I think it's a clunky platform that feels like it is was made in 2003.
We use D2L Brightspace to teach online courses. I think in comparison to CANVAS it is very clunky and counter intuitive. Grading an …
Overview
What is D2L Brightspace?
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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- Learning content (9)9.696%
- Assignments (10)2.121%
- Learning reporting & analytics (10)2.121%
- Course authoring (10)2.121%
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What is D2L Brightspace?
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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Product Demos
D2L Brightspace | Tips & Tricks | How to Use Virtual Classrooms to Increase Student Engagement
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D2L Brightspace | Tips & Tricks | Using Intelligent Agents to Automate a Welcome Message
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D2L Brightspace v10.4 Creating Dropbox Folders
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D2L Brightspace v10.4 Grading Discussion Topics
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D2L Brightspace v10.4 Creating Discussion Forums
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Demo of Shuffling Quiz Questions in Brightspace
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Product Details
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- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is D2L Brightspace?
Brightspace is a learning management platform used to drive better learning outcomes by offering every learner a personalized, digital experience. From the kindergarten classroom, to college campuses, to global corporations, Brightspace aims to help create inspired and engaging learning for all.
It's key capabilities and benefits include:
It's key capabilities and benefits include:
- Mobile-first design - Brightspace works on any device – whether a laptop or hand-me-down smartphone or tablet.
- Personalized learning - Release Conditions and Intelligent Agents in Brightspace offer a high level of granularity and control over individual learning paths.
- Teaching tools for educators and instructors.
- Automation of routine course management tasks.
- Built-in analytics to improve decision-making.
- Tools like gamification, videos, badges, and others to increase learner engagement.
- Learning experience that meet all accessibility standards.
- Support for in-the-moment feedback as well as automation of assessments.
D2L Brightspace Features
Learning Management Features
- Supported: Course authoring
- Supported: Course catalog or library
- Supported: Player/Portal
- Supported: Learning content
- Supported: Mobile friendly
- Supported: Progress tracking & certifications
- Supported: Assignments
- Supported: Learning administration
- Supported: Learning reporting & analytics
- Supported: eLearning
- Supported: Assessments
- Supported: Live online learning
- Supported: In-person learning
- Supported: Micro-learning
- Supported: Video learning
- Supported: SCORM-compliant
- Supported: Social learning
Additional Features
- Supported: Social Assessment
D2L Brightspace Screenshots
D2L Brightspace Videos
D2L Brightspace 101: Building Better Learning Experiences
Establishing Student Engagement and Confidence with Brightspace Pulse
Virtual Classroom for Brightspace
D2L Brightspace for K-12 Learning
D2L Brightspace Integrations
- Google Drive
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium
- Credly
- Top Hat
- Ellucian Banner
- Ellucian Colleague
- Equatio
- Google Workspace
- Honorlock
- Alta from Knewton, a Wiley brand
- MATLAB
- Mercer Mettl Online Examination and Proctoring Solutions
- Mercer Mettl Coding Assessments
- McGraw-Hill Connect
- Microsoft 365
- OneNote
- OpenSesame
- Zoom
- YuJa
- WileyPLUS
- Unicheck
D2L Brightspace Competitors
D2L Brightspace Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | Apple iOS, Android, Mobile Web |
| Supported Countries | Global |
| Supported Languages | English, Arabic, Danish, German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish, Chinese |
Frequently Asked Questions
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.
Blackboard Learn by Anthology, Canvas, and Schoology Learning are common alternatives for D2L Brightspace.
Reviewers rate Course catalog or library highest, with a score of 10.
The most common users of D2L Brightspace are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
D2L Brightspace has proven to be a versatile and essential tool for a wide range of users. For instructors, it has been instrumental in facilitating online and face-to-face courses, eliminating the need for paper and allowing for the review and assessment of student coursework in a digital format. The platform has also served as a communication tool within educational institutions, enabling customized training, departmental collaboration, and the distribution of course materials. Moreover, it has supported faculty advancement portfolios, continuous learning in administrative departments, and the delivery of professional development training.
Additionally, D2L Brightspace has been widely utilized by students across various educational settings. It has provided a unique and personalized continuing educational tool, offering options for presenting and managing content to create efficient and engaging learning opportunities. The platform has served as a common repository for storing information, allowing students to access course materials, submit assignments, participate in discussions, and take quizzes online. With its user-friendly interface and flexibility in posting material and grading, D2L Brightspace has made online learning accessible and convenient for students.
