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Introduction
Minnesota State Board Policies and System Procedures requires that all security accounts be reviewed and recertified annually. As such, all accounts within D2L Brightspace (that are not faculty or student accounts) need to be reviewed and recertified annually.
The D2L Brightspace Administrator Recertification extends the individual's administrator account access for another year. The certification is valid January through December of the certification year. After the deadline date, an individual who is not recertified through this process will no longer be able to perform their assigned administrator functions within the D2L Brightspace online learning environment.
The individual submits the Certification Request form for each D2L Brightspace site in which they have administrator responsibilities and have an active administrator account. D2L administrator accounts are defined by the individual's responsibilities: Lead administrator, Back-up administrator, or CECT administrator.
Defining a Brightspace Administrator Account
Brightspace Administrator accounts are utilized by campus lead administrators, back-up campus administrators, and campus support staff to perform administrator responsibilities within the D2L Brightspace online learning environment. Typically, Brightspace Administrators have cascading roles, providing access to all site courses and private user data within those courses. Additionally, Brightspace Administrators can view private user data from various admin tools in the online learning environment environment. Brightspace Administrators with higher-level access have the ability to adjust permissions for user roles and security configuration within the D2L Brightspace site.
For our purposes, we have defined Brightspace Administrator accounts based on the individual’s staff responsibilities rather than a set of role permissions within D2L Brightspace. We reserve the right to alter our definition of an administrator account is future annual D2L Brightspace Administrator Recertification reviews.
Based on the stated definition above, three different types of Brightspace Administrator accounts require annual recertification:
- Lead Administrator responsibilities within the campus D2L Brightspace site include: creation and management of courses, users, enrollments; course mapping and SIS integrations; site configuration (config variable settings, and roles & permissions).
- Back-up Administrator responsibilities within the campus D2L Brightspace site may include: providing back-up administrator support to the D2L Lead Admin; support of user accounts (logins, enrollments); and general troubleshooting of site administration.
- CECT Administrator responsibilities within the CECT D2L Brightspace site may include: support of user accounts (logins, enrollments) and/or general troubleshooting for your school's courses.
(Note: The rSchoolToday system is a different IT enterprise service, which requires a separate recertification for the Security Administration application. Learn more at the recertification services at Minnesota State.)
The Brightspace Admin Account Recertification is approved by the individual's supervisor or a designated approver. The supervisor/designated approver reviews and, if necessary, may end Brightspace administrative access for their employee.
How is the Certification process completed?
Individual Brightspace Administrator submit Certification Request form
The individual completes a Certification Request form to recertify each Brightspace administrator account at their campus D2L Brightspace site.
A D2L administrator account requires approval from the individual's immediate supervisor or a similar designated approver. In the Certification Request form, provide your (1) contact information, (2) your D2L administrator account information, and (3) your supervisor's/approver's contact information.
Upon submission, the individual receives a confirmation email and the individual's supervisor receives an email to review the request within Power Automate, part of the Office 365 suite. The individual may contact their supervisor to expedite the review or to cancel the submitted request. The individual will receive an email after their request has been approved, denied, or cancelled by their supervisor.
Supervisor/Approver reviews and confirms the submission
Supervisors/Approvers must approve the user’s recertification to extend their access within D2L Brightspace for another year. You will receive an email from Power Automate providing details about the submitted request. As appropriate, you may approve, deny, or cancel the submitted request. You may receive automated reminder emails to review your pending approvals within Power Automate.
During this process, why do I receive automatic emails from Power Automate?
As part of the recertification process, Microsoft Power Automate may send several automated emails to you and your supervisor/approver. For example:
- Upon submitting the form, the individual receives a submission email to confirm their selections.
- The individual is blind-copied (bcc’d) on the reminder email to their supervisor/approver. This reminder email to their supervisor/approver is sent once a week. This email provide a means of communication with their supervisor about their submitted request.
- After the request has been approved or denied by their supervisor/approver, the individual receives a confirmation email.
Recertification Deadline
Starting November 1 each year:
- Existing administrators will be notified to recertify their active Brightspace administrator account(s).
- New administrators must use the Certification Request form to request approval for a new Brightspace administrator account.
The deadline to complete recertification is January 31 of the certification year.
Starting February 1 of the certification year, an individual's Brightspace Administrator account will be decommissioned if any of the following occurs:
- The individual did not submit their certification on time,
- The individual's supervisor did not approve the individual's certification on time, or
- Your certification was denied.
Note: Prior to February 1, Lead Brightspace Admins must also review and submit their active, non-StarID accounts. (Learn more about this process in the admin article about Lead Campus Site Admin review of active non-StarID accounts.