The YourPace Course Template

Brightspace is an amazing LMS for delivering CBE courses for our YourPace program, with its clean, modern, and robust navigation, as well as features like a student mobile app. It is essential that you become proficient with Brightspace features (check out CTL’s on-demand YourPace Certified Instructor training access below). Let’s take a tour of the basic spaces that you should be aware of, for CBE development:

Access the CTL YourPace Playlist

Curating Course Materials

Step-by-Step Development Checklist

Consistency is Key

One theme that you will find in CBE development for the YourPace program, is our commitment to consistency in design. This consistency is not to create homogeneously designed courses, but rather to remove the navigation barriers from the student workflow–allowing students to direct all of their attention to your learning content and activities! This also allows us to consistently align with our Academic Commitments and Quality Assurance standards.

Rooted in Outcomes

We dug into the importance of strong Learning Outcomes on the Planning for YourPace page, and that focus carries through to the development phase as well, because the CLOs (and GLOs) are added to the course, where they can be tagged to Rubrics and Quiz questions:

Preparing the Course in Brightspace

  1. On the Homepage: Add your Final Assessment and your Syllabus to the Course Files.
  2. From the Course Admin panel: Add Learning Outcomes to the course
  3. Check the Course Resources and Assessments menus and toggle off any tools you are not using from the Course Admin panel
  4. From the Assessments menu in the NavBar, select Rubrics: Add Milestone Rubrics and Final Assessment Rubric
    1. Align Rubrics with appropriate Learning Outcomes
    2. Ensure that Rubrics are “Published” (and not Drafts)
  5. On the Content page: Add your Syllabus to the Syllabus Area
    1. Update Syllabus intro area with Course Description
    2. Leave a placeholder for the course instructor to add their information. Course developers are not always the faculty who teach each section of the course.

Add Assessments in Brightspace

  1. One the NavBar, open the Assessments page. Add Milestones and Final Assessment as Assignments.
    1. Note: YourPace utilizes the Turnitin plagiarism tool in competencies for Milestones and Final Assessments (this is already attached on the Assessment template, if copied, but needed to be added to Assignments you create without the template).
    2. Copy the Milestone Assignment Template for as many Milestones as you have and add your Milestone Assessment requirements/details.
      1. Do not create a grade item for any Milestone.
      2. Copy the YP Final Assessment Template to create a Final Draft.  Do not include a grade item.
      3. Ensure that you set the submission for either “All submissions are kept” or “Only the most recent submission is kept”.
      4. Add release conditions.
      5. Attach appropriate rubric.
  2. For the Final Assessment: attach the grade item from the existing option.
  3. On the NavBar, select Quizzes. Add Quizzes. Please enable the Respondus Lockdown Browser.
  4. Copy the Quiz Template to Copy for each quiz (this allows for consistency in viewer settings.  Add questions as necessary.
  5. Attach outcomes to quizzes (as applicable).
  6. Do not add grade items to any adaptive or formative quizzes.
  7. Add release conditions, as required.

Add Content & Learning Activities

  1. Review the Competency Structure guidance, to familiarize yourself with continuity expectations.
    1. Add appropriate modules for each Outcome level.  There should be one top-level Module to focus on each Learning Outcome.
    2. Use the Module Description to introduce connections and list Learning Outcome verbiage.
    3. Create sub-modules for content concepts/topics, as needed. Think of these as helpful chapters in your learning activity ‘book’, to help you and students organize and find key concepts and topics relating to your Module. Adding content to sub-modules also allows you to attach the release conditions that require learners to submit a Milestone before moving on.
    4. Be sure to add a Milestone submodule for every module which includes a Milestone Assignment or Quiz. Add the appropriate assessment to this submodule, from the Existing Activities menu.
  2. Add content and learning activities to each concept/topic submodule
    1. Add resources stored in Google Drive or OneDrive using the Existing Activities menu in the relevant submodule.
    2. Text-based content needs to be created using digital accessibility guidelines
      • Pro tip: You can use accessible HTML templates, available in every Create File page to format your content pages, and interactive elements and look great!
    3. Kaltura-based video can be added from Existing Activities from you My Media account. You can also use Kaltura to embed YouTube videos without ads.
    4. Google or Microsoft content can be added from Existing Activities from the OneDrive or Drive options.
    5. OER content packages can be imported, according to publisher specifications, and moved to its appropriate placement in the course.
  3. Update the Final Assessment Module:
    1. Add the Final Assessment guide with no release conditions.
    2. Add the Draft Final Assessment using the Existing Activities menu.
    3. Add the Final Assessment using the Existing Activities menu.
    4. Add Release Conditions to the Draft and Final Assessment.

Create a Learning Pathway with Release Conditions

Add Release Conditions to each module:

  • Each sub-module, beginning in Module 2, should have release conditions that require submission of the prior Milestone to access the content.
  • The Final Assessment Module should be open for students to view to see the Final Assessment Guide, but the Draft and Final Assessment should require proficiency on the overall rubric score associated with each Milestone to access the assessment.

A note on release conditions for Quizzes: It is easier (and recommended) to attach Release Conditions to Quizzes as you create them, so that they do not get confused with the module-level Release Conditions.

Pro tip: Once you create a condition for your first submodule in any module, you can Browse Existing Conditions (instead of creating new ones).

Release Condition Guidelines

  • The Milestone Release conditions should open when the prior assessment (quiz or Milestone) was submitted (a passing score is not required to open subsequent assessments).
  • The Quiz Release conditions, like the Milestone Release Conditions, should open when the prior assessment (quiz or Milestone) was submitted or attempted (a passing score is not required to open subsequent assessments).
  • Exception: the exception to the general rule above is the Final Assessment.  The Final Assessment (graded submission and draft) should follow the logic be released:
    • When all Adaptive and/or Formative Quizzes have a score greater than or equal to 80%.
    • All Milestone Assignments have a rubric score threshold of 3 or greater.
  • The Getting Started module should have no Release conditions
  • None of the Outcome-level Modules (top-level) modules should have release conditions. Note: reserving Release Conditions for the content and activity-containing submodules allows students to see Module topics, descriptions and outcomes, but not the content.

Course Overview

Update the Course Overview widget on the home page with a welcome message and Learning Outcomes: 

  • Add links to the Syllabus and Final Assessment Guide.
  • Include a video welcome to the course (ie: how to navigate this course, etc.).
  • Ensure that all needed technologies are listed.
  • Please do not erase the information about feedback and course evaluations.