Overall, D2L Brightspace's use cases span from supporting traditional classroom environments to facilitating distance learning and hybrid courses. Its integration with other technologies further enhances the learning experience by embedding tools like the Google Suite and Adobe Cloud. The customizable nature of D2L Brightspace enables instructors and institutions to tailor the platform to their specific needs and deliver classes in various formats – in-person, hybrid or fully online. Additionally, its mobile accessibility ensures that users can access course materials anytime and anywhere. With positive feedback from faculty regarding its functionality and ease of use, D2L Brightspace continues to serve as a reliable Learning Management System for universities, colleges, community colleges, and other educational organizations nationwide.
Seamless migration process: Several users have stated that the migration process from ANGEL to D2L Brightspace was smooth and hassle-free. This suggests that D2L Brightspace has effective tools and support in place to ensure a seamless transition, minimizing disruptions for educational institutions.
Flexible customization options: Many reviewers have appreciated the ability to customize widgets and change the layout of home pages in D2L Brightspace. This feature allows instructors to personalize their course pages and create a tailored learning experience for students. It highlights the software's flexibility and adaptability in catering to individual instructor preferences and instructional needs.
Commitment to user feedback: The user community has expressed appreciation for D2L Brightspace's collection and prioritization of new ideas. This showcases the software's dedication to incorporating user feedback and continuously improving its features based on customer input. The emphasis on user feedback demonstrates D2L Brightspace's commitment to meeting the evolving needs and expectations of its users.
Confusing and Non-Intuitive User Interface: Some users have found the user interface of D2L Brightspace to be confusing and not intuitive, requiring multiple steps to complete tasks.
Limited Customization Options: Several reviewers have mentioned that the customization options for page layouts and graphics in D2L Brightspace are limited. Users desired easier customization capabilities to personalize their courses.
Difficulties with Calendar Tool: The Calendar Tool in D2L Brightspace has been reported as difficult to navigate and manage by some users. They have expressed challenges in using this tool effectively for scheduling and keeping track of important dates.
Based on user reviews, there are three common recommendations for Brightspace. One important recommendation is to carefully consider the ease of use and quality of customer service. Users recommend thoroughly exploring all available options, asking questions, and taking into account potential future updates and improvements. Brightspace stands out for its highly intuitive interface and responsive customer service, making it an excellent choice for educational purposes.
Another key recommendation is to ensure proper setup and configuration of Brightspace during implementation in order to align with long-term goals. Users highly advise engaging a Technical Account Manager for comprehensive support and successful deployment. It is also recommended to compare costs and assess essential features when evaluating competing alternatives.
Users strongly advocate for utilizing the abundant resources and features offered by Brightspace. They recommend taking advantage of the available tutorials and other platform resources to enhance usage and instruction. While Brightspace is generally considered reliable, user-friendly, and intuitive, some users have noted that entering notes may not be as seamless as desired. It is also suggested to explore different areas within Brightspace to become familiar with its functionalities, and to enable direct communication between the messaging system and external email platforms for improved correspondence.
Overall, Brightspace is regarded as an outstanding learning management system (LMS) that offers great control and customization options for instructors. Users highly recommend it for effectively organizing students' classwork and facilitating video conferences. However, it is advised to carefully evaluate the pros and cons of implementing Brightspace, considering the additional time commitments it may require for professors.
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Reviews
(1-4 of 4)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
October 01, 2014
Here we go again a new LMS selection process!
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are a Community College using Desire2Learn for credit online and face-to-face courses. We provide course shells for all 2,000 sections offered each semester at the college. We currently have over 5,000 online students using the system. We migrated from our ANGEL LMS during the past year that was the major need from our faculty.
- Migration of content from ANGEL worked fairly well.
- Grade book provides many options for faculty needs.
- The ability to customize the various widgets and changing the layout of the home pages was a feature our faculty appreciated.
- Collection and prioritization of new ideas from the user community is appreciated.
- D2L needs to review their community of ideas and move forward with prioritized postings.
- Additional cost for features not included is frustrating when they should be part of the product.
