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Brightspace Course Migration

A Faculty Guide to a Smooth Transition to D2L Brightspace

The transition from Blackboard to D2L Brightspace is underway! Beginning late February, the LMS admin team will begin migrating courses to the new platform. Only the most recent course offerings (AY 25-26) will be eligible for migration; all earlier courses will be archived and will not migrate into Brightspace. Any courses offered on rotation will be migrated upon request. 

In order to ensure a smooth and efficient transition, faculty are encouraged to conduct a course audit on courses selected for migration. Years of course copies and file updates can result in significant digital clutter, including duplicated files, outdated content, and broken links- all of which will be migrated into Brightspace if left in place. 

Conducting a course audit before migration helps ensure that only current, intentional materials are transferred, reducing the need for troubleshooting, manual cleanup, or reorganization after migration.

Conducting a Course Audit 

A course audit entails reevaluating your course content, removing unnecessary materials, refining learning activities and addressing accessibility requirements. To help distribute the workload, CETAL has prepared a recommended guide to course auditing designed to be completed over four weeks.

IMPORTANT!
Before access to Blackboard closes (June 30), consider exporting the grade book to preserve a historical record of student data.

Phase 1: Remove unnecessary/outdated materials

Over time, courses accumulate extra files, outdated materials, and redundant resources. Cleaning up unnecessary content keeps your course focused and easy to navigate. Again, before deleting any content, we strongly recommend exporting the gradebook.

Step 1: Document Files

Review the course content area for Powerpoint presentations, PDFs, and Word documents that are no longer needed.

  • Files attached to assignments can be removed by:
    • Editing the assignment settings
    • Selecting “Mark for removal”
    • Clicking  “Submit”
  • Files uploaded directly to the Course Content Area can be removed by selecting “Delete” from the file link settings. Important: Deleting a file from the Course Content Area removes it from student view but may not permanently remove the file from the course; it must be removed from within the Content Collection by selecting the file and clicking “Recycle.”

Remove or update any outdated/broken web links (including Google drive links). 

Step 2: Video Files

Review the Kaltura Media Gallery for obsolete videos, such as instructional lectures, Zoom meetings, or video announcements. Similar to files, removing the link from the Course Content Area does not remove the original source – it must be deleted from the Media Gallery.

Other embedded videos such as YouTube may be removed by deleting the weblink within the Course Content Area.  

Step 3: Communication

Announcements will migrate over as drafts, but the availability dates will need to be adjusted in Brightspace. Review and delete announcements you no longer wish to save.

Course Messages will not migrate, so any communication stored there will be lost unless it is saved before migration. To save course messages:

  • Navigate to Course Messages
  • Open each message you intend to keep
  • Copy/paste the message into a secured location

This cleanup doesn’t need to be exhaustive—focus on removing items that are clearly outdated or no longer used. The goal is to ensure only current, intentional content migrates to Brightspace. When in doubt, keep it and move on.

Phase 2: Review assessments and gradebook

Step 1: Tests and Quizzes

Begin by reviewing the Course Content Area for any tests, quizzes, or surveys. Locate and remove any undesired assessment links within the Course Content Area (e.g. Module 1)

Next,  review the assessments stored in Test, Surveys, and Pools.

  • Navigate to Course Tools> Test, Surveys, and Pools
  • Delete any duplicated or irrelevant tests or quizzes that are no longer needed
  • Question pools may migrate differently and should be reviewed for duplicates or outdated questions

Note: Only assessments that are not currently deployed (not linked anywhere within the Course Content Area) can be deleted. If a test has been deployed, you must remove the course links before the test can be deleted.

Step 2: Discussions

Navigate to the Discussion Board to review all discussion forums and threads. Remove outdated or undesired discussion activities.

Note: Deleting a graded discussion also deletes the associated grade center column.

Step 3: Gradebook

The full grade center will migrate; however, student submission data will not migrate. If you have not already archived your course, we recommend doing so for safe keeping.

Note: columns will default to a points-based grading system in Brightspace.

  • Review and organize grade center columns
  • Confirm that grade center columns match assignment and assessments

Phase 3: (Re)organize your content

Once course content has been updated, organize what remains so it transfers cleanly. Consider these tips in reorganizing your course:

  • Simplify the course navigation menu
    Each link in the course navigation menu will copy over to Brightspace. However, not all menu items will be relevant and should be removed. These may include: Blackboard Tools, OL Interface V2.6, My Instructor.
  • Consistent Naming Conventions
    Use clear and consistent naming conventions for your files and course sections. For example, you might name content as “Presentation: Chapter 1”, “Video Lecture: Chapter 3”, and so on.
  • Review each module
    Take one final look through each module in the Online Classroom and reorder content needed to reflect a consistent, logical flow.

Phase 4: Check for accessibility compliance

With the remaining course content, ensure that all materials meet federal accessibility requirements prior to migration. This includes documents, slide presentations, images, and videos. Because Ally – Blackboard’s built-in accessibility checker-  will not be available after the transition to Brightspace, it is important to review and remediate accessibility issues now. Note: any accessibility updates completed before migration will carry forward and will not be lost.

  • Run an Ally report
    Ally scans your course content and files for common accessibility concerns and provides step-by-step guidance for improving them. This is the most efficient way to identify what needs attention and where to start.

When reviewing your materials, focus on the accessibility elements most likely to affect student access:

  • Use structured headings in Word documents and PDFs (not just bold text)
  • Add alternative text for images, charts, and graphics
  • Ensure sufficient color contrast
  • Caption videos and provide transcripts for audio content

For more detailed standards and step-by-step guidance, refer to CETAL’s accessibility webpage, which includes resources for creating and revising accessible course materials.

For more detailed standards, refer to CETAL’s accessibility page, which contains a full list of accessibility standards and guides for creating and revising course materials.