Avans+

Avans+ is a post-graduate education institution in Breda, the Netherlands, offering 200+ post-graduate and master’s courses, in everything from nursing to business administration, for professionals to further their qualifications, upskill and reskill. Avans+ strives to deliver lifelong learning to help industries thrive with a pipeline of the right talent. In 2023, Avans+ adopted D2L Brightspace for its ease of use, customisation capabilities and affordability.

24/7 access to the platform is really valuable. Brightspace is very intuitive. You just log in and have whatever you need to start on your front page.

Jeroen Brands, educational adviser, Avans+

Challenge

To consolidate around a robust, feature-rich, easy-to-use learning platform

As a post-graduate place of learning, learners with Avans+ are working professionals, motivated to study to expand or explore a new role. Their learning needs include always-available access to their courses and learning materials, an intuitive learning platform interface and the capability to self-manage as they progress through their study.

“They’re all short on time as they work at least three days a week. It’s a mandatory requirement to study because they have to do assignments in the workplace,” says Jeroen Brands, educational adviser at Avans+. “They are busy and don’t have time to try and navigate a user interface.”

Having used two separate learning platforms, neither of which met its needs fully nor included assessments, Avans+ wanted to consolidate around a robust learning platform, compatible with Avans+’s learning philosophy.

That learning platform would need to support Avans+’s blended learning approach, whereby learners build knowledge from online materials away from the classroom, then come together with a tutor to receive coaching, and discuss theory and how to apply it. Away from the classroom again, and in the workplace, learners test their knowledge and understanding, and hand in an assignment that demonstrates their learning outcomes every ten weeks.

Scalability was also important to Avans+ as its user numbers were growing. However, perhaps the institution’s biggest challenge was to equip itself to compete with modern, unstructured learning available to all online, as Jeroen explains: “Formal education will change quite a bit. People are just not that interested anymore in following longer studies. To know how to do something, open YouTube and you will have 100 videos teaching you how to do it. At the beginning, that was to the level of, ‘how do I tie a tie?’ Now, it’s full university programmes in video, for free.”

Result

Ease of use and access, interactivity and assignments through Brightspace

When Avans+ assessed learning platforms in the market against a set of criteria that included ease of use and access, group interaction, automation and connection to customer relationship management (CRM) tools, customisation and affordability, Brightspace gained the highest score.

The platform supports Avans+’s blended approach with a range of features that cater to each stage of the learning journey. Jeroen says: “We ask learners to create an introduction video at the start of the course and we have social interaction with the discussion group. There are some video assignments because everything is practice-based, and some things you have to show—it’s all about the execution of it. Learners can hand in materials, be graded and receive feedback facilitated by Brightspace.”

Avans+ is also implementing rubrics, a learning criteria framework for clear learning outcomes and consistent marking. “We have rubrics in Excel documents, but you have to send everything over and place them on SharePoint to save them. If you can create a rubric in Brightspace, just click the buttons and give mandatory feedback. We’re exploring the possibilities, and there are options to do this,” says Jeroen.

We try to automate in Brightspace, so it should be technically impossible that we’re not improving our workflow efficiencies.

Jeroen Brands, educational adviser, Avans+

Results

Positive learner feedback and a better online experience

Avans+ succeeded in consolidating its online learning through Brightspace for an intuitive, improved learner experience with added functionality and the ability to manage assignments through the platform. Learners have round-the-clock access to their course information and learning materials and can manage their own learning journeys to achieve the best possible results.

You’re able to customise every view with widgets—your own imagination is basically the limiting factor and how you want to present your content.

Jeroen Brands, educational adviser, Avans+

By providing a comprehensive, feature-rich and interactive learning experience that capitalises on all that learning technology can provide, Avans+ retains a competitive edge and learning offering.

Jeroen talks about four things Avans+ and the platform can deliver for lifelong learning—coaching, social interaction, networking for future job opportunities, and organisational involvement so that course content results in the right knowledge and skills in industry.

Throughout, Jeroen has been pleased by the working partnership forged with D2L. “With the last two platforms it was just, here is the system and just pay the bill.” he says. “With D2L it is a big difference. We have regular meetings—initially weekly, now fortnightly—and a 24/7 helpdesk.”

Avans+ set out to replace its disparate, multi-platform online learning delivery to improve the learner experience and meet a range of particular learning needs, including 24/7 platform access, customisable learner journeys and ease of use. It selected Brightspace on the strength of the platform’s usability, interactivity, and feature set including the ability to run assignments, and interoperability with other systems. The result has been a positive learner reaction and a better online experience that helps Avans+ deliver its vision for professional lifelong learning in the digital age.

Discover Brightspace for higher education, visit d2l.com/en-eu/solutions/higher-education.