- The Discussion tool is very difficult to navigate and the user community is asking for a revision that needs to be recognized.
- There needs to be a greater working relationship with third party solutions (Turnitin, Ellucian, ...).
- Migration of content from ANGEL helped with the overall conversion time to a new LMS
- Blackboard,Canvas,Moodle
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 variety of tools that were difficult to navigate.
We have both students and faculty using the Desire2Learn system. We have three different roles in the system (System Adminstrators, Faculty and Students)
20
We have our support of the hosted system inside Information Services and also faculty training and support with our Educational Technology Center
- Teaching Online Courses for Credit Students
- Supporting Face-to-Face Courses for Credit Students
- Supporting both Continuing Education Courses and internal Professional Development for staff and faculty.
- We use D2L for compliance training for faculty and staff
- We provide student orientations for new students.
- Use the system for additional Continuing Education courses
- Use the system for free courses or MOOCS
- Use for Clubs and Organizations at the college
Yes
ANGEL LMS system from Blackboard
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Third-party Reviews
We were impressed with the customer satisfaction from other schools that migrated from ANGEL to D2L
If possible to remove the sales teams from the evaluation process. We knew what we wanted but sometimes you are promised items without the ability to test and confirm. I would spend more time asking for a list of current customers.
- Vendor implemented
- Implemented in-house
Yes
We have the initial installation of the software on our servers in Phase I, Then we had implementation team work on specific settings for our institution, next we began migration of data from SIS system (BANNER) and then finally migration of existing content from ANGEL system. (About six months)
Change management was a big part of the implementation and was well-handled
We needed to keep everyone informed to events and system settings
- Correct installation on our servers (self hosted is not common today)
- Migration of ANGEL data in to D2L is not perfect (systems do not always match content)
- Integration with our SIS system BANNER is still ongoing (Final Grades to SIS)
Yes
We currently pay for a TAM but had hoped that this would be a free service.
Yes
The bugs we have reported are typically replicated on their end and then sent to the next level of support for status update. This can sometimes take a few days to complete if not marked urgent.
Our implementation team did an excellent job of listening to our questions and have been available after the initial go live date. These relationships with the initial implementation team are very important.
- I liked the Grade book Wizard to help with setup
- The student and faculty tutorials are all Closed Captioned and helped with the training process
- The administrative interface (DOME) is very robust and provides administrators with tools to help with managing the LMS system.
- The Discussions in 10.3 are very difficult to follow and grade from instructor perspective
- The customization of home pages and themes is difficult to manage for a typical instructor
- The Grade book is robust but very difficult to find all the settings in one location for typical instructor
- The built-in D2L email tool is very old and does not provide abilities found in new systems like Google.
Yes
Mobile interface works for certain tools and needs additional work. The system is not customizable like can be found in the desktop system.
February 17, 2014
Desire2Learn - Adequate, Stable, but Not Imaginative
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Our organization uses Desire2Learn as our institutional learning management system, across four separate, fully accredited colleges and between 70,000-85,000 users. We rely on Desire2Learn to function as the learning environment for online and hybrid (blended) courses. In addition, nearly 76% of all face-to-face courses use D2L in some fashion. This is typically for dissemination of handouts, lecture notes, grade updates, etc.
- Desire2Learn has scaled well for our organization. We are self-hosted, and have had exceptional stability with the product since switching from the leading LMS about six years ago. The SIS integration with our PeopleSoft platform has worked well, reducing administrative headaches with course creation, populating enrollments, etc.
- Our faculty like using D2L. The product has steadily improved, and along with the stability, faculty like the dropbox receipts and integrations with TurnItIn and Google Apps. Many of our faculty teaching face-to-face courses has begun using D2L because their students have asked for it.
- Desire2Learn provides an organized interface, and is relatively intuitive. Students seem to have fewer issues adjusting than faculty who are late to the game with technology.
- The spreadsheet view in Grades is particularly helpful, as it allows the instructor to enter a lot of grades at once, without having to press submit buttons and wait for server refreshes.
- The calendar has been overhauled and is now much more useful. It includes a calendar feed that does not require authentication and the ability to export events in ics format.
- From the system administration perspective, the system is very granular in its permissions. The creation of different roles is very flexible, and allows for creative use of roles to provide varying levels of access within the system.
