Bring on Brightspace!

 

MMC has switched from Blackboard to D2L’s Brightspace to provide faculty and students with a more user-friendly environment. The decision to change MMC’s Learning Management System (LMS) stemmed from a three-month study of learning platforms by the President’s Academic Technology Taskforce, comprised of faculty, staff, and students. Brightspace’s advantages identified by the task force include internal integration of media, such as YouTube and PowerPoint for easier and faster access; an intuitive whiteboard functionality; a straightforward video/recording feature for lectures, testing, and feedback; and visual metrics that allow students to track their progress. 

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Across our divisions, MMC faculty and students took Brightspace on a test drive in 2020 and 2021, and this is what they had to say:

“Superior whiteboard with symbols”

“Great video note feature”

“Excellent grading tool paper mark-up, and also works with MMC Box”

“Student-centric with collaboration features, and early assessment tools”

“Video-conferencing right in the platform”

“Phone app highly rated by students with an ‘upcoming’ section to keep on track”

The move to Brightspace will begin in Fall 2021 when faculty will have the option to teach one or all of their courses on the new LMS. By Spring 2022, our Blackboard contract will expire, and all courses will run on Brightspace. As part of our contract with D2L, the company will migrant your current courses to Brightspace. Testing indicates that the courses require only minor changes after migration. See our timeline.

No personally identifying student information, grades, or other materials will be exported from Blackboard. Only course content will be exported. Those who need assistance exporting course content, please fill out the LMS Data + Merge Request form.