Dates, Deadlines, and Availability
Quick Start Guide

Important: If your content, activity, or assessment is Hidden to students, as indicated by an icon with a line over an eye , nothing will be visible to students regardless of date, deadline, or availability settings.

In this guide, you will find comprehensive information on:

• Brightspace Date Terminology: Understand key terms such as due dates, availability, start dates, end dates, special access, and visibility settings.
• Visibility Settings for Discussions: Learn how to manage visibility to keep conversations organized and accessible.
• Visibility Settings for Assignments: Understand how to control student access to assignment submissions.
• Due Dates and Availability Dates for Assignments and Quizzes: Discover best practices for setting deadlines and availability windows to enhance time management and accountability.
• Answers to Frequently Asked Questions: Find quick solutions to common issues related to dates and availability in Brightspace.
• Tips for Applying Dates in Brightspace: Get practical advice on effectively using dates to structure your course and improve communication.

Brightspace Date Terminology

Due date indicates when an activity or topic is expected to be submitted or completed. Due dates do not prevent access or submission. Items that are completed or submitted after the due date, such as quizzes or assignments, will be marked as late in Brightspace. Most content with a due date will automatically appear in the calendar and students will receive notifications regarding approaching deadlines in Brightspace.

Availability refers to the window of access. Availability allows the instructor to open and close access with Start and End dates.

Start date opens access to content, activities, or assignment submissions.

End date is applicable to both topics and activities, including Discussions, Assignments, and Quizzes, and serves as a firm deadline. Once this deadline has lapsed, the topic or activity becomes inaccessible to students. There is no provision for late submissions after the end date has passed. While this ensures strict adherence to deadlines, it may pose challenges for students with valid reasons for late submissions, such as technical issues or extenuating circumstances. Exceptions can be made for specific students through the ‘Special Access’ option.

Special access sets conditions to open access to certain students outside the specified dates. Special access is set by the instructor when needed.

Hide from Users hides content or activities from students until the box is unchecked. An Availability Start date does not override the Hide from Users option.

Display to calendar is a check box that, when selected, pushes items to the calendar.

Availability Dates for Discussions and Assignments

Availability refers to the window of access for content, an activity or assessment in Brightspace. Start dates are used to open access and end dates close access.  In addition to start and end dates, instructors can also set visibility conditions for Discussions and Assignments.

Visibility Settings for Discussions

Setting visibility conditions is an effective way of closing a conversation while allowing users to refer back to threads. Consider setting the Topic to “Visible with submission restricted” after the End Date, and then pinning a summary thread of your own within the Topic so that it appears at the top of the list for viewers.

• Visible with access restricted: The forum or topic is visible to learners before or after the start or end date, but they cannot access it.
• Visible with submission restricted: The forum or topic is visible to learners before or after the start or end date and they can access it, but they cannot post new threads or replies. This effectively makes a discussion read-only outside of the availability dates.
• Hidden: The forum or topic is hidden from learners until the start or end date. Calendar events for Availability Start and Availability End are hidden until the start or end date. Notifications are also not sent until the start or end date.
• Add availability dates to Calendar: Add the start date and end date of your discussion to the course Calendar.

Visibility Settings for Assignment Submission Folders

• Visible with access-restricted (before start / after end). The assignment will be visible to learners before the Start Date or after the End Date, but they cannot click or open it. Learners can see the name, dates, and restrictions but cannot see the assignment description or attachments.
• Visible with submission-restricted (before start / after end). The assignment will be visible to learners before the Start Date or after the End Date, and they can click or open it, but they cannot submit or mark it as complete. Learners can see all details about the assignment, including description, attachments, and rubrics, but they cannot upload files, enter comments, or mark the assignment as complete (for observed in person / on paper submission).
• Hidden (before start / after end). The assignment is hidden from learners until the start date is reached or after the end date passes. Learners cannot see the assignment anywhere, including corresponding Calendar events and Notifications.
• Add availability dates to Calendar: Add the start date and end date of your assignment to the course Calendar.

To access the visibility options for an assignment:

1. Go to the Availability Dates and Conditions menu for the assignment submission folder.
2. Set the Start and/or End Date.
3. Click Visible with access restricted.

Due Dates and Availability Dates for Assignment Submission Folders and Quizzes

Assignment submission folder settings allow you to set both due dates and availability windows (Start and/or End dates). You might consider setting a due date to allow for late submissions of assignments. These assignments will be marked as late by Brightspace. By adding an end date at a later time, it will close off the assignment folder preventing any further late submissions.

Quiz settings allow you to set both due dates and availability windows (Start and/or End dates).

• Due Dates: Use due dates if the quiz is always available, but you would like students to complete it by a certain date.
  • Due dates will allow a student to take a quiz past the deadline, but it will be marked late.
  • Due dates will automatically appear in the calendar.
• Start/End Dates: For more controlled exams, specify an availability window for quiz access by setting Start and End dates.
  • Start and End dates set the availability for students to begin a quiz, not the time limit that they have to complete the exam once they begin. For example, if a 90-minute exam has a Start date of April 6 at 10:00 and an End date of April 6 at 10:30, students could begin the exam anytime between 10:00 and 10:29 and then get the full 90 minutes to complete it. Anytime 10:30 or later, they will not be able to begin the quiz.
  • Start and End Dates will not automatically appear in the calendar. To add them, check the box Add availability dates to Calendar below the End date.
• Avoid Using Both Due and End Dates: End dates override due dates. Although you can set both, this can be confusing for students so we recommend using one or the other. Due dates are generally used when the quiz is low or no-stakes, not order dependent within the course, and/or always available throughout the semester; End dates are generally used to control access to higher stakes exams.
  

Answers to your questions

Did you know?

Setting up availability dates and other restrictions can be complex, especially if associated with a high-stakes and time-sensitive learning activity. Please contact EdTech if you’d like us to review your date settings.

Contact edtech@langara.ca for more information.