Navigation Bar Update 2024

Information for instructors

On June 17th, Online Learning will begin rolling out the new standardized navigation bar (navbar) in D2L Brightspace! We are very excited because this new navbar results from over a year of research, prototyping, user testing, and collecting feedback from faculty and students.

Primary needs
  • Students: Consistent navigation among courses.
  • Faculty: Ability to provide links to course-specific resources.

As an instructor, you can modify the NavBar by turning tools off or adding custom links to the Links tab in the new NavBar.

Guides

How to turn tools off

Warning_SignWarning: Turning off a tool will make it unavailable in the entire course, not just the navbar. Only turn off tools you are sure you don’t need on the navbar. Never turn off Content, any tools in the Course Info dropdown and Grades, as this will make them inaccessible to students. Never turn off tools that are not on the navigation bar (see step 3).

 

  1. Click the Instructor Tools link and select Course Admin.
    Click the Instructor Tools link and select Course Admin
  2. On the Course Administration page, click Tools.
    On the Course Administration page, click Tools.
  3. On the Tool Status page, turn off unused tools (must be options in your navbar – do not disable tools not visible in your navbar)
    • For example, turning off the Discussions from the Coursework group in the navbar:On the Tool Status page, turn off unused tools (must be options in your navbar - do not disable tools not visible in the navbar)
    • When you turn off the tool, a Set status to ‘Off’ pop-up message confirms the change.

Note: Changes to the settings on this page are saved automatically and will be reflected to your students immediately

How to add custom links
Create a link category
  1. On the navbar, click Links.
  2. On the Manage Links page, click New Category.
    On the Manage Links page, click New Category.
  3. Enter your category details.
  4. Click Save.
Create a single link
  1. On the navbar, click Links. This will take you to the Manage Links page.
  2. On the Manage Links page, click New Link.
    On the Manage Links page, click New Link
  3. Do one of the following:
    1. To add your link to an existing category,
      • From the Category drop-down list, select a category.
    2. To add your link to a new category,
      1. Click New Category.
      2. Enter your category details.
      3. Click Save.
  4. Enter a title for your link.
  5. Do one of the following:
    1. To add an external link, in the URL area, enter the URL in the field provided.
    2. To add a quicklink, click the Quicklink icon in the URL area.
      1. In the Insert Quicklink dialog, navigate to the link you want to insert.
  6. Click Save.
Delete links and link categories

Warning_SignWarning: Deleting a category also deletes all the single links in that category.

On the navbar, click Links.

 

  1. From the context menu of the link or link category you want to delete, click Delete.
  2. A confirmation window will pop up asking if you are sure you want to delete the category and all the links inside it.
  3. Click Yes.
  4. The category will be deleted.
    From the context menu of the link or link category you want to delete, click Delete

Navbar Display

The Instructor navbar display is different from the Student navbar view

Instructor view

Includes the Instructor Tools drop-down menu group with links for you only.

Brightspace instructor view

Student view

Does not include the role-specific Instructor Tools group of links, reducing clutter for student navigation in your course

Brightspace Student View

Sending navbar corrections and/or feedback

To send corrections or feedback, click the Help tab and select “Send corrections or feedback.” A new window will open. Follow the prompts to submit your feedback.

To send corrections or feedback, click the Help tab and select "Send corrections or feedback." A new window will open. Follow the prompts to submit your feedback