Organizing Content in Brightspace

Basic course structure

Brightspace allows instructors to organize content into "modules". Two of the most common practices is to organize content by week (Week 1, Week 2, etc.) or module (Module 1, Module 2, etc).

Weekly modules are a popular choice for faculty and students as both groups tend to think of the passage of a semester in terms of weeks. If you have topics that encompass two or more weeks, organizing by module might work better as long as you don’t need sub-modules to break up your content.

Regardless of the organizational method you use:

  • List your course materials in the order you would like your students to review them.
  • Make sure your content item titles are meaningful.
  • Consider adding descriptions to select items (these act as the “prompt” you might say in class as you pass out the document).
    additional context added to a reading in Brightspace to give learners more information
  • Include links to all your course learning activities (i.e. Discussions, Quizzes, Assignments) in their respective modules.

Using sub-modules

Be very careful of the use of sub-modules - these should only be used in specific instances.

How students experience sub-modules

When a student clicks on a top level module (i.e. Week 1), the sub-modules visually appear as boxes around content (i.e. Readings, Activities).

submodules in Brightspace

Having this categorization seems like a way to provide visual interest and focus, but this adds an additional layer of navigational complexity to your course. For instance:

  1. Let’s say that the student clicks on the “Readings” sub-module from the Table of Contents, then the student is taken to that sub-module only and can no longer see the items in the Week 1 module or the Assignments sub-module.
    submodule only showing readings
  2. If you have a sub-module in a sub-module, from the top level module it is denoted by a folder icon before the sub-module title. Students don’t see what is in that module until they go into the sub-module.
    submodule within a submodule
  3. In the Table of Contents, there is no way to distinguish a 4th level module from a third level module. (i.e. Test 1 > SB1 > SB2 > SB3). Sub-module 2 and sub-module 3 look like they are both 3rd level modules.
    multiple levels of nested submodules
  4. Many students navigate content by clicking on the arrow button at the top of the page after clicking on the first content item for the top level module (i.e. in Week 1). When sub-modules are included, clicking the arrow keys does not take the student to the content item in the next sub-module.
    arrows that take students from page to page in Brightspace
    Instead, they are taken back to Content and into the sub-module only. They then must click on the first item in the sub-module to view. When they have viewed the last item in the sub-module, they are taken back to the top of the main module and now must scroll down to the next item below the sub-module.
  5. Instructors who add brief descriptions to content items may be disappointed to know that the only way to view that description is to click on the sub-module first from the Table of Contents. So, if a student navigates from the top level folder only, they will not see the description.

When to use sub-modules

Now you know some reasons why the use of sub-modules can be problematic for navigating content.

When is it a good idea to use sub-modules?

  1. If you have a lot of content in each module (more than 12-15 items). In these cases, try to limit to one sub-module and place it at the end of your top level content items.
  2. If you have a large group of content items that may not be required, but useful. In these cases, place the sub-module at the end of the module. For example, you might use a sub-module for “Supplemental Resources” with about 5 to 7 items placed at the end of the main module content items.

How to categorize without sub-modules

Instead of using sub-modules, you can do other practical or creative things to categorize your content. For instance:

  1. Create consistent naming conventions for similar content items:
    • Reading 1: What is economics about?
    • Reading 2: Microeconomics vs. Macroeconomics
    • Reading 3: How Economists Understand Economics Issues
  2. Use verbs to categorize what students should do with the content items
    1. Read: What is economics about?
    2. Discuss: Economics in everyday life
    3. Reflect: Week 1 Reflection
      verbs in naming conventions
  3. Use web pages and document templates to include similar information on one page
    readings listed together on a webpage in Brightspace

Additional Resources

This article has been adapted from Portland Community College's Organizing Content in D2L Brightspace.

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