This guide helps instructors maintain teaching and learning if Brightspace (D2L) is unavailable due to an outage or degradation for a long period of time. This guide provides step-by-step instructions for backing up critical course assets, operating during an outage, and reconciling data once systems are restored.
Roster #
It is recommended to download your class list at the beginning of the semester in case you need to send an email to students outside of D2L. Follow the instructions in the following article to access your class list from the Pikes Peak Portal: Sending students emails outside of D2L.
Grades #
Exporting Your Grade Book #
After you have finalized your Grade book in D2L, it’s a good idea to download an offline grade book that mirrors the same weights and categories. You can save an offline version of your grade book by Exporting your Grades.
Make sure that “Org Defined ID” is selected from the Key Fields menu. We also recommend checking the box next to “Grade item” to ensure all grade items are selected. When ready to download, click “Export to CSV”.
Note any “Total” grade items will not be automatically updated when using the exported gradebook. This includes items like grade category weights and the Final Calculated grate.
Importing the Grade Book #
If you’ve been working in your exported grade book and now want to import it into D2L, go to Grades and click on “Import”.
Your Grade book file that you want to import will need to be a .csv file. If you have your grade book open in Excel. Go to File–> Save As–> then select .csv as the file type.
Keep the OrgDefinedId column as your A column. You can delete any other columns before you get to your grade items (i.e. first or last names). It is recommended to keep only the grade items that you have edited or added grades for students. Delete the Final Calculated Grade column from your .csv file. As the final column, you will have to add a column with the heading “End-of-Line Indicator” with a pound symbol in each row.
This article describes the proper formatting for an imported grade file in more clear detail. You can also download the sample file from the Import screen.
To import the file, click “Choose File” and upload the file from your computer. Click “Continue” when ready to move to the next step. You can also choose to have D2L to create a new grade item if there are new grade items you have added to your grade book. We generally recommend to leave this option unchecked.
The next screen will scan your file for errors. If you receive any errors, refer to the instructions provided, or review D2L’s article for assistance.
The next screen will show the grade items that will be updated in your D2L grade book. It will show what the students current grade was for that grade item and what it will be changed to. In the below screenshot, Test Student 3’s grade will change from a 0 to a 100 for the Peermark Test (Bonus) assignment.
If everything looks correct, click “Import” to import your grades.
Attendance #
We also recommend downloading your attendance register at the beginning of the semester. To do this, go to More Tools–> Attendance. Then, click the title of your Attendance register.
Then, click on “Export all Data”. This will prompt you to download an excel file of your current attendance register.
Download course content #
You can download a module by clicking the down arrow next to the module title and clicking “Download”. It is a good idea to review the zip file that is downloaded to ensure the course materials you want are all there.
Note: any Quizzes, Assignments, Discussions, or External Learning Tools linked in Content cannot be downloaded through Content. Some items such as a “Web Page” or “Video”, will be downloaded as a .html file. You may want to copy and paste the content on these pages individually into a word document.
You can also download individual files by clicking the down arrow next to title and clicking “Download”.
LTI / Publisher #
If you are using publisher materials (McGraw-Hill, Pearson, Macmillan, Norton), we recommend reaching out to your publisher rep to confirm if students can access the eText and/or publisher platform outside the LMS in the case of a D2L outage.
OER #
If you are using OER for your class, we recommend saving the URL’s for your OER texts or activities in a word document on your computer. If your OER can be downloaded as a PDF or Word document, we also recommend saving that to your device.
Save Assignment Instructions #
It is recommended to save important assignment instructions to your computer. To do this, navigate to the Assignments area. Then, click on “More Actions” and select “Preview”.
Then, click on the title of the assignment you want to view. You may need to click on “Show Assignment Information” to display the full assignment instructions.
Then, print the page. You can do this by shortcut by holding down CTRL + P on Windows or Command + P on Mac. Change the printer to “Print as PDF” and it will save the assignment as a PDF to your computer.
Alternatively, you can copy and paste the assignment instructions to a word document.
Download Student Assignment submissions #
The following article has instructions outlining how to download all student submissions for a given assignment: Download All Assignment Submissions.
Save Quizzes #
To save your D2L Quizzes, use the following article to print your quiz and your answer key: Print a D2L Quiz.
Download Student’s Quiz Submissions #
To download student’s quiz attempts to your computer, go to Quizzes and click on the down arrow next to the quizzes’ title. Select “Grade”.
Then, click on “Export to CSV” or “Export to Excel”. You will get a D2L notification when the file is ready to download.
This will save your questions and students answers to an excel sheet that can be downloaded to your computer.
Save Discussions #
There isn’t an easy way to download Discussions from D2L. If you go to Discussions and click on a Discussion Topic to open it. Then, you can print the page by shortcut by holding down CTRL + P on Windows or Command + P on Mac. Change the printer to “Print as PDF” and it will save the assignment as a PDF to your computer. You can also copy and paste the discussion instructions into a separate Word document.
Save Student Submissions for Discussions #
You can print individual discussion submissions by clicking the down arrow next to the title of the student’s submission and clicking “Print Thread”. Then, you can print the thread to a PDF by selecting Print to PDF.
Simple Syllabus #
Simple Syllabus can be accessed by instructors and students outside of D2L by going to cccs.simplesyllabus.com. You can also save your Syllabus as a PDF once you have submitted your syllabus.
Yuja Video #
Yuja Videos can be accessed outside of D2L by going to cccs.yuja.com. Make sure “Colorado Community College System Single Sign-On” is the login method selected from the top-right corner. Then click the “Sign In” button.
You will be brought to the “Manage Media” dashboard. From here you can mouse over any video and get the sharable link for it. You can upload videos to your Yuja library, and Create a new video as needed.
Course Package #
You can also save your D2L Course as a Course Package. This means that it can be uploaded into D2L or another LMS and will keep your course content, assignments, quizzes, discussions, etc. This could be used in a case where the D2L course is not retrievable and you want to start with a fresh course. Note that a Course Package will not save any student data.
To save your course as a course package, go to More Tools and select “Course Admin”. Then, choose “Import / Export / Copy Components”.
There are two different options to pick from. You can “Export as Brightspace Package”, which will make your course compatible when uploading to another D2L environment. You can also select “Export as Common Cartridge” if there is a different LMS you plan to use. Click the “Start” button once you’ve made your selection.
You will then have the ability to pick and choose which elements you want to save to your Course Package. Check the box for the items you want to include, then click “Continue”.
Then, click the “Export” button.
You will then receive a D2L notification with a link to download your course package file when it’s ready.
Importing a Course Package File #
To import a course package, go to More Tools–> Course Admin. Then, choose “Import / Export / Copy Components”. Select the option to “Import Components” and click “from a course package”. Then, click the “Start” button.
Click on “Upload” to locate the course package file on your computer, or click and drag the file to the area within the dotted lines. When it’s finished uploading, click “Import All Components” or click on “Advanced Options” if you want to pick and choose which items to bring in.
You will see a progress screen that will let you know when your course is finished importing.
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