Customer Stories
Helping Engaged Students Achieve their Dreams
The LMS at my university wasn’t user-friendly and made life quite difficult for us as students. That really showed me that choosing the right LMS is key for any educational...
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Reimagining the education system
Brightspace proved to be the optimal framework to fundamentally change the way we provide education to students. Mike Sturmey, Associate Director of Digital Learning Environments, Victoria University Challenge VU aims...
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A clear vision of learning for all
One of the main things that attracted us to D2L’s Brightspace platform was its rich accessibility options. Laura Hendrey, Learning and Development Coordinator, Vision Australia Challenge Aiming For Better Accessibility...
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Using Brightspace to implement a unique CBE experience
Challenge As a leading teaching hospital in Australia, Epworth Healthcare is responsible for educating the next generation of health professionals through its medical, nursing, and health professional education and training...
MORE THAN 1,000 ORGANIZATIONS IN OVER 40 COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD RELY ON D2L TO HELP THEM TRANSFORM LEARNING.
Equal learning opportunity for all
Increasing accessibility for students within a post-secondary learning environment is an ongoing challenge for the thousands of colleges located in the US. To varying degrees, educational institutions are seeking to improve and enhance campus facilities, services and courseware to be more fully accessible to people with disabilities as well as address all cognitive learning styles. Inver Hills Community College, part of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System (MnSCU), is an educational institution at the forefront of improving accessibility for its students. The college’s charge, for more than forty years, has been to improve its community by providing higher education for a variety of learners. With more than 70% of students from underrepresented populations and 20% first generation college students,[1] Inver Hills Community College strongly believes that fulfilling this principle means making education accessible to all.
The great zombie collaboration
It started as a joke. Professors from the virtual campus at HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, were brainstorming creative ideas for new interdisciplinary courses when someone said, “It’s not like we could do a zombie course.” Or could they? It was the ideal subject for studying from a wide range of perspectives—in fact, there were so many possibilities for collaboration that the course grew to include eight faculty members across five disciplines and seven different specialties. “Zombies in Contemporary Culture” was born, a groundbreaking experiment in academic teamwork made possible by blended learning.
Early identification of at-risk students improves retention rates
La Cité, a French-language college of applied arts and technology, has embarked on an ambitious multi-year program to improve student retention through the earlier identification of students at risk. Ninety percent of La Cité teacher-student interactions continue to happen face-to-face, so the program puts the emphasis on instructor observation within the classroom and qualitative feedback provided to students through the learning management system (LMS). The approach is not only proving to identify at risk students sooner—it is creating a cultural shift within La Cité’s faculty ranks, with instructor focus moving away from just teaching “material” to teaching “students.”
Engaging every learner
Each year, 2,100 students enroll in Dr. Jaclyn Broadbent’s first-year blended Health Behaviour class. It’s a daunting number for any professor—but Dr. Broadbent of Deakin University in Australia, isn’t just any lecturer. Although her students come from four different campuses and represent varying backgrounds and skill sets, she’s determined to get through to each and every one.
To set itself apart, a community college creates a different kind of MOOC
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are valued for their ability to reach an international audience through the web and blend traditional educational tools, such as videos, with open forums for discussion to create rich academic communities. As of early 2013, the only MOOCs offered in Canada were typically at the university level. They were theory-based and led by academics. Could a community college compete? Fanshawe College in London, Ontario, wanted to be the first to find out.
Going beyond compliance to emphasize accessibility in the learning experience
Serving more than 1.3 million college-age residents across five counties, Portland Community College (PCC) is Oregon’s largest multi-campus higher education institution. It is divided into four comprehensive campuses, seven centers, and dozens of independent locations throughout the community.