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University of Florida’s Education Innovation Hub Moves Forward with D2L

The Lastinger Center for Learning Chooses D2L Brightspace to Support Expansion

Press Release

Global learning technology company D2L today announced that, in January 2022, the University of Florida College of Education’s Lastinger Center for Learning, through a partnership with Unizin, selected D2L Brightspace to help improve outcomes and support growth for K-12 students, through quality professional learning.

The Lastinger Center is an education innovation hub that develops solutions to improve outcomes across three education milestones: kindergarten readiness, reading proficiency by third grade, and algebra proficiency by ninth grade. The Center is committed to serving children and educators in every community in Florida and has expanded nationally.

With the support of Unizin, a consortium of 13 leading academic institutions that enables the development and implementation of technology solutions and services for its members, the Lastinger Center selected Brightspace for its ease of use, powerful features, functionality, and configurability to support the education of teachers. The Center also valued D2L’s education expertise and services and support, including technical and learning administration management, strategy, and data consulting, and learning and creative services. Through the highly configurable learning innovation platform, Brightspace, the Lastinger Center is set to potentially grow its current active user base.

Together, D2L and Unizin offer institutions like the Lastinger Center access to a flexible suite of learning products to help meet their academic mission today and that can scale as those missions evolve. Product package options are available for Unizin members, allowing for individual departments, programs or grant initiatives to implement D2L’s Brightspace platform.

“We always put educators first, so when we started to outgrow our homegrown learning management system, we knew it was time to find a platform that could meet our teachers’ specialized needs. D2L Brightspace and their team of experts will help us deliver the quality professional learning we’re known for with their innovative, engaging tools and their custom solutions,” said Dr. Philip Poekert, Director of the Lastinger Center.

“Our partnership with D2L not only benefits Unizin members but also higher education as a whole,” said Cathy O’Bryan, Chief Executive Officer of Unizin. “Together, we’re helping organizations like the Lastinger Center to deliver the highest quality educational experiences possible using advanced tools and technologies like Brightspace.”

“We’re thrilled to partner with Unizin and to help the University of Florida Lastinger Center better serve learners and educators through personalized professional learning experiences,” said John Baker, CEO and President of D2L. “Together with the Lastinger Center, we’re reaching more learners throughout Florida and the U.S. and improving outcomes across essential education milestones.”

About the University of Florida Lastinger Center

Housed within the College of Education, the Lastinger Center for Learning is a national leader in the design, delivery and scaling of technology-enabled educational systems to transform teaching and learning. Focused on critical milestones of kindergarten preparedness, third grade reading proficiency and ninth grade algebraic proficiency, its team envisions a world where every child and educator, regardless of circumstances, experiences high-quality learning every day. Since its founding in 2002, its garnered private and public funding to develop high-impact programs, including Early Learning Florida, the Literacy Matrix and Math Nation.

About Unizin

Unizin provides institutions with technology solutions and partnerships that enable them to scale their use of data, analytics, digital content and learning tools to improve outcomes. Unizin is membership-based and governed by its Founding Member institutions as a non-profit 501(c)(3). It is currently composed of 13 institutions and 900,000 learners, making it one of the largest educational organizations in the country.

About D2L

D2L is transforming the way the world learns—helping learners of all ages achieve more than they dreamed possible. Working closely with clients all over the world, D2L is supporting millions of people learning online and in person. Our growing global workforce is dedicated to making the best learning products to leave the world better than they found it. Learn more about D2L for K-12, higher education and businesses at www.D2L.com.

D2L Media Contact

Colin Horgan
‪Executive Communications Director
[email protected]
Twitter: @D2L

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