D2L Brightspace is the official learning management system (LMS) at Buffalo State College that allows for dynamic learning to occur in the online environment. The tools provided in Brightspace allow students and faculty to post and share documents and other course content, gain 24/7 access to grades, send messages, post to discussion boards, and conduct synchronous or real-time conversations in a virtual classroom.
All courses will be in D2L Brightspace beginning with the 2023 J-Term. All courses listed in Banner are given a Brightspace course site. Instructors assigned to and students enrolled in these courses are placed on the rosters within Brightspace. Faculty will have access to their Blackboard Learn course content until 4:00pm on April 10, 2023. So, they have the beginning of the Spring semester to migrate their content over to Brightspace. This date is based on the academic calendar of when student incompletes will need to be finalized for Fall 2022 courses.
Accessing Brightspace
Faculty and students can access Buffalo State's D2L Brightspace by going to https://mylearning.suny.edu. To login, click on Network Login and enter your Buffalo State username and password.
Brightspace course sites are set up for all classes at Buffalo State, but are not viewable to students by default. The courses for which you are the instructor of record in Banner will be displayed on your Brightspace homepage. Instructors can to make your courses active so that they will be visible to enrolled students.
Accounts:
- Instructors listed in Banner for a J-Term or Spring 2023, accounts and courses are already in Brightspace.
- Staff that are not listed in Banner as the instructor of record, but have an active Buffalo State username, should do the following:
- Request an Account
- Request a Development Shell (if needed)- D2L Brightspace development shell for course design and development ONLY. Development shells do not support student access and should only be used by the faculty member. Content developed can be copied to other courses in Brightspace.
- Instructors who do not have an official Buffalo State username or are not on contract for J-Term or Spring 2023 will not be able to access the system.
If you are experiencing log-in issues, please submit a ticket via the IT portal.
Training
Several training opportunities are available to learn more about Brightspace.
In-Person Training
In-person Brightspace training sessions are offered by Instructional Design and Distance Learning and the Teaching and Learning Center. These sessions will be hosted on campus in a variety of labs across campus. Registration is through the Workshop Registration System.
Online Synchronous Training
Online synchronous workshops will be provided by the SUNY Center for Professional Development. Registration is open. Please visit the SUNY DLE Training website for more information and links to register for training. You can also view recordings of past webinars and training sessions.
Online Asynchronous Training
Online Asynchronous training modules are available with the Buffalo State Brightspace environment. You can log in to mylearning.buffalostate.edu using the Network Login option with your Buffalo State username and password. You will see the SUNY DLE Brightspace Fundamentals Asynchronous Modules listed in the My Courses Widget. Participants who successfully complete all assessments will earn the SUNY DLE Brightspace Fundamentals Certificate.
The Brightspace YouTube Channel has quick videos for instructors and students on many Brightspace features.
Some recommended playlists:
Preparing Course Content
Brightspace has a variety of tools to assist you in building your course content. To learn about these tools, you can take the SUNY DLE Brightspace Fundamentals Asynchronous Modules listed in the My Courses Widget in Brightspace, view Brightspace Knowledge Base Articles or review the Brightspace website.
There are two options for migrating your Blackboard Learn course content to Brightspace.
You can manually export courses from Blackboard Learn and import them to Brightspace, or you can request that courses be migrated by SUNY. Faculty members should inspect all migrated courses to ensure that all content has migrated accurately and is functioning as expected.
Manual Export
Faculty members who wish to manually export their Blackboard courses and import them to Brightspace can do so by requesting a Brightspace development shell. This option will be beneficial to those who are working on a course redesign and would like to benefit from the new Brightspace course design format. Once the development shell is created, faculty members can import their Blackboard Learn course to D2L Brightspace.
Migration Requests
To request that a course be migrated through SUNY, please complete the Brightspace Course Migration Request Form.
Faculty members can request migration of one section of each course they have taught using Blackboard Learn. For example, if you teach the same course in different semesters, please select one section to be migrated. You must complete one form for each course migration request. These requests will be monitored, as the campus will incur a cost for each course migrated from Blackboard to Brightspace.
If you have taught this course in Brightspace in Fall of 2022, you can copy your course materials from one Brightspace course to another.
Additional Functionality
- Request a merged roster site - If you find yourself posting the same materials to different course sections of the same course during a semester, you can request that your course sections be combined into a single Brightspace course site.
- Request a Brightspace Organization - Please fill out this form if you would like to request that an Organization be created in Brightspace.
Brightspace Assistance
For assistance accessing your Blackboard account, please contact the IT Help Desk.
For all other Brightspace questions/inquiries, please contact the SUNY Online Support Services at 1-844-673-6786 or submit a request online with the SUNY Online Support Services
Campus-based questions about Brightspace can be submitted via the IT Portal.
Brightspace Champions
The D2L Champions program is about recognizing you as the innovative learning leader that you are! We want to celebrate your achievements, broaden your impact, and empower you to shape the future of learning technology. As a Champion, you can redeem your points for some great rewards!