How Do I Use The Pulse App? - Student

Student / Brightspace / Communication: apps, time table, course guide How do I use the Pulse app?

Updated on Nov 25, 2022

PulseCoursesNotificationsUpcomingMobile browser

Heading anchor Pulse

Pulse is an app for Brightspace users. It can be used by both teachers and students. You can use Pulse to view your courses and course components, upcoming activities, and Notifications both on your phone and tablet.

Please note: This instruction is made based on an iOS device. The interface of an Android device might differ from the images below. Pulse will operate in your phone's default language. You can change the language settings for Pulse by going to your phone settings, then Pulse, and then changing the preferred language (iOS).

Do you use an iPhone? Then third party links (such as weblectures and Kaltura) are not accessible in the Pulse App. What you can do is navigate to your mobile browser within the app. The settings for Safari with regard to cookies then need to be adjusted. Read more in the article: How do I solve problems with external programs with (mobile) use of Brightspace?

• Download the Pulse app in the Playstore or Apple Store.
• Open the app.
• Select your school (on iOS: Pick my school). Type Radboud University in the search engine and click Radboud University when it comes up. You will be navigated to the Login screen of Brightspace.
• Log in with your Radboud account.

1. You will automatically be navigated to Courses, the window that contains all of your courses.
2. Select a course to see which items it contains. Note that is it not possible to filter your courses.
3. Click Notifications to view your notifications. If you have new notifications, an orange dot will appear.
4. Click Planned (Gepland) to look at past and upcoming events. You can also add activities.
5. If you click the pin icon you can pin courses, just like with the desktop version. If you click the pin icon, the course will appear at the top of your course list. This can help you organise your courses.

Heading anchor Courses

• Click the Courses tab to view a course.

You will see two tabs when you open a course. The first one contains the Content page of the course. If you would like to navigate to Course Home or Activities, open the course in your mobile browser.

The second tab, Score, displays the achieved scores within the course.

Heading anchor Notifications

1. Click Notifications (Meldingen).
2. You will see the tabs Updates and Subscriptions (Aanmeldingen), which offer the following options:
   • Under Updates you will see the changes made in the content of a course.
   • Under Subscriptions you will see notifications of the discussion topics your are following.

Below Subscriptions you will only see the text that has been added to the discussion. For images and other media you will see a notification in the text, but you will still have to open the discussion in the browser.

You can choose which push notifications you want to receive from Pulse. To receive them, change the settings of your phone to receive notifications from Pulse. Pulse also needs to be able to refresh while running in the background. Next, you can choose which notifications you want to receive in the settings of the Pulse app. You can open the settings by going to the Radboud logo in the upper left corner of Pulse and then selecting settings.

You can choose between notifications on:

• Content Overview documents: new content that has been added by teachers to the Overview of a course;
• Course announcements: announcements on important updates or reminders;
• Grades: you will get an update if a teachers has added grades to the grade book.
• Discussions: you will receive a notification if you are tagged in an Discussion.

It is also possible to receive notifications via email. You can enable this in the Pulse settings. You will be redirected to Brightspace.

Heading anchor Upcoming

If course information has been added to the Brightspace calendar, you can easily access it in Pulse.

1. Click Upcoming (Gepland).
2. Below the tab Work To Do you will find the activities for that week from Activities and Content (topics) you have added a due date for. The graph will show you how busy your week will be. Click on a day to see the activities from that day below the graph. Note that this is an overview of all activities in all courses.
3. Select an activity/event to open the details and to navigate to the Brightspace website.
4. The check mark behind an activity will show you whether you have completed it or not:
   • A light gray check mark means uncompleted.
   • A dark gray check mark means completed.
5. Below the tab Events (Gebeurtenissen) you will see the calendar items from your Calendar for the selected week. The graph will show you how busy you week will be for each day. Select a day to see the events for that day below the graph.
6. Click on the plus sign to create a new activity or event (for iOS this button will be on the top right of the screen). Then choose Event (Gebeurtenis) or Work To Do.

1. Name the activity or event.
2. Use the drop-down menu to select the course the event belongs to.
3. Enter the date and time of the activity/event.
4. If you are working on an activity, you can add a percentage that indicates how much the activity will weigh for the final course grade. If you are working on an event, you can add a location and notes.
5. Click Save.

Events you add yourself are personal and can therefore only be seen by you yourself. They will only be visible in Pulse, not when you use your browser to access Brightspace.

Heading anchor Mobile browser

Some of the items that are visible in the browser might be invisible in Pulse (this is the case for descriptions at Files for example.) You can, however, easily navigate to your mobile browser from Pulse.

If you open Pulse, you will land on the Courses tab. From here there are two ways you can navigate to your mobile browser:

1. Click the three dots icon in the top-right corner of your screen. Now click Launch Radboud University Homepage (De startpagina van Radboud University starten). You will navigate to the personal homepage of your mobile browser.
2. Click Radboud University Homepage. You will navigate to the personal homepage of your mobile browser.

You can also navigate directly to a certain course.

• Click the desired course.

