This reference guide contains helpful information on the following topics. It is not intended to replace information from CETL. Please see CETL’s Keep Teaching for more information on teaching remotely. For general information on iCollege functionality, review the D2L Instructor Resource Guide and Instructor FAQ.
Accommodations
Assignments
Attendance
Class Passport
Class Progress
Communication
Course Start Date
Discussions
Gradebook
Impersonating a Student
Mail Settings
Notifications
Quizzes/Tests
Release Conditions
Resetting iCollege Course
Secure Testing
Syllabus Information
Videos
Contents
Accommodations
- Review instructions for setting up special access for accommodations (for specific assignments)
- ***D2L has now made it easier for instructors to set up accommodations for students. Check out the following webpage for information on how to set up an accommodation through the Classlist instead of setting up accommodations on individual assessments: https://instructionaldesignthatworks.com/2021/02/22/set-up-brightspace-accommodations-by-student-for-all-quizzes/
Do I need to make a separate test for students with special accommodations? If you need to give additional time on a test for specific students, then you can use the “Allow selected users special access to a quiz” option to add appropriate accommodations to a test. If you need to use a different password for a student taking a proctored exam with the Access and Accommodations Center, then you will need to make a copy of the test with the appropriate settings and choose to “Allow only users with special access to see this quiz.”
Assignments
The Assignment tool lets instructors create an assignment that requires students to upload a hand-written file or image. Students can also post text, an image, or link in the text box of the assignment. Assignments must be manually graded. Review how to Create assignments and assess submissions for more details.
When should I use an Assignment rather than a quiz? You should use an assignment when it is important to see students’ detailed work.
How should students submit an assignment in iCollege? Instructors should require students to submit one PDF file for their completed assignments.
- Students should scan and save their work as a PDF file.
- If students do not have a scanner, they can use various apps to scan documents with their phones. Recommended apps include Adobe Scan, Genius Scan, or CamScanner.
- If students take pictures of their work, recommend that they paste the images into a Word document and save the document as a PDF file.
How should I grade students’ Assignments? If you are not concerned with marking up each student’s submission, then you can add comments in the Feedback box as you review the submission. If you want to mark up a student’s submission, then enable the annotation tool for the Assignment and use the pen in the frame of the opened submission to add comments.
Attendance
Attendance in an online course is determined by the completion of academic activity in iCollege or a third party software. Logging in to iCollege does not count as attending a course.
What work must students complete to be marked as attending for roll verification purposes? Students should complete the Syllabus Quiz in the Start Here (formerly Class Passport) module to be marked as attending an online course.
What date do I use for the last date of attendance for a student? The last date of attendance for an online class is the last date that a student submitted academic work. However, if a student attends the entire semester, the last date of attendance is the last day of classes.
How do I determine the last date of attendance for a student? To determine the last date of academic activity in iCollege, view a student’s progress. This can be accessed from the Classlist. Choose view progress from the drop-down menu for a student. In the Summary view, scroll down to each graded category and expand to view the date when work was last submitted. You will also need to compare this date to the date an assignment was last submitted in the third-party software.
Start Here Module (formerly Class Passport)
The Start Here module is a module students must complete before gaining access to the course content. Review the Contents for the Class Passport Module for details on what should be included in this module.
How do I restrict access to the course content? For each module, widget, and other content, you will need to add a restriction that is based on completing the syllabus quiz with a specific grade. See Release Conditions for instructions on how to do this.
Class Progress
The Class Progress tool enables you to track the progress of your course by giving you an overview of iCollege login history, content completed, objectives, and grades. You can easily view and compare learner performance. Review D2L’s information on Class Progress for more information.
How do I access the Class Progress tool? Go to Course Tools > Course Admin > Class Progress in the Learner Management section.
You can hover the mouse over an indicator to get more information. Clicking on the indicator will take you to the individual student’s user progress.
Can I change the information displayed on the Class Progress report? The indicators displayed on the table can be changed by clicking on the Settings icon. Click on Replace from the drop-down menu for the indicator that you want to be replaced. Then click on the new indicator that you want to include in the report.
Communication
Communication with your students is vital to their success. Below are a few ways that you can personalize communication with your students.
