Office of the Chancellor

Transition to Brightspace Learning Management System

November 4, 2019

Dear Faculty and Staff,

As you are probably aware, Blackboard plans to end its support of our current version of the learning management system (LMS), Learn. Because of this change, throughout the last academic year representatives from our campus actively participated in a Purdue University system review of various LMS products, including Desire2Learn Brightspace.

This review allowed us to gather useful information:

• Data and feedback, obtained through listening sessions and surveys, from faculty, staff, and students
• Vendor presentations
• Faculty trials of products
• A review from our LMS team

This input directed us toward the decision to move forward and recommend Brightspace as the LMS for our campus. Additionally, the Purdue Fort Wayne campus suggested that the Purdue system pursue an agreement with Desire2Learn to separately administer Brightspace on each individual campus.

In April, the Purdue System Review Team, including several individuals from our campus, put forth the recommendation to the Steering Committee (consisting of high-level administrators from each campus). The committee made the same recommendation to the executive sponsors of the project: Jay Akridge, Purdue system provost; Karl Browning, Purdue system CIO, and Gerry McCartney, executive vice president for Purdue online.

In August, the Purdue Board of Trustees approved the purchase of Brightspace, and the Project Sponsors asked that a system LMS implementation steering committee, led by representatives from Purdue West Lafayette, investigate the desirability and practicality of a single instance of Brightspace, which could be administered collaboratively across campuses (opposed to separate instances administered by each individual campus).

After a two-month examination of the pros and cons of implementing a single instance vs. multiple instances of the LMS, representatives on the steering committee from the Purdue campuses could not come to an agreement on an instance structure that would best serve their campus and the Purdue system as a whole.

However, after a thorough review of the committee’s findings, the executive sponsors decided that all Purdue campuses, with the exception of Purdue Global, will attempt to use a single instance. (Purdue Global may transition to the same instance at a future date.)

Implementation Timeline

Our campus is now preparing for a phased-in approach to implementation with the intention of having a complete launch of fall 2020 courses. Here is our phased-in approach and complete timeline:

• Spring 2020—We have asked a limited number of faculty who are teaching face-to-face courses to soft-launch (pilot) their courses in Brightspace beginning this January. Before the start of the spring semester, Banner will not be integrated nor will most third-party tools such as Kaltura, IncludED, and most other tools faculty may use within the LMS. The purpose of this launch will be to investigate core problems that we will need to solve before summer’s heavy soft launch.
• Summer 2020—Based on information gathered and adjustments made as a result of the spring launch, along with the full integration of Banner and LTIs, we anticipate allowing all instructors to transition away from Blackboard Learn and implement Brightspace in their courses.
• Fall 2020, Spring and Summer 2021—First, all fall 2020 courses will be phased in, followed by spring and then summer 2021 courses such that all courses will be fully integrated by fall 2021.

We will need to transition any courses not scheduled to be taught within the above time frame out of Blackboard Learn and into Brightspace before the first summer session of 2021 begins.

Faculty Assistance for Brightspace Implementation

Services are in place to help faculty during this transition:

We have assembled several working groups (workstreams). While just in the initial stage, these workstreams have already produced collaborative, supportive, and productive relationships. The workstreams comprise staff from Information Technology Services and the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching, as well as appropriate faculty and staff representatives.
We have created an advisory committee of representatives who sit in offices or serve in roles that are influenced by the LMS but may not use the LMS directly within their primary responsibilities.
As we move forward and begin to construct the look and feel of the LMS and begin to implement training, we will develop a faculty advisory committee and a student advisory committee. These cornerstone components will serve as primary input and feedback tools for the workstreams.
As we make progress on the implementation and more information becomes available, we will share that with the campus community and seek input and direction.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in this transition. We know this is a long process, but we have reached this point only because of the commitment of so many dedicated people on our campus. A special thank-you goes to Adam Dircksen, CELT director, for spearheading this project for the university.

It is an exciting time for Purdue Fort Wayne, and there is still much work to be done, but we are moving in the right direction with this very important move to the Brightspace environment.

Ronald Elsenbaumer
Chancellor

Carl Drummond
Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Enrollment Management