Design your course

Open your course for students

Under Course Access, you can open your course for students so that they can access it in Brightspace before the first scheduled session.

Please note that you cannot undo this action. Once you have opened your course, the students can access the course content. In Course Design Setup, you can see the current status of a course: whether it is open, not yet open or concluded.

Select your navigation bar

Under Navigation Bar, you can select the navigation bar that best suits your course.

The navigation bar is the dark blue menu at the top of the Brightspace course. You can choose between:

• Lite – for courses with a simple structure that only use a few Brightspace features.
• Standard – for courses that use Brightspace for activities, groups, assignments, assessments and calenders, etc.

Select homepage layout

Under Homepage, you can decide on your homepage layout.

The course homepage is the first thing students see when they open the course, so it’s important you choose a layout that fits your course design, your teaching format, and the role that Brightspace will play in your course.

Standard – a balanced overview

• Standard is the recommended layout for most courses at AU – and it is the default setting.
• This layout brings together course content, the calendar, contact information and communication in one place. It is well suited to courses that use Brightspace in conjunction with in-person teaching, for example, for class preparation, notifications, activities and ongoing information.
• Standard is well suited to traditional campus-based courses, blended learning, and courses that combine digital content and classroom-based teaching.

Lite – a communication channel

• Lite is for courses that primarily use Brightspace for notifications, updates, and contact between lecturers and students.
• The Lite homepage puts the Activity Feed in focus so that posts and notifications stand out clearly. Contact information is always displayed on the left-hand side so that students can easily see whom to contact and how.
• The Lite homepage is well suited to courses, lectures, seminars, workshops and supervision sessions that don’t use the Brightspace homepage to share learning materials and activities.

Advanced – the visual learning space

• Advanced is for courses in which digital content plays a key role.
• It is visually oriented and uses the Content Overview widget with image-based navigation. This makes the Advanced homepage an ideal gateway to modules, topics or online learning courses.
• Please note that the Advanced homepage requires more preparation on the part of the lecturer, because the content, images and structure need to be thought through in order to work well together.
• Advanced is particularly well suited to online courses, independent study and blended learning courses with a strong digital component.

Import a content structure

Under Content, you can import a content structure into your course.

The content section is where you organise course materials, activities and information for the students. You can build up the content structure yourself manually, copy it from a previous course, or use a template.

Before choosing a structure, you should consider how you want students to locate and work with the course content. Should the content be structured around weeks, topics, modules or types of material? A clear structure makes it easier for students to find what they need and understand how the course is organised.