December 11, 2023

Policy for Use of a Learning Management System for Online Classes

Policy Owner: Executive Vice Chancellor and University Provost

Responsible Office: CUNY Academic & Faculty Affairs

Contact Information: Academic Program Review & Policy

Approved By

Effective Date: By campus concurrent with transition to D2L Brightspace.

Constituencies: Faculty, instructional staff, and administrators

Policy Statement

All Online Synchronous and Online Asynchronous classes must be delivered via a learning management system (LMS) that meets:

  • CUNY’s cybersecurity policies;
  • applicable data privacy laws including FERPA, GDPR, CCPA, COPPA, PIPEDA, ISO 27018, Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), and Security Trust and Assurance Registry (STAR); and
  • any other relevant University policies and guidelines.

A course is “delivered” in an LMS for purposes of this policy when an instructor, at a minimum, posts a course syllabus and uses the gradebook and announcements functions for the duration of the course.

Use of the CUNY-supported LMS is strongly recommended. A college/academic unit may choose to allow use of an LMS other than the University-supported LMS when it meets the following conditions:

  • The LMS is verified by the college CIO as meeting cybersecurity and data privacy policies as specified above.
  • The college/academic unit assumes costs and liabilities associated with use of an alternative LMS. All procurement rules must be followed.
  • The college/academic unit is responsible for course enrollment and ensures their data follows University Registrar enrollment and grades guidelines.
  • The college/academic unit is responsible for LMS integration with CUNYfirst, CUNY SSO, and all other technologies as needed (third-party e-learning tools) to ensure reporting compliance for IPEDS, ADA, homeland security/visa status, and NC-SARA.
  • The college/academic unit is responsible for training and support as well as ongoing maintenance and security vulnerability updates of the environment.

Source: Policy-for-Use-of-a-Learning-Management-System-for-Online-Classes-Policy-1.6.pdf (cuny.edu)

Getting Started

To get ready for the move to the Brightspace environment, faculty are encouraged to do some clean up on their current Blackboard courses. Once cleaned up, it is advised that courses be backed up by exporting the course. Learn more about this HERE.

Office Information

Brightspace Learning Management System

Email: brightspace@qc.cuny.edu