Southern Illinois University creates a learning management system that is used for making online courses. This learning management system is known as Desire2Learn or D2L Brightspace. Below is everything that you have to know about this thing.
Course Login and Navigation
- The first thing that you need to do is to type mycourses.siu.edu in your browser search tab such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.
- You will be taken to the main page of D2L.
- It is time for you to enter your username or the SIU85 number and your personal password.
- Once you have finished typing the needed information, do not forget to hit the blue Log in bottom.
- By doing so, you will be taken to your D2L homepage when you may see all the courses listed each term. Feel free to choose ant course in any term. If you want to do it, you can just place your computer pointer on the course image and then hit it once to enter.
- You will be brought to your course home page. On this page, you will be able to see a navigation bar located on the top of your course. You might want to choose any tab to see the spread down menu in each tab.
- The one that you will use more often is called the assessment tab. The drop down menu of it is displayed with a few options, including Assignments, Video Assignments, Grades, Quizzes, Rubrics, Self-Assessments, Surveys, Attendance and Awards.
Emailing Instructors and Classmates
- Once you have logged in to your source, the next thing is to choose Classlist from the Communication drop down menu located in the main navigation bar.
- You will be able to see a couple options. Feel free to send email to all participants or to a certain group of participants. For the instructors, students or teaching assistants, it can be done by clicking on the Email Classlist link at the top of the page.
- Besides, you can also send emails to the individual participants which can be done by checking the empty box beside the image. It is important to take note that participants are categorized by role.
Posting on Discussion Boards
- After you are in your course and on the Course Home page, you will need to choose Discussions from the Communication drop down menu.
- Then, put the pointer on the discussion topic title and choose the discussion topic that you want to post or reply to. Doing so will make the active discussion topic be underlined.
- In the end, you can start posting by choosing Start a New Thread to type your input. Please follow the criteria for content and posting given by your instructor.
Using D2L Content
- If you want to use the D2L Content, first of all, go to the Course Hmepage and then click on Content.
- You can use the Table of Contents if you want to access all content for the course
- The same thing is able to be used if you want to access individual modules.
- Clicking on an individual module allows you to navigate through the content of the module using the arrow.
Using D2L on iOS
- Firstly, you need to click on the web browser app.
- When it opens, go to the official website of Southern Illinois University at www.SIU.edu.
- When you are there, click on My Course.
- The fourth step is to enter your username, which is SIU Dawgtag, and the password, which is the one that is associated with your Dawgtag.
- After that, click on the Menu Icon.
- Next, click on the Waffle.
- Lastly, choose the one that you want to enter from the provided List of Courses.
Using D2L on Laptop
- The first four steps are the same as the one to use D2L on iOS.
- After entering your username and password, you are able to find the course that you are looking for under My Courses.
Attending Virtual Classroom Session
- The method to attend the virtual classroom session is started by logging to your course on D2L and clicking or tapping Content in the main navigation bar.
- In the next step, you will have to tap on the appropriate folder and content.
- The last thing to do is to tap on the Enter Meeting Room button that is able to be found at the bottom of the screen.
- Just like that, you are able to attend the virtual classroom session.
LockDown Browser Respondus Monitor
The name LockDown Browser is used to call a locked browser that is used to take quizzes in D2L Brightspace. It is really useful to prevent you from printing, copying, going to another URL, or accessing the other applications when the test is ongoing. If the Respondus LockDown Browser is required by a Brightspace test, there is no way for you to be able to take a test with a standard web browser. This special browser is used only for taking Brightspaces quizzes, meaning it should not be used in the other areas of Brightspace.
In order to take a quiz with LockDown Browser, you will need to log into Brightspace with a regular browser first before selecting the course and navigating to the quiz. From this step, you are able to either install the LockDown Browser or to launch it to take the test. If the LockDown Browser is already installed in your computer, you can just simply click the Launch LockDown Browser button. If there is no one, this link will enable you to install it to the computer. Please choose Yes when you are asked to close a blocked program like screen capture or instant messaging. There is a guide to check a webcam if it is needed to record yourself during the test. Remember that you cannot exit the test until the Submit button is clicked once the test has been started.
