D2L Introductions: The Tools You Can Use in Brightspace
D2L's Brightspace Learning Platform is the University of Calgary's learning management system and has a variety of tools to help you manage your courses. These tools include ways to communicate with students, share material, give assignments and gather submissions, provide assessments, grade student work and manage student grades and feedback.
The workshops in this series are designed to introduce you to these tools and provide time and space to practice so that when you need to create your own course you are comfortable working with these tools. You will also get a chance to work through the guides for these tools, which will also help you feel more comfortable working with D2L in the future.
In this series, participants will have opportunities to:
- Identify resources to learn about tools in D2L's Brightspace Learning Platform
- Navigate D2L, find course shells and find tools within those shells
- Demonstrate how to organize and manage content, assessment and grades in D2L
Each session is interactive, and you are encouraged to come with plans for your courses so you can see the tools that fit your needs the best.
Introduction to the Gradebook in D2L
The gradebook tool in D2L includes a number of features which allow instructors to organize student grades and provide feedback to students. This workshop provides an introduction to those features, allowing you to navigate the gradebook, create grade items, configure how students are able to see their grades and feedback and export items from the gradebook.
By the end of this workshop you will be able to:
- Navigate the D2L gradebook
- Create grade items in the D2L gradebook and link them to assessment activities
- Change students' view of their grades for grade items
- Export grades to other formats
Facilitator: Dr. Tyson Kendon, PhD
Date: August 6, 2025
Time: 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (90 min)
Putting your Content in D2L
Posting your lecture online in a hurry? Organize your course content and share it with your students online. This workshop will introduce and show quick and easy ways to help you post lecture notes, readings, course outlines, additional documents and resources, links, images and media files online through our campus learning management system, D2L.
By the end of the workshop, you will have the opportunity to:
- Identify the content tool in D2L
- Explore an overview of the content tool
- Recognize how to add and organize content online
Facilitator: Dr. Tyson Kendon, PhD
Date: August 8, 2025
Time: 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (90 min)
Creating Quizzes Online in D2L
Moving your in-class quiz online? Create a quiz online through our campus learning management system, D2L. This workshop will introduce and show how to set up a simple quiz, create, add, and edit quiz questions, randomize questions, set time limits, and other helpful features.
By the end of the workshop, you will have the opportunity to:
- Identify where to access quizzes in D2L
- Identify how to create, add, and edit quiz questions
- Identify how to associate quizzes with the gradebook
Facilitator: Dr. Tyson Kendon, PhD
Date: August 13, 2025
Time: 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (90 min)
Collecting and Giving Feedback on Assignments With D2L
The D2L Dropbox provides a few options for you to collect student assignments online. Students can submit documents, links to presentations, and other formats using the D2L dropbox. You can then view each student’s submissions, provide feedback, and record their grade in the D2L Grades.
By the end of this session you will be able to:
- Create an assignment in the D2L dropbox for students to submit their work to
- Provide feedback and a grade to students
Facilitator: Dr. Tyson Kendon, PhD
Date: August 15, 2025
Time: 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (90 min)
Building A Powerful Gradebook in D2L
A well-constructed gradebook can help make your work easier through the semester and help your students navigate your course. D2L provides you with many tools and ways to organize students' grades and to share those grades, and your feedback, with students. This workshop will help you navigate these options, organize your grades, choose meaningful representations of grades and provide feedback for your students.
By the end of this workshop you will be able to:
- Organize your D2L gradebook to make it easier for you and your students to navigate
- Customize your D2L gradebook to support your assessment plan.
- Use D2L tools to customize how you provide feedback to students.
Facilitator: Dr. Tyson Kendon, PhD
Date: August 20, 2025
Time: 11 – 12:30 p.m. (90 min)
Communicating with Students using D2L
In this session, we will look at how to communicate with students through the University of Calgary’s learning management platform D2L. Features we will examine include emailing students in D2L, posting news items, and structuring a discussion board for frequently asked questions (FAQs).
By the end of the session, participants will learn how to:
- Send an email to individuals and all students through D2L
- Post news items
- Set up a discussion board for frequently asked questions
Facilitator: Dr. Tyson Kendon, PhD
Date: August 22, 2025
Time: 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (90 min)