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Why Forward-Thinking Institutions Made the Switch

While open-source systems like Moodle once offered flexibility, they can pose significant risks and hidden costs that hinder institutional growth:

  • Rising maintenance and hosting costs
  • Resource-intensive upgrades
  • Fragmented learning experiences for students and faculty
  • Limited data insights and automation

Brightspace can deliver those things your teams value most about open source: flexibility, extensibility, and control but with enterprise-grade reliability, continuous innovation, and expert support built in.

Explore the Difference

Brightspace has transformed our approach to education. Its sleek, modern interface combined with powerful editing tools enables us to create high-quality, consistent courses that automatically adapt to any device.
Danny Ball Digital Learning Manager, LIBF, part of Walbrook Institute London
Moving from an open-source system to a commercial system frees up our time and we can make a difference where it really matters for our teachers and not being busy with maintenance behind the scenes.
Stefaan Vanbillemont Functional Analyst – Team eLearning, HOGENT
Our research team have been using Brightspace data the last two or three academic years to run our level four retention program, which has already saved about over a million pounds, in terms of retained fees and a lot of that is based on Brightspace data.
Mary Cornelius Educational Development and Innovation Manager, University of Suffolk

What does moving on from Moodle mean for IT administrators, academic faculty members and institutional leaders?

  • Less Maintenance

  • Less Technical Debt

  • Happier Faculty

  • Better Student Outcomes & Data Analytics

  • Reduced Risk and Fragmented Accountability

  • More Innovation

Unlock peace of mind at every level
within your institution

Discover what moving to Brightspace can mean for you.

 

Faculty

Fewer tools to manage and learn. More consistent teaching experience. Less friction in daily workflows.

 

IT & Admin

Reduced vendor complexity and cost. Easier system management. Scalable, future-ready architecture.

 

Leaders

Reduced risk. Increase your ROI. Enable your teams to deliver better learning experiences.

 

“The impact that Brightspace has probably most had is peace of mind for everybody, all parts equal across the organization. Peace of mind for students knowing that the experience that they’re getting is top-notch and consistent across all their courses. Peace of mind for faculty to know that it’s a cloud-based product that has good infrastructure, that’s solid, reliable, it doesn’t go down. Peace of mind for administrators to know that they’re not having to build anything, to check code before upgrade. Peace of mind for leaders of the organization to know that the product is going to allow us to continue to grow and that it’s a product that is world-leading.”

Mark Schneider, Director of learning technology and AI strategy, NAIT

What matters most when switching from open-source to a SaaS LMS

Many institutions chose Moodle because it offered flexibility and control. But as online learning has become business-critical, many are reassessing whether their open-source LMS is still the right fit to offer scalable, secure and accessible online learning.

Moodle

Partnership

Brightspace works as an extension of your team. You get dedicated 24/7/365 end-user support, shared accountability, and growth mapping that identifies blockers and closes the gap to where you want to be.

“We’ve never felt like D2L is trying to sell us a product. Instead, they’re partnering with us on a solution.”

Mark Schneider, Director of Learning Technology, NAIT

Reseller-driven relationships can fragment accountability across internal teams and third parties. Institutions often manage operational risk and manual workarounds on their own, and they don’t know Who to call when something goes wrong.

Reliability & Security

Brightspace runs on a centrally governed SaaS model. Monthly updates arrive with no planned downtime so improvements land regularly without disruption. Security sits with D2L, with infrastructure, monitoring and compliance managed centrally. The cloud infrastructure scales with you through exam periods, new academic years and term rollover.

“Brightspace’s end-user support is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The fact that students have place to go at 11 pm on a Saturday is huge.”

Mark Schneider, Director of Learning Technology,

Depending on your hosting model, you may face unpredictable outages, disruptive annual upgrades, and manual integration checks. Security can vary by reseller, with responsibility split across the institution, host and plugin ecosystem, making vu nerabilities harder to

 

Content Creation

Brightspace delivers native content creation with pedagogy-aligned authoring tools, D2L Lumi, Creator+ and H5P, in one scalable, consistent platform.

Content creation often leans on third-party plugins and external tools, creating a disjointed experience that’s hard to scale.

 

Measurable ROI

 

Brightspace is built to raise ROl through stronger engagement, lower admin burden and more predictable costs. Streamlining course development and centralising workflows frees time, lowers long-term costs and builds a scalable path to better student

 

Fragmented costs can make ROl hard to see beyond initial setup and adoption. Hidden costs ripple outward loading faculty with maintenance instead of innovation Students get an inconsistent experience, which risks engagement, retention and rankings.

 

 

AI & Innovation

 

Continuous investment helps institutions stay ahead of evolving learning needs through transparent product development and expert guidance.

 

Slower innovation cycles following acquisitions and restructuring, resulting in limited roadmap flexibility.

 

The LMS Designed for What Comes Next.

Choosing an LMS is more than selecting technology. It’s choosing the partner that will help your institution navigate change, support learners and prepare for the future.

Brightspace has transformed our approach to education. Its sleek, modern interface combined with powerful editing tools enables us to create high-quality, consistent courses that automatically adapt to any device. Claire GreenDirector of OperationsLIBF