KSU D2L Brightspace

Spring 2025 courses are available to faculty in D2L. Courses assigned in Owl Express will be available in D2L within 24 hours of being assigned in Owl Express.

Please note that students may access courses from the published course start date until 60 days past the course end date unless you edit these dates. Steps to edit start/end dates may be found by visiting the KSU Knowledge Base and searching keyword: D2L Start Date or D2L End Date. If you need additional assistance, please visit the KSU Service Portal to start a request or email service@kennesaw.edu.

At the time of this site update, 15-Week and 7-Week I are scheduled to begin 1/6/2025, and 7-Week II is scheduled to begin 3/3/2025. Please visit the KSU Academic Calendars page for most up-to-date information. 

Please note that because the 7-Week II part of term does not begin until 3/3/2025, students registered for that part of term will not see those courses in D2L until that date. 

Please note that students may access courses from the published course start date until 60 days past the course end date unless you edit these dates. If your students need access after 2/7/2025, you may wish to edit the end date of the course. 

Steps to edit start/end dates may be found by visiting the KSU Knowledge Base and searching keyword: D2L Start Date or D2L End Date. If you need additional assistance, please visit the KSU Service Portal to start a request or email service@kennesaw.edu. 

Owl Express courses will be available to instructors in D2L Brightspace approximately one month prior to the start of term. If needed, you may request a course shell for early course-building using the Course Shell Request Form.  Content can be copied from a non-Banner shell to a Banner shell using the steps found in KB0013844 (or visit the KSU Knowledge Base and search keyword: copy).

Note for new faculty: accounts are created in D2L at the same time that courses are loaded so you will not be able to log in to D2L until approximately one month prior to the start of term. If earlier access is required, you must complete a manual account request (more information in the D2L Account information section of this page). 

Course Shell Requests

Please use the Course Shell Request Form to request a non-Owl Express (non-credit) course for D2L Brightspace. To request an Owl Express course, please email the Registrar’s Office at registrar@kennesaw.edu. 

A course shell functions identically to a normal course, but has no start or end date, and no automated student enrollment functionality. The course instructor must handle participant enrollment. Course shells cannot be used for course credit-earning activities.

Course Reset Requests

In the case of content errors, UITS Learning Technologies administrators can perform a D2L course reset upon request. Course Reset will return the course back to an empty shell in a single, permanent action. This process purges all data and there is no restore. A key feature is that it will not affect user enrollments. To reduce the chance of unintentional deletions, the instructor of record must complete and submit the Course Reset Request Form.

Third-party Integration Requests for D2L Brightspace

Many third-party publishers and vendors offer integrations with the ability to connect to D2L Brightspace courses. University Information Technology Services (UITS) and Digital Learning Innovations (DLI) facilitate and support these integrations but require advance notice (one semester preferred) to ensure both successful implementation and compliance to university accessibility and quality requirements. All third-party integrations must be reviewed and approved before implementation.

Follow these steps to see if the third-party integration already exists in D2L Brightspace: 

• Log in to D2L and navigate to your course.
• Select Content from the Navbar.
• Choose an existing Module or add a new one by clicking Add a Module at the bottom of the module list.
• Click the Existing Activities button and check to see if the link appears in the list. If it does, the tool is already integrated.
• If the tool name does not appear in the Existing Activities list, select External Learning Tools from that list and check for the tool link.

If the tool name does not appear in the Existing Activities or External Learning Tools lists, please complete the D2L Third-party Tool Integration Request Form to begin the request process. UITS strives to complete each approved D2L tool integration request as quickly as possible; requests must be submitted one semester in advance.

Assignment to an Owl Express course will result in the automatic creation of the user’s account. Please allow 48 hours after instructor assignment or student registration for the account to appear.

If there will be no assignment in Owl Express, please use the D2L Manual User Account Creation form to request an account. Please see notes based on account type.

For Student Accounts
If the student account does not have a @students.kennesaw.edu email address, please email service@kennesaw.edu to request an email override before completing the D2L account request. Student visitors often do not have a student email address.

For Faculty/Staff Accounts
Faculty and staff must have a Buckley form with a current FERPA certificate on file with the Office of the Registrar before we can create a D2L account. FERPA training occurs in October each year or within 30 days of hiring, so a current certificate will be from your most recent assignment of FERPA training. We must verify this with the Office of the Registrar and the process can take a couple of days. We appreciate your patience. We cannot accept forms directly from faculty/staff.

If you know that these requirements have not yet been met and would like to get the process started, please see the following information:

1.  Please complete FERPA training found on OwlTrain.

You will need to login to the OwlTrain system with your KSU email address and Duo Authentication. You can find the FERPA training assignment under Compliance (click the squares to the left of your name) or under My Assignments on the home page. Please save a PDF of your FERPA certificate as you will need to upload it to the Buckley form. Instructions for locating a certificate may be found here or by visiting the KSU Knowledge Base and searching "OwlTrain certificate."

Important: If you do not see FERPA training, please check to see if you have a certificate dated October or newer. If you do, your training is current and you may attach that certificate to your Buckley form. If you have no certificate or your certificate dates from before October, please email service@kennesaw.edu to request that it be added to your account. If your start date is in the future, please ask your supervisor to request the training on your behalf. 

2.  Please complete the Buckley form found on the Security Forms page, and please note:

• Be sure to complete all indicated fields and click the FINISH button.
• Make sure your supervisor is expecting to sign the form as the links are time-sensitive.

Manual Enrollment of Instructor(s) to D2L Course (emergency)

Manual enrollment into a course should be performed by the instructor of the course whenever possible. Steps  are available by visiting the KSU Knowledge Base and searching "Classlist."

Enrollment by UITS of faculty or staff into an Owl Express course where the person is not the instructor of record will require the permission of the department chair or dean. A department chair may request enrollment of self and/or other instructor(s) using the Manual Enrollment of Instructor(s) to D2L Course form. A delegate of the chair may complete the form but must attach a PDF of an email showing the chair's permission for the requested enrollment. 

Enroll 20+ Participants to D2L Course Shell

Enrollment of fewer than 20 participants into a non-Owl Express course should be handled by the instructor of the course. Steps are available by visiting the KSU Knowledge Base and searching "Classlist."

You may use the Enroll 20+ Participants form to request assistance with bulk enrollment when you have 20 or more participants to enroll into a non-Owl Express (non-credit) course shell.

Please visit our Integrated Technologies page to see the latest news on the following tools:

• Anthology Ally
• Kaltura/MediaSpace
• ReadSpeaker
• Respondus
• SoftChalk
• Turnitin
• VoiceThread
• Zoom

For information about a publisher integration, scroll up to the Additional Instructor Information/Course Content-related Information section above and see the Third-party Integration Requests section.