Page Navigation | How to navigate in Brightspace: General Brightspace page controls

This article explains the general features of the Brightspace environment of Wageningen University & Research, that are always visible and available on both the Brightspace WUR homepage and Brightspace Course homepage(s).

To access your Brightspace course environment you can do so in two ways:

General Brightspace page controls

Brightspace page - general setup  features

At the top of the Brightspace environment of Wageningen University you will find:

  • Wageningen University & Research logo on the left side - a clickable item, which serves as a Return to home button. By clicking on the logo you will be redirected back to the Brightspace WUR homepage.
  • and a minibar on the rights side - for more follow to The minibar

This setup is the same across both the Brightspace WUR homepage and all course pages, or program pages, created in Brightspace.

The minibar

The menu in the upper right corner of the Brightspace page is called the minibar and contains navigation and personal profile settings:

Brightspace page - the minibar

1. The Waffle or Course Selector tool

The Course Selector drop-down menu shows manually pinned courses, followed by current enrollments, then future enrollments (if they are available and visible to the user), and finally, past enrollments (if they are visible to the user).

2. Message alerts

Notifies you about unread mail and instant messages from instructors and other students

3. Subscription alerts

Notifies you about new blog posts, subscribed discussion forums, topics, and threads

4. Update alerts

As a student, you will receive update alerts when there would be a new content added to the course, or when a new announcements or grades have been published, but also when there is a deadline approaching. An orange dot appears to indicate these actions.

5. Your profile

This contains all information regarding your profile and account settings. You can log out of the Brightspace Learning Environment.

Want to know more about managing courses in Brightspace? 

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