Widgets

Introduction to Widgets


Introduction to Widgets

Every Brightspace site generated for a course at Memorial has distinct blocks of content on its homepage: Announcements, Course Content, Calendar etc. These blocks are called widgets. The purpose of those widgets is to provide links to frequently used tools directly on the course homepage, so that students can access them easily without having to navigate through the course site.

By default, a homepage generated for your Brightspace course site contains a standard set widgets: Announcements, Course Content, Updates on the left side of the screen, and Calendar, Learning Resources, Role Switch, and Grades2Banner on the right. However, it is possible to customize your course homepage by adding, removing, and modifying widgets to meet your specific instructional needs. This resource provides information on how to achieve that.

Why Use Widgets?

Effective use of widgets in Brightspace courses benefits both students and instructors. Widgets:

  • give instructors more control over where students look for information
  • help students stay on top of their course work
  • provide a single platform for course content and additional course resources
  • help incorporate external tools directly into the course shell
  • make the Brightspace course pages more interactive

Sample Widgets and Their Use

The chart below presents some of the widgets available on your Brightspace course site and their purpose. The middle column indicates the visibility of the widget – while most widgets on the course page are visible to both students and instructors (“S/I”), some only appear on the instructor’s site and are not visible to students (“I”).

Widget TypeWidget Is Visible to…Role of the Widget
BookmarksS/IThe Bookmarks widget enables you to view the parts of the course content that you have bookmarked.
CalendarS/IThe Calendar widget contains two elements: a mini-calendar and a list of upcoming events created by instructors (meetings, quizzes, deadlines etc.). Clicking on a particular day in the mini-calendar limits the upcoming events to that day only. Clicking on any upcoming event in the widget takes you to that event in the Calendar tool.
Course ReservesS/IThis widgets provides a direct link to the library e-reserves for the course. For information on Course Reserves, visit this library page.
Getting StartedIThe widget contains a link to the ‘Course Design Accelerator’ – a tool that instructors new to Brightspace can use as a guide creating their course site. Once the ‘Course Design Accelerator’ is launched from the Getting Started widget, it takes instructors through the process of designing a Brightspace course site and provides direct links to the various tools within it.
Google SearchS/IThis widget provides a direct link to the Google search engine. Search results open in a new window in your default web browser.
Grades2BannerIThe Grades2Banner widget provides instructors with a direct link to the ‘Instructor Tools’ page where final course grades can be transferred to Banner directly from the Brightspace grade book.
Learning ResourcesS/IThis widget provides links to other units at Memorial University that provide support to students (e.g., the Writing Centre, Academic Advising).
Role SwitchIThe Role Switch widget allows instructors to temporarily view the course as it would appear to students. The student preview applies only to general areas of the course (Announcements, Course Content, Discussions etc.), but not to student-specific areas such as Grades. Note: you cannot view the course as a specific student.
TasksS/IThis widget enables any user to create a personalized list of tasks to complete in the course, along with a due date and additional note for each task. The system then sorts the tasks into the categories of Today, Upcoming, or Someday (no due date). Once a task is completed, you can check it off and it will disappear from the list. However, you can always view your completed tasks by clicking the ‘View Completed Tasks’ link.
UpdatesS/IThe Updates widget displays any new activity in the course. It informs about:
– Unread submission files
– Assignment submissions awaiting evaluation
– Unread discussions posts
– New Brightspace email
– Ungraded quizzes, etc.
User LinksS/IThis widget allows users to create a personal list of links to external websites.

Before adding widgets


Before You Start Adding Widgets…

The homepage generated for your course in Brightspace, named the Default Course Homepage, is not editable – you cannot add, remove, or change the widgets associated with it. In order to customize widgets on your course homepage, you need to first complete the steps from one of the options below.

METHOD ‘A’: Copy and modify the Default Course Homepage

> Step 1: Create a copy of the Default Course Homepage

  1. In the course navbar, go to Course Admin.
  2. In the Site Setup section, click Homepages.
  3. On the page that opens, locate the Default Course Homepage on the list. Click the down arrow next to its name. In the menu that opens, click Copy.
  4. You have just created a copy of the Default Course Homepage, and it is listed underneath the original version. The blue front in which the new homepage appears indicates that the page is available to you for editing (unlike the black font for non-editable homepages).
Note: The Default Course Homepage is not the only homepage available to be copied in this step. You can do so with any of the homepages listed.

