Students do not have access to the Classlisttool by default for privacy and safety reasons. This makes However, a version of Classlist that students can access can be added to your course to help make facilitating communication between students within Brightspace complicatedeasier. This page describes how to add that version of Classlist along with some additional ways to help students connect with one another.
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Export and share the Classlist
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Brightspace’s Classlist contains students' numbers, names, and email addresses. The sharing of this information must be done cautiously and students should be made aware of this in advance. |
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Exporting the Classlist is a comprehensive way to share student contact information. 
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Classlist viewable by Students
The default Classlist link available in most courses is not viewable by students, but an alternative link exists for instructors of smaller classes who want to make the names and roles of site members available.
Hover over the right-hand side of the navbar and click on the ellipsis button that appears.
Select to Edit This Navbar.
Under the Links subheading, select to Add Links.
Search for or scroll to the Classlist tool that is described as “Provides access to the Classlist tool”.
Check the box beside Classlist and Add. A tile with Classlist is added under the Links subheading and this can be reordered along with the other tools by dragging and dropping.
Select Save and Close and a new Classlist link will be added to the navbar. Instructors will see two tools named Classlist if the default was not removed but students will only see the new one.
Discussions
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This method may work best for smaller courses as the forum topic discussion thread may become very unruly for large course types. |
| title | How to use Discussions for student communication |
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not be well-suited for large courses as it will produce a significant number of threads/topics. |
Instructors can create a Forum Topic in the Discussion tool to give students the opportunity to offer their contact information to the class directly.
Options to leverage Discussions:
Instruct students to share their name, and their preferred contact method to the discussion thread
Instruct students to use Discussions to organize their group projects throughout the term
Please see the Discussions articles below for further instructions.
Instant Messages
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Students will only be able to add students to Instant Messages by name or email, which requires them to have this information, thus this method is likely best used in tandem with other peer-to-peer communication methods. |
| title | Steps to use Instant Messages |
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Steps:
Navigate to the Instant Messages tool and select the Friends tab
Select the Add Friends option, and search the student’s name
Use last name, first name or username (e.g., me14sx) to complete this action
Once the peer is added as a friend students can use the messaging tool to connect with one another. Simply select the Message button to begin chatting!
Also if instructors desire to keep student questions on Brightspace, rather than their Brock email account, they can kindly instruct students to follow the steps above and add the instructor’s account as a “friend” on Brightspace.
Chat Tool
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Please note that by default the Chat tool is configurable after the tool is enabled on the navbar |
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Instructors can also leverage Brightspace’s Chat feature to connect students with peers. This tool operates as a generic chatroom for all site participants and can be manually configured for specific groups of students to have their own chat area.  Steps:
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External Tools
| title | Using Microsoft Teams and Brock email for communication |
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Other tools
Students can also use other tools to connect outside of class time. Both Microsoft Teams and Brock email are our university-supported communication tools, and although they do not directly integrate with the LMS they might be the most effective options.
On Microsoft Teams students can message students in their class, either by searching the name of the student, or by clicking the students' name in a meeting chat or participant’s list to start a conversation. Instructors can
On the student’s Brock emailaccount they can search other students' names in the To field when composing a message. As name suggestions will populate, simply select the name of the student you wish to connect with.
Please note that all members of the Brock directory are listed, so it is suggested that students know at least the first and last name of the person they’d like to connect with prior to trying this method.