You can continue to use Blackboard with no restrictions until the end of the 2026 summer semester. Faculty and staff have access to a preliminary version of Learn@FU (based on Moodle) via www.learn.fu-berlin.de by now. They have the opportinity to get to know Learn@FU and can transfer Blackboard courses and content if needed. 

Starting in the winter semester 2026/27, Learn@FU will be the new central learning platform at Freie Universität, meaning that new courses will be created exclusively there. Blackboard will only be available to a limited extent in the winter semester 2026/27 and will no longer be accessible as of March 15, 20227.

Further information can be found in the schedule.

Instructors

Learn@FU (based on Moodle) is available to you via www.learn.fu-berlin.de. We recommend that you start familiarizing yourself with the new system now and, if necessary, transfer your content from Blackboard. 

Students

At this time, your courses are not yet available in Learn@FU. They will be made available a few weeks before the 2026/27 winter semester and must be activated by your instructors. We will keep you informed on this page and via Blackboard as soon as support materials for students getting started with Learn@FU are available.

Instructors

If you are currently creating a new Blackboard course that you expect to use beyond the 2026 summer semester, please note the information in the Transfering courses from Blackboard to Moodle section.

• Login Learn@FU: www.learn.fu-berlin.de
• Help Materials (available after login)    
• FAQ Learn@FU                
• Training Program (incl. Open Office Hours)        
• Contact: futurelms@it.fu-berlin.de

Students

As soon as your courses are available to you, we will offer comprehensive support services (e.g., help materials) for students.
Recommendation: At the end of each semester, be sure to save all content from your Blackboard courses that you will need in the long term. Also, make sure that your participation and exam results are correctly recorded in Campus Management, including for past courses.

During the summer semester of 2026, you can use Blackboard without restrictions.

In the winter semester of 2026/27, no new courses will be offered on Blackboard. The learning platform will be phased out gradually:

• Until December 31, 2026: Existing Blackboard courses can still be edited.
• From January 1, 2027: Only limited access (read-only) to Blackboard courses will be possible. This is due to the end of support for the version of Blackboard (Blackboard Learn Original) used at Freie Universität by the provider Anthology.
• From March 15, 2027: Blackboard will no longer be available (end of license).

It is strongly recommended that existing Blackboard courses are no longer used for teaching purposes during the 2026/27 winter semester.

After January 1, 2027, instructors will still be able to access the system and download individual materials. 

Starting on January 1, 2027, you will no longer be able to:

• Edit courses, e.g., post announcements, add or edit content, use communication tools, edit the grade center
• Change settings in courses
• View settings in courses, e.g., settings for tests

After January 1, 2027, students will still be able to access the system and download individual materials. 

However, you will no longer be able to make any changes within a course, i.e., upload documents, complete tests, create forum posts.

No, that is not necessary. All content in Blackboard will be deleted when the license expires on March 15, 2027. However, you can delete your content in advance if you wish to do so.

Learn@FU ist based on Moodle, a state-of-the-art, flexible, and powerful learning platform. 

Advantages of Moodle:

• A wide range of tools for collaboration and interaction
• Open source and hosted at Freie Universität
• Active, global community
• Proven use at many universities (e.g., in the Berlin University Alliance, in Germany, and worldwide)

Learn@FU ist based on Moodle. Moodle offers all the basic functions of a learning management system. Below is an overview of the most important capabilities:

• Providing content: files (can also be uploaded via drag-and-drop), text area and text pages (with integration of links, images, video), links, learning modules (e.g., book, lesson, learning package/SCORM)
• Providing information: Announcements (forum that can only be edited by teachers, with automatic email delivery and subscription), messages to selected or all participants
• Submitting exercises, minutes, etc.: Assignments
• Collaboration and interaction: Forum, Wiki, Glossary (cooperative creation of entries), Database (collection of content), Choice, H5P integration
• Create surveys: Feedback
• Tests with the following question types, among others: Multiple Choice (single or multiple answers), True/False, Matching, Short Answer, Numerical, Essay, Ordering, various calculation types, various drag-and-drop types, Embedded Answers
• Structure courses: You can choose between different course formats (e.g., topic or weekly format) and organize your content into sections and subsections. Files can also be grouped into directories.
• Groups
• Assessment overview
• Set requirements for accessing content 

The new LMS Moodle is hosted locally at Freie Universität Berlin and maintained by FUB-IT.

