Discover Lamakū: Your Guide to D2L Brightspace at UH

The University of Hawaiʻi Information Technology Services is excited to announce a significant transformation in our approach to managing teaching and learning. After careful consideration and a rigorous review and evaluation, the University of Hawaiʻi has chosen Brightspace by D2L as our new Learning Management System (LMS). This decision marks a pivotal moment in our commitment to providing a cutting-edge educational experience for our students, faculty, and staff, supporting our endeavor of being Hawaiʻi's university for today and tomorrow.
Why Brightspace?

Brightspace is a modern, cloud-based LMS offering numerous advantages over our current system, Laulima (Sakai). With Brightspace, you can look forward to:
- User-Friendly Interface: Brightspace provides an intuitive and easy-to-navigate platform, ensuring a seamless experience for instructors and students.
- Enhanced Mobile Accessibility: Access your courses and resources anytime, anywhere, with the convenience of a mobile-responsive design. Additionally, Brightspace offers the mobile application Brightspace Pulse to connect with your learning materials and notifications on the go.
- Student Success and Advanced Communication: D2Lʻs Brightspace includes an intelligent agent tool to personalize and enhance communication, promote higher student engagement, and boost student retention and success efforts.
- Preparing Workforce-Ready Students: Brightspace by D2L includes a portfolio to assist with documenting workforce-ready skills.
- Accessibility: Brightspace prioritizes accessibility, ensuring that students of all abilities can fully participate in online learning.
- Hawaiian Place of Learning: D2L is committed to partnering with the University of Hawaiʻi to champion the principles of aloha, caring for people and place, and integrating ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi as a language option in Brightspace.

A Name Selected For UH's New LMS
The University of Hawaiʻi Information Technology Services invited the UH community to submit suggested names for our new Learning Management System (Brightspace by D2L). Four finalist name suggestions were selected based on the submissions received in consultation with the University of Hawaiʻi Lamakū Advisory Group. The UH community was then asked to cast a vote for a preferred name from the final four names.
We are delighted to share that with significant engagement, receiving 47.6% (641) of the 1,409 votes, Lamakū has been selected as the name for our new Learning Management System.
Lamakū
The literal translation of lamakū in English is torch, similar to the torch that appears in the UH logo. Metaphorically, lamakū refers to education or enlightenment, lamakū o ka naʻauao, which also works well with the name of the software - Brightspace.
Mahalo to Dr. Keola Donaghy, Associate Professor of Music at the University of Hawaiʻi Maui College, for his name suggestion.

Lamakū User Accounts and Sandbox Environment
All UH faculty and staff have been provisioned a Lamakū User Account and can login to Lamakū with their UH username and password. Newly hired UH faculty and staff can request for a Lamakū User Account once their UH username email account has been created.
UH instructional faculty have been provisioned one sandbox and can request additional sandbox sites if needed. Non-instructional faculty and staff can also request sandbox site(s) to explore the new UH Learning Management System (LMS) firsthand. (limit 5 sandbox sites per person)
Access to a sandbox course site allows faculty and staff to familiarize themselves with the new platform's functionalities and features.
- In the Lamakū sandbox environment, faculty and staff can practice building content and explore the features of the various tools available in Lamakū. Content built in Lamakū can be copied from one Lamakū site to another Lamakū site. For example, content built in a Lamakū sandbox course shell may be copied to an active course site in Lamakū.
- Lamakū sandbox sites do not include migrated course content from Laulima or student enrollment.
- Check the Faculty and Staff resource page for additional information.

We Want to Hear from You!
We value the opinion of our UH faculty, staff, and students and would love to hear about your experiences with Lamakū. Your feedback is important as we transition to Lamakū.
Please share with us your Lamakū Feedback and Recommendation at any time.
Mahalo for your support and taking time to provide thoughtful and constructive feedback.
Please address questions or comments to UH Online (uhdl@hawaii.edu), UH Information Technology Services