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Public Affairs at D2L

Find out how we’re sparking ideas and conversations to fundamentally transform the way the world learns.

About us

D2L believes that education is the key to unlocking opportunities for everyone, and that learning can and should happen anytime, anywhere, and for everyone.

Our public affairs team brings voices together from across sectors, governments and disciplines to advocate for public policy goals that go beyond just maximizing and optimizing today’s classroom or workplace, but that fundamentally transfoworrm the way the world learns.

Explore our research and guides to learn more about how to meet evolving learning needs in the classroom and workplace.

Our Policy Priorities

Our policy priorities are aligned to the segmentation of today’s education systems, but should be considered as a broad and comprehensive policy framework for a modernized and integrated model of learning from early childhood to late career and beyond to meet the evolving learning needs of today and tomorrow.

  • Elementary and Secondary Education
    Society, technology, and student needs are changing expectations in our schools faster than ever. Our learning systems must meet basic access requirements, prepare students for a more demanding world, and support the individualized needs of all students. Elementary and Secondary Education
  • Higher Education
    Changes in the global economy, technology, and learner demographics and preferences have made knowledge more accessible than ever. The higher education system must adapt by becoming more learner centric and enabling people to be lifelong learners. Higher Education
  • Workforce Development
    With the rise of new technologies based in automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, the global economy has entered a 4th Industrial Revolution. It is essential that we help individuals to reskill and upskill so people can thrive and economies can be competitive. Workforce Development
  • Privacy
    Student data privacy is a top priority in everything we do at D2L. We are proud to be an industry leader in education privacy practices and to be a voice in promoting strong protections for student data in Canada, the United States, and around the world. Privacy
  • Accessibility
    Everyone has the right to learn and advance themselves personally and professionally. The use of technology in the learning process can bring a tremendous amount of empowerment and opportunity to every learner, regardless of their exceptionality. Accessibility
Gwinnett Public County Schools

Elementary and Secondary Education

  • Learning and instruction disruptions are becoming increasingly common and prolonged. This requires a holistic approach to ensure schools are able to serve student learning needs under any circumstance.

  • COVID-19 school closures have exacerbated existing learning gaps for students of all backgrounds. Recovering and eliminating these gaps requires personalize curriculum pathways that accelerate learning, such as provided by mastery-based learning methods.

  • Teachers are the backbone of any education system. Supporting teachers through enhanced professional learning can help them continuously build their skills and knowledge as instructional models continue to evolve, as well as help to retain new teachers in the profession.

Rows of higher education students face the front of a classroom during a lecture

Higher Education

  • D2L is supporting colleges, polytechnics and universities in their digital transformation to reach students where they are and provide the knowledge and skills they need. Designing learning that adapts to the learner rather than requiring the learner to adapt to the institution will make higher education more human.

  • D2L is supporting higher education partners to address the demand for learning through flexible models of higher education and innovative program design. It is part of our commitment to support working learners throughout their learning-integrated life.

  • With the limitless availability of information today, more informal learning is happening out of the classroom and in the workplace than ever before. Institutions can play a valuable role in validating informally learned skills and knowledge and building personalized entry and exit points to the formal higher education system.

corporate-learners-in-group-talking

Workforce Development

  • Automation disproportionately affects individuals in the lower ranks of the workforce. These individuals are largely piecing together their own professional learning, and often at their own expense. Working individuals at all levels need access to learning opportunities to keep growing and adapting throughout their careers. Employers and government have a role to play.

  • The rise of new technologies has increased the value of an individual’s skills while simultaneously shortening the lifespan of skills. D2L has written several whitepapers documenting the shift to the skills economy with recommendations for learning in the workplace.

  • A successful lifelong learning system must be responsive as learner demands, employer needs, and workforce trends rapidly evolve. This will require partnerships between employers and the academic community. Partnership benefits both parties which is why D2L advocates for innovative program models that blend classroom and work-based learning.

Regulatory Compliance

Privacy

  • D2L has a proven security track record and holds ISO 27001 and 27018 certifications directly and not just through our cloud provider. We were an early signatory of the Student Privacy Pledge to make clear and public our practices on student data privacy and security.

  • We believe that privacy is a fundamental right for students, teachers, and parents. To that end, we have worked with US, Canadian, European, and other global policymakers to inform our practices and support comprehensive student data privacy protections because student data should be used only for education purposes – not advertising.

  • Trust is an integral component to any privacy program that requires transparency. That’s why we created our privacy center for parents, students, and educators to have clear information about our privacy practices for Brightspace.

Committed to Accessibility in Learning

Accessibility

  • D2L is committed to creating products that are accessible for all learners from ideation. Our Brightspace platform is built to conform to the WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards and we publicly publish a checklist of our conformance along with our VPAT.

  • In the elementary, secondary, and postsecondary contexts, the government has a role in ensuring inclusive learning environments for all students. This extends to the universal design of the tools used in the classroom for blended and virtual learning.

  • Software in the classroom should be usable by the greatest number of students possible, regardless of ability. The procurement process is one of the best tools that schools, colleges, and universities have for ensuring learning enabled by technology is accessible.

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