Brightspace is coming to City Tech!

The City University of New York (CUNY) is transitioning from our current Learning Management System (LMS), Blackboard, to a new, more modern platform, Brightspace. This transition, set to begin in the fall of 2023, is a significant step towards expanding online learning and delivering engaging learning experiences using state-of-the-art teaching and learning technology.

After careful consideration, Brightspace emerged as the LMS that best met CUNY's needs. The goal of this transition is to provide a comprehensive LMS that is modern, user-friendly, and capable of supporting growth in online learning. With advanced analytics, Brightspace will contribute to student success and set a foundation for engaging learning experiences that connect and inform.

This website is intended to be a resource for updates, training, course conversion, help documentation, and support and will be updated regularly so please check back often. Additional updates will also be sent from the iTEC.

Transition Timeline

This is a CUNY university-wide change. There are few campus are currently transitioning to Brightspace to take advantage of the new system's many benefits. We are in the CUNY's 2nd phases and our transition to the new system will be beginning in Spring 2024.

• Fall 2023

  • City Tech will be offering Brightspace training and sneak peek sessions for faculty later in the semester.
• Spring 2024

  • Early in the spring, D2L "Brightspace" will migrate City Tech Blackboard course content to Brightspace. Active courses will not be disrupted as Blackboard content will be copied over to Brightspace, nor will they be deleted from Blackboard. During spring 2024, faculty will have access to their courses in Blackboard and in Brightspace as migrations are completed.
  • Faculty training and resources to use Brightspace effectively for teaching and learning will be provided by a combination of D2L, CUNY Online and City Tech trainers, webinars, and other materials. These will be available to all City Tech faculty.
  • Student resources to use Brightspace effectively for learning will be provided by a combination of D2L, CUNY Online and City Tech trainers, webinars, and other materials.
• Summer and Fall 2024

  • Brightspace will go live for all City Tech courses using an LMS. Blackboard will no longer be used for courses at City Tech.
  • Faculty and Student support and training will continue for all Brightspace courses.

Before Migration

To get ready for the move to the Brightspace environment, faculty are encouraged to do some clean up on their current Blackboard courses. Once cleaned up, it is advised that courses be backed up by exporting the course.

General Questions

What is Brightspace Learning Management System? Brightspace from D2L is a cloud-based learning management system (LMS) that runs blended and fully online courses. It comprises three integrated platforms: learning environment, learning repository, and ePortfolio.

Why is City Tech migrating to Brightspace? Trusted by other similar university systems Fastest growing LMS, more higher education institutions Integration with a wide tool set 24 x 7 x 365 support for faculty, students, and staff Enhanced tools/features for faculty/student engagement Ease of use and quick learning curve to ease adoption Modern user centered design Intuitive and ease to use Mobile Accessible Content Templates Assessments and Feedback Analytics and Dashboards Secure

When will City Tech courses start using City Tech Brightspace? All City Tech courses will be delivered in Brightspace starting in Summer 2024, and Blackboard will be available for two more years after we launch Brightspace. There will be lots of training sessions starting late Fall 2023/early Spring 2024.

Will my course content migrate from Blackboard to Brightspace? Yes. Most 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.

How do I migrate my course content from Blackboard to Brightspace? CUNY will migrate the courses for our instructors. If faculty members have other courses that they would like to archive and migrate to BSP themselves, they can follow the instructions. Here is the link on how to archive your Blackboard course and save the file to your computer, thumb drive, or on the cloud.

Will CUNY migrate my Blackboard courses to Brightspace? Yes, CUNY will migrate the last two years of Blackboard courses to Brightspace for all faculty.

Video Resource List for Faculty

Course Set Up Navigate Brightspace Manage account settings Change your personal settings Create a course overview Navigation and Themes: Create a Custom Navbar

Modules Content: Add a module

HTML Editor Introduction to HTML editor Making Use of the HTML editor Import HTML templates to Content Edit HTML templates

Activity Feed Activity Feed Overview Creating a post in activity feed Customize Notifications for Activity Feed

Ally Ally for D2L Brightspace

Announcements Create an announcement Delete and restore announcements Make Regular Announcements

Brightspace Pulse mobile app Mobile app (Pulse) overview

Assignments Create an assignment Create an anonymous assignment

Help and Support

All questions or concerns should be forwarded to the iTEC at itec@citytech.cuny.edu.