- Grading assignments from within the Dropbox tool has been radically improved, and is very useful. Many file types now display inline, allowing comments, rubrics, and grades to be updated all from within one screen. No multiple windows needed!
- Downloading files from the dropbox is a cinch--and files are pre-pended with the students' first and last names. No more reminding students to put their own name in the filename! Comments can be included in the downloaded file, then pushed back up to D2L (if the filename is not changed). This is super handy!
- Trying to use rubrics and competencies is a tremendous headache. Regardless of what the D2L training and support people tell you, they just don't work the way most instructors want them to. We have heard that they are being fixed since version 9.4, but so far -- not worth the pain of trying to use them.
- The checklist tool, which has incredible potential, doesn't connect to anything. Instead, it's just a standalone checklist the instructor can set up. It allows students to check off activities they complete, but there is no data or connection behind it. This is one of the truly forgotten tools in D2L.
- Desire2Learn should develop additional widgets for the course home page. There are very few system widgets that are truly useful. This is a missed opportunity, particularly in today's age of APIs!
- Instructors are not able to print out their grades. While that may sound like an antiquated practice, record keeping laws and college policy often requires the instructor to keep a hard copy version of their gradebook. Desire2learn -- fix this, please!
- D2L has an area where students can upload a photo and update their profile. Unfortunately, those photos show in very few places (Classlist, profile). Why not make the photos more ubiquitous as a way to promote more online engagement and community building? Also, students should have the ability have their preferred profile name display to other users (let them edit their names...this is a frequent problem!)
- Desire2Learn has been a solid choice for our organization on the whole. Efficiency has increased and services to students have improved as more content has shifted from paper-based to online.
- We have found additional uses for our D2L system, which has led to some unexpected efficiencies.
- Blackboard,WebCT,Moodle,Sakai,Canvas,Angel
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 students have found to be easy to use, and it was a relatively direct import from our old LMS archive files. Additionally, the history of the company led us to believe that it was unlikely to be absorbed by the major, leading LMS that has a reputation for swallowing up smaller LMS companies. We left that vendor for a reason, and have been much more satisfied with D2L.
Yes
No. Most of the time, bugs are fixed in later releases. If we are lucky, it is addressed in a future maintenance/service pack. However, D2L's internal testing processes frequently lead to undetected bugs that make it into general release. We have had tickets (bug reports) sit for weeks before we can get any kind of real response, most of which are not satisfactory. We have not been happy with the support we have received.
Sadly, no.
- Posting news items is a snap. This tool works the way you would expect it to. Students can subscribe to text or e-mai notifications.
- Creating dropbox folders is very straightforward. TurnItIn integration is EASY to use and adds tremendous functionality.
- The Class Progress link is VERY useful. Lets you see what everyone is up to in one screen, with customizable domains (e.g., assignments, login history, discussion participation, grades, etc.) It would be even better if this was available to each student individually, on their Course Home page!
- Grading dropbox assignments is an integrated, pleasurable experience. No un-necesary clicks here, and the documents open inline.
- Setting up a gradebook takes a little bit of explanation. The Manage Grades screen is not intuitive. Most faculty are used to dealing with rows and columns (the Enter Grades screen). Once you get past this, grading is a snap. It just takes people a little explanation before they wrap their minds around it.
- Trying to grade discussions is a real chore. The latest releases do show better statistics (how many posts a student has read, authored, replied to) but once you drill into the screen where you enter the grades, all context is lost. A more integrated experience would be better here.
- Managing the course navigation bar should be easier. The latest versions updates are better than it used to be, but the navigation and themes screens need to be re-thought. How difficult should it be to create a custom link for your navbar?
- We were excited about the activities, rubrics, and competency tools. We have had nothing but frustration with them. Once you publish a rubric, it can never be edited again. You have to completely re-create it to make any changes--even if it has never been used (only published). Further, rubrics aren't available in places you need them -- and they don't show the students what most instructors would expect them to show. We've abandoned these tools until there is a real improvement (not just those promised by our D2L rep).
Yes
Stay away!! The mobile interface for this version of D2L is horrible. The biggest bug is that content which is hidden (either in "draft" status or date restricted) shows to mobile users. This is a known issue for D2L, yet they have not fixed it in the past two versions. It's an antiquated looking mobile interface, and not very useful. The most useful part about it is the link to the full desktop version (which isn't bad to use on a tablet, such as an iPad; painful on a phone, though).