As with the Blackboard LMS, all active members of Freie Universität have access to Learn@FU. Alumni do not have access. 

A "FU-account" is required to use Learn@FU. Further information on FU-accounts and how to apply for one can be found on the service portal: https://service.fu-berlin.de/servity/knowledgebasearticle/CAT-00120

The learning platform Learn@FU does not distinguish between courses and organizations. 

However, we are happy to set up courses for you that are not subject to standard academic semesters. You can use these courses in the same way as you previously used organizations in Blackboard. 

Existing courses and content from previous semesters that are still needed on the new platform will be transferred manually by instructors (or persons with the role of “Kurleiter”). If several persons with the role of “Kursleiter” are enrolled in your course, please agree among yourselves who will be responsible for transferring content.

Resources for transferring content from Blackboard can be found directly in Learn@FU and are available after you log in.

Yes, this is possible, but only the most common question types and settings can be transferred. Integrated images and media are not transferred.

You have the following options:

1. Tests as a whole can be exported in Common Cartridge format as part of a course export and restored in Learn@FU.
2. Test questions can also be exported from individual tests or from pools as a zip package and imported into the question collection of a Learn@FU course. In this case, the “test framework” into which the questions are inserted must be recreated in Moodle.

The following question types can be imported with both options:

• True/False, Multiple Answer, Multiple Choice, Simple Fill-in-the-Blank, Essay

Additionally:

• Only with Common Cartridge: Likert Scale
• Only with test question export: Matching

Important: Carefully review all transferred content and settings, and make sure the tests work as intended! For detailed information regarding the transfer of tests, please visit our resources available in Learn@FU.

User data such as student participation in forums, tests, or exercises, etc. cannot be transferred to Learn@FU.

Announcements, forum posts (e.g., in an FAQ forum), wiki pages, etc. that you have created yourself are also user data. If you want to reuse this data in Learn@FU, you must copy the texts manually from Blackboard. We recommend doing this in edit mode until December 31, 2026.

The amount of time needed to transfer courses depends on the following factors:

• Complexity of the courses
• Features used
• Number of courses
• Prior knowledge of Learn@FU / Moodle

We recommend that you start transferring courses and materials during the summer semester.

Please note the following when creating a new Blackboard course:

• Choose a relatively flat structure for your Blackboard course with one or at most two folder levels. A nested structure with many parent and subfolders is more difficult to transfer to the new learning platform.
• For tests, use the following question types, which can be imported into Moodle later: 
  • True/False, Multiple Answer, Multiple Choice, Simple Fill-in-the-Blank, Essay

If you have any further questions or need advice, please feel free to contact us. 

It is possible to transfer courses from another Moodle system by backing them up and restoring them. Please note that your content may be displayed differently in the systems due to version differences or plugins.

Since 2004, Freie Universität has been using Blackboard, a central learning management system (LMS) with numerous functionalities and a wide range of applications. The requirements for the LMS have changed significantly in the course of the increasing digitization of university teaching and ongoing technological developments. 

The FutureLMS project analyzed current and future requirements for the LMS and evaluated technical solutions. Various stakeholders were involved in the process; user requirements were gathered through group and individual interviews as well as a university-wide survey. Based on the results of a university-wide evaluation, the Executive Board decided in March 2025 to follow the recommendation of the Service Portfolio Board and switch central learning platforms from Blackboard to Moodle, an open-source platform. The transition to the new LMS is scheduled for the 2026/2027 winter semester.

Moodle is a state-of-the-art, flexible, and powerful learning platform. 

Advantages of Moodle:

• A wide range of tools for collaboration and interaction
• Open source and hosted at Freie Universität
• Active, global community
• Proven use at many universities (e.g., in the Berlin University Alliance, in Germany, and worldwide)

Ask us during the open office hour via Webex or send us an email at futurelms@it.fu-berlin.de.