Dear Faculty,
Many of you may have seen or heard about the email from CUNY EVC Hensel just after Thanksgiving describing access to Brightspace. I write today to amplify and clarify that message. For those of you interested in seeing the environment, you can log in at http://brightspace.cuny.edu. This will take you the CUNY login page where you can enter your CUNY login credentials—the same credentials you use to access CUNYfirst, Blackboard, and other CUNY-hosted services.
When you log in, there are three things to which I want to bring your attention. First, if you taught in summer 2023, your summer 2023 classes should now be in Brightspace. D2L and CUNY are in the process of migrating courses from spring 2023 and they will work backwards from there. I will let you know as these semesters become available.
Second, one of the widgets to the right side of the screen is called Practice Sites. You can use this widget to access a barebones site into which you can upload content. Feel free to use this practice site to try out the functionality. I do want to remind you of what I wrote in my last announcement. 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.
Third, in the My Courses area, you will have a link to the Brightspace Resource for Instructors. I highly encourage you to explore this resource and to attend training sessions. Our Learning Management System (formerly Blackboard) Team plans to host our next introduction to Brightspace on Wednesday, January 10. As always, 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. And also, please visit our transition website, linked here and in my signature.
I wish you all an easy end to the semester and a joyous holiday season!
Andrew
Andrew H. Sidman
Interim Dean of Academic Programs
Professor of Political Science
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY
212-237-8179
Visit our Brightspace Transition Website
Visit the Transition Announcements Repository
