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How do I use Manage Dates?

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Manage Dates

Manage Dates can be used to view the dates (Due Date, Start Date and End Date) that have been set for items under Content and Activities. You can change the dates for an individual item, for multiple items at once, and add or remove items from the Calendar. You can also view and change dates in the calendar, announcements and grade items.

  • The benefit of Manage Dates is that it allows you to change all the dates from one central place. This is useful when you have copied a course to a new semester or year. You can also see which items are visible to students and under what conditions they are visible.
  • You can use Bulk Offset Dates to move course components to the next period or semester. This option is also useful when you have imported a course or course components from a different course, because you now can easily set the dates of these components. 

1. Navigate to Administration in the navbar of your course.
2. Click Course Admin.

  • Click Site Resources below Manage Dates.

You will see a long list of all of the items in your course.

  1. You can change the start date and end date of the entire course below Course Duration. Note this will only make the course visible or invisible in Brightspace for students.
  2. Select specific course components you want to display below Filter by Tool.
    • Select the desired tool(s) and click Apply Filter.
  3. Use Show Advanced Filter Options to filter for names, dates (Due, Start, or End Date), duration and Calendar status.
  4. The table shows the (filtered) course components. You can sort the components in each column. To do this, click on the title of the column (Type, Name, Due Date, Start Date, End Date, Days, Calendar, Visibility Status). Please note that you cannot sort Other Dates. In this column you can see the date you have created a submission view or rapport for a quiz or survey.
  5. Apart from managing data, you can use Manage Dates to open each course component. Click the name of the component to do this. A new window will open with the page to edit this component. 

Bulk Offset Dates

You can use Manage Dates to edit the dates of course components, but you can also move the dates to an earlier or later date. To do this, use Bulk Offset Dates. Here, you can say how many days and ours the component(s) have to move back or forward in time.

Before you select the course components you want to edit, we advise you to filter on date.

When you filter on dates, it is advised to filter on Due, Start or End Date separately. If you use multiple filters at the same time, you will only see the items that meet all of these conditions.

  • Click Show Advanced Filter Options. Some additional filters will appear, including Due Date, Start Date and End Date.
  1. Below Due, Start and End Date you will find several options: Before, Between, After, Equal to and Blank. To move all Start Dates within a course, choose the option Before.
  2. Click Now. You are now filtering on all the items with a start date before today. If you imported/copied a course you will (probably) see all components of the course. You can also enter a date, for example when you also want to see components with a future start date.
  3. Click Apply Filter.
  1. Select the desired components. You can select all filtered components at once by clicking on the square on the left top of the table.
  2. Click Bulk Offset Dates. A new window will open.
  • Select the dates you want to offset. Note that all dates are selected by default.
  • Select one of the following options:
    • Offset by Direction and Range: use this option when you know how many days and hours you want to offset the components, calculated from the date you have entered.
    • Calculate Range Between Two Dates: use this option when you do not know how many days and hours you want to offset the components, but you do know between which two dates.

When you move course components to a new semester or when you move dates from an imported course, it can be useful to offset all dates (so make sure all dates are selected). Because you are not editing the dates to a new and set date, but rather a specific amount of days forward, the structure of the course will remain the same. Course components for example which are released only a week or a few weeks after the course has started, will still be released at that point of the course even if you have changed the dates. 

Offset by Direction and Range:

  1. Use Days and Hours in the drop-down menu to select whether you want to move the dates and time forward (Forward) or backward (Backward).
  2. Enter how many days or hours you want to offset the components using Range.
  3. Click Save. The new data will be set up for all selected components.

Calculate Range Between Two Dates:

  1. Use From to choose the time and date from when you want to move the components. Note that it is useful to use the start date of the old course.
  2. Choose a second date and time. The system will then calculate the number of days and hours. Note that you have to use the start date for the new (current) course here.
  3. Click Save to save the changes. The new data will be set up for all selected components.

If you start a new course on a different day of the week than the old course, dates could end up being on weekends.

Bulk Edit Dates

If you want to change all old dates to the same new Due, Start or End Date, you can do so by using Bulk Edit Dates. You can also use Bulk Edit Dates to give future components a date. When you use this option you have to filter for the right items with the Advanced Filter Options (just like you would when using Bulk Offset Dates).

  • Select the desired components. You can select all filtered components at once by clicking the square at the top left of the table.
  • Click Bulk Edit Dates. A new window will open.
  1. Select the dates you want to set.
  2. Click Set in the drop-down menu to set up the new date or click Remove to remove the date.
  3. Enter the desired date and time.
  4. Select Display in Calendar if you want to display the selected course components in the calendar, or to remove them from the calendar.
  5. Click Save to save the changes.
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