Each academic year, we are faced with temporary campus closures due to weather, natural disasters, and health emergencies. There are ways to prepare now for times when in-person classes can’t go on, but learning can’t stop.

What to do if Campus is Temporarily Closed

All college classes already have a D2L Brightspace course.

Even if you don't have a plan in place yet, communicate with your students as soon as possible.  Let them know you will get them more details soon.

Outline your expectations for checking email and/or D2L Brightspace at this time.

Send an announcement to your class

Send an announcement to your class to let them know what the expectations are for course work during the closure.

Within each D2L course, there is a “News and Announcements” forum at the top in which all of your enrolled students are subscribed. If an instructor posts a message to this forum, every student in the course can read the message within D2L and they receive a copy of the entire message via email.

Announcements

  • Announcements is a tool available in every D2L Brightspace course to notify students of changes and information about your course. This is an easy way to reach all students in a course from within D2L Brightspace.
  • Advise students to change their notifications settings to allow Announcements to be forwarded to their email.

Email

Send an email to the entire class at once or email certain individuals via D2L Brightspace. Email is SCTCC’s official means of communication with students.

  • Post an Announcement to communicate with your students and suggest that they check their notifications settings to ensure they will receive email copies.
  • Include your contact information, including email and phone.
  • Consider offering office hours through Zoom.

Share Documents and Information

You can provide course material to students through D2L Brightspace. It provides a place for storing a syllabus and course materials. 

Online Teaching Tools

D2L Brightspace is the Learning Management System (LMS) SCTCC uses. D2L Brightspace allows for the creation and management of your online and/or hybrid courses.

D2L Brightspace login

D2L Brightspace resources

Zoom is an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, collaboration, chat, and webinars across mobile devices, desktops, telephones, and room systems.

  • Zoom login  Click Sign In and use your StarID credentials 

Hold office hours or class virtually with Zoom

Zoom is a video conferencing app supported by Lane’s Academic Technology Center. It can be used for recording lectures, holding office hours or meetings, or for group or individual video or phone conferences. All SCTCC instructors have access to Zoom.

Share Lecture Video and Screen Presentations

To record or share lecture videos or screen share presentations, you can use Zoom or D2L BrightSpace.

  • Use Zoom to record a video session or without your students, then post the video in your D2L course in Announcements, Discussions, and/or Email. After recording, Zoom will email you a link to the recording. Zoom offers screen sharing, and video and audio capture.
  • Use D2L Brightspace for short, simple videos, by using the video recorder within the rich content editor in D2L Brightspace to record a video or audio message for your students. The tool is available in several areas in your course and can be used when posting an Announcement.
  • Zoom Help Center
  • Zoom Video Tutorials

MediaSpace/Kaltura Capture is our screen recording solution tool. This tool allows you to easily record and share presentations, lectures, meetings, and mobile video from virtually anywhere.

Kaltura Mediaspace (Media Management System):  Desktop, Audio, and Webcam Recording

Announcements

The Announcements tool enables instructors to create announcements that help communicate course updates, changes, and new information to students quickly and effectively. Since the course home page is the first page that students often see when they access the course, the Announcements widget is a good area for displaying important information.

Announcements - Download detailed instructions 

Content 

Instructors can use the Content tool to post and organize course content so that information about course expectations, course syllabus, lecture notes, and important dates display to users clearly.

Course materials available in Content can include documents, images, media files, presentations, URL links, and existing course activities.

Content - Download detailed instructions

Discussions

Instructors use the Discussions tool in a course to encourage students to share thoughts on course material with their peers. Instructors can set up forums and topics for students to ask questions, discuss course content and assignments, and work together in assigned groups and sections.

Discussions - Download detailed instructions

Assignments

Instructors use the Assignment tool to see students' submission times, download assignment submissions, and return submissions with grades and feedback. Instructors can view students’ submission dates, eliminating the need to collect assignments and making it easy to track when files were submitted.

Assignments - Download detailed instructions 

Grades

Instructors or course designers can determine how to set up grade books to reflect best their approach to evaluation, including the grading system and grade scheme that is most appropriate for the course. Instructors can create items for projects, assignments, discussions, quizzes, etc. to include in your grade book, and even associate with other tools (such as Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions).

Grades - Download detailed instructions

Quizzes

Instructors use the Quizzes tool to create and manage points-measured assessments. As part of quantifiable assessment procedures, instructors can use quizzes to help evaluate students’ learning progress and learning outcomes.

Quizzes - Download detailed instructions

Virtual Classrooms

Instructors can use the Bongo Virtual Classroom integration to hold a virtual classroom session or set up video meetings with students. Instructors can choose to save your sessions and post them within Brightspace Learning Environment as a resource. Instructors can also use Bongo Video Assignments to create video assignments, allowing students to respond to course materials, or do presentations remotely.

Virtual Classrooms - Download detailed instructions

Online Teaching resources

System office D2L Brightspace support

Quick Start Guides and detailed information 

SCTCC D2L Resources

Information and training on using D2L Brightspace

Star Alert

Please make sure your Star Alert cell phone and supplemental email address information is up to date in the case of emergency communications that may be necessary.

Getting Technology Help

If campus is open, contact the IT Solutions center directly:
Hours: Monday - Friday 8:00 am - 4:00 pm

IT Solutions Center