D2L’s Winter 2015 Release Speeds Delivery of Innovation to the Brightspace Platform


Powerful Product Updates and User Experience Improvements Incorporate Engaged Customer Feedback; End User Support and Game-Based Learning Service Offerings Equip and Empower Learners

KITCHENER-WATERLOO, ON–(Marketwired – December 09, 2014) – D2L (formerly Desire2Learn) today unveiled a host of powerful product features and innovative service enhancements for Brightspace, the company’s integrated learning platform (ILP), as part of its Winter 2015 release. The release includes numerous user experience improvements — 25 percent of which were inspired by feedback from the Brightspace community — along with an expert multi-lingual 24/7 End User Support service and the general availability of a Game-Based Learning offering. The product updates are delivered automatically through the cloud and available immediately to Brightspace users.

“The Winter 2015 release demonstrates D2L’s commitment to improving learner outcomes and a deep understanding of our customers’ needs. With many of these updates resulting directly from our interaction with the Brightspace community, we’re working to ensure that staff and learners have the most effective tools available to help them achieve their full potential,” said John Baker, President and CEO of D2L. “With these enhancements, instructors can focus on what matters most — personalizing the learning experience.”

Providing the Freedom to Teach and Learn in the Cloud
D2L actively engages with more than 1,100 client institutions through avenues such as the Brightspace Community to identify opportunities for user experience improvements. The Winter 2015 release features dozens of these powerful updates to simplify everyday tasks for instructors and learners.
“The best way to design software is by listening to the customers using it on a daily basis,” said Nick Oddson, Senior Vice President, Product Development at D2L. “The feedback from our tremendous community of faculty, staff, administrators, and learners validates that these platform enhancements and feature updates to Brightspace will improve the educational experience for everyone.”

24/7 End User Support — Easy, Expert Guidance
A recent Campus Computing survey of higher education CIOs and senior IT managers found that IT training for faculty and students continues to fall short. To address this problem, D2L offers 24/7 end user support — an easy-to-use, expert-powered resource for institutions of all sizes using the Brightspace platform. Enhanced with a self-help support and online chat option, D2L has also added Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese in addition to English language support for customers around the world.

“D2L’s end user support has been so good that we’ve been able to shut down most of our own support processes and reallocate those resources to more strategic initiatives. Finding a partner that provides this level of excellent support is critical in helping USG achieve its educational goals,” said Curt Carver, CIO at the University System of Georgia (USG).

Game-Based Learning: Next-Level Learning
A cutting-edge technology that allows faculty and staff to take stale curriculum and transform it into an exciting, engaging, and interactive experience, the Game-Based Learning (GBL) offering from D2L Professional Services is now available to all clients on the Brightspace platform. Tested by leading schools such as Collège La Cité to incredible success, the Game-Based Learning service includes game design, development, and integration within the Brightspace platform.
“One of our biggest reasons for selecting Brightspace was that D2L was a true partner in education and not simply a technology vendor. D2L understood our challenges with improving student engagement, retention, and outcomes and helped us develop gamified courses to connect with our students. D2L was able to create and deploy the courses in less than six weeks and feedback from students has been overwhelmingly positive. This has allowed us to explore and apply resources to opportunities we may not have considered otherwise,” said Michel Singh, a professor at Collège La Cité.

For more information on D2L support and services, please visit www.brightspace.com.

ABOUT D2L
A global leader in EdTech, D2L is the creator of Brightspace, the world’s first integrated learning platform. The company partners with thought-leading organizations to improve learning through data-driven technology that helps deliver a personalized experience to every learner, regardless of geography or ability. D2L’s open and extensible platform is used by more than 1,100 clients and almost 15 million individual learners in higher education, K-12, healthcare, government, and the enterprise sector — including Fortune 1000 companies. The company has operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil, and Singapore. www.brightspace.com | www.D2L.com

© 2014 D2L Corporation.
The D2L family of companies includes D2L Corporation, D2L Ltd, D2L Australia Pty Ltd, D2L Europe Ltd, D2L Asia Pte Ltd, and D2L Brasil Soluções de Tecnologia para Educação Ltda.

All D2L marks are trademarks of D2L Corporation. Please visit D2L.com/trademarks for a list of D2L marks.

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