1. Click the three dots icon in the top-right corner of your screen. Then click Launch Radboud University Homepage (De startpagina van Radboud University starten) You will be navigated to the Course Home of the selected course in your mobile browser.
2. You can also click Course Homepage. You will be navigated to the Course Home of the selected course in your mobile browser.

Checklist item Previous Article How does ReadSpeaker work? Next Article Checklist item Where can I find the timetable for my course?

Brightspace

Basic settings: logging in and getting around 3

• How can I enroll for self-study modules in Brightspace?
• How do I log in to Brightspace?
• How do I navigate within Brightspace?

Basic settings: course access and pinning 3

• How do I register for courses in Brightspace?
• Where do I find my courses and how do I pin/unpin them?
• What do I do when I have enrolled for a course, but cannot find it in Brightspace?

Basic settings: personal settings 5

• How do I customize my profile?
• How do I adjust my account settings?
• Which notifications can I turn on or off and how do I receive them per email?
• How do I receive email notifications about upcoming deadlines?
• How does ReadSpeaker work?

Communication: apps, time table, course guide 5

• How do I use the Pulse app?
• Where can I find the timetable for my course?
• Where can I find the prospectus page of my course?
• Does Brightspace work with any web browser?
• How do I solve problems with external programs when using Brightspace?

Course Home: announcements, calendar, bookmarks 7

• How do I dismiss or restore Announcements in Brightspace?
• How do I view Brightspace Announcements in the Student portal?
• How do I use the Calendar?
• How do I change my Calendar preferences?
• How do I sync my Calendar with other applications such as Gmail and how do I print it?
• How do I use Tasks in my agenda (Calendar)?
• How do I use bookmarks?

Content: Overview, Course Schedule and Table of Contents 4

• What can I do under Content?
• What can I find under Overview?
• What can I do with Table of Contents?
• What can I do with Course Schedule?

Activities: Assignments 6

• How do Assignments work?
• How do I submit/hand in an Assignment?
• How do I hand in a video assignment with Kaltura?
• How can I resubmit assignments?
• Where can I find previously submitted assignments?
• How can I view a rubric that a teacher uses to grade my work?

Activities: Discussions 3

• How do I use Discussions?
• How do I participate in a discussion?
• How can I collaborate with students on files in Brightspace?

Activities: Quizzes and Surveys 3

• How do I take a quiz?
• How do I take a Self Assessment?
• How do I fill out a survey?

Activities: Checklist 1

• How do I use Checklists?

Administration: groups, classlist 4

• How do I enroll into groups within a course?
• How can I see who participates in my course?
• How do I see which Brightspace groups there are and which group(s) I am in?
• How can I view my Attendance?

Video: Kaltura, Virtual Classroom, weblectures 13

• How does Kaltura work?
• How do I add a video to Kaltura?
• How do I edit a video in Kaltura?
• How does Kaltura Capture work?
• How do I download an uploaded video?
• How do I share a video with another person?
• How does Virtual Classroom work?
• How can I find a Virtual Classroom recording via Calendar?
• How do I use Virtual Classroom breakout room?
• How do I view weblectures?
• What do I do when I cannot view a weblecture link in Brightspace?
• What should I do when I cannot view weblectures in Internet Explorer?
• How do I add videos to the Course Gallery?

Feedback and assessment: Grades and Awards 2

• How do I view my grades in Brightspace (Grades)?
• How do Awards work and how can I see which Awards I have obtained?

Feedback and assessment: Assignments, Ouriginal, Quizzes, Discussions 4

• How do I view the assessment of a quiz?
• How do I view the assessment of a discussion?
• How do I view the assessment of an assignment?
• How do I process (inline)feedback with Annotations on Assignments?

Frequently Asked Questions 16

• Is Brightspace also available in Dutch?
• Will all course materials from Blackboard remain available?
• Where can I request a missing manual or guide?
• Is there a Brightspace support desk for students?
• Can I report a bug or an error in the system somewhere?
• Can teachers and other students see my name in Brightspace?
• Can I receive Brightspace notifications per email?
• Will Brightspace announcements and notifications be visible in the student portal?
• How can I send messages to other students through Brightspace?
• How can I send messages to my teacher through Brightspace?
• What is the policy regarding grades in Brightspace?
• What does the Pulse app do?
• How secure is Brightspace?
• What do the numbers mean in the course modules?
• What should be the title of my file?
• How do I log in to Blackboard?

ePortfolio: Basic functionalities 0 ePortfolio: Sharing documents 1

• How to manage the recipients of an item that I shared?

ePortfolio: Building an ePortfolio 1

• How do I use web documents to improve my presentation?

ePortfolio: Giving feedback 0 ePortfolio: Frequently asked questions 0

Other Resources

• Brightspace Student
• Osiris Student (NL)
• Ans Student
• Portflow Student
• Videotools Student
• Wooclap
• Persoonlijk Rooster
• Facultaire Osiris instructies voor Studenten
• Osiris Student (EN)
• Ans Student (EN)
• Portflow Student (EN)
• Videotools Student (EN)
• Wooclap (EN)
• Personal Schedule viewer

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