Brightspace Use with CollegeNow

Important Links:

What is Brightspace?

Brightspace (sometimes called D2L, after the parent company) is a web-based learning management system (LMS) that makes it easy for instructors to manage materials distribution, assignments, communications, and other aspects of instruction for their courses. Brightspace is the LMS used across the SUNY system and in many colleges across the country. This service is available at no cost for CollegeNow courses. 

Why use Brightspace for My Course?

The way you use Brightspace for your specific class will depend on the student learning outcomes, types of activities you have students do, and what information you want to make available.

Brightspace can assist with:

  • Course management and student learning (e.g. organize and store course documents, post slides and recordings of lectures, allow students to submit assignments or take tests online, follow students progress with the built-in gradebook, etc.)
  • Facilitating learning activities that work toward your course's learning objectives (e.g. incorporate online discussions)
  • Plagiarism detection through use of the embedded Turnitin tool (using one of the settings for assignment submissions)
  • Assessing student learning (e.g. online quizzes, portfolios, assignments, or gradebook tools).

What Other Resources Does Brightspace Have?

Within your "My Courses" area on your Brightspace homepage, you will see some courses that are repositories of information for you to access at any time.

CollegeNow houses resources for concurrent enrollment courses within Brightspace. These resources were compiled by department faculty and CollegeNow to assist you with teaching your courses. Resources include samples of course outlines, text recommendations and open educational resources (OER) links, and assessment materials (assignments, tests, rubrics). You will have access once your credentials have been approved and your myTC3 account is created.

You and your students will automatically be enrolled in a "course" called Career Connections. Career Connections was created by the College to provide career development resources. You may download materials to share with your students, copy the modules into your own course, or have them access the course directly to complete the modules. Modules include:

  • First Things First (career assessment and reflection on what one wants)
  • Resumes and Cover Letters
  • Job-Internship Search
  • Interview Prep 

What is the expectation for Brightspace in CollegeNow courses?

All CollegeNow courses will automatically be assigned a course shell in Brightspace. At a minimum, all instructors should upload their course outline and major assessments to Brightspace so that CollegeNow and faculty liaisons may view those materials. You have control over access to individual files and folders so that some content may be uploaded for CollegeNow to view, but not accessible to students.

Use of Brightspace with students is optional for all courses except BIOL104 and 105. The extent to which an instructor uses Brightspace within a course is an individual decision,, though the College encourages integrating Brightspace into courses wherever possible to enhance learning and help students understand how to navigate a college-level course management system. If Brightspace will be used in the course, this use should be clearly defined in the course syllabus to set expectations with learners. 

Students cannot access Brightspace for your course until they are registered, either for credit or as an audit. 

There are two ways to access Brightspace:

  1. Log in to myTC3 from any TC3 webpage and select Web Courses.
  2. Go to , select Network Login, select ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ Cortland from the drop-down menu, then login with your myTC3 account info.

How Do I Learn to Use Brightspace?

  • (must be logged into myTC3 to access)
  • Join the
  • Check out these from SUNY (your login is the same as for myTC3)
  • Review these from SUNY
  • If you need assistance with your course shell, contact our Instructional Designer, Breton Bienvenue at bb054@tompkinscortland.edu