Start of the Semester Reminders Spring 2026

Dear Colleagues,

The Office of Digital Learning – Learning Management System Support team would like to offer our start of the semester reminders and updates for Spring 2026.

CUNY LMS Policy

The CUNY Board of Trustees approved Brightspace as the Learning Management System of record for CUNY in June 2024.  With the retirement of Blackboard, Brightspace is the sole University-supported LMS and use of alternative LMS platforms is prohibited.  Use of all digital tools must meet CUNY’s cybersecurity policies and comply with data privacy laws.

Redesigned CUNY Login page

Starting January 15, 2026, CUNY students, faculty, and staff will see a redesigned CUNY Login page when accessing shared, CUNY-wide applications such as Brightspace and CUNYfirst. In addition to a cleaner, more modern look with less text, the new CUNY Login page provides the following improvements:

  • No need to enter "@login.cuny.edu" as part of your username
  • More responsive design for ease of use regardless of device screen size
  • Improved error handling to avoid restarting the login process from the application's login link

Users can always be certain that the CUNY Login page displayed is genuine--and not a malicious, credentials-gathering counterfeit--by viewing the URL displayed in the application's login link and in the browser. A genuine CUNY Login page URL always starts with https://ssologin.cuny.edu.

 

John Jay migration to Microsoft M365 email

John Jay’s upcoming migration to the M365 email system has no direct impact on the Brightspace LMS.  CUNY’s Brightspace system is already configured to recognize CUNY Login as an email address.  The indirect impact is that following the transition to M365, messages originating from Brightspace (notifications such as daily activity summaries, course announcements, etc.) will be routed to your new M365 email account and accessed like all other messages.  M365 email will be available through Outlook on the Web using the same CUNY Login username and password used to access Brightspace.

Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

The Department of Justice has updated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to require all digital assets offered by public institutions comply with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1, Level AA (or “WCAG 2.1 Level AA”).  This includes instructional content posted in courses hosted on a college learning management system, such as Brightspace and goes into effect in late April 2026.

 

The ODL LMS team encourages faculty to consider accessibility when building their Spring courses.  For more information on Title II of the ADA, accessibility in Brightspace, and tutorials on creating accessible content in many common computer applications, visit the User Guides and Tutorials section of the ODL LMS website, and click on the Accessibility subsections.  Additionally, CUNY Computer and Information Services Training (CISTraining) will offer a series of webinars beginning in February to assist faculty and staff in building accessibility skills and empowering their work with inclusive design.  View full descriptions of the webinars online (please note, advance registration is required and you need to be logged into your CUNY Login account in order to be able to access the registration form).

Spring 2026 courses

All Spring 2026 courses have been created in Brightspace.  If you are missing a course when logging into Brightspace, please log into CUNYfirst and verify that the course has been assigned to you.  If the course has not been assigned to you, your department must reach out to the Registrar to have the official course record updated.  Enrollment updates are processed from CUNYfirst into Brightspace multiple times a day. 

Cross listed courses and manual course merge requests

Course merges within Brightspace for cross-listed Spring 2026 courses have been completed.  Instructors wishing to merge multiple sections of the same course (such as LIT 327 section 03 and LIT 327 section 04) must submit requests to ODL LMS Support.  After course merges are completed, you will see one course in Brightspace containing all enrolled students, where the course is identified by the course that appears first alphabetically (i.e., LAW 313 and POL 313 will appear in Brightspace as LAW/POL 313).  Courses merged in Brightspace remain separate in CUNYfirst.  Verification of enrollment and final semester grades must be reported separately in CUNYfirst for their corresponding courses.

Brightspace Training Opportunities

Upcoming John Jay ODL LMS How-to Webinars (on Zoom, for faculty and staff – links are distributed via college email the week of the session)

January

  • Wednesday, 1/14/2026, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm - Brightspace Open Q&A
  • Wednesday, 1/21/2026, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm - Brightspace Semester Quick Start
  • Wednesday, 1/28/2026, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm - Brightspace Open Q&A

February

  • Wednesday, 2/4/2026, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm - Brightspace Assignments
  • Wednesday, 2/11/2025, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm - Brightspace Discussions and Interacting with Students
  • Wednesday, 2/18/2026, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm - Brightspace Open Q&A
  • Wednesday, 2/25/2026, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm - Brightspace Quizzes

Drop-in Lab Sessions will be offered on Thursdays from January 22nd through February 19th during Community Hour for all users, including students.  Join us on Thursdays, 1:40 pm - 2:55 pm in L2.72.03 NB.  Please note that there is no Drop-in Lab on Thursday, February 12th as the college is closed.

Course Active Status

Students are unable to access courses on Brightspace until instructors change their course status to Active for students.  This setting must be manually changed when you are ready for students to access the course. 

Make your course Active (Available) for students in Brightspace:

  1. In your Course, select Course Admin on the top blue Course Navbar
  2. Select Course Offering Information
  3. Select Course is active box
  4. Click Save to retain changes

The steps above may be repeated to set courses to Inactive at the end of the semester.

ODL LMS website

The ODL LMS Support team has curated Brightspace information and resources for the John Jay community on the ODL LMS website.  We are actively adding new content in response to how our community is using Brightspace.  Visit us online at Office of Digital Learning LMS page.

 

Thank you for taking the time to review this email.  For information and assistance with Brightspace, please email ODL Learning Management System Support at LMS.faculty@jjay.cuny.edu (faculty) or LMS.student@jjay.cuny.edu (students).