February 15, 2014
Desire2Learn: Enhancing Online Course Delivery
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Desire2Learn is being used in higher education for online course delivery. In additional to online course delivery, this learning management system is used throughout the college to supplement face-to-face courses.
- As a proficient user of competitive learning management systems, there was a slight learning curve when moving into Desire2Learn; however, after a few weeks I found this integrated learning platform to be user friendly to both me as the online course facilitator and my students. There are numerous online resources that assist in the learning curve.
- Modules within Desire2Learn create an organized online course room that enhance delivery of course materials.
- Revisions are "hassle free" and reorganizing course resources encourage frequent updates that enhance the online course and keep the material current.
- Students interact easily with online instructor and peers.
- Many times it seems that I have to flip back and forth between screens within the Desire2Learn course room to access information.
- Grade book functionality is a bit cumbersome.
- As an online course facilitator, Desire2Learn has provided another learning management system option to connect with students and encourage a passion for knowledge.
Desire2Learn is a strong competitor of Blackboard, Moodle, and Angel learning management systems. As an online course facilitator, I have used other online learning management systems and find that Desire2Learn is user friendly and provides options equal to the competition.
- Online training
No
Shout out to the college help desk for immediate help with online rooms. This exceptional support did not come directly from Desire2Learn; however, I am certain that training for help desk staff came directly from the Desire2Learn support group.
- Creating assignment
- Adding News Items
- Communication with students via Desire2Learn email
- Grading discussions
- Updating the gradebook
Yes
No downtime upgrading to Version 10. This upgrade seemed to eliminate the downtime issues and added ease of use options.
- No downtime; product reliability
- New and improved options related to instructional design and course delivery
- Increased ease of use
February 12, 2014
A lot of Desire unfulfilled with Desire2Learn
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Desire2Learn was used across the whole organization as the Learning Management System. It served as the platform for faculty to create online resource for academic courses, grade assignments, communicate and collaborate with students. Students used this platform to access digital course content and view grades.
- Grade Book function and features were adequate for faculty and students
- The ability to give special extended time and deadline for quiz and assignments for students with disabilities was easy.
- Notification messages were easy to configure
- The GUI interface needs to be completely redesigned so that both faculty and students can navigate with fewer clicks
- Needs more extensive SCORM tracking data anaytics
- Administration for roles and permissions is very complex and needs to be simplified
- Faculty training on D2L had to be very intensive
- The system is not intuitive for a new LMS user or a user that has used other LMS like Blackboard or Moodle
- Students found the interface very confusing, specially when they have drilled into a specific content folder and have to figure out how to get to the root page view
We did not select D2L. In fact pilot studies at our campus showed that faculty preferred Moodle by a wide margin. We were forced to select Desire2Learn by University System of Georgia. Their evaluation and final decision to select Desire2Learn was highly flawed.
10000
Students, faculty, Instructional designers, LMS adminitrators, enterprise IT and administrators
3
- Instructional Designers
- LMS administrators
- Learning Management System for Students
- Professional development courses for faculty
- Surveys
- NA
- NA
- NA
- NA
- NA
- NA
Yes
WebCT was replaced since Blackboard was not going to support this product.
- Product Usability
From my understanding the single most important factor for the University System of Georgia to choose Desire2Learn was the ability to use multi-tenancy on a single server. In other words, several schools could have its own slice of installed instance.
- Involve more technical people
- Have a longer evaluation period
- Have a more meaningful evaluation and criteria rubric
- Talk to other established innovative Higher Ed schools who use LMS in effective and innovation ways
- Consider true cost of ownership
- Vendor implemented
- Professional services company
Implemented by central resources at University System of Georgia
No
- Course conversion from WebCT/Vista
- No user data could be brought in from old courses
- Addressing new and deficient features/functions
Yes
The solution given was that the bug would be resolved in future release
Not applicable
- Gradebook
- Adding media
- Drag and drop content in folders
- Customizing nav bars
- Customizing course skin
- Setting up weighted grade categories
- Lot of clicks to navigate
Yes
Mobile interface works adequately without the need to download a dedicated app.