Checklist: prepare your site for teaching

Check all necessary staff users have been enrolled.

To see enrolled users:

1. In your subject site, click Subject Admin in the navbar.
2. Select Classlist.

Enrolled users will be listed. You can filter the list by role and cohort/section.

If more staff users need to be enrolled, the relevant member of your faculty or school team can use the Brightspace roles in ACSES or use the Add Participants button in the Brightspace Classlist.

Check relevant topics and pages are visible.

Click Content in the subject site navbar.

The topics in your site will be listed, and you can open and close them to see pages. The Hidden icon will show for any hidden topics or pages. Check that all topics and pages students should be able to see are visible.

To make a hidden topic or page visible, select the topic or page in the left-hand navigator and slide the toggle to Visible.

Relevant topics or pages are released to specific cohorts/sections where required.

To release a content item only to a specific section:

1. Click Content in the subject site navbar.
2. Select a topic or page in the left-hand navigator.
3. Click View Release Conditions in the expanding menu (three dots) at the top right of the screen.
4. Click Create.
5. For Condition Type, choose Section Enrolment, and choose the Section (cohort) you wish to make the item available to.
6. Click Create and Save.

A cogwheel appears by the item, indicating it has a condition attached to it.

Assessment items have due dates and availability dates added.

See Finalise assignments in Brightspace.

The process is the same for assignments, quizzes, and graded discussions.

Assessment items are visible, linked to grade items, and have Turnitin enabled (Assignments).

To enable Turnitin, see Create assignments in Brightspace.

(Choose marking and feedback options).

To make assessment items visible and link them to grade items, see Finalise assignments in Brightspace.

The process is the same for assignments, quizzes and graded discussions.

Finalise setting up assessments in multi-cohort subjects

In multi-cohort subjects, assessments can be set up in one of two ways:

1. Separate assessment portals for each cohort, where students submit to their own section-based portal
2. A single, shared assessment portal that all students submit into

The steps you take to finalise the assessment setup in Brightspace will differ depending on which option applies to your subject.

Important: The manner in which assessments and grade items are managed in multi-cohort subjects is determined by school requirements and partnership agreements. If you’re unsure which setup applies to your subject, please consult with your school leadership before proceeding.

Option 1

For subjects using separate assessment portals for each cohort, ensure that assessment items are duplicated and released to cohorts/sections.

• Check that you have a duplicate assessment item for each cohort on your subject site.
• It is generally best to duplicate assessment items in a master site, before the subject site is created.
• To create additional duplicate assessment items in the subject site before teaching, follow the steps in Create assignments in Brightspace.
• To release assignments to cohorts/sections, see Finalise assignments in Brightspace.

The process is the same for assignments, quizzes and graded discussions.

Option 2

Multi-cohort subjects which use one assessment portal across all cohorts for each
If an assessment is shared across all cohorts, with the same information (or questions in the case of quizzes) and the same due date, an academic can choose to set it up as a shared assessment. To set up a shared assessment:

Do not copy assessments in the master site

When the subject site is provisioned

• Delete all but one grade book column related to that assessment in the grade book;
• Link the remaining grade book column to the assessment (in the same way as normal);
• Remove the release condition from the grade book column.