By Annika Wickham

Based on a SUNY-wide decision, SUNY Oswego will be switching learning management systems (LMS) from Blackboard to Design 2 Learn’s (D2L) Brightspace. 

Nicole Decker, associate director for client support and communication for SUNY Oswego’s campus technology services (CTS), said that the plan to move to Brightspace was finalized in fall 2021. 

“Our timeline is we are working this spring semester to get everything set up, get training opportunities for all audiences and then start with a pilot for the summer,” Decker said. “Then we will go live for all courses in the fall 2022 semester.”

One major reason for the shift from Blackboard to Brightspace was the end of a university-wide contract with Blackboard, which expires in Dec. 2022, Kathi Dutton, instructional support specialist for CTS, said. 

Decker continued by saying that SUNY divided up the transition to Brightspace by cohorts and SUNY Oswego is part of the 30 campuses in cohort one. She said that they decided to be part of the first group because they wanted to be part of the decision making process. 

“We wanted to work with SUNY and be at the forefront of what is happening and be able to bring our campus perspective,” Decker said. CTS is also in collaboration with extended learning as well as SUNY to make this transition happen. 

Moving away from Blackboard is a SUNY initiative, according to Dutton, and they asked campuses to look at technical requirements, campus integration and overall template and design of each LMS in order to start having consistency between schools. She said beginning in 2018, SUNY had committees from the 38 colleges with contracts ending evaluating many LMS based on rubrics and needs of each campus. 

“They had teams evaluate them [LMS] on accessibility, functionality and cost,” Dutton said. “They did this independently and then sent [the results] and D2L won. That was the first time SUNY really looked at accessibility. In the past it has basically been ‘do we like it’ and the cost.”

SUNY Oswego has switched LMS three times before, from Coursebase to Angel then to Blackboard, so Decker said CTS is well prepared. 

“We’ve been down this LMS migration before,” Decker said. “We are getting a rhythm to how we do this. The nice thing about this one is that all SUNY campuses are going to Brightspace.”

Dutton followed up Decker by saying that many CTS employees have been around since at least the transition from Angel to Blackboard so there are many “key players are still there.” Because this switch to Brightspace is SUNY-wide, she said that this should be even smoother.

“When we did blackboard, it was our campus,” Dutton said. “SUNY was there and helped us out, but there wasn’t all these joint efforts with everybody.”

According to both Dutton and Decker, Brightspace is very similar to Blackboard but has a better user interface (UI) and is expected to be easier for both students and professors to navigate. 

“One of the differences that we think will be an advantage is the interface,” Decker said. “There is a big difference between Blackboard’s interface and Brightspace’s; [it] has a more modern feel to it and we think it will be easier for faculty to create content and for students to access the content.”

Blackboard was not highly regarded by many professors at SUNY Oswego, including David Bozak, an associate professor of computer science and psychology. Bozak said he only uses Blackboard when he has to and prefers to use Canvas, which allows for one free class per semester. 

Bozak said he is very pleased that SUNY Oswego is switching to Brightspace because it is “more modern” and is easier to use. He said because of this, he will stop using Canvas and fully commit to Brightspace. 

“It [Blackboard] is written in a very old style of user interface that is not really all that friendly to users,” Bozak said. “It is even less friendly to those who are building courses.”

Blackboard was also not popular with students, as it could also be difficult to use when turning in assignments or submitting discussions. Daelan SantaMaria, a transfer student from Herkimer College, said that typing any assignment directly into Blackboard is nearly impossible and “you are better off using any other typing software.”

Herkimer College also used Blackboard as their primary LMS and SantaMaria said it would “crash every week” and learning to use the software was difficult because of the UI.

“My first experience with Blackboard was honestly really terrible,” SantaMaria said. “I thought that it was extremely confusing and even when professors went over it in class it was still overwhelming.”

Another issue with Blackboard is it’s compatibility with certain internet browsers, including Safari and Chrome. Bozak said some students have had to download separate browsers just to launch Blackboard, which should be unnecessary. 

In preparation for the summer trials of Brightspace, CTS is preparing both synchronous and asynchronous training sessions for faculty and staff so they can be ready for the complete switch away from Blackboard in the fall. It was important to start Brightspace in the fall, especially for freshmen, according to Dutton, so they would not have to learn two new LMS in one year. 

“We don’t really don’t want to make students have to start the fall in blackboard and come back in the spring to brightspace,” Dutton said. “We have always held that the change should be at the beginning of the academic year.”

As the first 30 SUNY campuses migrate to Brightspace in the coming year, Decker and Dutton said they are looking forward to seeing uniformity across the SUNY system, as it will be easier for students who take online courses to access their class work. 

Bozak is also looking forward to this change, as he teaches an online class.

“I have kids from all over the place in my online course so it is just more convenient to have something that doesn’t crash or go down or cause them woes,” Bozak said. “If you don’t have those aggravation factors it just makes everyone’s life a little easier.”

SUNY Oswego will completely stop using Blackboard at the end of the summer 2022 session and will fully switch to Brightspace for the fall 2022 semester. For more information about D2L, Brightspace and the SUNY decision to switch, visit dle.suny.edu. 

John Custodio | The Oswegonian