Pulse App

Brightspace Pulse is a mobile app that will help you stay connected and on track with your courses in onQ. It provides one easy view of course Calendars, Readings, Assignments, Evaluations, Grades, and News. The app can help know when to submit assignments, and when to prepare for tests. Real-time alerts will let you know when classes are canceled, rooms are moved, or new/updated course content and grades are made available. The schedule view and weekly visualization provides you with a quick, at-a-glance view of what is due today, this week, and later in the term across all their courses.

You can use the Pulse App to:

  • See all the important dates and deadlines for each course
  • Mark activities as complete
  • Anticipate busiest times with a quick glance
  • Receive the latest grades, course content, and Announcements
  • Share updates via email, text messages, and social media
  • Enter events and deadlines
  • View course details and customize how much assignments and tests are worth
  • Seamlessly log in to onQ via a browser to complete tasks

Brightspace Pulse is compatible with Brightspace platform 10.5.1 and higher.

Download Brightspace Pulse for iOS (Apple store).
Download Brightspace Pulse for Android (Google Play store).

Note: Brightspace Pulse is optimized on the following mobile devices:

  • Android 4.4 or later in U.S. English from any global Google Play store on tablets or phones
  • iOS 9.0 or later in U.S. English from any global Apple App Store®on the following devices:
    • iPhone 4s
    • iPhone 5
    • iPhone 5c
    • iPhone 5s
    • iPhone SE
    • iPhone 6
    • iPhone 6 Plus
    • iPhone 6s
    • iPhone 6s Plus
    • iPod touch (5th and 6th generation)

Log In to Pulse

  1. Tap the Brightspace Pulse icon.
  2. Learn more about Brightspace Pulse by swiping left/right or proceed to the next step by tapping Next.
  3. Tap Pick Your School. You can quickly find your institution by turning on your device's geolocation service.
    • Note: Brightspace Pulse searches for all institutions within a 55km / 34 mile radius from your current location. The list may not include all institutions that use the Brightspace platform. If there are no search results, you can type the URL for your institution's Learning Management System (LMS).
  4. Log in with your credentials just as you would for onQ and then tap Log In.
    Brightspace Pulse loads your course data by retrieving calendar events from Content, Checklist, Discussions, Assignments, and Quizzes in onQ.

    "Screenshot of Pulse App Android Login Menu"

Log Out of Pulse

  1. Tap the Settings icon
  2. Tap Sign Out.

Using Pulse

  1. The graph in Week view displays which days are the busiest.
    • Navigate weeks by swiping left/right or using Apple VoiceOver. As you navigate, the activity list updates.
    • Tapping Today displays the current day.
    • Tapping a day updates the activity list.
       
  2. Toggle your view by tapping the Schedule view icon or Week view icon. When the graph in Week view is visible, the activity list only shows activities for the selected day. The Schedule view shows all activities in the activity list for the duration of your courses.
  3. The activity summary displays how many activities you completed this week.
  4. The activity list displays the following activities: To-dosReadingsAssignments, or Evaluations.
    • Navigate activities by swiping up or down.
    • Swiping left/right moves to the next/previous week. As you navigate, the graph (if visible) updates.
    • Tapping an activity displays detailed information and actions you can perform.
    • Tapping a checkmark icon marks the activity as complete.
       
  5. View Course Admin names or filter by courses in the graph and activity list by tapping Courses.
  6. View course content updates from onQ by tapping Updates.
  7. Fill in any gaps in your schedule by tapping the Add activity icon.
  8. Tap the Settings icon to:
    • Filter by Courses and Activities.
    • Log out, provide feedback, or view the version number.

  1. The graph in Week view indicates which days are the busiest.
    • Navigate weeks by swiping left/right. As you navigate, the activity list updates.
    • Tapping the Calendar icon displays the current day.
    • Tapping a day updates the activity list.
    • Streamline your view by tilting your device to landscape view, hiding the activity list.
       
  2. The activity summary displays how many activities you completed this week.
  3. The activity list displays the following activities: To-dosReadingsAssignments, or Evaluations.
    • Navigate activities by swiping up/down.
    • Swiping left/right moves to the next/previous week. As you navigate, the graph (if visible) updates.
    • Tapping an activity displays detailed information and actions you can perform.
    • Tapping a checkmark icon marks the activity as complete.
       
  4. Fill in any gaps in your schedule by tapping the Add activity icon.
  5. View course content updates from onQ by tapping the Notifications icon.
  6. Tap the Settings icon to:
    • Toggle your view by tapping the Schedule icon or Week icon. When the graph in the Week view is visible, the activity list only shows activities for the selected day. Hiding the graph shows all activities in the list for the duration of your courses.
    • Course Admin names or filter by Courses and Activities.
    • Log out, provide feedback, or view the version number.

Adding an Activity

To fill in any gaps in your schedule or to add your own personal activities, you can add an activity.

  1. Tap the Add activity icon
  2. Tap an activity type: To-dosReadingsAssignments, or Evaluations.
  3. Fill out the necessary fields.
    • Note: You must associate the activity with a relevant course in onQ.
       
  4. Tap Save.

Viewing and Editing an Activity

From the activity list, tapping an activity displays more details.

You can easily distinguish between personal activities you created in Brightspace Pulse and activities created by your instructors in onQ. A personal activity is identified by a Personal label next to the activity title and course.

Activity details include:

  • Date due.
  • Time.
  • Grade worth. This value is initially empty and must be set by the learner.
  • Activity notes, for example, special instructions for an assignment.
  1. Tap Open in Safari (iOS) or Open in Browser (Android) to open the activity in onQ, for example, an exam in the Quizzes tool.
  2. Tap Edit to edit the activity details.
    • Note: When editing an activity created in onQ, the Title and Grade worth fields are the only editable fields.
       