- Send automated reminders using Intelligent agents
- Intelligent Agents in iCollege let instructors send automated reminders to their students about things like remembering to log in or submitting upcoming assignments. In this video, Michael Bradley, professor of Religion and Philosophy at Perimeter College walks us through how spending ten or so minutes each week adding Intelligent Agents to his course helped to dramatically improve his students’ grades.
- Attend an ON-DEMAND training from D2L
- Review D2L’s instructions for how to create an agent
- Personal announcements/emails using Replacement strings
- Watch a video on how to use replacement strings for personalization
- Review a list of available replacement strings
- Review D2L’s instructions for how to customize course content
- Communicate synchronously with students using WebEx
Course Start Date
Students are enrolled in iCollege courses several weeks before the first day of class. By default, students will have access to your course as soon as they are added to iCollege. To make your course unavailable to students, you will need to modify the start date of your iCollege course. Follow these instructions for changing the start date of your course. You should make the start date 12:00 AM on the first day of classes.
Discussions
The Discussion tool enables you to interact with your students and to have students interact with their peers. Instructors should set up a general Instructor’s Office (Ask My Instructor) discussion board where students can ask general questions about the course. It is strongly advised that you also set up discussion boards for the content of the course; these can be done by particular sections of the course or by weeks. For detailed information related to the discussion tool, review D2L’s instructions on how to Create and manage discussions.
Should I respond to every discussion post? Instructors should respond to each topic posted on the Instructor’s Office board. Ideally, instructors should respond to all discussion posts. When this is not practical, it is advised that instructors respond to every 4-5 discussion posts. Instructors should read each response and intervene when necessary. It should be clear to students that you are engaged with them in the course.
Is there a way that I can easily change the dates of my discussions? The dates of discussions can be bulk edited. Go to Course Admin and select Manage Dates.
Then select to filter by Specific Tools and check Discussions. Scroll down and click on Apply Filter.
Click on the original start and end dates and enter the updated information.
Gradebook
The iCollege gradebook is the official gradebook for your course. It is important that you update the iCollege gradebook throughout the semester. Review CETL’s detailed instructions on setting up your gradebook or D2L’s instructions on creating a grading system if you have questions on the gradebook.
See D2L’s FAQ’s related to grades.
Impersonating a Student
Impersonating a student enables you to view the course and its content and to view, complete, and submit assignments and quizzes as a student.
How do I impersonate a student? The Classlist tool features a Demo Student. To access the Demo Student, click on Classlist from the Navbar. Then select Impersonate from the drop-down menu for the demo student.
To exit impersonating a student, click on the user name in the upper right corner of the page and then click on the X to end impersonation.
Mail Settings in iCollege
Instructors can view a list of students who have read their email messages. This tracking can be turned on by going to your iCollege mail. Then click on Settings and select the box to track activity and Save.
To view email activity, go to your sent folder in the Folder List and click on the appropriate message. Then click on View Recipient Activity to view a list of students who have read your email.
Please note that students can read the mail messages from an external email system if they set up email forwarding.
Notifications
Instructors and students can turn on iCollege notifications to receive a text and/or email alert of new announcements, discussion board activity, iCollege emails, grade items, and assignments. Review iCollege notifications for instructions on how to enable this feature.
Note: If you forward iCollege Mail messages to an external email account, you must log in to iCollege to send a reply to the iCollege email message.
Discussions Notifications
To receive notifications for discussions, you must first enable iCollege to send you notifications for discussion activity using the steps described above. Then go to the Discussions tool, locate the forum or topic you want to subscribe to, click on Subscribe from the drop-down menu. Then decide what type of notification you want to receive.
Pulse App
Brightspace Pulse is a mobile app that enables instructors and students to keep up with their courses. It provides quick access to the iCollege calendar, courses, and iCollege subscriptions. It is available on Android and iOS. Read D2L Brightspace Pulse for more information on the app.
The main features of the app include:
- View upcoming items that are due
- See a graphical view of workload for the week
- View Notifications / Announcements
- View Content and Grades
- View and reply to Discussions
Note: Students should use a desktop or laptop computer to complete assignments and quizzes.
Quizzes/Tests
There are several ways to create a quiz or test in iCollege. Review D2L’s instructions on how to create and manage quizzes.
- Author questions directly in iCollege. The following image lists the various question types. To enter mathematical notation, you can use the equation editor within the question tool or use LaTeX. Read these instructions for creating a quiz in iCollege.
