📘 Faculty Dashboard Widget (D2L Brightspace)

This widget provides a central location for faculty to access tools, support links, and automated course-related processes inside D2L Brightspace. It's designed for use in a D2L custom homepage widget for instructors.

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✅ Features Included

The widget contains collapsible <details> sections for:

1. Faculty Training – Links to instructional video tutorials (YouTube).
2. D2L Webinars – Scheduled Brightspace webinars with links and registration.
3. Course Merge Request – Info and form for merging multiple sections into one D2L course.
4. Help Desk – Contact form, email, and phone for support.
5. Student Support System – Referral form for counseling and TLC support.
6. Attendance Tracking – Link to Faculty Self-Service portal.
7. Last Date of Attendance Info – Policy and drop form for non-attending students.
8. Submit Grades By – Dynamically displays final grade due dates for enrolled courses.
9. Add a ZZStudent (Demo Student) – Launches tool for adding demo student to active courses.
10. Create Sandbox Course – Widget form to create a sandbox and enroll instructor + ZZStudent.

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🧩 Intended Use

• Deployed as a custom HTML widget on the faculty D2L homepage.
• Responsive design using inline CSS (required by D2L to avoid being stripped).
• Allows instructors to access tools without navigating away from their homepage.

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🔐 Permissions Checklist (for Admins)

Some functionality requires the following D2L permissions:

Feature	Required Permissions
Create Sandbox Course	Course Creation, Enroll User, View My User Info, View Semesters
Add ZZStudent	Enroll User, View Course List, Create User (if creating ZZStudent)
Submit Grades By	View Enrollments, View Course Dates, Access CSV via Public API
Access to API Apps	Ensure appropriate IP range + CSRF token settings
View final grades due	Must have API access to: myenrollments, custom CSV file (hosted on D2L)

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🔌 API Calls Used

Submit Grades By Widget

• GET /d2l/api/lp/1.51/users/whoami – Get current user info
• GET /d2l/api/lp/1.47/enrollments/myenrollments/ – Retrieve user's active course enrollments
• GET /content/api-apps/important-dates/semester_dates.csv – Pull due dates from hosted CSV

Sandbox Course Creator

• GET /d2l/api/lp/1.47/users/whoami – Get instructor UserId
• POST /d2l/api/lp/1.49/courses/ – Create new sandbox course
• POST /d2l/api/lp/1.49/enrollments/ – Enroll instructor and student
• GET /d2l/api/lp/1.45/users/?userName= – Check if ZZStudent exists
• POST /d2l/api/lp/1.45/users/ – Create new ZZStudent (if needed)

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⚠️ Notes for Implementation

• D2L Brightspace widgets require inline CSS. Do not use <style> tags directly in the widget.
• If you need to use external CSS or JS, you must host it in a separate folder and link it via full URL.
• Avoid using script logic that requires external authentication unless running from an authenticated D2L session.

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📷 Preview

A screenshot of the expanded widget layout is included as widget-preview.png in the full ZIP download.

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🛠 Maintainer Notes

• All links and embedded tools should be updated each semester.
• Ensure instructors are not restricted by role when accessing merge forms or sandbox creators.
• The widget is safe to deploy to all faculty users, provided their roles have access to the required API scopes.

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Last Updated: August 2025