Overview
This article compares Blackboard tool names with their Brightspace equivalents.
Tool Map - Blackboard to Brightspace
The table provides a comparison between tools available in Brightspace and their equivalent tools in Blackboard, alphabetically by Brightspace tool name. Each entry includes a description of the Brightspace tool, explaining its functionality and purpose, along with the corresponding tool in Blackboard. This comparison is helpful in understanding the parallels and differences between the platforms.
Key Tools - Blackboard vs. Brightspace - Tool Names
| In Blackboard |
In Brightspace by D2L |
| Content Area |
Content Unit |
| Content Folder (inside a Content Area) |
Content Lesson (inside a Unit) |
| Content Item (inside a Content Area or Folder) |
Content Page (inside a Content Lesson or Unit) |
| Personal Content Collection |
Locker |
| Learning Module |
There is no real equivalent, aside from standard use of Units and Lessons to organize content in a linear fashion. |
| Grade Center |
Grades |
| Assignments |
Assignments |
| Question Pools |
Question Library |
| Discussion Board |
Discussions |
| Discussion Forum (Category – no posts can be made at this level). Forums are not gradable – only the topics within the forums are gradable |
Discussion Forum |
| Discussion Topic (within a forum) is the equivalent. This is normally where the “question” or “gradable” component lives as the topic is associated with a grade item. |
Discussion Topic (within a forum) |
| Discussion Thread (within a forum) |
Discussion thread (within a topic) where your participants can post and reply |
| Tests |
Quizzes |
| Groups |
Groups |
| Roster |
Classlist |
| Survey |
Surveys |
| Zoom |
Zoom |
Complete List of Tools - Blackboard vs. Brightspace By Category
Course Appearance
| Blackboard Component |
Supported |
Brightspace Component |
Notes |
| Course menu |
No |
Navigation bar & Themes |
Brightspace will have a table of contents area that most students and faculty will interact with. |
| Home Page |
No |
Homepages |
Homepages in Brightspace can be built and shared throughout the environment. |
| Does not exist |
No |
Widgets |
New widgets can be built in Brightspace. If specialized coding is in Blackboard, this might be able to be recreated in Brightspace. |
Resources
| Blackboard Component |
Supported |
Brightspace Component |
Notes |
| Content Folder (inside a Content Area) |
Yes |
Content Lesson (inside a Content Unit) |
Content Lesson can be moved by drag and drop in TOC, in the Course builder tool, or deleted. |
| Content Item (inside a Content Area or Folder) |
Yes |
Content Page (inside a Content Unit or Lesson) |
Topics can be moved by drag and drop in TOC, in the Course builder tool, or deleted. |
| Content Collection |
|
Learning Repository (LOR) |
LOR will need to be configured by LMS admin team(s). |
| Personal Content Collection |
|
Locker |
It is recommended that students store content in cloud based storage or locally. |
| Learning Module |
No |
|
There is no real equivalent, aside from standard use of Units and Lessons to organize content in a linear fashion. |
| Files |
Yes |
Course Files |
Students will not have access to view course files directly, but can view/download from Content area. |
| Course Link |
No |
Quicklinks |
Link to many different areas within a Brightspace course. |
| Links |
Yes |
Links |
Links can be set to open in ‘new window’. |
| Math Editor |
No |
Equation Editor |
The HTML editor contains an equation editor to accommodate math use cases. |
| Review Status |
No |
Table of Contents Completion Tracking |
Students can monitor what topics have been completed in the Table of Contents. |
| Wiki |
No |
Glossary |
A glossary of terms per course can be built. |
| Calendar |
No |
Calendar Events |
Calendar events in Brightspace will be shown by individual assignment/discussion/quiz settings. Usually a checkbox. |
| No true equivalent |
No |
FAQs |
The FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) tool enables you to provide a list of common questions with answers that users might have when using Brightspace Learning Environment or accessing a course. |
Learner Management
| Blackboard Component |
Supported |
Brightspace Component |
Notes |
| Groups |
No |
Groups |
|
| Roster |
No |
Classlist |
View, monitor progress, and communicate with learners in the Classlist tool. The classlist can also be broken up into sections. |
| Attendance |
No |
Attendance Registers |
Use the Attendance tool to create sessions to track attendance and define attendance statuses for your activities. You can assign grades for user attendance, view attendance results, and track users that have poor attendance. |
Assessment
| Blackboard Component |
Supported |
Brightspace Component |
Notes |
| Tasks |
