Brightspace is an academic and corporate learning management platform. It provides core e-learning features, as well as mobile accessibility and granular personalization and analytics insights.
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Pricing
D2L Brightspace
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Pricing Offerings
D2L Brightspace
Free Trial
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
Must contact vendor for pricing information. 30-day free trial is available.
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Community Pulse
D2L Brightspace
Considered Both Products
D2L
Verified User
Chose D2L Brightspace
It's an all-in-one platform with great analytics. It can also easily be used for external training programs, which is important for a B2B use case. I really like how it can embed different types of content, like video, and the integrations are also great. It is more costly than …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
Chose D2L Brightspace
In my opinion, D2L Brightspace is inferior to CANVAS and Blackboard. I didn't choose it. It was selected by my employer.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Instructional Designer - Faculty at Southern Arkansas University Tech (Higher Education, 51-200 employees)
Chose D2L Brightspace
Brightspace is by far the most user-friendly LMS I have ever used. Faculty with a lower technical skill set have an easier time navigating Brightspace features. Teaching wise, I have also found Brightspace to be easier for students to navigate than its competitors. I adjunct …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Director of Teaching Excellence in Information Technology at Minnesota State College Southeast (Higher Education, 201-500 employees)
Chose D2L Brightspace
In looking at Brightspace versus its competitors currently, it continues to provide the widest functionality, great value, and better ability to tailor the user experience of it to our organizations needs. The longer that our institution has had Brightspace, the more we've been …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
Chose D2L Brightspace
Compared to Blackboard, Brightspace is a much more powerful application that allows instructors to share more content, customize their courses, and design courses in a more intuitive wizard style if desired. Brightspace is also designed to work well on mobile devices and …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Process Optimization Analyst in Corporate at Quad (Printing, 10,001+ employees)
Chose D2L Brightspace
Brightspace offers one of the most tailored employee engagement learning platforms in existence. My organization has utilized a multitude of employee engagement and learning platforms and Brightspace has offered one of the most customized tools that we have used thus far. We …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
Chose D2L Brightspace
We switched to Brightspace from Blackboard, and it is much better. It can do a lot more, and it is much more user-friendly.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
Chose D2L Brightspace
We migrated from PLS. Brightspace is much more intuitive and modern than PLS was. The ability for Brightspace to work across a range of devices (mobile, tablet, PC, Mac, etc) has been positive for our instructors and students. The main interface is straightforward and easy to …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Graduate Teaching Assistant at Journal of Linguistic Geography (Research, 5001-10,000 employees)
Chose D2L Brightspace
Although it's been some time since I used Blackboard (as a student in my undergraduate degree), it felt much more intuitive at the time than Brightspace has when I've taken or taught classes. However, I don't feel especially comfortable comparing them since it's been quite …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Administrative Office Technician at Lebanon Campus of Harrisburg Area Community College (Higher Education, 1001-5000 employees)
Chose D2L Brightspace
I used Blackboard when I was in college, but that was very little. I just used it to register for classes and to view grades. Brightspace is leaps and bounds what Blackboard was when I last used it in 2010.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Instructional Academic Staff at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (Higher Education, 501-1000 employees)
Chose D2L Brightspace
I have used Blackboard Learn 8 and 9. I am currently learning about Canvas. Blackboard is overall much clunkier and lacks the intuitive feel in some parts of D2L. Its grade book is much harder to control and manipulate than D2L's. Its navigation menu can be more radically …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Adjunct English Professor at Polk State College (Higher Education, 201-500 employees)
Chose D2L Brightspace
I was not involved in the selection process for my organization since I am only a professor. However, I have worked at 2 previous organizations that have used other online LMSs, and I think overall, D2L is at the top of the list of LMSs I find the most usable.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Cisco Faculty in Information Technology at Pikes Peak Community College (Education Management, 201-500 employees)
Chose D2L Brightspace
Desire2Learn was selected for me, but I find it to be simpler to navigate than Moodle, more intuitive. Blackboard was many years ago, but I find more flexibility in assigning due dates and end dates in the newer version of Desire2Learn.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Faculty Development Coordinator & Emerging Technologies Specialist at University of West Georgia (Higher Education, 1001-5000 employees)
Chose D2L Brightspace
Comparing Desire2Learn to Blackboard Vista, I actually believe that Blackboard has a better product, although it has its own set of challenges. We changed systems because of the extremely poor customer service and high level of faculty irritation with Blackboard at the time. I …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Associate professor of biology at Johns Hopkins University (Higher Education, 501-1000 employees)
Chose D2L Brightspace
Desire2Learn is very good compared to Blackboard and has a lot more flexibility with presenting and organizing material. Desire2Learn is about the same as WebCT. There are similar features and while each one has its drawbacks, they are both acceptable for my current class …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
Chose D2L Brightspace
Desire2Learn is similar to Blackboard but with less functionality and intuitiveness in terms of use. Grading options are more limited. Desire2Learn uses a cluttered interface with many tabs and options needing to be used to create even basic assignments for upload and grading. …
Director, Distance Learning at Johnson County Community College (Higher Education, 1001-5000 employees)
Chose D2L Brightspace
The Desire2Learn system provided a greater ability to customize the learning environment than the Canvas system we evaluated. We did like the simpler interface that Canvas provides and the navigation was easy to follow. We also evaluated the Blackboard LMS and found a large …
We believe D2L to be the best LMS, based on our long-term use, functionality, and overall product stability.
