Learning Management Systems

D2L Updates Brightspace with Professional Development Features

• By Rhea Kelly
• 04/12/18

D2L's Brightspace learning platform now features a variety of ways to organize and manage faculty and staff professional development. Bringing these capabilities into Brightspace eliminates the need to maintain a separate learning management system for faculty development, according to the company. "Instructors and staff can use the same learning system to develop their professional skills that their learners are using — which saves organizations money, resources, budget and time," explained John Baker, president and CEO of D2L, in a statement.

Features of the system include:

• A new dashboard for managing the enrollment and completion of professional development courses. Using attributes such as date hired, department, reporting structure, campus or location, the system can automatically assign participants to particular learning opportunities;
• The ability to add learning resources from outside sources, such as Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, YouTube, Vimeo and more, by clicking Content or the Activity Feed;
• HTML5 design templates for creating mobile-friendly content;
• Built-in authoring tools that allow users to create, drag-and-drop, import and share resources;
• Assessment features that incorporate video-based recording, evaluation rubrics tied to mastery levels, interactive exercises, game-based learning as well as traditional assignment and quizzes;
• Badges for recognizing milestone activities and course completion;
• Collaboration and communication tools, such as online discussions, virtual video-based breakout sessions and activity feeds;
• The ability to capture and reflect on informal learning.

In addition, the company is offering a new package of implementation and consulting services to help institutions with their professional development programs.

For more information, visit the D2L site.