Page Navigation | Brightspace WUR homepage

This article explains the features of the Brightspace WUR homepage environment of Wageningen University & Research.

In this page you will see:

Brightspace WUR homepage

The WUR homepage shows 6 widgets which are described below:

WUR homepage widgets

1. Green navigation bar

WUR Brightspace homepage - green navigation bar

The green navigation bar always appears on the top and gives you direct access to the following:  

1.1. Green navigation bar: Announcements

By clicking on this tab you will access the page with a list of all global announcements made. Here you will also be able to manage your notification settings such as:

  • Changing your email ID to receive notifications.
  • Selecting how often to receive email notifications (weekly, daily, never).
  • Selecting to receive specific instant email notifications from a range of options.
  • Customise notifications as per available options.
  • Selecting and managing courses to exclude from notifications.

Alternatively, the notification settings can also be accessed from the minibar by clicking on your profile. Read more here: The minibar

1.2. Green navigation bar: My Brightspace

Under this tab you will find the links to:

  • Awards - a tool that allows you to add awards and certificates to courses if required.
  • Calendar - the general calendar of the Wageningen University & Research.
  • Progress - an overview of your personal progress in courses you are enrolled in with the role of a student.
  • Learning Object Repository - a library for storing, managing, and sharing of course related resources.
  • Quick Eval -  offers evaluators a single location to view all learner submissions that are awaiting evaluation. Submissions made to Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions are displayed in a sortable list and can be selected to take you directly to their assessment page. For more visit: How to use quick eval
1.3. Green navigation bar: Discover

To provide students with greater flexibility and control over their personal learning goals, the Discover tool allows them to search for active courses and self-enroll. In addition, students can self-unenroll from the courses they self-enrolled in.

(Source: D2L)

To learn more please visit: How to use Discover in Brightspace

1.4. Green navigation bar: Help

By clicking on Help you will be able to access the Brightspace Help for Lecturers and Brightspace Help for Students, a database of instructions and information on how to use the Brightspace Learning Environment at WUR.

Also,  you can perform a System Check at any time, to ensure that your browser is properly configured to use the system.

2. My courses

WUR Brightspace homepage - my courses

The My Courses widget shows manually pinned courses followed by current enrollments, then future enrollments (if they are available or visible to the user) for a total of 12 enrollments. Note that more than 12 courses might appear if they are all manually pinned.

Pinned course tiles display notifications for unevaluated assignment submissions and quizzes, and unread discussion posts.

(Source: D2L)

To enter a course page click on the tile. 

2.1. My courses - Tabs
my courses tabs

The tabs in the My courses widget on the Brightspace WUR homepage will vary from student to student depending on their enrollments. Below is a description of the tabs can be seen in the screenshot above:

  1. All - is the landing tab of the page, and will show thumbnails of pinned and recently visited course homepages (max 20 thumbnails)
  2. Pinned - appears as soon as you pin one course
  3. [academic year] - this tab will show courses of the academic year
  4. Other tabs - these will appear depending on your enrollments
  5. Arrow - will appear if more than 7 tabs are available
2.2. My courses - Course thumbnail(s)
My Courses- course thumbnail

Within the My Courses widget located on the Brightspace WUR homepage, you can view blocks containing a picture and name of a course that you recently searched for or pinned. These are called thumbnails, and provide an easy overview, identification of and access to your courses (the thumbnail is clickable).

The thumbnail of a course will show the following information:

  1. Course image (banner)
  2. Course name
  3. Course code
  4. Optionally, the following icons that are directly linked to:
    • New Assignment Submissions, Unread Discussion posts, Ungraded Quizzes,
  5. Pin icon (if course was pinned)

3. Search in course guides

WUR Brightspace homepage -

This widget allows you to search within the Repository of Course Guides, a library for storing, managing, and sharing of course guides of the academic year. The widget is available for both lecturers and students. Learn how to search for a Course guide.

If you want to learn more about the learning repository follow this link: How to add a Course guide to the LOR.

4. Announcements

WUR Brightspace homepage -

Announcements on the WUR Brightspace homepage show general WUR announcements about the Brightspace environment. For instance, if maintenance is taking place. 

For more on Announcements: How to create an Announcement

5. Calendar

WUR Brightspace homepage -

The Calendar widget located on the Brightspace WUR homepage consists of a mini-calendar and a list of upcoming events. It displays all events created by the Wageningen University & Research for the applicable month.

  1. This drop-down tab expands into a calendar where you can select any day of any month and of any year displays.
  2. The drop-down tab displays events corresponding to the day selected in the widget calendar. Clicking on an event in the widget takes you to the event in the Calendar tool.

The Calendar on the Brightspace WUR homepage will show all upcoming events, from all courses you are enrolled in.

If you want to see the calendar entries for a particular course, navigate to the Course homepage where the calendar widget for that course can be found.


You now know how to navigate the Brightspace WUR homepage!

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