Brightspace Software

Love it

Pros

I love BrightSpace. My old school switched from another LMS that did not have near as many features as BrightSpace. I was happy to learn that my new school also uses BrightSpace.

Cons

I cannot think of any cons about BrightSpace. However, starting a job at another school after using BrightSpace taught me that it is very important that it is set up right. My new school is not using many of the features that my old school uses. I think it is important to make sure that each school sets it up to make sure that students are able to get everything they can from it.

Beautiful tool for an online student

Pros

Great layout and design. Very easy to navigate and a breeze to learn how to use. Great for an online student because everything is step by step and you don’t feel overwhelmed with your work.

Cons

I have not had any negative interactions using this online student portal. I believe there was only one instance that brightspace was down because of a planned upgrade and they did a good job notifying their users ahead of time.

Good LMS but not all-encompassing

Brightspace by D2L was useful for implementing a live course's online material, but the program lacks important components that are necessary for online courses.

Pros

This Learning Management System is GOOD but not the best. It is great that D2L and Brightspace have an easy-to-use portal that differentiates between student, instructor, and even TAs. However, the options that come with competitors like CANVAS are far superior...

Cons

CANVAS, a competing LMS, provides more external resource use, such as Virtual Office Hours during Conferences, and even grouping students into smaller groups to use MS Office through Collaborations. Brightspace is user friendly for students but more difficult to manage for administrators/teachers.

The Middle of the Pack

Pros

Course building tools are intuitive for the most part.

Cons

It can be a bit buggy. Students have complained about their work being lost when they go to submit. This could very well be operator error, but still.

Brightspace: The flexible, cloud based, LMS. Created by D2L, 2014.

Possibilities for educators: Communicate with students via email and online conference. Accept online discussions. Manage their grades. Customize the appearance of the course pages. Share the content of the lessons and the multimedia with the students. They can comment. Develop instructions and assignments in foreign languages. Create instructions and assignments using a mathematical note. Through its own builder that provides quizzes, multiplechoice, ruby ​​and even games. To incorporate portfolio-based activities into the work using the integrated ePortfolio system

Pros

-It places the student at the center of learning.
-It provides collaboration and interaction.
-It has a variety of tools.
-It combines most learning theories.
-It can be used by both educators and trainees.
-It combines education and learning resources with assessment and analysis features to create an integrated e-learning environment.

Cons

-The cost: It has an annual cost and is tailored to the number of users connected at the same time.
-It is not installed locally.
Course files are stored on a remote server that manages D2L.
-Network delay time is often slow and disturbing.

Smooth Transition and Adaptable Interface

Overall smooth transition with nicely organized rubric.

Pros

My university was previously using Blackboard before switching to Brightspace. During the transition we were able to explore and train in the new Brightspace course shells. The menu organization and dashboard tools are wonderfully intuitive, and I can easily switch between multiple courses.

Cons

While adaptable, there is some jumping required in some of the thread grading. I would love to see that set up become more harmonious with fewer windows to navigate.

Decent learning platform.

Pros

I took most of my master's level courses using this platform. After learning to navigate it, I became very familiar with it, and it was a decent platform for the professors to present material on. I liked how it would show notifications for discussion posts (particularly when someone would reply to something you had written). Also, it would alert you when a professor had submitted a grade for an assignment. These are great features that other learning platforms do not have, and I most definitely miss them when using those platforms.

Cons

It was not a very clean way to present material. It was a little cumbersome at times, took a lot of "getting used to," and was missing some features that would have been helpful that I had experienced on other platforms.

The students love it

Pros

Brightspace is a great way for young people but even older people to use as a platform to learn. Navigating around the website was easy and keeping track of assignment was too hard. This program is flexible and easy to manage.

Cons

The setting up can be tricky and requires some trial and error until we get the right combination. There are little things that are annoying and requires to take that little extra step every time.

Good from a student perspective

Pros

We switched to BrightSpace about a year ago when the company that owns cOllege went out of business. BS is way better than cOllege! It is much more up to date and you can do so much more with it. For example, I like the IM feature, and the app is pretty good.

Cons

From an instructor stand point it seems like there are some things that could improve. For example, the process of entering feedback with grades. At first, some of our instructors were entering feedback, but students couldn't find it. Um not sure if that was used errors or what.

Redefining the learning

Create pleasant spaces for interaction among the participants.

Pros

Technological advances in modern platforms seek, in one way or another, to redefine the concept of human learning. That is why platforms like Brightspace seek not only to manage all the most important aspects of educational management, ranging from the earliest ages to the most advanced students of high school, changing with them and adapting to their cognitive and emotional needs, accompanying them, but without imposing rhythms. And this is possible because Brightspace seeks to personalize learning, focusing them, in a very short time, effectively and in a very simple way. The versatility of the platform makes it absolutely compatible with the wide range of smart devices.
The process of teaching is not limited to the simple act of speaking or explaining in the classroom, this process must be thought, planned, developed, executed and, more importantly, evaluated. Brightspace all those tasks, using their useful tools. As a direct consequence, we can observe a significant improvement in classroom work, which will be noticed, due to the amount of activities that users will begin to share, which will involve parents and tutors, who will be able to manage feedback processes in real time. with personal messages.

Cons

Platforms such as Brightspace must have control or ability to configure pop-up windows, as well as other tools that must adapt to the changing requirements of users. The platform must be more managed so that it can reach more places and be more recommended.

