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Quite Functional, but Not Intuitive or Innovative
February 15, 2014

Quite Functional, but Not Intuitive or Innovative

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction

Desire2Learn is being used as an LMS for the entire university. The faculty and academic staff use it for teaching undergraduate and graduate classes. D2L can be used for in-person, hybrid, or on-line courses. It enables courses to be taught in a more streamlined format, and creates a centralized location for course information, updates, and interaction.
  • Enables drag and drop functionality
  • Allows assignments in your gradebook to be linked to items in your course calendar and syllabus
  • Provides a homebase for undergraduate students to find update course information
  • It is not easy to take attendance, especially linking that to the Attendance2 app.
  • It is not easy to embed content on the main page - too many links/clicks are necessary in order to access content.
  • Many functions are hidden and difficult to find.
  • Better student access to information
  • Better accountability for the student
  • Improves faculty interaction with students
  • Moodle,Blackboard
I have used Moodle the most frequently. I feel that Desire2Learn is lacking when compared to Moodle. Moodle is open source, allowing lots of customization and lower costs. In addition, Moodle's set-up seems far more intuitive than Desire2Learn's set-up. Blackboard also seemed more user-friendly than Desire2Learn. I wish that changes in Desire2Learn could be made more quickly and easily than they are.
I do not have ultimate decision-making power over whether to keep Desire2Learn as a product. As a result, I believe that my employer has negotiated a significant contract with Desire2Learn and therefore will be using this product for quite some time in the future.
It is particularly well-suited if you're not looking for customization. If you're looking for clarity of message and robust functionality, D2L is lacking. I would want to know how I can easily embed video and image content onto the page without having to create a separate note entry just for that purpose. There are too many steps in order to achieve the desired outcome.