SUNY Online and the Digital Learning Environment

Frequently Asked Questions about SUNY Online

Explore SUNY's Digital Learning Environment (DLE) Project

SUNY Online

At SUNY, we are transforming the landscape of online learning. Drawing on our rich history of innovation, we're placing the outstanding educational opportunities and talented faculty from our 64 campuses at your fingertips. SUNY Online brings together an online learning environment to serve students at scale, opening the door to world-class technology-enabled learning opportunities.

SUNY Online is not a new degree program or a new school; it's a seamless way for you to easily access the courses, degrees, professors, and rich academics of all 64 SUNY campuses—wherever and whenever you want. SUNY is delivering its renowned high-quality education with an unprecedented breadth of tools, services, and supports designed to help you be successful.

• Flexibility: Learn on your own schedule from wherever. No need to change your work schedule or change jobs to make time for school; you can learn when your schedule allows.
• Support: You'll have access to a real human being who knows you and is there for you.
• Experience: The hands-on practical experience you need to be successful in the workplace is built into your SUNY Online experience.
• Simplicity: SUNY Online brings together online program and course offerings so that they are easy to find. It's never been simpler to see all SUNY has to offer.
• Excellence: Faculty are the engine of SUNY, and SUNY Online provides them with the tools and supports they need to provide high-quality courses in an online environment.
• Access: SUNY's Affordable Learning Solutions provide faculty with an easy way to locate and utilize free and open educational materials to provide students with high-quality free or low-cost textbooks and other learning resources.

Digital Learning Environment (DLE)

SUNY's DLE project provides a dynamic opportunity to unify the digital learning environment within which all SUNY campuses operate: a common Learning Management System (LMS) application. Most campuses will operate within a shared environment that enables students and faculty to access courses from across the system via one login. The environment is based on a central architecture with common data structures; common templates; a common set of online tools integrated with the LMS; and a common integration for data. The transition to D2L's Brightspace has enabled SUNY to take advantage of economies of scale, better share best practices and resources across campuses and between SUNY System Administration resources and campuses, assure strong technical support, and provide a familiar platform for students, faculty and staff moving across campuses.

Key highlights of the SUNY Digital Learning Environment include:

• Course level tools/features that address existing challenges/issues identified by SUNY faculty;
• Ease of use for content creation and building courses;
• Multiple and easy to access channels for faculty-student interaction;
• Strong/proactive mechanisms for Universal Design and accessibility compliance;
• Functionality to support non-credit continuing education, and training;
• Solutions to existing challenges and anticipated future needs;
• Strong data analytics tools; and
• Solutions to support non-credit programs and micro-credentials important to workforce development.