A message from Fiona Allan, Vice-President, Academic:
Happy new year!
As the winter semester begins, I extend my sincere wish to each one of you for a healthy and joy filled 2024. I hope you enjoyed a restful holiday break and are eager to embark on this new year. Anticipating a productive and collaborative term ahead, I look forward to hearing from you as we implement new systems and processes to support our commitment to academic excellence and enhance the student experience.
Starting January 2024, we are implementing D2L’s Brightspace as our learning management system (LMS). Brightspace offers a broad range of flexible and intuitive tools to support the experiential learning experience for which NC is so well known. Selected after a robust needs analysis and consultation process, the platform will support the College’s future growth and the evolving teaching and learning needs of our students and faculty.
With the move to Brightspace, we will play an integral role in helping our students make a smooth transition. A variety of resources and supports are now available to help students become familiar with Brightspace and use it effectively. Please direct students to these resources:
LauNCh Guide
The LauNCh Guide was created to connect students to important tools, documents and habits, and has been updated to include details on using Brightspace. Each section includes step-by-step instructions, helpful tips, videos, links and other resources.
Orientation
Student Engagement runs orientation programming for new students that includes an overview of Brightspace. Additional details are available through NC Winter 2024 orientation.
Peer Tutors
Students looking for support can meet a tutor for a Brightspace overview. A tutor can help students:
- Find courses
- Explore course pages
- Locate Teaching and Learning Plans (TLPs) and course documents
- Keep track of important course updates, deadlines, and tasks
- View grades
These one-on-one sessions are free and appointments can be booked by logging into the student’s WCONLINE account. Students can select their campus schedule, then choose Brightspace Support as the course from the drop-down menu to find a tutor.
In the Fall 2023 semester, various training resources were developed, and webinars were delivered to assist faculty in the transition to the new LMS platform. These faculty supports will continue this semester, and will also be expanded to include:
- The Brightspace Training Resources will continue to have new topics added to it.
- Faculty Champions will support the continued implementation of Brightspace and ensure that faculty in their program areas have what they need to effectively leverage Brightspace.
- Consults with CAE staff will be available throughout the semester on an as-needed basis.
- Brightspace Training will be available through the semester. New offerings will be announced via email and can be registered for through the Brightspace training calendar.
As our NC experience with Brightspace grows, we also look forward to making use of new tools, such as data and analytics, intelligent agents, and the learning object repository. Expanding our use of the LMS will offer opportunities to better support our students and to continue to demonstrate the innovative approaches to learning for which NC is known.
All the best in 2024.
Fiona Allan
Vice-President, Academic
