Frequently Asked Questions

Sakai has done an excellent job meeting the needs of the Western community for the last 10 years. We expanded our LMS usage significantly during the quick pivots to emergency remote learning.

We're elevating the teaching and learning experience with a platform that will provide better support for flexible learning models and improved capacity for the increased usage OWL has seen. It will also better meet the needs of the community identified during the Community Engagement phase of the OWL Migration Plan by providing a more modern interface and better support for mobile usage.

Finally, a new LMS will support Western’s strategic plan in the areas of enriching student experience, promoting teaching and learning for the future and better supporting future enrollment growth.

“OWL” isn't going anywhere! You might see us reference both OWL Brightspace and OWL Sakai in documentation and in communications.

OWL (Online Western Learning) is Western's name for our online learning platform. We will be keeping the name OWL but replacing the underlying learning platform with Brightspace. The current version of OWL (which is powered by learning management system Sakai) will be phased out at a date yet to be determined.

OWL Brightspace was chosen through a Request for Proposal process and a team of evaluators that included a student, instructor, academic lead, and technical lead. The criteria for the Request for Proposal was developed using feedback from over 5,000 Western community members (students, instructors, faculty, and staff) who provided their feedback through surveys, listening sessions, demos, sandbox testing, and more. 

Learn more about our community engagement process.

Brightspace is currently used by 570 universities and colleges, including Carleton University, Brock University, Toronto Metropolitan University, University of Ottawa, Wilfrid Laurier University, University of Windsor, University of Victoria, and many more.  

OWL Brightspace is available now for all Western users to log in to, but only those teaching, supporting, or learning in a course will be able to see courses!

All* Intersession, Summer, Fall, and Winter academic courses for 2024 will be taught in OWL Brightspace.
*Note: This does not include Western Continuing Studies.

1. Visit westernu.brightspace.com.
2. Log in with your Western ID.
3. You will be prompted for DUO multifactor authentication.

What will migrate to OWL Brightspace

Academic course sites and Sakai project sites that:

• Are academic in nature and/or are used for training
• Include guided training modules AND use tools like Gradebook, Assessments, Tests & Quizzes, Certificates, and Lessons. 

What won't migrate to OWL Brightspace

Project sites which do not use guided training modules AND tools like Gradebook, Assessments, Test & Quizzes, Certificates, and Lessons, and are used for:

• file storage/transfer
• committee work
• research sites
• sites in place for non-Western users

These sites will be required to move to alternate solutions such as (but not limited to) Office 365 (Microsoft Teams, OneDrive) or Qualtrics.

Learn more on the Migration Info page.

No! You can choose to self-migrate, build your course from scratch, or have an assisted migration. More information about each option is available here.

Core LTI tools are already integrated in OWL Brightspace, including Zoom, Gradescope, iClicker, and more.

To streamline the assessment of eLearning tools, enhance data security, and protect student information and university assets within OWL Brightspace, a new assessment process for integrating eLearning tools has been developed.

For more information, visit the LTI Tools page on the eLearning Toolkit.

From within the official course, navigate to:

Manage Course > Course Admin > Import/Export/Copy Components.

Visit the D2L Brightspace Community for more detailed instructions. 

Using OWL Brightspace:

• Self-Guided Instructor Training: Login to OWL Brightspace and select "Self-Guided Instructor Training" under the "Help" section of the top navigation bar on the "My Home" page.
• Workshops and Q&A with the Centre for Teaching and Learning
• OWL Brightspace Help

Technical Assistance and Migration Support: 
WTS Helpdesk

Absolutely! Training and support resources are available through the Centre for Teaching and Learning. An OWL Brightspace training course, developed with user feedback from the EAP, will allow users to learn about the platform’s tools and functionalities.

Self-directed resources and foundational sandbox-based learning will be followed by drop-in sessions and workshops that take a deeper look at functionalities and provide an opportunity to discuss in a community of practice.