Verified User
Chose D2L Brightspace
Some faculty have used WebCT, Blackboard, Angel and/or Moodle in the past. Most of us really do like D2L the very best!
Verified User
Chose D2L Brightspace
These days, most LMS systems provide somewhat comparable feature sets. We selected Desire2Learn because our organization saw it as a stable product that would scale well, we could manage our own self-hosting hardware and infrastructure, it is a tool that our faculty and …
If you're an educational institution (K-12, Higher Ed, etc.), this is an amazing tool, and it will provide you all the functionality to support anything you may want and need it to do. If you are looking at Brightspace as a tool for corporate training, I'm not sure exactly how good or bad it will be for you. My guess would be that it likely depends on your organization's size. Along that line, what I can speak to is how we use it for our customized training and in-house professional development/training, and it works fantastically for that. While we primarily use it for normal higher ed coursework, we regularly do training and professional development for all of our employees and I manage those along with our HR department. Because we use it for many other things as well, all of our employees are familiar with the product, which makes our trainings go that much smoother and makes my job that much easier.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Allowing users to embed content links from YouTube or Google Drive enables learners to experience a richer lesson.
Providing a powerful editor that allows developers to also include content from Adobe Stock as well as textbook publishers and cloud storage companies gives more power and creative ability to instructors.
Providing scaling for mobile and traditional computer systems ensures students will not have issues on the go.
The customization of home pages and groups enable courses to be used for small training sessions with breakout groups, large courses with separate sections, and even just more engaging courses that present themed icons and logos.
One can feel a bit rushed on the Brightspace platform during the log-out period. Security requirements may require this, but it makes end-users more conscious about getting through content than taking notes.
From my experience, there is not a direct connection between the platform and Outlook.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
I would never give any system a perfect score. In the technology environment today we need to be constantly looking at ways to improve the user experience and LMS companies like Desire2Learn need to know that we have options today with other systems and they need to stay current with features and listen to their customers.
Overall, the learning environment works as expected. However, there are plenty of bugs. For example, for a few versions, trying to print out a PDF from the Content screen in several browsers would produce a blank page. We inform D2L support about these issues, most of which are known issues. However, they are very slow to respond. D2L seems to spend more time selling than actually coding and testing their product. Most of the issues are not major -- however, there have been a few that are unbelievable. In fact, this past week we had a sudden issue where the "Submit" button in quizzes would not appear if users had a certain browser/operating system combination. This is a major problem, if students cannot submit their exams! D2L is slow to respond to these kinds of situations, which do occur more often than I would like.
Both students and instructor enjoy the 24-hoiur access. After, all isn't that the point of online learning. As an instructor located in an Eastern time zone state it is great to connect with students located in a Pacific time zone state. I have gotten comments about the early hours I am in the course room grading assignments . . . 4:00 a.m. PST; 7:00 a.m. EST So, it's sleep time for my students and "first cup of coffee" time for me.
I have had excellent support from Desire2Learn. Any ticket that I submit is acknowledged immediately and the correction is usually almost as quick. We use this for thousands of classes and it is pretty well liked by both faculty and students. We have been using it for almost 4 years now and most of our instructors have become pretty proficient with it.
The training provided online did not, necessarily, fit the version of the system that I was using. Screens were somewhat different and not all options were readily available. This could have been due to customization on the part of my institution however, I rather believe it was due to version changes and training materials not yet being updated.
I have used Blackboard Learn 8 and 9. I am currently learning about Canvas. Blackboard is overall much clunkier and lacks the intuitive feel in some parts of D2L. Its grade book is much harder to control and manipulate than D2L's. Its navigation menu can be more radically modified from the default than D2L's, but this doesn't seem that useful to me. Discussions in Blackboard can be more easily reorganized than in D2L, but no grading of discussions is possible. Blackboard Assignments is a good innovation which allows markup directly in the students' submissions, but it displays student work in a confusing manner that doesn't allow for any customization, and its markup options need further tweaking. Furthermore, no rubrics can be used in Blackboard in any way to grade any kind of work (that I am aware of). Overall, I would choose D2L over Blackboard.
During my first semester working with Desire2Learn the integrated learning management system was more down than up. This meant reconfiguring assignment due dates, frustration for both the instructor, students, and help desk staff. After an upgrade, Desire2Learn has been reliable.
I cannot speak to whether this system is less expensive than the more fully featured Blackboard, but employees are far less efficient, frustrated, and require frequent calls to the help center to set up fairly simple course templates.
I have been asked to consider teaching courses which will be completely online at my current institution. I have done such online courses several times at other universities, but I have decided Desire2Learn is too frustrating and cumbersome to do so. I am now exploring using Google Drive to teach a course online. Otherwise, I will not teach online until required or I find an alternate system.