> Step 2: Activate your new homepage

  1. On the Homepages page, locate the Active Homepage box and click the down arrow inside it.
  2. From the drop-down menu that opens, select Default Course Homepage – Copy.
  3. Click Apply. Your new homepage is now activated and ready to be modified.

> Step 3: Customize your new homepage

Now that you have created and activated your new homepage, you are ready to customize it according to your needs.

  1. On the Homepages page, locate the Default Course Homepage – Copy that you just created and click on it.
  2. A page titled Edit homepage will open. On this page, you can change the name of your new homepage and make other available modifications.
  3. Scroll down to the Widgets section.
  4. You may now begin to customize the widgets on your homepage. Your options are to:
    • Delete a widget by clicking the X symbol in the widget’s top right corner
    • Change a widget’s location by clicking and dragging it to a different location within a panel
    • Modify a widget by clicking it and choosing whether to: hide its title, restrict the ability to minimize it, or change the widget’s display name
    • Add a new widget

> Video Instructions for Method ‘A’

METHOD ‘B’: Create a new homepage from scratch

> Step 1: Create your new homepage

  1. In the course navbar, go to Course Admin.
  2. In the Site Setup section, click Homepages.
  3. On the page that opens, click Create Homepage.
  4. On the new page that opens, give your new page a name and make other available selections (note that the Description will not be available to the students).
  5. Scroll down to the Widgets section where you can begin adding widgets of your choice.

> Step 2: Activate the new homepage

  1. In the course navbar, go to Course Admin.
  2. In the Site Setup section, click Homepages.
  3. On the page that opens, locate the Active Homepage box and click the down arrow inside the box.
  4. From the drop-down menu that opens, select the homepage that you created and named in Step 1 above.
  5. Click Apply. Your new homepage is now activated.

> Video Instructions for Method ‘B’

Adding and customizing widgets


Adding and Customizing Widgets

There are three different ways to add widgets to a course homepage. Click below for detailed instructions and a video illustrating each method.

> Add a widget from an existing list

The default layout of your course homepage includes two panels in which the widgets can be placed – a wide panel on the left and a narrow panel on the right. Each panel has a dashed outline around it. The two-panel layout can be changed by clicking the Change Layout button right above the Widgets section on your ‘Edit homepage’ or ‘Create homepage’ page. However, the width of the panels cannot be changed.

  1. On your course homepage, decide if you want to add a new widget to the left or the right panel.
  2. Click the Add Widgets button at the bottom of the panel you have selected.
  3. In the new window that opens, you can select widgets from either System Widgets or Custom Widgets. For more information on some Brightspace system widgets, click here.

Note: If you wish to preview the available widgets, open a new browser window or tab, open your Brightspace course site and go to Course Admin –> Widgets. You can preview the available widgets by clicking the Preview icon on the right side of the screen.

  1. Once you make your selection, click Add, then Save.

Note: You can change the name of the widget you have just added by clicking anywhere on the widget. In the window that opens, select Custom under Widget name and type a new name.  

Video Instructions

> Copy an existing widget and customize it

  1. In the course navbar, go to Course Admin.
  2. In the Site Setup section, click Widgets. You will find two lists of widgets here: System widgets (cannot be copied or modified) and Custom widgets (can be copied and modified to create custom versions).
  3. Find the widget you would like to copy. Select the Copy icon to the right of the widget’s name (under Actions).
  4. A copy of the widget will now appear right under its original version.
  5. To the right of your newly copied widget, locate the Edit icon and click on it.
  6. In the new window that opens, in the Properties tab, rename your widget. You can add a description, but it will only be visible to instructors, not students.
  7. You can optionally attach release conditions to your new widget by clicking the Release Conditions tab.
  8. Click on the Content tab to add content to and customize your new widget.
  9. Click Save.
  10. Now that you have created a new (version of a) widget, follow the steps listed in #1 above (‘Add a widget from an existing list’).

> Create a new widget

  1. In the course navbar, go to Course Admin.
  2. In the Site Setup section, click Widgets.
  3. Click the Create Widget button.
  4. In the new window that opens, in the Properties tab, name your new widget. You can add a description, but it will only be visible to instructors, not students.
  5. You can optionally attach release conditions to your new widget by clicking the Release Conditions tab.
  6. Click on the Content tab to add content to and customize your new widget.
  7. Click Save.
  8. Now that you have created a new a widget, follow the steps listed in #1 above (‘Add a widget from an existing list’).

Video Instructions