Using Atomic Search as an instructor (and other roles) in D2L/Brightspace

Instructors can search for all published and unpublished content in the courses that they are enrolled in.

Instructors can search for all published and unpublished content in the courses that they are enrolled in. Unpublished content will show a tag next to the title.

Figure 1: Published vs. unpublished content in the results list

LMS roles with similar permissions to an instructor can search for anything an instructor can search for. Some examples are:

• Course Designer
• Course Director
• TAs

Searching in a D2L/Brightspace Course

1. Click on Search in either the:
   A. Navbar placement (top left highlighted box, this is the global search),
   B. The widget placement (bottom right highlighted box, this is scoped to whatever level you are at, Global/Course),
   B. Or the javascript injection (in the image above on the top right. This is only available if your institution has the javascript management tool in D2L/Brightspace)
2. Type search terms and press enter.
   1. You can do wildcard searches (e.g., mus*) and phrase searches (e.g., “music history”)
3. Search results will display, including the title of the item, its location in the course, and a snippet showing the context in which your search terms were found. The icon next to each search result displays the type of item (e.g. page, syllabus, quiz).
4. Click on a search result to navigate to the content.

Search results in a D2L/Brightspace course depend on your permissions. Students see results in published content. Teachers and Admins see both published and unpublished content.

Filter results based on Terms (i.e Spring 2025)

After you have executed a search, a Term filter is displayed next to the search box. Click and select a term from the Term filter to narrow your search to courses in the selected terms.

Filter results based content type

• All types
• Topics
• Files
• Assignments
• Modules
• Quizzes
• Urls