SUNY Digital Learning Environment

SUNY’s system-wide contract for its prior Learning Management System expired in December 2022. After an extensive and collaborative Request for Proposals (RFP) process, SUNY received approval for a System-wide contract with Desire2Learn (D2L) officially in September 2021.  At the conclusion of this broad and consultative process, SUNY selected D2L’s Brightspace Learning Management System to serve as the hub of its Digital Learning Environment. 

With the transition to D2L’s Brightspace, SUNY envisioned a dynamic opportunity to unify the digital learning environment within which all SUNY campuses operate: a common LMS application; a central architecture with common data structures; common templates; a common set of online tools integrated with the LMS; and a common integration for data. This would allow SUNY to take advantage of economies of scale, share best practices and resources more efficiently across campuses, assure strong technical support, and provide a familiar platform for students, faculty and staff moving across campuses.

SUNY’s commitment to an implementation in the best interest of campuses, faculty, staff, and students led to a cohort approach with options for a pilot before the full campus implementation brought campuses online in the new system. Each cohort underwent a three-phase process that lasted between 11-13 months.

In addition to the cohort approach, SUNY coordinated the installation of three teams (with sub-committees) charged to help develop a comprehensive implementation, transition, and training program in alignment with the project timeline. 

The DLE Steering Team was formed to determine the strategic parameters for SUNY-wide implementation, ensure appropriate resources were provided to ensure success, address strategic and policy questions, and champion this effort with SUNY and Campus Leaders. 

The DLE Core Strategy Team was responsible for making decisions about implementation and transition planning based on parameters set by the Steering Committee, in support of SUNY Policy, and with input from the SUNY-Campus Strategy Team.  

The DLE Advisory Team provided input and feedback on the strategy for implementation of the SUNY Digital Learning Environment (DLE) across the System and for migration from campus solutions to the new DLE.  Those members of the group who represent SUNY-wide organizations were also responsible for sharing updates and information with their constituents and for soliciting input and feedback from them to bring back to the SUNY Digital Learning Environment Advisory Team.  

SUNY implemented an intentional data strategy, putting best practices for data governance at the forefront. The DLE Data Strategy team was made up of individuals from across SUNY System Administration as well as a Campus Advisory group representing the diverse campus roles who use and rely upon this data. This team developed the governance framework for the DLE data with the primary goals to ensure that everyone within SUNY who needs access to the data in the DLE has it, at a level that is appropriate for their role, and that they have the information they need to use it responsibly and without bias.

SUNY’s adoption of a multi-tenant version of Brightspace made it possible to share educational materials developed by anyone within the SUNY system in a system-wide learning repository that is accessible to any SUNY user. This has the potential to provide a substantial expansion in possibilities for efficient distribution and sharing of high quality learning materials and reduces the need for duplicative work. A new FACT2 task group was formed to explore possibilities for indexing and system-wide sharing of educational materials developed by SUNY faculty, instructional designers, and others. 

The SUNY DLE Project continued to expand access and resources which led into a Change Leadership Community of Practice offering support to campus leaders in leveraging the DLE and LMS transition for maximum impact at the campus level by providing a structured process for guiding teams through change so that leaders could focus their attention and energies on supporting and engaging team members in building a culture of resilience amidst change. 

The SUNY Digital Learning Environment currently has 54 campus tenants in production with over 540,000 total user accounts. Over 200 unique tools have been vetted for the DLE. Work groups, consisting of Campus and System Administration staff, have collectively produced 7 DLE course templates, coordinated and delivered training workshops and developed resources, drafted a Data Governance policy, evaluated and integrated tools, and implemented technical solutions to integrate systems that interface with the DLE.

SUNY continues to collaborate in support of the success of the DLE and we celebrate the milestones achieved by campus cohorts during their integration.