their own Brightspace notification settings. To do this, click on your name in the upper right corner and click “Notifications.” By default, you will receive an email notification when a new Announcement is made or updated. Check the appropriate box to receive notifications for those actions. Remember to click on the “Save” button when you’re done. More about Notifications can be found at the “Change personal settings in Brightspace” official Brightspace Community documentation.

Create & Manage Attendance Registers

The Attendance tool enables instructors to create registers that track attendance for activities within your courses. You can track attendance for any number of activities and customize your registers to suit your needs. Please note that attendance taken through this tool cannot be associated with the Grade Book.

Send an Email to Your Entire Class

To send an email to your entire class, from the course Navbar, click on “Course Management” > “Roster” > click on the “Email classlist” button.
On the next screen, click on the “Send email” button to open the “Compose a new message” window.

Improve the Accessibility of Course using Ally & Accessibility Checker

Anthology Ally (formerly Blackboard Ally) is available in Brightspace to help instructors improve the accessibility of their course content. Ally provides accessibility checks for Course and Lesson content, provides suggestions for improving content, and provides alternative accessible formats and allows students to choose the format that best meets their requirements. You can also use the built-in Accessibility Checker on HTML-authored content to ensure compliance with accessibility standards.
More information can be found at Accessibility Features in Brightspace .

Allow Extended Time on Brightspace Activities

Directions for allowing particular students extended time on Quizzes and other activities using the Accommodations or Special Access features can be found at the FAQ - How do I give students extended time on tasks in Brightspace?