Course Management - Using the Manage Dates tool

Many faculty make use of Manage Dates to review and make date changes to your course prior to semester start. The tool allows you to see all of the dates in the same location and allows you to make quick edits from one screen can be helpful when the semester schedule needs to be adjusted.

Overview

The purpose of this document is to provide an overview and guidance on how to use the Managing Dates Feature in Brightspace.

Many faculty make use of Manage Dates to review and make date changes to your course prior to semester start. The tool allows you to see all of the dates in the same location and allows you to make quick edits from one screen can be helpful when the semester schedule needs to be adjusted.

This document is divided into multiple sections:

• Locating Manage Dates in Brightspace
• Instructions on how to filter content
• Instructions on how to change a single date
• Instructions on how to change dates in bulk

Instructions

Locating the Manage Date Tool

1. Located in the Minibar across the top, under Course Tools, choose Course Admin.

2. When in Course Administration, look for Manage Dates 

   Tip: You can sort this page by category or by name to make links easier to find.

Filtering Content 

Viewing the Manage Dates page can be overwhelming at first glance because it shows every single item in your course.  However, towards the top of the page there is a filter tool that allows you to filter by content type. To use this feature: 

1. Check Specific Tools.
2. Check the Content type or Course Activity box(es) you want to view. 
3. Press Apply Filter.

Take note that there is also a Show Advanced Filter Option which allows you to further filter by name, due date, start date, end date, duration or calendar status.

Changing a Single Date

The blue dashes allow you to edit the information for that content.

• To change a single Due Date, click on the first blue dash. 
• To change the Start and/or End Dates click on one of the dashes in either the second or third columns.

• Edit Due Date option

Note: Some items will have N/A for the Due Date.  These items can either not have Due Dates, or in the can of Discussions, the Due Date has to be set-up in a different location in Brightspace and does not interact with the Date Manager.

• Edit Availability option

Changing Multiple Dates at Once

To change dates at once, check the box next to the items you want to adjust.  Note that there is a “super” checkbox at the top to select all of the items. Now determine if you would like to use Bulk Edit Dates or Bulk Offset Dates (both are explained below). 

Hint: If you are using the filter it will only adjust dates for those materials.

• The options for Bulk Edit Dates include:

• The options for Bulk Offset Dates include:

  1. Offset by direction and range: this allows you to move dates and hours forward or backward.  So for example, If I set Days Forward, put 5 in range, and click save, it will move the dates forward by 5 days.  Conversely, if you set the Direction to Backward, it would move the date back 5 days.
     

  2. Calculate range between two dates:  This is a tool to help you with the Offset Dates.  So for example, if I am taking a Summer Course from 2022, I know it started on May 23rd.  I also know Summer 2023 starts on May 20.  If I put these two dates into the calculator, it will tell you how many days should be entered into the Offset tool.  From there you can fine tune the dates.

Need Help?

Need additional information or assistance? Contact CTS.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. State University of New York at Oswego Division of Extended Learning and Campus Technology Services