- Import a test using Respondus – See Creating an iCollege test using Respondus for detailed instructions. All equations are converted to images when you import a test from Respondus. The images are uploaded to the root directory in your iCollege course. However, the HTML code in the question points to a folder for the images. You will need to create a folder with the name of the zipped file from Respondus and copy the images to this folder for them to display properly.
- Import a test using Test Gen – See Importing a Test from Test Gen to iCollege for detailed instructions.
Note (Images on Quizzes): Save images to your computer and upload them to your assessment questions rather than copy and paste. This will ensure that the images carry over when an assessment is copied into another course. (Always check the images in any copied quiz before assigning it.)
How do I preview a quiz/test? To preview a quiz/test in iCollege, select Preview from the drop-down menu of the quiz.
How can I print an iCollege quiz/test? To print an iCollege quiz/test, you must first set the quiz so that you can view all questions at one time. Then you will need to use Firefox as the Internet Browser. Go to your quiz list and select Preview from the drop-down menu of the quiz you wish to print. Right-click on the exam, select This Frame, and then Print This Frame. Then you can print the file or Save to PDF.
How can I review my students’ submissions? Select Grade from the drop-down menu of the appropriate quiz/test. Then click on Attempt X to enter the submitted exam. Changes to the grade of individual questions can be made in this view by entering a new score for the question and clicking on Update.
How can I view tests that are in progress? If a student started a test but did not submit the test, then it is still in progress. To view the attempt, select Grade from the drop-down menu for the test. Then Click on Show Search Options.
Select Users with attempts in progress and then click the Search icon.
Students with an attempt in progress will display in the list. Then you can click on the attempt to impersonate the student and submit their attempt.
Release Conditions
Release conditions determine when a student can access specific content, assignments, quizzes, discussions, and so on in iCollege. Below are instructions for adding release conditions to modules based on the completion of a syllabus quiz within the Class Passport module.
Go to Content and click on the module from the left menu. Scroll up to the top of the module displayed on the right part of the screen. If no conditions are displayed, click on Add dates and restrictions.
Click on Create under the Release Conditions.
There is a myriad of conditions that can be selected. These steps will base the condition on the grade of the syllabus quiz. Choose Grade value on a grade item for the condition type.
Select the Syllabus Quiz for the Grade Item. Then enter >= for the criteria and enter the grade. I require my students to make 90 or higher but some set this at 100. Click Create and be sure to click update.
For the other modules, you can browse existing conditions. Check the box to the left of the syllabus quiz condition and click Attach. Then be sure to Update the settings.
Resetting iCollege Course
If you copy the wrong content into a course and need to reset your course, you will need to delete all components in the course.
Secure Testing
Secure testing promotes academic honesty and limits cheating opportunities. There are two secure testing platforms available in iCollege external learning tools – Respondus and ProctorU. Both testing platforms require students to have a webcam and a mic. Neither platform is compatible with Chromebooks.
- Respondus (LockDown browser and/or Monitor)
- Respondus LockDown Browser is a browser that locks down the testing environment. Students must install the lockdown browser on their computer and log in to iCollege from this browser. Students are prohibited from opening other windows while testing.
- Respondus Monitor uses a student’s webcam to record their audio and video while testing from the lockdown browser. Students must go through an identification confirmation and provide evidence of a secure testing environment.
- Read What is Respondus? and How to use Respondus for more detailed information.
As of fall 2022, we are only using Respondus Monitor for testing. This may change in the future, but for now all proctoring will be done through Respondus Monitor.
Syllabus Information
For Online Mathematics Policies for Syllabus: https://sites.gsu.edu/onlinemathcsc/policies-for-online-syllabus/
For GSU/PC Instructional Support for Creating a Syllabus: CETLOE Constructing a Syllabus
Videos
Videos provide a way to deliver asynchronous content to students. Screencasting enables instructors to record the screen while speaking. To annotate the screen, instructors need a virtual whiteboard and a graphing tablet (Wacom tablet) or touchscreen computer/tablet. Instructors can also use a USB document camera to record their handwriting and video. Kaltura is a video management platform that enables instructors to create, upload, and share audio, video, and other media content.
For detailed information from CETL, see Kaltura Media and Hosting. Be sure to review the Kaltura updates for iCollege.
Email Andrea Hendricks with questions or suggestions for additional content.
Updated June 4, 2020