The SUNY Oswego Digital Learning Environment (DLE) transition team continues to work on the migration from Blackboard to Desire2Learn’s Brightspace learning management system. The selection of Brightspace was finalized by SUNY last fall with a system-wide implementation mandate. All SUNY Oswego courses taught or supplemented with Blackboard will be taught in Brightspace in the Fall 2022 semester.
Here are some updates since the last communication on March 23.
Configuration of the SUNY Oswego Brightspace instance
The DLE transition team obtained access to the SUNY Oswego Brightspace instance on March 25. Over two weeks, many core components of the system were made ready for summer pilot faculty to access on April 11. These components included the creation of faculty accounts and courses for the pilot, conversion of summer pilot Blackboard courses to Brightspace, campus authentication, SUNY Oswego branding of the instance, and navigation of the site.
Summer pilot
The DLE transition team has been working with faculty teaching summer pilot courses in Brightspace. All have either attended SUNY training or are signed up for training. They have all logged into the system and are preparing their courses. Students enrolled in summer semester courses being taught in the pilot will gain access to Brightspace on May 16. All other summer session courses will continue to be taught in Blackboard.
Timeline for faculty transition
It is expected that remaining faculty will gain access to Brightspace after May 2 when the full integration of the student information system data is completed and preparation for Fall courses can begin. All fully online courses being taught in the Fall 2022 semester will be automatically migrated on May 27. In early June, a Course Migration Request form will be available for all other course modalities.
Preparing for migration
All faculty can start preparing for the migration of their Blackboard courses to Brightspace by doing the following:
Review and participate in Brightspace trainings:
Take the training path self-assessment which will advise you of the types of training to take.
Register for a SUNY training (live synchronous, asynchronous, and scaled webinars are available).
Register for or review recordings of Fireside Chats which showcase Brightspace tools and features.
The SUNY Oswego DLE transition team will hold spring breakout sessions with pilot faculty in May/June, office hours starting June 7, and basic workshops later in July/August.
Review the "Preparing your course for migration" document. Of special note, please make sure any videos stored in Ensemble or directly in Blackboard are moved to Panopto or YouTube. More information is in Step 2 of the document.
Third-party integrations (LTIs)
Our current Blackboard implementation includes many third-party integrations such as Panopto, Zoom, Starfish, inclusive access (e-text), Qwickly, i-clicker, and more. The DLE transition team is working on gathering necessary information for each third party integration for SUNY to review for security and accessibility. We have prioritized the integrations based on what is needed for the summer pilot courses and are actively working on those. After that, we will work on any remaining integrations needed for the fall semester.
Help and support
More detailed information regarding the SUNY DLE project is available from SUNY’s website at https://dle.suny.edu. SUNY Oswego also has our own DLE website where we will post further updates and support information.
As a reminder, you can register for a SUNY Brightspace sandbox to get familiar with it until our SUNY Oswego Brightspace instance becomes available to all. Desire2Learn also has support material on their website.
You may also call or email the SUNY Oswego Help Desk with any questions and a ticket will be directed to the DLE team to answer.
The DLE Transition Team
- Kathi Dutton
- Theresa Gilliard-Cook
- Douglas Hemphill
- Carrie Mocyk
- Greg Ketcham
- Jill Pippin
- Sean Moriarty
- Nicole Decker