SSC maintains one academic year of courses materials on the Learning Management System (D2L), with all other content being moved to an external archive. Archived course content will be retained for an additional four years (five years total). (Effective January 1, 2026)
Instructors are encouraged to export their D2L course content and store it in a safe location for future use. The College is not responsible for lost, stolen, or corrupted materials stored on the servers, services, and technologies provided. (SSCFA 6.18.15)
Step 1: Export your course as a Brightspace package
In your D2L course, go to the More > Course Admin.
Select Import/Export/Copy Components.
Select Export as Brightspace Package > Start.
Select Components to Export > Continue.
Important! – Under Additional Components to Export, select Include course files in the export package > Export.
The Export will start. You’ll be notified on the Updates Alerts icon in D2L when the export is ready to download (orange dot indicates new notification).
Select Export Finished in the Updates Alerts to download the Export Package (zip).
Click to download the Export Package (zip).
The zip file will initially be saved to your local computer’s Download folder.
Step 2: Save Your D2L Course Backup File to a Secure Location
Recommendations for storage:
It is recommended that you move this Zip file to a devoted folder labeled “D2L Course Backups”.
Sometimes the zip file can be large in size, so saving the zip file to a cloud based storage would provide more storage space.
As part of Microsoft 365 suite of applications, each instructor is provided a cloud based storage area called OneDrive
Access to M365 OneDrive
You can access OneDrive by visiting Office.com and logging in with your regular credentials.
Click on the Apps icon to discover all M365 suite of apps available to instructors. Select OneDrive.
Select My Files for your personal cloud storage area.
Create a new folder. Under Create or Upload, select Folder.
Name your Folder “D2L Course Backups”
Upload your Zip file to this folder by selecting Create or Upload and Files Upload.
The U.S. Department of Justice – Civil Rights Division and U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights have provided notice to colleges and universities across the country about new accessibility requirements that take effect April 2026.
The new accessibility requirements will help both students with and without disabilities, as they follow a universal design approach. If a course is found to not meet the new accessibility requirements, both the institution and instructor can be held liable.
The new DOJ rules makes this a legal requirement, not just a best practice. For more detailed information, review an article from WCET.
As a result, it is important that instructors check their courses to make certain the content they have posted are meeting these standards as soon as possible, to allow time to fix any content before the April 2026 deadline.
What does this mean?
All digital content students use within a D2L course must be accessible to students with disabilities. This includes anything students are expected to read, watch or interact with within their D2L courses, such as videos, PDF’s, PowerPoint Slides, Word documents, online textbooks, links to outside websites, lecture recordings, just to name a few. For example:
Videos must have captions
Images must have alt text
PDF’s must be properly formatted (not just scanned images)
Text must be readable (not tiny fonts or bad color contracts)
All content, including PowerPoint slides, Word documents, etc. must work with screen readers
Tools Available to Help Instructors Meet Accessibility Requirements:
Blackboard Ally:
Blackboard Ally (within D2L) checks all content instructors upload to their D2L course and checks if it meets these accessibility standards. It provides instructors a score for individual content and the course as a whole. If content scores low, Ally provides feedback to instructors on how to fix their content to meet accessibility standards.
It is best practice that all content score 90% or higher.
Ally also automatically converts content instructors upload to D2L to different formats. For example, if a student would like a PowerPoint slide to be in audio format, they have that option.
D2L Medial Library:
The D2L Medial Library provides for automatic closed caption of videos uploaded by instructors:
Scanning Assistance:
The Teaching and Learning Center has a Book Edge Scanner for faculty to use. This Book Edge Scanner will scan documents (such as pages from a textbook) to meet accessibility standards.
Would you like to learn more about the new accessibility requirements or assistance in fixing course content. Check out the Teaching and Learning Center’s Training Calendar to attend our Design for All workshops or schedule a one-on-one consultation with a member of the TLC staff.
Some online courses are designed to be completely self-paced, meaning students work through the material on their own without interacting with an instructor. For example, the course might present content in a logical sequence with self-scored assessments like online quizzes. In these types of courses, students typically don’t receive personalized feedback on their work, don’t interact with classmates, and have no one to ask for help if they struggle to understand a concept.
The U.S. Department of Education classifies these self-paced online courses as correspondence courses, as they do not include Regular and Substantial Interaction. Courses in this category are not eligible for federal financial aid, meaning students cannot receive financial assistance for taking them.
What is “Regular and Substantial Interaction”?
According to the U.S. Department of Education (34 CFR 600.2, 2001), online college courses must include meaningful, ongoing interaction between students and instructors to be considered distance education—rather than just self-paced learning.
What does it mean?
Regular = Happens on a schedule (not just once or randomly).
