Resource Library
Calculate the ROI of Your Association’s Online Learning Programs
What results and returns could your association see from online learning? Associations like yours are facing more competition than ever from every direction—higher education institutions, third-party training providers, and even…
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Reaching Learners Around the World
The Irish Deaf Society expands its geographic reach and transforms the learning experience for signing members through online classes and course content delivered through D2L Brightspace.
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Get Started with CBE
Download the guide… If your institution is just beginning to explore CBE or in the planning stages for a CBE program, this is the guide you’ll need. It will show you:…
Latest Resources
Are Robots the Future of Education?
Yes, robots are the future – but not how you may think. Read about how tech can enable and extend human capabilities.
7 Benefits of Video-Based Assessment
How do you give relevant, timely feedback on student presentations when your class is entirely online? One professor came up with an answer.
How to Step up Your Engagement Game with Gamification
Learn how to gamify your learning materials & how it can help you take student engagement to the next level.
How Authentic Assessment Can Help Students Prepare for the Real World
Learn how this professor uses alternative methods of assessment, such as video interviews, to give her students the skills to succeed.
Making high education affordable to all with new pilot program
The average cost of a private, non-profit four-year university degree is $31,231 across the U.S., while the cost for a public four-year school hovers around $10,000 per year, according to the College Board. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York puts student debt at more than $1.3 trillion, meaning it has reached a crisis level. University can be a prohibitively expensive proposition for some people. Many lower-income students often find themselves working part- or full-time in order to raise sufficient funds, or they face other barriers to entry, such as lengthy commute times because they have to live at home. This demands flexibility of their schedules, which offline courses are often unable to offer. In all, this is creating a system that is inaccessible to many who have a desire to learn, says Dr. Jodi Henderson-Ross, Assistant Professor of instruction at the University of Akron. While online learning has often been hailed as a solution to some of these challenges, there remains a stigma associated with the space. “Rightly or wrongly, there’s an assumption that online learning isn’t as academically rigorous,” she says. Against this backdrop, the University of Akron wanted to change that.
RIT’s student base created a unique need for highly accessible software
Making content accessible is always important to teachers, but for Sandra Connelly, an assistant professor of Life Sciences at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), accessibility can take on different meanings. For one student, it meant literally being able to access the material. With videos being hosted on YouTube, he was unable to view them being based in China. This presented an interesting problem: while she’d been steadily moving her class material online, how would students, who have restrictions on materials, regardless of their location, be able to access everything?
Smith School of Business re-engaged faculty & cut back on administrative burden
When it came to their learning management system, the IT staff at Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business used to spend much of their energy just keeping the lights on. The Business School used an LMS built in-house, and it simply sucked up too much time, says Troy St. John, associate director of IT for learning technology and application development. When the school switched to Brightspace, it was like a weight had been lifted. “The custom solution we had in place required a ton of resources dedicated to keeping it up and running,” he says. “We didn’t get a lot of time to add new or innovative things professors asked for. So they kind of stopped asking.” Brightspace’s Valence API gave the IT team a new digital sandbox, allowing them to build cool and useful tools against the existing technology. “Our program offers a really high-touch level of service to students,” he says. “And now, these new tools let us – and our faculty – deepen that commitment.”
Creating a customized orientation guide for students’ first-year transition
The transition from high school to university can be an exciting but often overwhelming experience. To help ease the transition, the University of Colorado Boulder used to require incoming students to attend a two-day, on-campus orientation program where students would learn more about campus resources, academic advising and enrolling in courses. However, the face-to-face orientation wasn’t always an ideal fit, says Courtney Fell, Learning Experience Designer at the university. The sessions were content heavy and sometimes overwhelming for students. The experience was sometimes a challenge for out-of-state attendees, who had to coordinate travel and accommodations. Parent attendance was also on the decline, Fell says, which meant they were often missing crucial information about their children’s impending university experience. In an effort to improve the orientation process and better help students set themselves up for success, the university undertook an ambitious project: in only a few months, it created a completely personalized introduction to the school, the New Student Welcome Experience. Students who want to come to campus can attend a New Student Welcome Day, but it is no longer required for all students.
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