No |
Checklists |
A checklist contains important or required assignments, readings, or other items to complete. |
| Grade Center |
Yes |
Grades |
Student grades will not transfer into Brightspace, but the grade items/categories will. Additional empty Blackboard categories may need to be removed. |
| Gradebook Settings |
No |
Grade Settings |
A gradebook setup wizard allows for the course designer to customize a course. Global grade default settings can also be configured. |
| Grade Categories |
Yes |
Grade Categories |
Supported: Ordering, empty grade categories (customizable in Config Variable Browser)
IncludeEmptyGradeCategories config variable
Not supported: Calculated grade categories |
| Grade Items |
Yes |
Grade Items |
Supported: Ordering, empty grade categories (customizable in Config Variable Browser)
IncludeEmptyGradeCategories config variable
Not supported: Calculated grade categories |
| Self and Peer Assessment |
Yes |
Self-Assessments |
Self-Assessments is a formative assessment tool that enables you to provide learners with a series of questions and give immediate feedback to their responses. |
| Performance Dashboard |
No |
Class Progress |
The Class Progress tool helps track your progress in a course by measuring the completion of different progress indicators. You may want to use the Class Progress tool to keep track of your course-specific assignments and feedback. Instructors can use the Class Progress tool to track your overall progress in the course and prepare progress reports. |
| Retention Center |
No |
Competencies |
Competencies/Learning Objectives can be created in Brightspace to support course level or program level achievement tracking. |
| Tests |
Yes |
Quizzes |
2 kinds of random sections in BB, we convert both to the 1 kind we have in Brightspace:
a) Random section with a link to certain source file to get questions from
b) Random section with question type to be found via searching through all the question libraries in current BB package. |
| Question Pools |
Yes |
Question Library/Testbanks |
Quizzes, Question library and Surveys have very similar structure and use different domain model approach than
There could be many question library files in a Blackboard package, so each is converted into a section of Brightspace question library.
Code for general structure of section is common for Quizzes, Question library and Surveys: sections could have endless tree structure, as it is supported in Brightspace, but in practice only 2 levels are used. |
| Adaptive Release |
No |
Release Conditions |
Release conditions can used in many educational use cases. |
| Survey |
Yes |
Surveys |
Create surveys and use the statistics tools to monitor current course trends, seek opinions, and assess user satisfaction. |
| Assignments |
Yes |
Assignments |
|
| Rubrics |
Yes |
Rubrics |
You can attach a rubric to any of the following course tools or activities:
Competencies
Discussion topics (Individual and Group)
Assignments (Individual and Group)
Brightspace ePortfolio
Grade items
Surveys |
| Rubrics |
Yes |
Rubric Associations |
Associate rubrics to activities. |
Communication
| Blackboard Component |
Supported |
Brightspace Component |
Notes |
| Announcements |
Yes |
News/Announcements |
The Announcements tool enables you to create news items that help communicate course updates, changes, and new information to your users quickly and effectively. |
| No true equivalent |
No |
Chats |
The Brightspace chat tool is text based, the Virtual Classroom can be used for audio/video synchronous communication. |
| Discussion Board |
Yes |
Discussions |
1) Brightspace has a Discussion Forum (a new level in the hierarchy that isn't used by BB – no posts can be made at this level) that has no equivalent in Blackboard. Forums are not gradable – only the topics within the forums are gradable.
a) Blackboard's Discussion Forum = Brightspace's Discussion Topic (within a forum) is the equivalent. This is normally where the “question” or “gradable” component lives as the topic is associated with a grade item.
b) Blackboard's Discussion Thread (within a forum) = Brightspace's Discussion thread (within a topic) where your participants can post and reply.
c) If SkipMessageThreads configuration variable is set to "true" loads one default topic, otherwise converts all child topics |
| Contacts |
No |
Profile |
Set your profile picture, contact information, social networks, education information, work information, and personal information. |
Admin
Data visualizations can be shown across the organization and access is controlled by role permissions.
| Blackboard Component |
Supported |
Brightspace Component |
Notes |
| BbStats – Activity Dashboard |
No |
Insights Portal |
| SafeAssign |
No |
3rd Party Tool |
TurnItIn |
Note