Substantive = The interaction must be educational and meaningful, not just checking in.
If an instructor sets up an online course and then doesn’t return to actively engage with students—such as responding to questions, giving feedback, or leading discussions—the course likely does not meet federal standards for distance education.
Here are some best practices instructors can follow to meet this requirement:
Provide Weekly Instruction or Guidance:
Post weekly announcements in your D2L course summarizing key points or giving direction.
Perhaps record a quick audio or video using D2L Media Library to discuss what’s coming up next week or to clarify a concept.
Respond Promptly to Student Questions:
Answer messages or email discussion posts within 24-48 hours.
Be available through email, course messaging or virtual office hours.
Offer Personalized Feedback:
Give meaningful, individual feedback on assignments, not just grades.
Use rubrics and comments to explain how students can improve.
Facilitate Discussions:
Lead or participate in weekly online discussions in D2L.
Ask open-ended questions and reply to student post to guide learning.
Initiate Contact (Don’t Wait for Students):
Reach out if a student is falling behind or seems disengaged.
Schedule check-ins or send reminders about upcoming work.
Following these best practices helps ensure that online courses are engaging, supportive, and meet federal definitions of distance education, protecting both the student’s learning experience and the South Suburban College’s eligibility for financial aid.
Cengage Unlimited textbooks and learning content integrates with D2L Brightspace courses. Students must access their Cengage material through their SSC D2L courses.
Instructors and students can follow these easy directions should they have any trouble.
D2L is a cloud-based learning management system that updates each month with new features and improvements. This page summarizes these monthly improvements to keep instructors up-to-date and provide information to improve course content.
August, 2025
Quizzes
In response to customer feedback, instructors now have a simple way to print an offline quiz that supports all native Brightspace quiz question types, shuffling and randomization options, question pools, multiple versions, and an Answer Key.
From the Manage Quizzes page, click the drop-down besides the quiz name and select Print.
From the Print Quiz page, select formatting, such as including student name, etc, or an Answer Key.
July, 2025
Assignments
When creating an assignments, instructors only had file submission, text submission, on paper submission and observed in person. Now instructors have the option to select file or text submission to provide students options.
Quizzes
Instructors can now reopen a submitted quiz attempt.
April, 2025
Assignments and Discussion – Bulk Feedback
Instructors can now provide bulk feedback to all students who submitted assignments or discussions.
Assignments
Discussions
March, 2025
Quizzes
New questions types were added within quizzes to include:
Arithmetic
Matching
Ordering
Multi Short Answer
Significant Figures
September 2024
Quizzes and Rubrics
Rubrics can now be added to written response questions in Quizzes.
May, 2024
Grading
Feedback files are now available in Grades for Assignments, Quizzes and Discussions.
April, 2024
Discussions
Instructors’ attached files now appear in the Attached Files section for each learner’s discussion evaluation. Learners can view attached file feedback when viewing their evaluated discussion topic.
November, 2023
Announcements
D2L implemented the ability to copy announcements to other courses.
September, 2023
Synchronous Quiz
Instructors can facilitate quizzes where learners take their attempts simultaneously, which is convenient for in-class sessions.
When setting up the D2L Quiz, under Timing and Display, select Time Limits, then Synchronous.
Students will take their quizzes in-class, either in a computer lab or using their laptops. When students begin taking the quiz, they will all receive a pop up message telling them when the quiz will begin.
Virtual Assistant Introduced
A contextual help tool is now integrated into D2L. Students and instructors can ask help questions anywhere in D2L.
August, 2023
Announcements
When an instructor creates an announcement in their D2L course, that they want to stay at the top of their announcement list, there is now an option to “pin it to the top”.
July, 2023
Quizzes
Students:
Students can elect to Hide the Timer when taking a quiz. This may reduce anxiety during quiz taking.
Warning are displayed at certain times to support awareness of time left.
1 minute remaining on quiz.
5 minutes remaining on quiz (only on quizzes with 10 minutes or longer time limit)
Half of the elapsed time (only on quizzes with 20 minutes or longer quiz time limit)
Submission View has been changed to Quiz Results Page. After students submits a quiz, they will see the Quiz Results Page.
The Quiz Results page shows learners the status of their quiz and their score.
Students can now see information about the quiz, while they are taking the quiz.
Quiz Information option on the quiz page to view instructions and other information. This does not leave the quiz.
April, 2023
Discussions
Discussions have been improved to look similar to Assignments and Quizzes.
Example of New Discussion Look and Feel
Quizzes
Previously, when a student accidentally exited a quiz, there was not a dialog or warning.
Students are now shown a context-based confirmation dialog message.
