Catherine Murphy
IT Project Manager – Educational Technology Services
Team Lead
What is the New Content Experience in Brightspace?
The New Content Experience is a refreshed presentation of learning content in Brightspace. Designed to streamline content creation, enhance collaboration, and create engaging and accessible learning experiences for faculty and students.
In keeping with our strategic objectives to advance digitally supported learning and the increasing demand for innovative teaching tools, UCD will begin the phased implementation of the New Content Experience in Brightspace in 2024/25 ahead of a full roll out in the 2025/26 academic year. This move reflects our commitment to staying ahead of the latest advancements in educational technology and providing faculty members with the resources to enhance their teaching practices.
While the New Content Experience looks different to our current content experience, you will still be able to utilise most of the current features available in Brightspace, however some trial and error may be required in order to get this to work for you and IT Services are here to assist you should you run into any issues.
What is happening?
Phased Implementation in 2024/25:
UCD will begin the phased implementation of the New Content Experience in Brightspace within the next academic year. Undergraduate Stage 1 modules along with Graduate modules are encouraged to adopt the New Content Experience within the academic year 2024/25. A full roll out is planned for the 2025/26 academic year. Support and training will be provided over the summer term to support the early adoption of the New Content Experience.
This move reflects our commitment to staying ahead of the latest advancements in educational technology and providing faculty members with the resources to enhance their teaching practices.
Figure 1: New Assessable Activities View
Reasons to Move to the Brightspace New Content Experience
- User-Friendly Interface: The New Content Experience offers a user-friendly and intuitive interface, making content creation and navigation easier for both instructors and learners.
- Clear learning pathways: The New Content Experience is designed to assist faculty in scaffolding the learning journey, thereby enhancing student engagement and accessibility. By structuring the learning process through clear pathways and signposting, it enables a more logical progression through learning materials.
- Clean Minimalist Design: With a minimalist design and simplified content structure, the New Content Experience provides a clutter-free environment, enhancing focus on learning material and ease of use for users.
- A Brand New Assessable Activities View: The Assessable Activities View provides a comprehensive overview to assignments, quizzes, and discussions, allowing both instructors and learners to track requirements, completion status, feedback, and grades within the “My Learning” area in Brightspace.
- Efficient Evaluation Process: Instructors can efficiently evaluate and review draft grades directly within the Assessable Activities View, streamlining the grading process and providing timely feedback to learners, fostering a more dynamic and interactive learning environment."
- Taking Advantage of New Features & Developments: By transitioning to the New Content Experience, faculty can take advantage of system developments, as all new features and updates will be implemented within the New Content Experience, ensuring access to the latest advancements in educational technology
How do I get involved?
Module Coordinators in teaching modules will have the capacity to (opens in a new window)enable the New Content Experience (NCE). Once enabled, all instructors and students will be able to use the NCE within the module.
To enable the New Content Experience, go to 'My Learning' within your module, Module Coordinators will see a down arrow tab in the top right corner of the screen. Here you can enable or disable the NCE via this dropdown.
Figure 2: Screenshot showing the pull down tab to toggle the New Content Experience off and on in the sandbox.
Support and Training
Short training sessions for instructors are available in July and August - Book here
IT Services are offering (opens in a new window)bookable 1:1 online support appointments for instructors who want to become early adopters of the New Content Experience.
How to guides and other support resources are in our (opens in a new window)Knowledge base
Instructors can also open support queries at any stage via the (opens in a new window)IT Support hub
Timeline Key Dates
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May 2024
New Content Experience available to toggle on/off in all staff sandboxes
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Mid-July 2024
The 2024/25 academic year module containers will become available in Brightspace
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July/August 2024
Targeted Training & support for New Content Experience being rolled out
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September 2024
Recommended that all Stage 1 core modules at the undergraduate level and, where feasible, graduate-taught programmes, begin using the New Content Experience
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2025/25 academic year
Full rollout targeted for New Content Experience
Meet Our Project Team
Meet our project team, working together to achieve our goals with expertise.
David Kane
Project Manager – Educational Technology Services
Team member
Nicola Carrigan
Senior IT Specialist – Educational Technology Services
Team member
Rachel Hickey
Senior IT Specialist – Educational Technology Services
Team member
Martin Heduan
Senior Educational Technologist
Team member
FAQ
You do not need to formally sign up to use the New Content Experience. Module Coordinators can choose to opt in via your module in Brightspace.
Under the 'My Learning' view within your module you will see a down arrow tab in the top right corner of your screen. When you click on this you will be given a drop down screen offering you the option to turn on or off the new Content Experience. Once turned on you can turn it off again via the same route.
Please Note: This is only available for Module Coordinators.
In teaching modules, only the Module Coordinator has the capacity to (opens in a new window)turn the New Content Experience on and off.
Once enabled, all instructors and students will be able to use the New Content Experience within the module.
In instructor sandboxes, Explore modules and other custom modules, all instructors can turn the New Content Experience on and off.
No, only instructors with the role of Module Coordinator can turn the New Content Experience on and off.
Yes, there are differences in how content displays, new ways for creating and moving units and content. After adding content you should check to make sure it displays how you intend it to display.
Further information on the steps to add content are in this (opens in a new window)knowledge base article and (opens in a new window)more.
Yes. Review the (opens in a new window)checklist of key items do check to ensure your content displays well in the NCE
No - the New Content Experience impacts the display of content only in the My Learning area of modules. Other tools in Brightspace such as assignments, quizzes, and discussions,etc are unaffected.
The new experience supports no more than three levels of units and subunits. Top-levels are called Units. The second level sub-units are called Lessons and 3rd level sub units are called Folders. No more sub-units can be created deeper than the level of a folder (Unit>subunit>Folder - content items can be added to any of these three levels). This is consistent with Universal Design Learning (UDL) best practices.
Pre existing 4th level and deeper sub units and their content will not display in the NCE. A warning message will appear that will be visible only to Module Coordinators.
The missing sub-unit and its content still exists and can be located in the (opens in a new window)Module Builder Tool if you need to move them up a level. You can also use the toggle to revert to the Classic content experience in order to move the sub-module to a different location. You can then re-enable the New Content Experience.
The UCD VLE Standards units have been added by default into 2024/25 teaching modules
The New Content Experience uses icons instead of text to identify different file types. (opens in a new window)More information here
See (opens in a new window)what you need to check and the key differences between the Classic and New Content Experience
Yes, the New Content Experience is designed for mobile devices. It is recommended that a full web browser is used with Brightspace on mobile devices. (opens in a new window)Brightspace Pulse displays are unaffected by which content display tool is in use in modules.
Send feedback using this form: (opens in a new window)New Content Experience Feedback Form
IT Services are offering (opens in a new window)bookable 1:1 online support appointments for instructors who want to become early adopters of the New Content Experience.
Short training sessions for instructors on using the New Content Experience are also available. Book here
All our support resources are linked from the project web page: Brightspace New Content Experience - UCD IT Services
Instructors can also open support queries at any stage via the (opens in a new window)IT Support hub
UCD IT Services
Computer Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.Contact us via the UCD IT Support Hub: www.ucd.ie/ithelp