Keep students up to date on course materials and activities by sending them personalized emails utilizing the Replace Strings feature, or provide links to course materials, external resources, update the class and add assignments through the Activity Feed.
You can message your students by sending an email or by using your course's Activity Feed. Using either method allows you to update your students on the class materials or course progress, provide quick access to links and important materials, and encourage communication between you and your students. Follow SUNY OSCQR standards on Interacting with your class, specifically, standards 38, 39, 40, 42 and 43, to ensure your communications are as clear and inclusive as possible.
Additionally, Brightspace has an integrated Course Schedule which can be used to remind students to log in and interact with their courses.
Activity Feed is a course homepage widget that provides a central location for learners and instructors to post messages that are visible to the entire class. You can add attachments by copying and pasting a web link or embed code, or using the attachment icons. For a rich and immersive experience, most attachments can be previewed, viewed, or interacted with directly in the feed. This feature gives your students the ability to quickly access links to important materials, comment on messages made by instructors and classmates, and upload files to assignment posts. Instructors can use simple HTML markup to format message posts and assignment instructions.
To post messages and add attachments:
If you click Post Later you can schedule your post to release on a different date/time. Scheduled posts are not visible to users until the scheduled date and time is reached. Planned assignments are hidden from users until the scheduled date and time is reached. Previously scheduled posts can be modified by clicking on the View Planned Post link. Planned posts are removed from the planned post list once live in Activity Feed.
To post messages and add attachments:
If you click Post Later you can schedule your post to release on a different date/time. Scheduled posts are not visible to users until the scheduled date and time is reached. Planned assignments are hidden from users until the scheduled date and time is reached. Previously scheduled posts can be modified by clicking on the View Planned Post link. Planned posts are removed from the planned post list once live in Activity Feed.
The Email tool allows you to send email from within Brightspace. You can also organize received mail using folders and store email addresses using the Address Book. From the minibar, click the Message alerts icon and then click Email to get started.
You can personalize all of your messaging through Replace Strings. Replace strings incorporate your student’s personalized information, such as their name, automatically. This feature can help instructors build better relationships with learners, increase engagement levels and improve the overall learning experience.
Replace strings are particularly useful within the following:
To insert a Replace String into a message, use curly brackets { } where you’d like the text to be replaced with personal user-specific text. Some examples are:
Replace String | Description | Sample Display |
{FirstName} | First name | Jane |
{LastName} | Last name | Smith |
{UserName} | UBITName | jsmith999 |
{ExternalEmail} | UB email address | jsmith999@buffalo.edu |
{OrgUnitName} | Course name | English 101 |
{OrgName} | Name of university | University at Buffalo |
{RoleName} | The Brightspace role of the user who views the item containing the string. | Student |
Replace strings can be used in Intelligent Agents to personalize the messaging to your students. In the Intelligent Agents email tool, use curly brackets {} to enclose the string of text. Some examples are:
Replace String | Description | For Use In |
{InitiatingUser} | The user who performs the action that meets the agent’s criteria | Email address field |
{InitiatingUserAuditors} | The auditors for the user who performs the action that meets the agent’s criteria | Email address field |
{OrgName} | The name of the organization | Email body |
{OrgUnitCode} | The code for the Org Unit | Email body |
{OrgUnitName} | The name of the Org Unit | Email body |
{OrgUnitStartDate} | The start date specified for the Org Unit | Email body |
{OrgUnitEndDate} | The end date specified for the Org Unit | Email body |
{OrgUnitId} | The org unit ID required to make quicklinks work | Email subject line and email body |
{InitiatingUserFirstName} | The first name of the initiating user | Email body |
{InitiatingUserLastName} | The last name of the initiating user | Email body |
{InitiatingUserUserName} | The username of the initiating user | Email body |
{InitiatingUserOrgDefinedId} | The Org Defined ID of the initiating user | Email body |
{LastCourseAccessDate} | The date the initiating user last accessed the course | Email subject line and email body |
{LastLoginDate} | The date the initiating user last logged in | Email subject line and email body |
{LoginPath} | The address of the login path for Brightspace | Email body |