Empire State University's Digital Learning Environment

Brightspace Environment Update

When Empire State University transitioned to the Brightspace learning management system in 2022, we were added to the SUNY multi-tenant environment, which is configured and managed by SUNY System Administration. Our faculty, staff, and students faced significant challenges related to this centrally managed, system-wide environment.

As communicated previously, SUNY System granted us permission to have an individual environment (single instance), separate from the multi-tenant site, which SUNY Empire will configure and manage in collaboration with System. This new environment will allow us to configure Brightspace in ways that better meet our needs.

Project Timeline

Integrated Technology Services and Empire Online teams are working with the D2L and SUNY Online teams to acquire, create, and configure our new environment. The following timeline has been established:

An overview of the Project's four phases, anticipated timing, and activities.
An overview of the Project's four phases, anticipated timing, and activities.
Project Phase	Anticipated Timing	Activity
Phase 0	March-July 2024	Build, configure, automate, and test the new environment.
Phase 1	July 2024	Develop a fully functional environment to include course creation, instructor and student enrollments, and third-party integrations.
	August 2024	Give faculty access to personalize Fall 2024 courses. Training and support sessions for faculty, staff, and students prior to the fall term.
	Late August 2024	Establish Learning Object Repositories and provide training for faculty.
	September 2024	Develop reporting capabilities for early alert and course progress. Create quick reports for student progress. Establish Learning Object Repositories and provide training for faculty.
Phase 2	September-December 2024	Reporting, addressing student orientation issues, and establishing security. Ongoing training and support. Note: Fall '24 course instruction will be in the new SUNY Empire instance. Summer '24 incompletes will be completed in the SUNY-wide instance.
Phase 3	May 2025	Complete data transfer, build workflows for problem resolutions, and address functionality issues.

Questions? Submit a question to the DLE Committee.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we work through this important transition.