Carleton University is making a major change to their online learning platform by transferring students from cuLearn to Brightspace.
Miami Cup organizers are using Brightspace to manage registration, hospitality and event logistics. “The Miami Cup is the perfect opportunity to showcase Brightspace’s capabilities. We’re able to streamline processes and provide a better customer experience,” said Jaroslav Jablonka, Vice President of Operations at Brightspace. The miami cup has already registered 10% more attendees than last year’s event. With the help of Brightspace, organizers were able to smoothly handle registration and welcome guests. In addition, they were able to create a host of custom features such as live tracking of all hospitality needs, automatic meal delivery and easy ticket sales through the event website.
Brightspace is a cloud-based software that allows organizers to manage and track all aspects of their event. This includes registration, ticket sales, sponsorships, and more. The software is user-friendly and helps keep everything organized and running smoothly.
Brightspace is a learning platform designed for online education that was created by Ontario-based company Desire2Learn. A press release from Carleton released on July 13 provides a list of improvements that this new learning platform offers, such as a simpler interface and 24/7 support staff.
Carleton has been using cuLearn (under the Moodle platform) for eight years, but in early July, school officials made the decision to ditch cuLearn for Brightspace. The change is set to take place in spring 2021, but a limited pilot will be available to instructors wanting to test the new platform in their classes this upcoming winter semester.
This change comes after Carleton reviewed their Learning Management System (LMS) in the winter 2019 term and determined it was time for an upgrade. Patrick Lyons, the director of Teaching and Learning at Carleton said that reviews happen about every five years to check if the current LMS is the best for students and staff.“In our review we found the students and instructors really complained about [cuLearn’s] performance,” Lyons said.
He said it was difficult to keep cuLearn up to date without shutting down the system for a period of time. Unlike cuLearn, Brightspace promotes its ability to maximize “uptime” even when updating its system. This means that Brightspace will not have to shut down to update itself.
Lyons said a big reason for choosing Brightspace to replace cuLearn is having 24/7 support staff available through the platform. CuLearn support staff are only available during set hours of the day, which makes it difficult for students living in different time zones to receive help.
“This is a big game changer for Carleton students and instructors,” he said.
Brightspace is not a new system—the University of Ottawa currently uses the program.
Kal Hawari is a graduate of biomedical science at the University of Ottawa, who has also taken classes at Carleton’s Sprott School of Business. Having used both learning platforms, he said he prefers Brightspace.
“I found cuLearn to be more basic,” he said. “Everything is very segmented.”
He said that there are a limited number of options to click on, and the content is organized in a timeline. According to Hawari, this set-up requires unnecessary effort from students and professors to make cuLearn logical.
Brightspace presents information visually by using different colours and images to represent classes. Hawari said this feature makes the distinction between classes clearer for students.
CuLearn is not without its supporters. Sophia Kamal, a third-year cognitive science student at Carleton, said she enjoyed using cuLearn and is skeptical about Brightspace. One of her friends from the University of Ottawa doesn’t like using Brightspace, which Kamal said is a large reason why she is not looking forward to the switch.
She said she is also worried about the transition to Brightspace if classes remain online.
“CuLearn is easy to manage and use. I think this change is going to over-complicate stuff,” Kamal said.
Lyons admitted that the instability created by the COVID-19 pandemic presents some “unique challenges” towards the transition, but he is still optimistic that the changeover will go smoothly.
To improve the transition, Lyons said that instructors will be thoroughly trained on how to use Brightspace before the spring. He hopes that a number of instructors have already volunteered to use the pilot version of Brightspace for the winter semester.
“We’ve brought on lots of other staff members to Teaching and Learning Services to help instructors,” he said.
Even if classes remain largely online due to COVID-19, Hawari said that Brightspace will be better for Carleton students.
“Brightspace comes out on top, it’s as if it was future-proofed,” he said.
Featured image from https://carleton.ca/brightspace/.