Mobile Apps that Ignite Learning on the Go
Our mobile apps were created based on hundreds of design sessions with users to help students and instructors be more productive. They’re optimized to make it super-easy to complete the tasks that people want to tackle quickly while on-the-go and, as our app ratings show, our users love them!
Students see what’s up next in class, check grades and review content. If users are looking to do more, they can launch into the full experience from their phone without having to sign in again. Optimized to display beautifully on any screen-size, there are no sacrifices when accessing Brightspace from a phone.
“The Brightspace platform allows our instructors to deliver content in multiple formats to multiple devices; PCs and a variety of mobile devices. Devices our students use every day.”
An App that Students Love
Brightspace Pulse makes it fun and easy for learners to stay on top of the work they have coming. With a visual to show upcoming activities, learners can use Brightspace Pulse to plan their week – knowing when they really have to buckle down. They can track upcoming assignments, access course content, stay on top of notifications for new discussion posts, be notified of upcoming quizzes, access grades, or view their course activity feed.
It’s easy to stay up-to-date with app notifications for new content and upcoming due dates, an activity feed of course announcements and active discussions that the student is following.
We connected with students on campuses to find out what matters the most and designed Brightspace Pulse with a growth mindset to reduce anxiety and build confidence with friendly feedback and messages.
Feedback from Students:
- “This app really lets me know everything I need to keep up with my educational obligations. It’s wonderful.” – Google User (February 17, 2021)
- “Absolutely necessary when working with lots of due dates for school on D2L. It simplifies it all down and shows your workload on a graph and the notifications mean you don’t miss due dates!” – Google User (February 5, 2021)
- “This app helps me be much more organized in terms of accessing my schoolwork!” – Apple User (February 17, 2020)
- “I really like this app. It’s very convenient for me. It updates me immediately when new info gets posted.” – Apple User (March 3, 2020)
- “You NEED this app – Game changer for Students. This app has been an absolute game changer. I see my grades, assignments, and any class updates the second they are posted. My phone with light up and make a noise. It makes tracking online classes 100x easier, and I don’t miss any information or announcements this way. This has definitely impacted my grades in a positive way. Can’t recommend this app enough.” – Apple User (March 3, 2020)
Uncompromised Learning that Works on Any Device
Our mobile apps were created based on hundreds of design sessions with users to help students and instructors stay on track. You work hard to deliver world-class learning experiences – don’t let your technology compromise that work. Once someone is ready to dive in, they will have complete access to anything in Brightspace no matter what device they’re on, without being tethered to a desktop. The reason they can do this is because Brightspace is the only LMS that adapts to the screen size by using responsive design–the same modern web design that industry leaders such as Google, Amazon and Pinterest use.
Some platforms may claim they are mobile-friendly, but you can only access parts of the site on a mobile phone. Look at other learning platforms on your phone that use the three-column layout of the past. It just doesn’t work on a phone, and results in the web and app experiences being inconsistent and inaccessible. Brightspace adapts automatically to fit the screen of the device being used without comprising the learning experience. The same experience across multiple devices means faster and easier adoption and usage for you and your learners.
The D2L Design Approach
Optimized and intuitive workflows
We’ve developed our workflows to deliver an optimized user experience. We design Brightspace for mobile first and expand it out for a desktop experience, and our design automatically adapts to you based on the device you’re using. The guiding principle here is that workflows are simplified at their core since they’re designed with mobile in mind—making it even more efficient when you’re working on a larger screen.
Accessibility is one of our core design components
Accessibility is at the integral center of our development and design and overall approach to usability. It’s not just a checkbox, but a prioritized component foundational to what we deliver. Accessibility is baking into D2L’s entire development process and we design features to support Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to help make sure disabilities do not pose an obstacle to learning. We also complete usability testing with users with different disabilities through industry leaders, Fable Tech Labs.
Progressive disclosure: intuitive without compromising depth
Frequently-used features are available up-front to keep things simple and easy to use, and advanced features are a click away for power users who want to access drill-down options for more in-depth tasks. Spend less time supporting new users while making sure super users have access to the advanced features they need. The Brightspace platform delivers the best of both worlds by helping make it easier to get started, without compromising the ability to access advanced features.
The user experience is so much better. When D2L claims that Brightspace works on all modern web browsers, it's actually true!
With the outbreak and government intervention to enforce working and learning from home with not much time to prepare, I can’t tell (you) how much the “Pulse” App saved us especially since many of our students are vulnerable youth or refugees and may not have a computer at home. They have been relying on their mobile to access the virtual classes.
– Shatha Naser, Chief Information Officer, Luminus Education
We also wanted to look better, more like the experience users get on Amazon. D2L could get us there the fastest.
É simples, moderna, responsiva e funciona perfeitamente em tablets. É o que as pessoas querem hoje em dia. Acreditamos que isso favoreceu a adoção.
– Michel Marcheterre, Gerente de Sistemas e Redes de Tecnologia de Aprendizagem, uOttawa
It looks the way students expect a mobile website to look. Nobody wants to believe that students select an institution of higher learning based on their LMS, but today, with so many students learning online, the LMS helps to form an impression of an institution. We live in a world of digitally mediated tools. It was really important to us that the look and feel of the LMS interface be as good as Long Beach is.
– Jonathan Huer, Director of Academic Technology, California State University, Long Beach
Better mobile experiences for you and your learners
Some LMS vendors don’t support a great mobile experience. For us, that just doesn’t deliver on what our customers need. The Brightspace platform gives you an optimal viewing and interactive experience on almost any device and a consistent experience across browsers and apps.
Consistent desktop and mobile experiences
Whether you’re coming from a desktop or mobile device, you will always receive a similar experience which has been optimized for your screen size.
No horizontal scrolling or pinch and zoom
We know it’s annoying ― and if it’s scrolling horizontally, it isn’t designed for mobile.
Helping you reach every learner
No matter what device a student has or can afford, they have the same user-friendly access to learning through mobile browsers, which removes potential barriers to education.
Delivering new features faster, better, and smarter
Our single, mobile-optimized platform allows us to build once to deliver innovation, updates, and improvements faster to our customers. We’re not creating two different experiences, mobile first is our standard design.
Audio and video capabilities
Upload audio and video right from your phone!
Don’t Take Our Word for It
We know that the quality of the mobile experience is best realized through hands-on testing, so try it out. Try using both Brightspace and our competitors’ platforms from a mobile browser – or launch into our responsive design from our Pulse mobile app with single sign-on. We are confident that you’ll love what you see with Brightspace. If you care about reaching every learner on any mobile device – then D2L is your platform. Reach out to us at sales@d2l.com.