Brightspace Intelligent Agents: Digital tools humanizing Online Learning
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B.C.’s Online Learning ecosystem includes 37 Provincial Online Learning Schools and 29 District Online Learning Schools and supports over 75,000 students taking online courses across the province. School administrators, educators and school staff are implementing new, exciting ways to engage and build thriving online learning communities.
Today, the Online Learning team shares how new tools are making online learning a better experience for teachers and students alike.
A dynamic Online Learning ecosystem
On July 1, 2023, the Ministry of Education and Child Care introduced a new Online Learning model that provides flexible learning options for equitable access to high-quality online learning experiences. This new model included the implementation of a provincial Learning Management System (LMS) called Brightspace and within two years, school districts, independent school authorities and First Nations-operated schools in B.C. have launched over 60 Brightspace sites.
Most B.C. students, including many who live in remote regions of the province, now have equitable access to online learning. The ministry’s Online Learning team provides ongoing support to all online schools and brick-and-mortar schools using Brightspace to support in-person learning.
Brightspace provides an integrated set of tools to facilitate design and development of engaging content, effective learning activities, marking and assessment of student progress and communicating with students and families. Today, Brightspace tools are enabling a streamlined approach to the delivery of high-quality, engaging online learning.
Learning spaces that promote relationships and connection
An LMS is a bit like a schoolhouse, with digitized learning spaces to maximize student-to-teacher interaction. Brightspace provides tools to enable virtual check-ins to say hello and to offer words of encouragement, virtual spaces to express gratitude and check progress, and reminders to keep students engaged. These interaction-driven activities are important for building online community, strong relationships and sustained engagement.
Continuously improving student success in online learning means recognizing the necessity of the “human touch” in virtual spaces. Using digital tools to automate some rote tasks in online delivery can create more focused time for individualized learning, differentiated learning and innovative educational practices. That’s where Brightspace Intelligent Agents come in.
Automation catalysts for Online Learning success
Intelligent Agents (IAs) allow teachers to automate certain functions in Brightspace based on specific criteria. For example, a teacher can set an IA that emails students a congratulatory message when they complete a major project. Intelligent Agents can provide the teacher with a list of students who have not logged in for a few days, or flag when a student misses a deadline.
An active Community of Practice (CoP) for online learning in B.C., facilitated by the Online Learning team, is led by online school administrators, LMS technical leads for the district or independent school authority and other school staff. A core group of the CoP is the LMS Technical Community, chaired by Trevor Armstrong from the qathet school district. Trevor shared that members use Brightspace IAs for a variety of purposes and find them highly effective in supporting students and teachers.
“One of the more common uses of IAs in the province is to reduce ‘overwhelm’ by limiting the number of course items students gain access to, especially when first introduced to the course,” said Trevor. “By using IAs to selectively make lessons and assessments visible as students complete course milestones, students only see a handful of new activities at a time.” Specific settings can also connect IAs to mastery criteria, before allowing a student to move on to a subsequent learning activity.
These use cases demonstrate how automation technology supports effective learning in multiple ways. Additionally, workflows are streamlined since the course administrator or teacher only needs to set up the initial functionality of the IAs, while ongoing user support is automated.
Provincial Online Learning School case study
Navigate – North Island Distance Education (NIDES) is a Provincial Online Learning School located in the Comox Valley School District. It supports students throughout B.C. and offers “unique and flexible learning options for every student that focus on each student’s unique interests and abilities.” NIDES has standardized seventeen different Brightspace IAs in all courses. Other Brightspace IAs are used at teacher discretion and are course specific.
For NIDES, IAs are an effective tool to support communication, to help students navigate the course and stay on track, to automate changes in student roles (from pre-activation learner, to active learner, to inactive) and to track inactivity.
Automated emails triggered by specific conditions can be sent to any combination of students, auditors, teachers and clerical staff, or teachers can follow up with a list of students the IA compiles. IAs streamline the process of identifying students whose engagement has dropped off and can send automated, personalized messages to encourage re-engagement. This helps teachers keep their class lists current and direct personalized support where it is most effective.
Some specific examples of IA tasks include:
- Sending a welcome email that introduces the course teacher
- Emailing students that are not active in a course
- Unlocking additional course content
- Listing names of students that are struggling in their courses
With the support of Brightspace IAs, teachers can reach out and communicate personally with students and parents. Using IAs to complete standardized tasks allows increased human connection and support for students.
A continuous improvement journey
Brightspace IAs are tools that help humanize Online Learning interactions in the most sustainable ways. IAs enable continuous improvement, which is at the “heart” of the Online Learning Accountability and Quality Assurance process that commenced in 2024.
With this continuous improvement lens, the future of Online Learning in B.C. is bright. Harnessing human ingenuity in tandem with digital tools, all students in B.C., no matter where they reside, will have equitable access to high quality Online Learning experiences.
To learn more about Online Learning in B.C. and to search for courses offered by Provincial Online Learning Schools, visit Online Learning B.C.