After eight years with NYU Classes as the university ’ s learning management system, NYU expects to fully transition to Brightspace by December 2021. NYU has adopted the newly platform Brightspace for students to use in order to view their course of study and assignments. Most classes have already moved from the previous chopine of NYU Classes to Brightspace, and NYU is planning to complete the transition by December. ( Staff Illustration by Manasa Gudavalli ) The fall 2021 semester begins today, Sep. 2, but unlike previous years, most students will not log on to NYU Classes to download their course of study and view their assignments. alternatively, they will use Brightspace, which the university has adopted as its basal learn management arrangement. The majority of classes have been relocated on the platform already, and NYU expects to complete a full transition by December 2021 .
Brightspace is a defile determine platform where faculty and students can manage course materials, collaborate with classmates, take tests and track their course standings.
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NYU ’ s Information Technology department said that the university moved to Brightspace for several reasons — most notably its handiness in comparison to NYU Classes. Based on an open-source software called Sakai, NYU Classes has been the university ’ s learning platform for the past eight years .
“ We sporadically review all our software for investment or substitute, and in the 2019 review, Sakai had clearly fallen behind in features and facilitate of use compared to its competitors, ” a spokesperson for NYU IT told WSN. “ Brightspace is cloud-based, rather than running on servers NYU manages ourselves. All NYU software is becoming cloud-based, and the Brightspace move is besides part of that larger course. ”
According to the faculty of Arts and Science Office of Educational Technology, Brightspace besides allows staff to make use of new features including audio and video recording feedback, journal assignments, rat and upvoting posts and easy re-use of materials from previous courses .
NYU IT initially planned to conversion to Brightspace by January 2021. however, following the attack of the COVID-19 pandemic, the department decided to extend the timeline as students and faculty adapted to online learning. The trade continued into the summer 2021 semester, with staff members gradually shift ing their classes onto the platform .
While most — if not all — classes in the fall will be on Brightspace, NYU Classes remains accessible until the end of 2021, albeit with express active courses. NYU IT besides plans to mechanically migrate archive courses from 2019 through 2021 from NYU Classes onto Brightspace.
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Erin Morrison, a clinical professor in Liberal Studies, volunteered to test Brightspace during the spring in her three class sections consisting of 75 total students. She said that the platform allows faculty to tailor a dashboard for each course, unlike the identical course format that NYU Classes offers .
“ With direction, it ’ sulfur a lot more flexible in terms of how I want to make the site deliver material to my students, ” Morrison said. “ Every single class that you have will credibly have a unlike layout when you get into the message menu — it ’ s much more individualized. ”
One of Gallatin senior Hannah Young ’ s jump classes was besides partially of the fender program. She said that the platform looks better and operates smoother than NYU Classes, and feels more intuitive to most students she ’ s spoken to .
“ Brightspace looks more modern, and the rush [ of changing between tabs ] was better, ” Young said. “ With NYU Classes, I would get confused sometimes because a bunch of the tabs are like, while Brightspace is more mark out. And most [ students ] who are going to be at NYU for another class or two liked it. ”
To prepare for the passage, NYU IT provided staff and students with train about the platform ’ s tools and layout. many professors, including Morrison, besides plan to review how to use Brightspace during the first week of classify .
“ For students who have taken courses on NYU Classes, it ’ mho going to be a little bite of a change, ” Morrison said. “ [ But ] it ’ ll be a better feel for both me and the students once we ’ ve arrive into it. ”
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