Students now see one of the following:
The Exit Quiz confirmation dialog for quizzes with no time limit, no end date, or a time limit that expires before the end date.The Exit Quiz confirmation dialog for quizzes with a time limit and no end date.The Exit Quiz confirmation dialog for quizzes with an end date, no time limit, or an end date that will arrive before the time limit expires.The Exit Quiz confirmation dialog for quizzes that have an end date in the past.
February, 2023
Quizzes
Instructors can now add quiz availability dates to the Calendar tool in the Availability Dates & Conditions menu in the new quiz creation experience.
Instructors can select the Add availability dates to Calendar checkbox when creating a quiz to add quiz availability dates to their Calendar.
Previously, only the Due Date was automatically added to the D2L Calendar.
Instructor have more options now on how many questions are presented to students; all questions displayed together, 1 question per page, 5 questions per page, 10 questions per page, or add page break after each section of questions.
January, 2023
Equation Editor
The Equation Editor has been improved with better rendering features.
When creating assignments, discussions and quiz questions, within any textbox, instructors can insert equations.
Example of inserting an equation into D2LExample of inserting an equation into D2L
December, 2022
Assignments
Under Available Dates and Restrictions, Instructors can choose what students see of the assignment before submission using the visible with access restriction feature. See it in Action
November, 2022
Media Library Update
The new Media Library (assess is wheel icon next to profile name in D2L) now has a record video/audio option.
Videos uploaded to the Media Library or video/audio recorded by instructors can be used in multiple courses.
An example would be a welcome video recorded by an instructor and easily placed in various courses.
October, 2022
Pulse Mobile App
To help improve the flexibility of push notification, users will be able to choose which push notifications they receive. Previously, it was not possible to limit or control push notifications.
September, 2022
Assignments
Instructors who teach multiple courses can now copy assignments to other courses. To copy assignments, select the down arrow next to the assignment name and select “Copy to Other Courses”.
Quizzes
“No Time Limit” is now a quiz timing option and has become the default time setting (previously default was 120 minutes). If a time limit is desired, instructors must manually select the desired time.
When evaluating student assignments using D2L’s annotation feature, instructor can now use the new undo/redo button. Previously, the only way to remove the annotation was to use the eraser tool.
Media Library Updates
Early updates shown below provide information on the new streaming Media Library.
Under Insert Stuff, the Media Library is now an option. This allows instructors to upload video in multiple places in D2L.
Quizzes
Instructors now have the ability to restore a quiz they may have deleted in error.
Under Quizzes > More Actions > There is now a restore option.
May, 2022
Video/Audio and the New Media Library
Under the advanced editing option on any video uploaded to D2L, there is now an optimize for streaming button.
Pulse Mobile App
Brightspace Pulse users can now use @mention push notifications. Originally, @mentions came through the LMS but were only visible if the user opened Pulse and viewed their Subscriptions tab under Notifications. Now, the new functionality sends a push notification to the user when they are @mentioned.
Updates and subscriptions in the Pulse App are now aligned to show the same items as the Alert Bell in D2L.
April, 2022
Intelligent Agents
The Create Agent page has a new modernized user interface.
Subject line of intelligent agent emails now supports 128 characters.
March, 2022
Announcements
Course announcements now have a copy feature.
New Media Library
A streaming media library is now available for D2L courses. New videos posted to a D2L course will be placed in this streaming media library. Videos previous uploaded to D2L will not be automatically transferred to this new media library, so instructors will have to manually transfer.
Workflow improvements for Media
When creating new video and audio, instructors no longer must wait for the uploaded media file to process. While the media file remains unavailable during processing, instructors can navigate away to work on other tasks. When processing is complete, instructor will be notified.
February, 2022
Content – Print and Download Buttons
The Print and Download buttons are now better positioned when viewing content within a module.
Print and Download
January, 2022
Video/Audio and New Media Library
What improved?
Table of Contents: Instructors can apply meaningful segments to larger videos.
Audio Generated Closed Caption: Instructors can select language, with the ability to edit.
Video Editing: Minor video editing is available – Seek, Mark and Cut.
How to implement?
Within a module in your course, select Upload/Create, then Video and Audio.
Video will take a few minutes to process after uploading.
Select Advance Settings after the video uploads to gain access to these new features.
Student’s may receive an error when trying to join their Bongo Virtual Classroom using an iPad or iPhone. However, this can be rectified by following these four simple steps:
Step 1: Make Certain your iPad or iPhone’s operating system is up to date
On your iPad or iPhone open Settings App > General > Software Update
Above is a recording of this SSC Online Workshop presented by math instructor, Jennifer Medlen.
