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D2L Brightspace

D2L Brightspace

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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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

D2L Brightspace has proven to be a versatile and essential tool for a wide range of users. For instructors, it has been instrumental in …
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Love it!

9 out of 10
April 06, 2019
We use Brightspace for all of our classes. All students have access to Brightspace in order to access their classes, and many of the staff …
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D2L does the job

8 out of 10
March 12, 2018
D2L is being used by the entire state university system. It has been, as I understand it, since 2010. The decision was made by the system …
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My D2L Experience in Higher Ed

9 out of 10
September 30, 2015
There are 31 colleges within the MN State Colleges and Universities System (MnSCU). To improve access to higher education, Minnesota State …
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Popular Features

View all 11 features
  • Learning content (9)
    9.6
    96%
  • Assignments (10)
    2.1
    21%
  • Learning reporting & analytics (10)
    2.1
    21%
  • Course authoring (10)
    2.1
    21%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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Unavailable

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.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Product Demos

D2L Brightspace | Tips & Tricks | How to Use Virtual Classrooms to Increase Student Engagement

YouTube

D2L Brightspace | Tips & Tricks | Using Intelligent Agents to Automate a Welcome Message

YouTube

D2L Brightspace v10.4 Creating Dropbox Folders

YouTube

D2L Brightspace v10.4 Grading Discussion Topics

YouTube

D2L Brightspace v10.4 Creating Discussion Forums

YouTube

Demo of Shuffling Quiz Questions in Brightspace

YouTube
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Features

Learning Management

Features of LMS and LCMS systems, related to designing, administering, and consuming learning content in an educational, corporate, or on-the-job context.

5.9
Avg 8.2
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Product Details

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:

  • 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

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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 Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android, Mobile Web
Supported CountriesGlobal
Supported LanguagesEnglish, 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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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(77)

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!

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.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 45)
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Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
In my opinion, it is not well-suited for teaching online courses. The design is clunky and outdated. It opens pop-ups for a lot of things that don't need pop-ups. It has unexplained icons (e.g., a question mark in a rectangle) with no tooltips.

I think it may be well-suited for wasting your time and graying out your hair.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Brightspace works very well in higher education. I believe they are making a lot of strides toward the K-12 area as well. I am not as familiar with the business case, but from what I have seen in the administration of the product, it can scale and be configured in many different ways.
John Bayerl | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Traci Rushing | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Brightspace offers, by far, the best customer support! I am always able to connect with chat support instantly to solve any issues. Our account managers check in monthly to make sure there are no issues on our end and Brightspace host frequent trainings for both faculty and administrators. Brightspace also host excellent professional development trainings with tips for facilitating online courses.

Their platform is also very easy to use.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Brightspace can be a great platform for institutions looking for a multi-platform solution that works with standard cloud technologies and can provide a beautiful experience. The LMS can work well for online-only courses as sections can be segmented from each other inside of the same course, and grading can be automated depending on the scheme being implemented. Experienced instructors can still create useful workshops and courses with this tool, but it can be frustrating for newcomers or those used to other "plug-and-play" or "drag-and-drop" options. I would recommend trying the tool out and making some demonstration courses in which you are a student and learner in order to feel how it works and compares to other options on the market. Brightspace is definitely powerful and can provide a good experience once all stakeholders adjust to its handling.
Joshua Melder | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As a member of a large-scale organization with a wide variety of employment positions, I view Brightspace as primarily an administrative solution for continuous learning and engagement. As an educational platform, Brightspace works perfectly for setting learning goals for particular groups or departments. Furthermore, there are many customization options intent on personalizing the overall user experience for employees. The platform also does a wonderful job of increasing overall engagement, retention, and completion of learning goals. However, I do not necessarily view Brightspace as the learning tool for all employees. There are production employees within my company and they may better benefit from other learning tools that do not require being on a computer.
April 06, 2019

Love it!

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Brightspace is great for any school that offers online or blended courses, or any school that requires students to complete assignments online.
Ho'omana Nathan Horton | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Brightspace has been particularly useful in my hybrid classes where we alternate online and face-to-face meetings. This platform is an excellent resource for bridging the gap and helping guide students through content and assignments. I teach language classes specifically, and I feel that Brightspace is very nicely suited for helping students with writing courses, especially the incorporation of Turnitin.com which allows students and instructors to see how outside material is used in students' assignments.
Amanda Carpenter | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It's great for 100% virtual courses. Discussion boards, quizzes, tests, supplemental material, all easy to access and use.
But I think it's also great as an addition to a face-to-face course. I think, in this aspect, it is underutilized. It would be a great way to add content to a course, and a great place to direct students to go to if they have questions once they are outside of the classroom setting.
March 12, 2018

D2L does the job

Tom Carlson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
From my experience, D2L is useful for most college courses, from those that are lecture-based to small, collaborative classes. There are individual features that require workarounds here and there, but with a couple of semesters' experience, it is entirely functional. I suppose there are people who find using any LMS challenging, and that would then include D2L, but otherwise, I can't say that D2L would not be appropriate for any institution of higher learning.
Laura Abercrombie | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I think the college has implemented D2L very well, which is why it is baffling to me that more professors aren't using it. I think enough professors are using it that the college isn't going to abandon the service any time soon, but it seems to me like I am in a minority.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The ability to set and control dates per item is very important. It must be uniformly detailed in order to work correctly. Also, the ability to copy and/or import specific items, activities, and/or documents from other sections in the platform has made the system the most flexible I have ever used.
Mike Hubbard | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Most of Desire2Learn is easy to use depending on how computer illiterate you are. It could be changed for easier use.

Faculty also have problems changing items in their course and often need to call in for help.
Frances Wright Breland | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
If you are primarily interested in having a place to aggregate files for people to share in order to facilitate a course, Desire2Learn a great choice. It's easy to put materials together and it's not hard to access them. However, unless you have a sophisticated interface to layer on top of it, it isn't going to really work for multimedia presentations. I would also not recommend it for mobile learning.
September 23, 2015

D2L is not all BS

David Lloyd | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
If you are looking at different LMS tools for your organization, I would approach the decision similar to how I would approach voting for a political candidate. Look at all the options and choose the lesser of the evils.
If you have a solid local support team, Desire2Learn can be a fairly functional tool. I am not a large fan of the Desire2Learn support team, however that seems to be an issue with many of the big players including the last LMS I used, Blackboard.
Dr. Dale Shank, LCSW | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I would recommend Desire2Learn over most versions of Blackboard. It has features that are not available in other platforms. While there is room for improvement, it is much easier overall, to set up a new course from scratch, than other platforms.
April 29, 2015

Desire2Learn Review

Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Works very well for course delivery as well as for non-traditional uses - i.e. student portal, resource site. In my experience we used it both ways. It is a solid, asynchronous learning environment. One suggestion would be to add a synchronous, video environment directly into the tool. That would be useful for conference calls, live presentations, etc.
Michelle Fisher | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I believe D2L is most helpful as a supplement to face-to-face classes. I run into the most problems/frustrations with highly customized online or hybrid courses. The faculty I work with who teach face-to-face courses and use D2L as a supplement are reasonably happy with it's performance. I have been working with higher-ed LMS's for 13 years now and find that D2L requires a bit more tech skills from faculty than something like Blackboard. I would say it is similar to Moodle and going way back WebCT. If you are tech savvy and don't mind tinkering D2L will work for you. If you have a population of people who are likely to be thrown by inconsistent interface design and some non-intuitive tools then D2L may be problematic.
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