"Resources" in Brightspace

On Brightspace, student-facing resources get uploaded directly to the Content tool. For resources that you don’t want students to access, Brightspace has a tool called Manage Files.

The Manage Files tool is a file management system for your course. Use this tool to organize and upload files associated with the course offering. We recommend that you organize your files into folders, creating a folder for each module of content.

Any document, PowerPoint file, PDF, image, or other files you upload to your course can be found in this tool. All the files that you create in your course can be found here as well.

To learn more about the Content tool visit this resource: Content Information

To learn more about Manage Files visit this resource: Manage Course Files

This new workflow requires both a technical and pedagogical change in instructor mindset. Since the Content tool will become both the lesson space and resource space, instructors should take the time to consider how their course will be organized. There are limitless options in theory, but we recommend one of the following.

Organize content by week (i.e. Week 1 unit folder houses all lessons, resources, and assessments for that week).
Organize content by topic/module (i.e. Module 1 houses all the lessons, resources and assessments for that module/chapter).
Organize content by the subject matter or tasks (i.e. Set up resource folders outright, targeting specific tasks or projects, like assignments, discussions, lecture notes).

Three columns of different ways to organize content in the Content tool, variations on how units can be used to house content.

Column 1 shows content organized by week, column 2 shows content organized by topic, and column 3 shows content organized by task.

There is no equivalent Resources tool on Brightspace. However, all of the Sakai Resources' features (e.g., hiding items, setting specific release dates, releasing items to specific groups etc.) are functions available in the Brightspace Content tool.

Like Sakai, Brightspace keeps a local copy of the content you upload to the course in a resource folder called Manage Files which is accessible via the Course Admin tool. Unlike Sakai, students cannot access the repository of course resources housed in Manage Files.