Brightspace FAQs

The SUNY Blackboard contract is expiring Dec. 2022.  The selection of Brightspace was finalized by SUNY in the fall of 2021 with a system-wide implementation mandate.  As part of the first cohort of campuses to transition, all SUNY Oswego courses taught or supplemented with Blackboard will be taught in Brightspace in the Fall 2022 semester. To begin the transition, some pilot courses will be taught in Brightspace over the Summer 2022 semester. 

No, teaching through Blackboard will no longer be available.

Staff from Extended Learning and CTS are working on the migration.  Collectively, they are the Digital Learning Environment (DLE) transition team.

A DLE includes the learning management system (Brightspace) along with third party integrations such as Zoom, Panopto, e-text/inclusive access (RedShelf), i-Clicker, and more.

Employees and students can login to Brightspace at www.oswego.edu/mylearning. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is required to login.  If you do not have MFA configured for your account, please refer to the MFA website.

Effective Thursday, August 18, Blackboard logins will be available to faculty and staff only through the end of the fall semester in December.  Faculty who allow students to finish incomplete summer session courses taught or supplemented with Blackboard can request student access to Blackboard beyond Aug. 17 through the CTS Help Desk.

Employees and students can login to Brightspace at www.oswego.edu/mylearning. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is required to login.  If you do not have MFA configured for your account, please refer to the MFA website.

All formal training is being done through the SUNY Center for Professional Development (SUNY CPD).  If you have not received or registered for training yet, take the training path self-assessment and register.  As part of Cohort 1, all SUNY Oswego faculty can participate in the training at any time.  Multiple modalities are available (synchronous, asynchronous, scaled webinars, fireside chats). 

SUNY CPD has also integrated an asynchronous course that faculty can access inside Brightspace.  It is called “SUNY DLE Brightspace Fundamentals Asynchronous Modules” and is listed under the “CPD Pilot Semester” tab of “My Courses.”

SUNY Oswego is complementing the formal training with Zoom office hours, “Migration and Munchies” in-person group help sessions, recordings of CELT-sponsored spring breakout sessions held in late May/early June, and basic workshops later in July/August for new faculty and adjuncts.  Details are available on the Brightspace Trainings page.

Start by going through the steps in the document, Preparing courses for migration document.  Of special note, please make sure any videos stored in Ensemble or directly in Blackboard are moved to Panopto or YouTube.  Ensemble will be decommissioned June 30.  Videos directly stored in Blackboard will not be migrated and cannot be stored directly in Brightspace.

All fully online courses being taught in the Fall 2022 semester were automatically converted and migrated to Brightspace on June 9.  

For other course modalities, there are a few options:

1. You can use the Fall 2022 Course Migration Request form to request your Blackboard course(s) get converted and migrated to Brightspace. Please note it could take several days for the course to show in Brightspace due to the demand of course conversions taking place among all Cohort 1 campuses.
2. If you’d like to migrate courses yourself, you can export the content from Blackboard (written exporting instructions, video exporting instructions) and import it into Brightspace (written importing instructions, video importing instructions).  Note that student data does not import.  There is also a 1GB limit on exporting content from Blackboard.  If you find your course export is larger than this, you can either downsize the course or use the course migration request form above to have your course migrated automatically.
3. You can also opt to start fresh in Brightspace in which case you can get started any time.

Once your courses are in Brightspace, you should review them to ensure all the content migrated and acts as expected.  You can use our migration guide to assist with this.  The guide continues to evolve as we work through the transition.

Courses that have migrated and converted to Brightspace will appear in the “Conversion Semester” area within Brightspace.  This is a staging area where you can review how the course was imported and make any necessary changes.  Once you’ve made necessary changes in the conversion semester, you can then copy course content to your fall semester course.

All requests submitted using the Fall 2022 Course Migration Request form will be processed within 2-3 business days.

Not at this time. The campus is focusing on migrating Fall 2022 courses due to the demand of course conversions taking place among all Cohort 1 campuses.  We will have another call later in the fall semester to import Winter 2022-23 and Spring 2023 courses.

You can export/archive content from individual Blackboard courses and keep them locally stored on your computer. While the files exported can not be opened on your computer, you will be able to import them into Brightspace when the courses are offered again.  Note that student data does not get imported into Brightspace.

You can export/archive content from individual Blackboard courses and keep them locally stored on your computer. While the files exported can not be opened on your computer, you will be able to import them into Brightspace when the courses are offered again.  Note that student data does not get imported into Brightspace.

Downloading a course’s grade center allows you quick access to student grades outside of Blackboard.  The file downloaded can be opened in a spreadsheet application.

SUNY Oswego will be archiving all Blackboard courses to accommodate academic retention policy.  This includes student content.  Faculty should still continue to export/archive content from individual Blackboard courses they wish to keep and potentially use beyond next academic year.

Students can become more familiar with Brightspace with the following materials:

• Brightspace navigation video
• Brightspace learner website

If you are taking a class that is using Brightspace, it should show up under “My Courses.”  If you do not see your class listed there it could be that the professor is not using Brightspace or they haven’t made the course available to students yet.  If you recently just registered for a course, please check Brightspace again in a few hours to allow for the system to be updated. 

All students can login to Brightspace at www.oswego.edu/mylearning. If you are not participating in a summer pilot course, you may not see any courses listed until faculty make them available. However, you will be able to explore the navigation and become more familiar with it.

For more assistance on the migration, please visit the Brightspace Trainings page and the Help and Support page.  If you have further questions, you can contact the SUNY Oswego Help Desk and a ticket will be directed to the DLE team.