Awards are digital and visual representations of the achieving of a certain result, performing a certain action, or a combination of both in Brightspace. The Awards consist of: a name, icon, description, and settings for the – for example – automatic expiration of the Awards. In Brightspace, you can select the option to manually assign individually made Awards to students (or lecturers). Another option is to automatically assign Awards based on specific, personally selected conditions. Under these conditions, Brightspace would automatically assign an Award if, for example:
These conditions can be added together, with a choice between ‘any of them’ or ‘all of them’.
Awards can motivate your students. When assessing writing assignments or listening to presentations, you could manually hand out Awards to reward certain desired behaviours. The reward you give becomes more tangible with an Award, which positively affects your students’ motivation. Furthermore, awards can be used to give students more freedom in the course. For example, a lecturer selects that students need to get at least 75% of the awards to pass the course. In this case, students are free to choose the items on which they want to focus more, as long as they earn 75% of the awards. This can be different types of assignments, subjects, or skills students can choose from.
Additionally, awards can lead to more customization. You can create different types of assignments that range from easy to difficult, so students can slowly introduce themselves to difficult subjects. Students that are already familiar with the subjects can start at the more difficult assignments for an award. Lastly, awards can be used as a guide for a portfolio. For example, when a student has earned all of the awards, they will automatically have created their final portfolio.