Dear Faculty,

I write with a few important announcements regarding the transition to Brightspace.

First, I have been told that faculty will be able to access Brightspace as of 11/22. I expect that an announcement from CUNY Online with instructions is forthcoming. When you are able to access Brightspace, one item you will see is a widget inviting you to create a practice site. The language in the widget is incorrect. The widget says you can enroll students into your course shell—this is wrong. Faculty cannot, because of FERPA, enroll students directly into their courses, live or otherwise. You will also see a Brightspace Resource for Instructors listed under your courses. Like all of the available training, I recommend completing it. If you have questions regarding your access, please reach out to the CUNY Transition Team at lmstransition@cuny.edu.

Second, and speaking of training, our own Learning Management System (formerly Blackboard) Team, led by Helen Keier, has workshops scheduled on various Wednesdays through January. These workshops are from 2:00 to 3:00 on Zoom. The next one is on 11/29 and is an introduction to Brightspace. Please look for emails from the LMS Team with instructions on how to attend these workshops and/or access the videos once they are posted.

Third, information on these workshops, and lots of other resources for the transition, can be found on our new transition website here: https://new.jjay.cuny.edu/academics/online-education/learning-management-system/learning-management-system-transition. There are currently links to resources from D2L, the maker of Brightspace, and from CUNY. Over the coming months, more information will populate this page.

Finally, I created a repository of sorts for my transition-related announcements. The link is here: https://jjcbrightspaceann.commons.gc.cuny.edu/. It is a simple, but searchable, blog site hosted in the CUNY Academic Commons.

I hope you all have a restful break and, for those who celebrate, a joyous Thanksgiving!

Best,

Andrew

Andrew H. Sidman
Interim Dean of Academic Programs

Professor of Political Science
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY
212-237-8179

“I am a responsible employee”