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What is First Day?
Barnes & Noble First Day is an inclusive access integration between Barnes & Noble and D2L Brightspace. This integration, as the name suggests, should allow students within the course access to their course materials on the first day of class. Course materials may include eBook, publisher content, or other third-party applications.
Important: Notes for Instructors
- This First Day link is required for student financial aid, it is a requirement from the federal government (34 CFR 668.164 - Disbursing Funds).
- The BN First Day link is important to get into place as early as possible, as it takes a day or two to activate and sync between your class site and Barnes & Noble.
Student Impact
On the back end, First Day also pairs enrollment data with course fees for course materials access. Students enrolled in a First Day course will automatically be billed through Metro State fees after the start of the semester.
It is possible that students already have access to the course materials (perhaps they have already purchased access). Students have the ability to opt-out of these fees. The opt-out may be differ depending on the third-party used in the course.
What do Instructors need to do to set up First Day?
Set up is simple, three easy steps.
Within the Content area of your course, within a module of your choosing:
- Select the Existing Activities context menu and from the menu choose "External Learning Tools."
- From the popup that appears, select (click on) "BN First Day" (should be close to the top of the list).
- D2L will create a Topic within your module then. Select (click) the link.
Once you select the link, it will execute a request to Barnes & Noble. It may take a day or two for integration to then work. The initial attempt will likely return with a no materials found message. Be patient, check back in a day and you should see your book or third-party application in the BN First Day link.
What is important for faculty to know is if the course materials are delivered through a publish platform or just access to an ebook. If using a publisher platform, faculty must set up the external learning tools link(s) to the publisher's platform. If students are just accessing the ebook, the First Day link should be sufficient for students to access the ebook directly. Make sure to confirm with the bookstore what you plan to use.
What it does for Students:
First Day may react differently to the different publisher or even to different publisher products.
Access Code -- In some cases, the First Day will provide students with the necessary code to go out to a third-party tool (like Yellowdig) and gain access.
Access Link -- In some cases, the link is the means by which students will access the third-party publisher, particularly ebooks.
Opt-Out Only Link -- And in other cases, the link needs to be there for students to opt-out of the publisher cost. (Faculty using McGraw Hill Connect would be an example of a publisher platform where the First Day link is only available for the purpose of opting out of the cost of the publisher.)
Where to go for help
Occasionally, an integration within a course may need help. Please let us know if your First Day link is not displaying your content after two days. You can reach us by email at service.center@metrostate.edu or by phone at 651.793.1240.