Brightspace Implementation

Bring on Brightspace!

MMC is switching from Blackboard to D2L’s Brightspace to provide faculty and students with a more user-friendly environment. The decision to change MMC’s Learning Management System (LMS) stemmed from a three-month study of learning platforms by the President’s Academic Technology Taskforce, comprised of faculty, staff, and students. Brightspace’s advantages identified by the task force include internal integration of media, such as YouTube and PowerPoint for easier and faster access; an intuitive whiteboard functionality; a straightforward video/recording feature for lectures, testing, and feedback; and visual metrics that allow students to track their progress. 

Across our divisions, MMC faculty and students took Brightspace on a test drive in 2020 and 2021, and this is what they had to say:

“Superior whiteboard with symbols”

“Great video note feature”

“Excellent grading tool paper mark-up, and also works with MMC Box”

“Student-centric with collaboration features, and early assessment tools”

“Video-conferencing right in the platform”

“Phone app highly rated by students with an ‘upcoming’ section to keep on track”

The move to Brightspace will begin in Fall 2021 when faculty will have the option to teach one or all of their courses on the new LMS. By Spring 2022, our Blackboard contract will expire, and all courses will run on Brightspace. As part of our contract with D2L, the company will migrant your current courses to Brightspace. Testing indicates that the courses require only minor changes after migration. See our timeline.

No personally identifying student information, grades, or other materials will be exported from Blackboard. Only course content will be exported. Those who need assistance exporting student data, should email Brightspace@mmm.edu.

Timeline

SPRING 2021

Faculty members of the Brightspace Steering Committee invited to participate in a focused, advanced sandbox with faculty enrolled in two courses as Learners and two coursers as Instructors to track for glitches & questions.

In May, workshops and training resources will be available to help faculty explore and prepare to use Brightspace. A dedicated mini-website to help support the transition is launched.
Selection of Summer Pilot participants for Summer I and II.

Summer 2021

The Summer Pilot of Brightspace begins. Faculty that have volunteered will be using Brightspace to support their course. Others will continue to use Blackboard. A dedicated MMC Brightspace support group can be contacted via email here.
All faculty will have access to Brightspace. Blackboard courses from Spring 2020- Spring 2021 will exist in a reservoir of data on Brightspace and available to faculty.
Evaluation and feedback from Faculty and Students of the Summer Pilot to be collected and analyzed.

FALL 2021

Ongoing training for Brightspace and roll-out of Brightspace courses. Faculty will need to choose which platform they’d prefer to use for each course. Blackboard will continue to be used and supported.

Evaluation and feedback from Faculty and Students of the Summer Pilot to be collected and analyzed.

January 2022

Blackboard is retired as Marymount’s LMS and all data will be archived.

Brightspace will be the default learning management system.

A dedicated Brightspace support group is established.

Fall 2021—Your Decision: Brightspace or Blackboard?

All Fall 2021 all courses will be available for faculty access on both platforms.

For Fall 2021 courses, you may change your course LMS preference at any time before you activate the course in the chosen LMS. In January 2022, while you will no longer be able to view your course content on Blackboard, data for all past Bb courses will remain available for migration. Note, Summer 2021 courses are also available in Brightspace through a summer pilot program for selected courses only. If you are an instructor and would like to join the summer pilot, please contact the MMC Brightspace transition team.

Here is a quick check-list to follow for both:

Instructor Check List if Using Brightspace (Access Scheduled May ’21)	Instructor Check Listif Using Blackboard (Expires Jan. ’22)
Going forward, all MMC courses will be listed on Brightspace. This includes Fall 2021 courses. Logon at MMC Brightspace using your MMC user id and password. Do you need course content from a course taught previously on Bb? Export/Import content from Bb to Brightspace on your own using these migration instructions [coming soon]; or request migration [coming soon].	All courses will continue to be listed on Blackboard until January, 2022. In 2022, all course data will be archived. Logon at MMC Blackboard using your MMC user id and password.
Upload syllabus. Design course site.	Activate the course to make it visible to enrolled students.
Use the Brightspace email function to alert enrolled students that this LMS is being used for this class. [includes sample script.]	Use the Blackboard email function to alert enrolled students that this LMS is being used for this class.
Identify the LMS being used on hard-copy syllabus, and during in-class introductions; alert newly added students of LMS.	Identify the LMS being used on hard-copy syllabus, and during in-class introductions; alert newly added students of LMS.