Brightspace Frequently Asked Questions
Check out our newly updated Brightspace FAQs! This list runs through the most common questions the Brightspace Support Team gets throughout the year. If you have any questions not listed here, be sure to contact our Support team for assistance.
Support Schedule
The 五一茶馆儿 Brightspace Instructional Technologists are available for support between 8 AM and 4 PM Monday through Friday. Any emails received after 4 PM will be addressed when our team returns to normal support at 8 AM the following business day. While we鈥檙e out, we encourage you to utilize our On-Demand Resources to answer any questions that arise.
Accurate information about enrollments in credit-bearing courses at Vanderbilt is important for a variety of administrative functions, including financial aid, transcripting, and compliance.聽 The central repository of such information on campus is the student information system (SIS) overseen by the Office of the University Registrar.聽 (Most students and faculty know the SIS through its campus-facing interface, YES.)聽 Brightspace course enrollments, including student enrollments and instructor and teaching assistant assignments, are updated several times daily from feeds from the SIS.
The following policies regarding course enrollments are intended to maintain the accuracy of enrollment information in the SIS.聽 Please note that these policies apply only to Brightspace courses generated by SIS integration, that is, courses on Brightspace that reflect the credit-bearing courses seen on YES.
- An individual with the 鈥渋nstructor鈥� role in a Brightspace course can add other individuals with Brightspace accounts who are marked as 鈥渋nstructors鈥� by the SIS integration, by contacting the EdTech Team (brightspace@vanderbilt.edu, 615-322-0200) for assistance. Also note that if a course has an official co-instructor not reflected on YES, this should be brought to the Registrar鈥檚 attention.
- Instructors cannot add students to their courses on Brightspace. Instructors who wish to give access to their Brightspace course to an officially enrolled or auditing student should submit a request to聽academicscheduling@vanderbilt.edu聽where the request will be handled by the University Registrar鈥檚 Office.
- Teaching assistants (TAs) will be handled similarly to student enrollments given the need to maintain accurate TA information in the SIS. An instructor cannot add an undergraduate student, graduate student, or staff member as a teaching assistant in their Brightspace course. Instructors who wish to do so should submit a request through the聽聽hosted by the Office of the University Registrar.
In some schools, associate deans with Brightspace administrative privileges can field requests for adding students or TAs to individual courses.聽 These associate deans will work out appropriate procedures for doing so in consultation with the Institute for the Advancement of Higher Education (AdvancED) and the University Registrar.
Please note that for Brightspace courses not generated by the SIS integration (for instance, non-credit courses like the teaching certificate seminars offered by AdvancED, or ad hoc 鈥渃ourses鈥� set up to support research lab groups), an individual with an 鈥渋nstructor鈥� role in such a course can add anyone with a Brightspace account to any role within that course.聽 In these cases, information about these 鈥渃ourses鈥� is not maintained in the SIS, and so enrollments in Brightspace are not subject to any limitations.
Updated March 4, 2025.