Challenge
Finding an LMS that could keep pace with learners
Temasek Polytechnic (TP) is a post-secondary education institution in Singapore. Established in 1990, TP is renowned for its law and design programs and is the first and only polytechnic in Singapore to offer a law program. Across its more than 30 full-time programs in engineering, design, business and the applied sciences, TP has always placed hands-on, industry-relevant learning at the center of what it does.
When TP’s contract with its previous LMS provider came to an end, the institution went looking for something more data-driven. They wanted a platform that could help lecturers monitor student progress, identify who was falling behind, and act on that information in time to make a difference.
“So, one of the main thing that we are looking at was the learning analytics, the analytics component that LMS is able to provide,” said Dr. Jonathan Chee, Lead Academic Mentor at Temasek Polytechnic. “And it’s good that Brightspace was able to provide that usage because it has the insights report as well as the analytics builder that comes with it.”
Solution
A smarter platform for a more responsive teaching environment
Temasek Polytechnic (TP) selected D2L Brightspace as its new LMS, with Dr. Chee overseeing the transition from the previous system. The goal was clear: move from a platform that delivered content to one that actively informed how teaching happened. At the heart of that shift was Brightspace’s analytics capability. Lecturers gained access to real-time data on student performance and engagement and could build custom dashboards to monitor their cohorts and act quickly when learners needed support.
“We are able to use it (D2L Brightspace) to analyze and look at our students and even do our own analytics dashboard to help our lecturers to look at students learning and then respond to students learning gap through interventions,” said Dr. Chee.
Equally valuable was Brightspace’s intelligent agents feature, which automated the kind of time-consuming outreach that had previously fallen entirely on faculty. Lecturers could set conditions for both corrective and motivational that triggered personalized messages to students based on their activity and results.
“The intelligent agent basically really helps our colleagues, our lecturers to save quite a substantive amount of time having to personally draft emails to remind students because from the intelligent agent, all we need to do is to actually set using the big array of conditions that is already in D2L Brightspace to help us to kind of either nudge students or even praise students,” said Dr. Chee. ”[That was] something that was very impressive was about the conditions. [They] were not just only negative conditions but also positive conditions.”
The Intelligent Agent helps lecturers save time by nudging students toward learning. Students enjoy the platform’s engaging and dynamic experience. The smooth transition to Brightspace was also a remarkably positive experience.Dr Jonathan Chee Lead Academic Mentor, Temasek Polytechnic
Result
A dynamic system that supports teaching and learning
The transition to D2L Brightspace was smooth. D2L supported TP through the full process of migrating existing courses into the new environment, with training provided to ensure staff were confident and ready from day one.
Ongoing support has also continued to strengthen the partnership. Regular bi-weekly meetings with D2L’s Technical Account Managers give TP a reliable channel for raising issues and receiving fast responses, while continuous platform updates mean the system never stands still.
“Something that I personally like was also that whenever there’s updates that’s happening in Brightspace itself, we always get the latest updates as well,” Dr. Chee continued. “So, we are not using a system that’s static, but we’re using a system that’s dynamically changing and that is changing across over the needs and the requirement of times.”
Interviewee:
Dr. Jonathan Chee, Lead Academic Mentor at Temasek Polytechnic