Printer Friendly Version 
PDF Version 
Video 
Quick Start Guide
Getting Started Guide
Quick Start Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
Known browser issues/solutions
Course Merge Request Form
Activate Course
You must activate your BeachBoard course before students can access it. When you activate a D2L course it becomes visible to students who are enrolled in it.
Classlist
You can use the Classlist to see who’s enrolled in your course, check who’s online and to send emails. Users who are currently logged into BeachBoard appear with a green dot beside their names.
Content
The Content tool is used to organize course materials, such as the syllabus, lecture notes, readings, etc.
Copy Course
The Copy Components utility lets you copy quizzes, content, grade items, discussion forums, dropbox folders and nearly every other type of component (though not student data) from another course offering where you are listed as an instructor. Copying components saves you from having to recreate your course’s resources from scratch and can significantly reduce the amount of work required to create or re-offer a course.
Discussion
The Discussions tool is a collaboration area where you can post, read and reply to messages on different topics, share thoughts about course materials, ask questions, share files, or work with your peers on assignments and homework.
Dropbox
(including Turnitin, the plagiarism checker)
The Dropbox tool enables you to set up folders that users can submit their assignments to. This eliminates the need to collect assignments and helps you track when assignments are submitted. Turnitin, the plagiarism checker, is an optional feature.
Email
The Classlist tool allows you to send email from within BeachBoard.
ePortfolio
Desire2Learn ePortfolio is a user-focused online portfolio tool that empowers users to take an active role in their learning. Users upload, organize, reflect on, revise, and present digital learning artifacts that demonstrate their learning and achievements. ePortfolio empowers users to showcase successes in all areas of their lives, rather than restricting them to work from a particular course, institution, area of study, or period of time. It also encourages open assessment practices by allowing users to reflect on their work, update submissions over time, and seek feedback from peers, mentors and members of the community through both comments and rubric evaluations.
Grades
Use the Grades tool to manage and share grades on assignments and tests with your students. Students can see your individual grades and comments, as well as class averages and feedback. They can also view their final grade and the grade formula used for evaluation if your grades are released.
Groups
The Manage Groups tool is used to create group work areas (discussion topics, dropbox folders, and lockers) for users. Groups can be used to organize users’ work on projects or assignments, or to create special work areas for users with different learning needs
Homepage
The course homepage is the first page that you and your students see when entering your course. The typical course homepage is a page comprised of widgets that provide information and links to tools, courses, and personal settings.
Navigation Bar
The default Navigation bar contains links to the various areas and tools within BeachBoard, including Course Home, Content, and Grades, among others. You can customize your Navigation bar to include other tools such as Groups, Rubrics, and Surveys.
News
The News tool enables you to communicate updates, changes, and new information to your users quickly and effectively. News postings appear in the News widget on course or org unit homepages. Since this is the first page that the users often see when they log in or access their courses, it's a good way to display pertinent information.
Online Rooms - Collaborate (formerly Elluminate)
Rooms are managed using the List Rooms page. From the List Rooms page you can join rooms, add rooms, edit active rooms, and delete rooms. Once users join a room, they can watch presentations, share resources, and communicate interactively.
Profiles
Profile is an optional tool where you can upload a picture that represents you or fill in the About Me section. The picture will display in the several areas, for example, the Classlist and the Discussion Board.
Quizzes
Use the Quizzes tool to manage quizzes that you have created, copied, or imported; manage questions using the question library; preview, organize, and grade your quizzes; view quizzes by category or availability; view current, future, and past quizzes; view course and quiz statistics; create categories and place your quizzes in them.
Respondus (PC users only)
Respondus is a application that lets instructors create and manage exams and surveys that can be printed to paper or published directly to BeachBoard. Instructors create exams and assessments offline using an interface and then publish the exams or surveys directly to a BeachBoard course. In addition, over 2,000 publisher test banks are available to instructors who use Respondus. Note: It is not compatible with Apple operating systems.
Surveys
Create surveys and use the included statistics tools to monitor current course trends and opinions, and assess user satisfaction. It is an excellent way to solicit feedback from users regarding any aspect of your course. For example, it can be used as a method of delivering general course evaluations, mid-year reviews, or surveys associated with learning styles and preferences, etc.
Widgets
Widgets are sections of content that you add to your homepages to provide information and links to course and administrative activities and resources. There are two types of widgets: system widgets and custom widgets. System widgets are available as part of BeachBoard and cannot be edited or deleted. Custom widgets are created using HTML and can be used to create a wide range of custom content for your homepage.
Attendance
The Attendance tool enables you to create registers that track attendance for activities within your organization or course. You can track attendance for any number of activities and customize your registers to suit your needs.
Blog
The Blog tool is a way to share information on topics that interest you. You can post and respond to questions, engage in discussions, and share opinions and comments with other users. Blog entries can be public or private. Blogs cannot be shared with specific users or courses and cannot be graded.
Checklist
A checklist is a way to highlight important or required assignments, readings, or other items to complete. A checklist may list all the items you need to complete at once or may have items appear as you complete other items.
Course Builder
Course Builder enables you to interact with your course materials, learning experiences and assessments in one consolidated interface so you can visualize and review your entire course at once. The Course Builder interface is straightforward and efficient, transforming the process of course design and set-up from multiple steps in different tools into simple one-step actions. Whether you're starting from scratch or updating existing courses, Course Builder is an excellent tool for planning and organizing course materials.
Intelligent Agents
Intelligent agents monitor a course to find activity that matches criteria that you set.
Links
The Links tool enables you to provide links to URLs, web sites, or Quicklink to areas in your course offering or files that are useful for your course.
Manage Files
The Manage Files tool is a file management system for your course. You can use this tool to organize and upload files associated with your course offering.
Rubrics
Rubrics are an assessment tool used to evaluate an activity or item based on a predefined set of criteria. They help ensure that activities and items are evaluated fairly and consistently.