Mark an Activity as Complete

After completing an activity such as an assignment or reading, you can mark the activity as complete. The activity summary displays how many activities have been completed in the current week.

From the activity list, mark an activity as complete by tapping a checkmark. To provide a sense of accomplishment, a completion message displays.

Tapping a checkmark marks the activity as incomplete.

Brightspace Pulse displays the following activity categories, which are mapped from data in onQ:

  • Assignment: assignment submissions folder, discussion (forum and topic), checklist, survey
  • Evaluation: quiz, grade item
  • Reading: content topic
  • To-Do: None. A To-Do activity is personal data created in Brightspace Pulse by the learner.

By default, courses in Brightspace Pulse display the names and codes that appear in onQ, which might not be meaningful to you. For example, if you are enrolled in multiple computer science courses, the course name and code CISC 235 might not be helpful when viewing multiple notifications and activities. You can personalize the names of courses that you are enrolled in, for example, changing CISC 235 to Data Structures.

Note the following:

  • Personalized course names must be between 1 and 128 characters. When editing a course name, the current and maximum character count display underneath the name.
  • Although you can have duplicate, personalized names for your courses, D2L recommends creating unique names to easily identify all of your courses.
  • Personalized course names are propagated to all of your devices and are retained after logging out. Any personalized course names do not appear in onQ or on the devices of other learners enrolled in the same courses.
  • The Courses list displays a maximum of 25 courses that you recently enrolled in (based on the course start dates).

To edit a course name:

  1. Tap Settings (Android) or Courses (iOS).
  2. Under Courses, tap the Information icon beside the course name you want to edit.
  3. Tap the Edit icon (Android) or the course name (iOS).
  4. Do one of the following:
    • To add a personalized course name, type the new name. You can clear the existing name by tapping the Restore icon.
    • To restore a course name to the name that displays in onQ, tap the Restore icon. The original course name displays in the background.
       
  5. Tap Save (Android) or Done (iOS).

You can see important dates in the graph and activity list by filtering by one or more courses and activities. For example, you can filter by a specific course and assignment activities to display outstanding work. By default, filtering is on for all courses and activity types; however, filtering is off for graded activities (Show graded activities only is unchecked).

Note: Filters are retained after closing Brightspace Pulse; however, logging out or clearing the app returns to the default settings.

  1. Tap Courses (iOS) or the Settings icon (Android).
  2. Tap the courses and/or activities you want to filter by. A checkmark indicates that filtering is on for the course or activity, displaying that data in the graph and activity list.
  3. Tap Done (iOS) or swipe to the left (Android).

Brightspace Pulse provides you with notifications (updates) that offer you tips and keep you informed about course-related news, updates, and grades from Announcements, Grades, and Content in onQ. These notifications show up on the Updates (iOS) and Notifications (Android) screens in Brightspace Pulse.

Note: After logging in for the first time, course notifications do not appear until new updates are created in onQ.

To view notifications, tap Updates (iOS) or the Notifications icon (Android).

When an instructor adds or updates the Course Overview document in onQ, you receive notifications in Brightspace Pulse and the onQ minibar.

In onQ, you can optionally choose to receive instant notifications via email or text message when the Course Overview document is updated.

When an instructor wants to communicate changes to course updates, information, and reminders via course announcements, you receive a course announcement in Brightspace Pulse.

Introductory notifications

When you log in to Brightspace Pulse for the first time, introductory notifications appear. Each notification provides a tip on how Brightspace Pulse can keep you up to date with the latest grades and Announcements for your courses.

Created or updated course content

To keep you up to date with course content, Brightspace Pulse sends notifications when course content is created or updated in onQ.

You can view new and updated content associated with a notification, viewing the content directly in Brightspace Pulse. This also applies to content where a due date has been associated with the item.

To view the content, tap the notification and then tap Open. If there is no file URL available, tap Open in browser, which opens the content in onQ.

Created or updated Course Overview documents

When an instructor adds or updates the Course Overview document in onQ, you receive notifications in Brightspace Pulse and the onQ minibar.

In onQ, you can optionally choose to receive instant notifications via email or text message when the Course Overview document is updated.

Course announcements

When an instructor wants to communicate changes to course updates, information, and reminders via course announcements, you receive a course announcement in Brightspace Pulse.

New Grades

When an instructor enters grades in a grade book, you receive grade updates in Brightspace Pulse.

View grades in Brightspace Pulse by tapping the notification and then swiping left to reveal the grade.

Sharing notifications with others

You can share notifications with others by tapping the share icon. For example, you can share a course content notification with other learners via instant message, email, or social media.

Troubleshooting

If Queen's University does not display in the list when you search, you can add it manually using its URL onq.queensu.ca. This field is available when there are zero search results or if you choose to disable your mobile device's geolocation service.

It's possible that the courses you're enrolled in haven't started yet or they don't have any dates associated with them.

When you initially log in to Brightspace Pulse, no course content notifications appear until new updates come from onQ; however, introductory notifications appear. The Brightspace Pulse app provides you with notifications when Announcements are created in your courses and when you receive new grades from your instructors.

While Brightspace Pulse can retrieve data from your courses in onQ, it cannot determine percentage values for individual activities. Percentage values must be manually added by learners in Brightspace Pulse.

Course content updates only appear on the Updates screen if the instructor checks the Notify students that the content has changed option for the updated content in onQ. Contact your instructor for more information.