Press Release
Global learning technology leader D2L has partnered with leading online educator Michigan Virtual to support districts across the state of Michigan in providing learning continuity to students during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Through its Brightspace learning management system, D2L is ready and able to work with school districts to rapidly deploy a virtual learning environment. This learning environment offers access to freely available content from over 70 high-quality courses created by Michigan Virtual and a place for students and teachers to ensure learning is continuous in the event of a prolonged school shutdown. With this combination, school districts can leverage existing content resources and a secure and private environment for students to learn safely with their peers, on the platform chosen by Michigan Virtual for online courses – Brightspace.
Michigan Virtual is a non-profit company specializing in online K-12 education, as well as professional development for school educators. Michigan Virtual offers a wide range of courses including over 200 online courses for students, including 7 world languages and 23 AP courses. Their course completion rates for students consistently outpace all other online learning providers in the state. They also provide thought leadership and best practices for online learning through the Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute. Michigan Virtual serves about 30,000 enrollments annually.
“Our experience with D2L and Brightspace prior to COVID-19 has been incredibly positive. It was an obvious choice to partner with them during the most significant challenge we’ve ever seen as educators,” said Joe Freidhoff, Vice President of Michigan Virtual. “At a time like this, when our students and educators are adapting to new ways to teach and learn, everyone will need a learning management system that’s flexible, easy to use and fast to deploy. Brightspace hits all those marks and more.”
Michigan Virtual, as a leader in virtual learning in the state, is leveraging its existing relationships to help school districts in this unprecedented time of extended school closures. This joint solution offers a path for school districts looking to a known entity to help them, by offering:
- A place to start for teachers: Teachers can use the strong, locally developed content for virtual learning, while adjusting to a new modality of teaching and engaging their students. This lets them invest in learning the tools without having to also convert their content online.
- Rapid response: A solution that can be responsive and allow districts to be up and running as quickly as possible, maximizing the time students and teachers can collaborate.
- Personalization: D2L’s platform serves students across multiple grades and allows teachers to create a course space unique to their and their class’s needs. This flexibility can enable Michigan districts to provide a common location that is built for all their teachers, students, and even parents.
“Michigan Virtual is a recognized leader and innovator in online learning. They’re in a great place to meet the challenge posed by COVID-19, and so are we as the provider of the leading online learning management system,” says Lee Poteck, Vice President Education at D2L. “It’s a great partnership, and it’s going to benefit the people who need it most, the learners and educators who have had their school routines disrupted but who are committed to continue instruction.”
ABOUT D2L FOR K-12 Education
D2L provides the learning platform for people who care deeply about ensuring all students reach their potential. Working closely with clients, D2L supports millions of students in the classroom and online. And most of the virtual schools in North America and many of the global leaders have trusted D2L for years. Learn more about D2L at www.D2L.com
ABOUT BRIGHTSPACE
Brightspace is a cloud-based learning platform that makes online and blended learning easy, flexible and smart. Brightspace is a quantum leap beyond traditional Learning Management System (LMS) – it is easy to drag-and-drop content to create engaging courses, supports all mobile devices, has industry-leading up-time, and is built with accessibility in mind for all learners. Plus, Brightspace enables the future of learning with a gaming engine, adaptive learning, video management, intelligent agents, templated interactives for course design, full support for outcomes or competency-based learning, and actionable learning analytics. D2L’s Brightspace was recently named the #1 LMS for Next-Gen Online Teaching and Learning by Ovum Research and #1 in Adaptive Learning by eLearning Magazine. In addition, Aragon Research included D2L in its highly coveted Hot Vendors In Learning list. To learn more, visit the Corporate page on our website.
D2L Media Contact
Colin Horgan
Executive Communications Director
[email protected]
Twitter: @D2L
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