Original Workshop description:
See how a math instructor at SSC easily aligned the online scoring of a Kahoot! quiz to the SSC Critical Thinking Rubric for general education assessment. Ideas will be discussed for creating a similar type of alignment with other College rubrics.
OER stands for “Open Education Resources” and is linked to an educational movement that began about 20 years ago and has become a global educational movement. Instructors who use OER course material in their courses are using freely available, high-quality educational resources in order to bring textbook costs down for students. OER, in essence, are freely available, openly licensed resources such as textbooks, media, videos, articles and more – that are useful for teaching, learning and accessing as well as for research purposes.
Interested in trying out Open Education Resources in your course? Follow these easy steps to begin:
Step 1: Understanding the Benefits of Open Education Resources
Using Open Education Resources in your course provides many benefits, but here are just a few to consider:
Equity to Students: Students will have access to quality learning materials that can be accessed repeatedly without any access roadblocks.
Saves Money: Students may save on the purchase of textbooks or course materials.
Scalability: Instructors can easily adopt OER material that can be distributed widely with little or no cost.
Enhancement of regular course content: multimedia, images and other resources allow for students to receive content in different formats that match with their learning styles.
Step 2: Become Familiar with OER Licensing
Before finding OER material for your course, step two is becoming familiar with OER licensing and terminology, as faculty will have to cite the OER material and license used in their courses. The person who creates OER content decides how the content they created can be used by other educators. For example, they decide the following:
Content can only be Adopted = the OER resource can only be used “as-is”
Content can be Adapted = the OER resource can be revised, updated, and converted as long as the original source is cited.
Want to share your content with other educators? Faculty can create their own OER material and share with other educators. In doing so, they would select how they wish to license their OER content (Adopted or Adapted). Instructors can contact the Teaching and Learning Center or the SSC library to obtain a list of free OER platforms to publish shareable content.
When selecting an OER resource: Faculty must make sure the license for that content also allows for the use, modifications, and distribution. These are commonly known as the 5Rs – Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix, and Redistribute.
Retain – allows instructors to make, own, and control a copy of the OER resource (e.g., download and keep your own copy)
Revise – allows instructors to edit, adapt, and modify a copy of the OER resource (e.g., translate into another language)
Remix – allows instructors to combine OER content (include their own creation) to create something new (e.g., make a mashup)
Reuse – allows instructors to use original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource publicly (e.g., on a website, in a presentation, in a class)
Redistribute – allows instructors to share copies of original, revised, or remixed copy of the OER resource with others (e.g., post a copy online or give one to a friend)
Watch a short video explaining:
“OER Bootcamp 0: What OER’s are and why they are important” video by Sarah Morehead on YouTube and licensed under CC BY 4.0 .
Step 3: Find a free OER resource to use in your course
There are a variety of OER repositories, collections, and directories and the list is endless. Often the trouble lies with locating content that fits precisely with what the instructor is seeking.
Below are just a few resources to get instructor’s started.
Need help citing the OER source you plan to use? If instructors use OER resources, make sure to properly cite your source. Visit the free Attribution Builder – enter the source and license to generate an OER cite to post with your course material.
Step 4: Calculate cost savings to your students?
If you are an instructor at SSC and plan to use Open Education Resources in your course, let the Teaching and Learning Center and SSC Library know by completing this short 4-question form. Completing this form will allow us to calculate cost savings to students.
Complete OER Usage Form (Login using SSC username and password)
Need more assistance in getting started? Make an appointment with the Teaching and Learning Center and SSC Library by emailing ssconlne@ssc.edu.
Announcements posted in D2L courses are an effective way to communicate with your students. Students will receive the announcement in their D2L course, in their Alerts (bell next to their profile name) and if they have downloaded the D2L Pulse mobile app, they will receive a text-like message.
Posting an Announcement
Enter your D2L course
Scroll down to the Announcement Widget
In the drop down arrow, select New Announcement
Complete the Headline and Content
Select a Start Date, add a file (optional) and select Publish
IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THE END DATE, WHEN MARKED THIS WILL AUTOMATICALLY REMOVE YOUR ANNOUNCEMENT. BY SELECTING THIS OPTION IT WILL HELP ELIMINATE CONFUSION FOR LEARNERS WHEN COURSE MATERIAL IS COPIED OVER FROM SEMESTER TO SEMESTER. WE ARE NOTICING ANNOUNCEMENTS IN COURSE SHELLS WITH WRONG DATE AND TIME INFORMATION.
Your Announcement will now appear in your D2L course shell
Note: Announcements can also be found in a D2L course under More, Course Admin
Under Communication, select Announcements
Creating an Announcement through the Course Admin, allows instructors the extra feature of Pinning the Announcement to always appear at the top
