Brightspace Faculty FAQs

Brightspace (by D2L) is the Learning Management System (LMS) that will be replacing Blackboard at SUNY Broome in the coming months.  This migration of the LMS is part of a larger SUNY initiative to implement a common Digital Learning Environment (DLE) across SUNY.  The DLE will consist of the LMS (Brightspace), several common tool integrations, a common technical architecture and data integration, and a common look and feel for faculty and students. The DLE will allow SUNY to take advantage of economies of scale, better share best practices and resources across campuses, assure strong technical, instructional design and academic supports, and provide a familiar platform for students, faculty and staff who learn and teach at multiple institutions.

SUNY chose D2L’s Brightspace Learning Management System to replace Blackboard when SUNY’s current system-wide Blackboard contract expires on December 21, 2022.  This decision was made after an extensive RFP process conducted by a team of representatives from SUNY System Administration and more than 40 faculty and staff from 15 different SUNY campuses (including SUNY Broome).   The process included an evaluation of submitted Reponses, a thorough review of functional requirements, and day-long presentations from the most highly rated vendors.  Additional information regarding the RFP can be found on the SUNY DLE Website.

SUNY Broome is part of Cohort 2 of SUNY’s DLE Migration plan.  This means that we will be working with SUNY to begin preparation of our Brightspace environment toward the end of the Spring 2022 semester.  Our first courses will be offered in Brightspace through a small pilot in the Fall of 2022 with a full cutover of all courses in the Winter and Spring 2023 semesters.  Blackboard will not be available after December 2022.

Yes!  SUNY and D2L have worked to provide a sandbox environment for SUNY faculty so that they can get a feel for what the new LMS will offer. To access the Brightspace sandbox, simply go to SUNYPlay Brightspace to get to the DLE Brightspace Sandbox login screen.

For first time users accessing the system, you will need to click on the registration link at the top of the page to create a sandbox account.   Your sandbox will contain one blank course and one containing sample content and student data so that you can start exploring the core Brightspace functionality that will be available in the production environment.  As the sandbox contains only the core functionality of the LMS itself, it does not include additional integrations and functionality (such as proctoring, publishers’ tools, video hosting, etc.) that we will see when our actual production environment is configured.

Please Note: there is no local campus support for the Brightspace sandbox at this time; there is, however, Brightspace support available through the help link at the top of the sandbox window.

Also Note:  you cannot build a course in the sandbox and migrate it out. The sandbox is for reviewing the functionalities of the system. It is not for building courses that you later will want to move out of the sandbox. Access to the sandbox will expire once our migration is complete.

The good news is that the majority of standard course content and tool objects (like pages, files, assignments, discussion forums, quizzes, images, links, etc.) that currently reside in Blackboard will migrate quite easily to Brightspace! There are exceptions, however, involving content created with specialized Blackboard tools, integrations to third-party resources, and certain assessment question types that are specific to Blackboard (e.g. Quiz Bowl, Hot Spot, Jumbled Sentence, etc.). We will be providing a listing of known exceptions as we work with faculty to migrate their courses.

Once we have our Brightspace production environment up and running and faculty accounts have been created, we will be asking you to complete a migration request form for each course you need migrated from Blackboard to Brightspace. We will perform the initial migration of the content into a Brightspace “Conversion” shell where you can clean up and put the finishing touches on your course, making it ready to copy it into your semester-based shell when it becomes available.

The SUNY Center for Professional Development (CPD) will be providing the initial Brightspace Fundamentals training for faculty. Training opportunities for faculty will become available as we get closer to our migration period and registration information will be communicated to campus. The CPD will be offering training in three modalities (Self-paced Asynchronous Online, Scaled Webinars, and Remote Synchronous) in order to accommodate faculty training preferences and comfort levels with technology. Regardless of modality, faculty must successfully complete a series of online assessments in order to earn a Brightspace Fundamentals Certificate and Badge from the SUNY Center for Professional Development. This badge is required for faculty to use Brightspace at SUNY Broome.

Additional information regarding the training can be found on the SUNY DLE Website.

The TRC is hosting several “Spring Cleaning” sessions to assist faculty in preparing their Blackboard courses for migration.  These hands-on sessions will walk faculty through what they can do now to prepare their Blackboard courses for the upcoming migration to Brightspace. Emphasis will be placed on file management, course size, and overall structure.   Contact the TRC for current offerings and registration information.

Additional information regarding the Blackboard clean-up process and work that can be done now in preparation for the migration can be found on our Preparing Your Blackboard Course for Migration to Brightspace page.