Replacement strings in Brightspace courses

Instructors use replacement strings in Brightspace courses to customize and personalize the text displayed to students within the Brightspace course. When instructors enter a predefined code (e.g., {FirstName}) in the appropriate location in the text, Brightspace displays the text with that student's value inserted. For example, "Nice job {FirstName}!" would be displayed as "Nice job Ken!" for Ken and "Nice job Susan!" for Susan.

Where can replacement strings be used?

Although there are tool-specific limitations, replacement strings can be added to most text instructors add using the Brightspace HTML Editor. They are particularly useful for the following:

• Announcements
• Homepage widgets
• Bulk grade feedback

Where can't replacement strings be used?

• Email messages. Replacement strings won't work in email messages sent from the Brightspace Email Tool. The text containing the replacement string must be displayed within Brightspace. Email messages sent from Brightspace are opened in Outlook.
• Course content. Don't use replacement strings anywhere in the Content area of the course. This includes content module and topic descriptions, content topics created using the HTML Editor, and the course overview. Some replacement strings will appear to return proper values and some will not be replaced at all. Those that are will not work if you copy the content into another course.

Useful replacement strings

Note that UserName, OrgDefinedId, FirstName, and LastName cannot be used in the Content Tool.

• {OrgName} - Replaced with "Winona State University"
• {OrgUnitName} - Replaced with the name of the course (e.g., "Intro to Educational Tech (EDFD 352-01)")
• {OrgUnitCode} - Replaced with the Course ID (e.g., "20205000239")
• {UserName} - Replaced with the student's StarID username (e.g., "ab1234cd")
• {OrgDefinedId} - Replaced with the student's Tech ID
• {FirstName} - Replaced with the student's first name
• {LastName} - Replaced with the student's last name

More wiki articles

• Personalize Brightspace announcements using replacement strings
• Replacement strings in Brightspace courses

External links

• Automatically customize course content using replace strings

 

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