Project Site Policy

PROJECT SITE POLICY

Unlike Bridges, Brightspace is not designed to support the wide variety of project sites we currently maintain. This is due to both technical limitations and the platform’s intended purpose. Beyond system constraints, there are also important administrative, security, and storage capacity considerations.

According to the standard operating procedures for Brightspace retention practices, access to Brightspace sites is limited to a specific time frame. As a result, Brightspace is not suitable for long-term document storage or repository functions such as file storage and transfer, committee work, advising, student clubs, research projects, meeting notes, or form access. For these needs, tools like Microsoft 365 Teams, SharePoint, or Google Drive are more appropriate and make better use of available technology. Additionally Bridges project sites that were utilized for non-credit-bearing external programs and/or certificate offerings must be provisioned through Roger Central in order to be migrated to Brightspace.
See below for recommended alternatives for these types of sites.

That said, there is still potential to support some non-academic course site requests in Brightspace. These may include (but are not limited to):

Professional development or training sites for faculty and staff
Student orientation sites
Departmental sites used for template development
Sandbox sites used for template development

Please reach out to Instructional Design if you have any questions about your Bridges Project site.

Alternatives to Bridges Projects Sites

For Advising Project sites:

Civitas

Description: Civitas is RWU’s student advising platform

Application link

Tools available: Email, text messaging, appointment messaging, appointment signup, notes and history tracking.

Help documentation and contact:
Elizabeth Neimeyer: eneimeyer@rwu.edu
Documentation

Google Calendar

Brief description: Google for education, calendar app.

Link to application: calendar.google.com (access with school issued credentials available upon request)

Tools available: Calendar scheduling tool

Links to help documentation and contact:

Request a school Gmail account

Create an appointment schedule in google calendar

Zoom Scheduler

Brief description: Zoom is RWU’s primary conferencing software.
One can create a Zoom signup sheet in Zoom in Bridges.

Click on Zoom within your Bridges or Brightspace Course.
Click on "Appointments"
Click on "Create Schedule" and create a schedule for students to sign up for appointments.
Each meeting will have it's own Zoom link, and will get an email confirmation

Tools available: Zoom Scheduler

Links to help documentation:

Getting started with Zoom Scheduler
For issues with Zoom, fill out a ticket request form.

For Committee Project Sites:

0365 SharePoint/ Teams/ MS Groups

Brief description: SharePoint, Teams and Microsoft Groups are the 0365 collaboration software applications, best used for intranet and departmental shared work.

Link to application: Applications available from the outlook.office.com app launcher. Teams is available for download.

Tools available:

Teams: video meetings and webinars, chat, shared files (integrated with SharePoint), team notebook, Planner app and other add-on applications.

SharePoint: SharePoint is a web-based collaboration and document management platform within Microsoft 365 for the creation of internal websites for storing, organizing, sharing, and accessing information from any device. The primary use of SharePoint can be for file and document management within a secure, cloud-based environment. SharePoint offers levels of security around file sharing and access permissions.

Microsoft Groups: This app is also available from 0365 app launcher. Departments can create private groups and automated listservs. Individuals can also conduct searches to find other campus-related groups. SharePoint sites and Teams can be automatically created once a group is created.

Links to help documentation and contact:

SHAREPOINT

SharePoint screen steps:

Getting Started w/ SharePoint

Create a document library in SharePoint

Create a list in SharePoint

Share SharePoint files or folders in Microsoft 365

Edit & manage permissions for a SharePoint list or library

Set up your computer to sync SharePoint Server on-premises files

Customize the navigation on your team site

Sync files with OneDrive in Windows
SharePoint MS Videos:

What is SharePoint?

Find and Follow Sites and News

Create a Team

Add or remove a news post

Sharepoint LinkedIn Learning Videos:
Sharepoint Basics
Microsoft Collaboration Applications found in 0365

GROUPS

Microsoft Groups:

Intro to Microsoft Groups

What’s the difference between MS Outlook Contact and Groups

TEAMS

Videos

Teams YouTube channel

Getting Started with Teams Playlist

General Documentation

MS Teams Overview

For issues with these software applications, please fill out a service request form.

For Student Interest Sites & Club Project Sites:

Hawklink

Brief description: Hawklink is RWU’s student engagement platform

Link to application: https://hawklink.rwu.edu/

Tools available: Event management, Student communications (announcements and email), file management, generates co-curricular transcripts for students, calendar, attendance tracking

Links to help documentation and contact:

Primary contact: Adrianne Harris aharris@rwu.edu

Video overview: Hawklink overview

For Other Collaboration Sites:

Teams for Education (see above for collaboration functions)

Brief description: In addition to the collaborative functions that Teams offers, Teams for ed can serve as platform where one can create a classroom, add assignments, tests and quizzes, and distribute grades. MS Teams also has many apps that can be plugged into the Teams interface, available through the apps widget.