Organise subject content

Brightspace organises content into levels to provide a structured and efficient learning experience. At Charles Sturt, we encourage the use of a two-tiered approach to subject organisation. This reduces the overall complexity of the subject structure and reduces confusion for students and instructors.

First Level: Topic – Consider the topic as the ‘container’ that holds all the content associated with it.

Second Level: Page – Underneath a topic, you add a series of pages. The pages contain the learning materials that you want students to engage with. These materials might include text, multimedia, embedded links, or other Brightspace activities. By using a series of pages, you can divide your content into small, manageable pieces.

Clicking: Indicates the level of learner interaction required to move between content pages and learning activities.

Scrolling: Indicates the quantity of content displayed on a single page and the degree of vertical navigation required to access it.

When designing content in Brightspace, your goal is to create a consistent pattern. This makes the subject content more predictable and helps students understand what is expected of them.

Below is an example of a consistent learning pattern. Each topic follows the same structure, including a checklist at the end. You can use checklists to summarise the important content covered in each topic.

You can tailor the learning pattern to suit your subject's specific requirements. Just keep in mind that consistency is key.

Well-constructed and meaningful titles contribute to a user-friendly experience. Here are some tips to help you achieve this:

• Use clear and descriptive titles that provide an overview of the content.
• Keep names concise and to the point. Long names do not display well, particularly in the navigation menu.
• Use student friendly language, avoiding unnecessary complexity or jargon.
• Use verbs to describe what is expected of students e.g., read, watch, discuss, practice, apply.
• Use the heading in the navigation bar as the top-level header of your page.

It is important to use a consistent layout and formatting when organising your content. In Brightspace, this is achieved by using the HTML templates. These templates allow you to apply consistent heading styles and other visual features. This helps students efficiently navigate a page. If you want to learn more about adding different types of content to your HTML page, see Create new material in the Brightspace Community.

To create a new topic:

1. Click on the Content expanding menu in the subject navigation bar.
2. Click on New Topic.
3. Enter a Name for the topic.
4. Include a short Description, about 1-2 sentences, to give a quick overview of the topic. Do not add images or videos to these folders as they often don’t display well. This description will be visible when students click on the Show Description icon on the tile. Think of it like a brief summary, not a substitute for your main topic overview.
   
   
   
   


5. Use the visibility toggle to make the topic visible or hidden from students on creation.
   
   


6. Click Save.

The new topic is added to your subject.

To create and add new pages:

1. Click on the Content expanding menu in the subject navigation bar.
2. Click on the topic you are adding a page to.
3. Click Create New.
4. Click Page
5. Enter a Name for the page.
6. Click Select Template to apply a template to your page (see below).
7. Click Save.

The page has now been added to your topic.

Please Note: If you add a template to a page that already contains content. Your existing content will be deleted.

To add a template to your page:

1. Create a new page
2. Click Select Template and choose which HTML template you want to apply.
3. Add the page content to the template.
4. Click Save.

The template has now been added to your page.

To learn more about creating subject content and the various elements you can add, see Create new material in the Brightspace Community.

Please Note: If you hide a topic or folder, all content within that topic or folder is also hidden.

The visibility toggle and icon indicate the status of topics, folders, and pages: Visible or Hidden.

Visibility status is also indicated by icons in the table of contents next to each topic. To change the visibility of a topic or page, select the item and then click the visibility toggle at the top of the page.

To reorder content:

1. From the content area's table of contents (on the left-hand side), the click topic, folder, or page you wish to move.
2. Click and hold the   symbol.
3. Drag it to the desired position and release your click.