For a long time, the success of an LMS migration was measured by how infrequently it broke down. Institutions would commit instructional designers, IT staff and faculty to months of exporting, importing and cleaning up courses, all in service of a fairly modest goal: land each course close enough to the original that faculty edits stayed manageable afterward. But “close enough” still meant hundreds of hours of rework before the term even began — and the important work of accessibility compliance was often left to course facilitators.
Premium Migration is D2L Learning Services’ cure for that institutional headache. Instead of giving your team a set of files to reassemble, we handle the entire project from start to finish. The goal shifts from migration to teaching readiness.
How It Works
There are two essential elements at the core of a Premium Migration: a migration engine that analyzes content, applies branding, and enhances the accessibility of every course and a delivery team of instructional designers and content developers who validate the results. For your institution, the entire process comes down to two touchpoints: a kickoff meeting to approve the prototype and a final sign-off meeting before your course goes live. Everything in between — analysis, branding, QA and delivery — is handled by Learning Services.
Your course arrives structured as it was taught, with modules, content, assessments and the gradebook intact, rather than a flat dump of files waiting to be rebuilt.
What’s Included
A Premium Migration efficiently bundles several capabilities that would otherwise be handled piecemeal, providing a more cost-effective path to teaching-ready courses.
| Capability | Description |
| Teaching-Ready Courses | Courses arrive structured the way they were taught, with modules, sequencing, content, assessments and the gradebook intact, not a collection of exported files requiring reassembly. |
| Branded Template | Your institution’s HTML template is applied across the entire migrated course catalogue, so learners get a consistent, navigable experience instead of hundreds of individual course designs. The template is compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA, so the application instantly improves accessibility throughout your courses. |
| Accessibility Report | Our accessibility tool scans content and provides a report that gives you a snapshot of where you may need to spend time improving your course’s accessibility to comply with WCAG 2.1 AA. |
| Broken Link Replacement | Broken links are identified and repaired so that your course is updated and ready to launch. |
| LTI Replacement | LTI tool links are updated and validated catalogue-wide, so publisher content and third-party integrations work on Day One. |
| White-Glove Delivery | Learning Services scopes, migrates, remediates, performs QA, and provides reports. The process is entirely hands-off for your institution. |
Who Does What
Premium Migration is a distinctive service because Learning Services handles the bulk of the labor. Your team’s role is intentionally small.
| Your Team | Learning Services |
| Attends a project kickoff call Provides credentials to the source LMS (Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle, etc.) Reviews and approves the HTML template and prototype course Reviews and signs off before the go-live date | Conducts inventory and analysis of every course Provides migration, branding, and LTI replacement Generates WCAG 2.1 AA compliance report Conducts QA of every course before scheduled delivery |
The Premium Migration Difference
- Faculty open a course that’s ready to teach rather than one that needs rebuilding.
- Students get a consistent, navigable, accessible experience across the entire course catalogue.
- Instructional design and IT teams keep their existing roadmap rather than spending valuable time on migration work.
- Accessibility updates are completed on a course-by-course basis, ensuring a better learning experience for all.
Premium Migration is about moving to Brightspace without burdening your people or your budget — courses arrive teaching-ready, and your team’s involvement stays measured in touchpoints, not months.
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