Navbars and Banners

In addition to layout options for Course Homepages, it is possible to change a site’s displayed tool menu (the Navbar) and to make minor modifications to its look and feel.

Every Brightspace site has a navbar, and a site’s navbar is always visible. This allows site members to easily find and navigate to course-specific tools. Adding important tools or removing unused ones will streamline course navigation.

The Navbar

Brightspace tools are laid out in a red navigation bar across the top of every page. While most tools (see Course Administration) are active “behind the scenes” on every site, student access is restricted to those made visible in the navbar. The default selection offers typical options for student assessment, communication, and course management, but these can be removed, shuffled, or even replaced by custom links. There is also a more visually-engaging Icon-Based Navbar mode.

An ideal course site likely only shows the tools that are being used and has its navbar reduced to the fewest possible options.

To edit the navbar on a particular site, find the ellipsis button (. . .) that appears when you hover over the right side of the navbar.

A screenshot of the homepage screen showing the right-hand side where the Navbar settings button is highlighted.

Choose between Customize This Navbar and Manage All Course Navbars. An instructor can only make a copy of the default navbar, and this cannot be shared between other sites. The second choice, Manage All Course Navbars, can only be used to swap between different versions in the current site.

Customize This Navbar leads to the Edit Navbar page, which provides a list of the currently displayed links. These can be reordered by dragging-and-dropping or removed with the small X on the right side.

A screenshot showing the default link options on the Edit Navbar page.

Use Add Links to choose from the extensive list of tool options. Select anything from the list to add it to the navbar, bearing in mind that there is limited space and any overflow will be condensed in a More… drop-down menu.

Custom Groups can be used to organize sets of tools within a dropdown menu. The default dropdown Course Tools is actually a custom group.

Some of the more obscure options are not configured and should not be used. Contact edtech@brocku.ca with questions on the status of anything that does not seem to work.

The most flexibility comes from Create Custom Link, where it is possible to create a link to an external resource via URL (e.g., a weekly MS Teams meeting link), or a specific Brightspace item using Insert Quicklink (e.g., a regularly-visited Content item like a syllabus).

Icon-Based Navbar

The Edit Navbar page also provides a toggle to an icon mode that will replace the text tools with icons. The stock Brightspace tools all have their own icons and images can be uploaded for any custom links.

Themes

Themes cannot currently be managed at the course site level.

Change the title in the navbar

This will change the text above the Navbar. The default setting is the course’s Org Unit Name, which should look like the course code. This information is being pulled from the choices made within Course Offering Information.

Adding a Custom title here will override that, potentially causing confusion. It is recommended that course site name alteration is done via Course Offering Information.

Banners and Course Titles

The homepage contains a decorative banner that can be customized by choosing from a library of stock images or uploading something new. The banner is best suited for landscape-style images but will allow some adjustment upon uploading.

An ellipsis button will appear when hovering over the right edge of the banner, just below the navigation bar.

A screenshot of the homepage screen showing the right-hand side where the Banner settings button is highlighted.

Choose between Change Image, Customize Banner Text, or Remove This Banner.

A screenshot of the Change image options with the course banner settings.

Changing the banner text at this level overrides what is otherwise defined by choices made within Course Offering Information.

To restore a removed banner, look for the option within the ellipsis button in the bottom-right corner of a homepage.