In this interview, we talked with Gabriele Janes, senior advisor, learning with the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA), about CMA’s journey with D2L. She discussed the association’s transition to D2L Brightspace, the development of the Chartered Marketer program and the experience working with D2L’s Learning Services team. Her story highlights the importance of having a supportive and proactive partner in achieving organizational goals and enhancing the learning experience for professional marketers.
Choosing D2L
“A partner as if they’re just another part of the team”
We started our journey with D2L around 10 years ago, having moved our courses online a few years prior. That decision was made because classroom-based training was difficult for us to continue implementing, and we really wanted to extend our reach across the country.
After about three years with our initial provider, we determined that we had some new needs that were not able to be met by them. So, we decided to do an RFP. We developed a list of about 60 questions, which we sent to six or seven different online learning management system (LMS) providers. From the responses, we were able to assess what we absolutely needed, what would be an upgrade, and what would just be nice to have.
I have to tell you that the response we got from D2L was so robust and proactive that it truly was a differentiator. Overall, we just felt that D2L cared.
We decided we were going to slowly transition. We were going to put a few courses onto Brightspace and leave some on the other platform. Then, I realized that some of my instructors would have to be on two different platforms, and I thought, oh gosh, that’s not going to be a great experience. I mentioned this to my contact at D2L, and they said, “Oh yeah, we understand what you mean. If you want to move faster, we’ll help you get there.” I didn’t know if we could do it. Surprise, we did. That was just another really positive experience.
So, that’s how we started our journey and got onto the platform, which we’re happily still on today. I’ve always said about D2L that they’ve been a partner as if they’re just another part of the team.
Working With Learning Services: Phase 1
“We can do this at a much higher level than I was originally anticipating, and we can do it faster and more efficiently”
We wanted to build another layer of designation—the Chartered Marketer program—that would be a higher level for marketers anywhere. It took a year or so for me to design that and get board approval. I knew I wanted to hire someone on our team to help create this. Since D2L was already our LMS provider, I reached out to Jeff Salin, senior manager, learning experience, and said, “I have a feeling that I’ve written a job description that is perhaps asking for more than one person—maybe even two or three—but I’m not experienced enough in that area. Would you have a look at it and give me some advice?” He helped me with the job description first, but then he said, “By the way, you might want to know that we also have a Learning Services team.” He told me everyone who was on it and what their role would be, and I had this huge aha moment. I remember sitting down with my CEO and saying, “I’ve just come across a way in which we can do this at a much higher level than I was originally anticipating, and we can do it faster and more efficiently.”
Hiring the Learning Services team worked out so well. We’ve worked with three different groups over different periods, but the original one built the majority of the program.
Keeping Canada’s Marketers at the Top of Their Game
The CMA’s members wanted an online “anywhere, anytime” learning option. See how Brightspace helped the association deliver that.
Working With Learning Services: Phase 2
“The time had come for us to meet our learners where they were”
In 2024, we went into a new phase as part of the CMA’s learning evolution. The time was right for us to assess if our learning was meeting its objectives. We did a deep dive that involved third-party, independent research, a thorough competitive analysis, and interviews with individuals in the program.
I already knew that one significant barrier to people continuing in the Chartered Marketer designation program was time. Although the courses were highly interactive and engaging, they were time-consuming, and they were not fully asynchronous. This meant that working professional marketers had to devote between 8 and 10 hours a week to the program and couldn’t even miss a week because of the volume of assignments and assessments.
Through one-on-one interviews with some of the people who were not progressing, we could see that our senses were accurate and the time had come for us to meet our learners where they were.
The next crucial decision we needed to make was how we were going to reformat the program. What we really wanted was to make it fully asynchronous, which would have required significant investment for two things. First, on the D2L side, we had to change all our courses in terms of their instructional design format. Second, because our registration for our courses is offered through our website, which is linked to our CRM, we had to get our CRM builder involved and do an API integration.
Then along came another wonderful opportunity with another aggressive deadline. The CMA had applied for funding to be able to offer a scholarship for marketers to take the Chartered Marketer program. Because part of that delivery was that it had to be fully asynchronous, we were in a significant time crunch. So we went back to D2L and said, “Okay, we’ve got this great opportunity, but we only have eight weeks.” We worked with Learning Services to thoughtfully redesign our program in that short period, and somehow the team pulled through. It was amazing.
Take Your Content to the Next Level
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Having a Partner You Can Count on
“That’s the magic”
We call the output that Learning Services produces “magic”. What we mean by that is you go from a text document to an online, immersive, interactive experience. That’s the magic.
One of our courses involves business financials. When we turned the content over to the Learning Services team, we said, “Help us try to make this look sexy.” What we meant was, “Help us make this interesting to marketers who might not love math.” They delivered exactly what we wanted, and this is now being offered to our marketers. It’s great to have a partner that is fully aligned and that you can count on.
Creating In-House Magic With Creator+
“Creator+ and H5P are going to help us create magic”
Recently, we realized that we needed more instructional design tools, which D2L fortunately has. We purchased Creator+ and H5P, which will help make us more independent and work at speed.
Deliver Courses That Captivate
Supercharged with the interactive power of H5P, the all-new D2L Creator+ can help you boost engagement and completion rates while delivering course content that delights.
Bringing the Chartered Marketer Program to Life
“We would not have been able to build the Chartered Marketer program to the high level of experience we want our learners to have without the Learning Services team”
Really, we would not have been able to build the Chartered Marketer program to the high level of experience we want our learners to have without the Learning Services team. Our learners are professional marketers. Keeping that in mind, the program needed to be visually appealing and highly intuitive. It needed to be something that engages your attention, which is why none of what we offer is solely text-based. Everything is interactive and gives learners opportunities to go deeper into the topics and materials at hand. There is a consistency to it as well. It sounds like a small thing, but from an adult learner’s perspective, it is huge because you know what to expect.
The Learning Services team had the experience to be able to tell us how to build great learning experiences. This is especially crucial for assessments because for adult learners, testing against content doesn’t just aid learning; it builds confidence.
I work with individuals who are teaching in colleges right now, and one of the challenges they deal with is that they have a lot of students who just want to do enough to get through and move on to something else. Our learners aren’t like that because they’re anticipating that they’re going to be able to apply their learning in a workplace environment.
We’re excited to be using other D2L products that will help us become more independent while also working with the Learning Services team to continue accessing the support that has been so instrumental to our success over the years.
Creating a Gold Standard for Marketing Excellence
This is how the Canadian Marketing Association partnered with D2L to launch the first designation for Canadian marketers, helping learners thrive in their careers.
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