As a student, Brightspace/D2L gave me the opportunity to take classes I couldn't fit in my schedule!

I have gained the ability to take some higher-level courses online which are necessary for college admissions/success, which I could not fit into my senior year schedule due to being a busy student!

Pros

I love that I can take these classes outside of school. I am currently taking four classes on Brightspace (Sociology, Psychology, Spanish III Semesters 1 & 2) because I could not fit them into my schedule for my senior year. In addition, each class comes with a "90 Day Plan" in the course materials, which helps keep me on track; I try to do more per day than what is on the plan, as I'm trying to get most of the workload finished before school starts again.
This brings me to my next point: Working at my own speed! As evidenced by my taking four classes over the summer, I am an advanced student who is serious about her education. Brightspace gives students the flexibility of working at their own speed. Although a "90 Day Plan" is offered as a guideline, there are no daily requirements set by the software itself. As a high schooler, some days I'm just busy, plain and simple. I don't have to worry about fulfilling a daily requirement with Brightspace. Again, the flexibility of completing online courses at my own pace is invaluable to a busy student like myself.

Cons

There's not much to complain about with this software. However, there is one issue I face on the daily with Brightspace. When working on a lesson, every now and again there will be a little box that pops up warning the user that if the session exceeds 30 minutes of inactivity, they will be logged out and will have to log back in again. I understand that it is set to do this for security reasons, but it is incredibly annoying when I'm taking notes on the lesson (which takes a decent amount of time) to have to be wary of the pop up appearing.

Brightspace is a Valuable Tool for Educators

Integrated learning platforms can be hit or miss but Brightspace is a big success for the average user.

Pros

Educational applications come in a variety of shapes and sizes, each promising to be a fully integrated learning platform but a number fall short. Brightspace provides an impressive array of options, each delivering a reliable experience. Brightspace is constantly looking to improve and seems to listen to feedback from users to make a more compete experience.

Cons

While the updates make a better product, they can be jarring at times, especially after one finds a sense of confidence in their normal routines with Brightspace. The interface dashboard can be a bit overwhelming at times, with button placement being oddly set up.

User-unfriendly tool for students and professors

Pros

I like that there is a list of the classes I take, and there is a chance to view the files of each class and submit assignments.

Cons

It's extremely inconvenient to use. (not only for the student but for the instructor as well). Especially at the beginning, it takes a lot of time to get used to it.

Way to difficult to navigate!

Pros

A learning module is so important to my classes, and Brightspace does allow for easy announcements to the entire class, setting up homework assignments, reminders, calendars, etc.

Cons

From a professor's POV, setting up assignments is so difficult! Navigating Brightspace is no easy feat, either. Brightspace would be well served to simplify processes for their users.

College User

Pros

The best part about brightspace is the class progress tool which allows me to monitor the grades I've received. This has provided me with a much better understanding of how I'm doing in the class overall.

Cons

Its a bit confusing at first and often times sends me too many emails confirming a submission of an assignment

Easy to use content and record keeping software for educational institutions.

Use it for posting assignments, content resources and grades for students in a Mathematics class. Sometimes even use it for grading.

Pros

The everything in one place aspect of it. This means fewer different logins and software platforms to keep up with, which means more focus on things that matter.

Cons

Occasionally there is maintenance that prevents logins, but it is usually announced in plenty of time to make arrangements for alternatives. And they do try to make it happen during off-peak hours.

Student Review

SNHU rolled this out over Christmas break 2017/2018 and provided a 30 min webinar for students. Although the webinar was instructive, the rollout seemed slightly different that the original student instructional. I read older articles and blog posts regarding the RFP that lead to BrightSpace and it didn't sound like the tech dept at SNHU was asking the right questions. I hear time and again how much the staff like it, but have yet to read how students were engaged in the process, which befuddles me.

Pros

Slick student facing design, seems to be many options for instructors to utilize the functions they're familar with, or those they find value for their courses but...

Cons

Too many rabbit holes to go down, too many dead-ends that seem to not have tied ends. Not very intuitive, as a student, too many way to get an end result, resulting in a steeper learning curve and longer timeframe to develop a standard operating procedure.
Instructors are asking me to finish previous weeks work, but failing to unlock the content so I can proceed because of their learning curve. Dislike the linked textbook content, and the ability for instructors to force the work, one way.

The worst LMS system.

Do not make a mistake and switching to this platform.

Cons

Using embedded rubrics is nightmare. No option to add due dates on assignments. Who design this platform should have taken a Blackboard first and try to improve their features not make them worse. Not worth the money and hassle. I miss Blackboard.

BrightSpace is amazing!

My students (middle and high school) are able to become proficient in the navigation of the system in just a few days with minimal questions and challenges.

Pros

BrightSpace includes all of the typical features of any LMS. However, D2L has improved the platform over time and has made the system more intuitive and user friendly. I also use CourseDen (the higher ed version of BrightSpace) for my college courses and the features are essentially the same with a few differences. However, the two platforms are enough alike that, once you know one system, learning to use the other one is a cinch. The features allow for very specific customization of assessments, discussions, and other features. I have built my own courses within the LMS, so I am familiar with a majority of the features and capabilities of the LMS.

I have used D2L almost daily for years and have never had an issue getting the info I need.

Pros

I have loved using D2L for both my undergraduate and graduate studies. It has made submitting and keeping track of my assignments very easy. I love that it keeps everything on one easy to navigate website. I don't know what other options are out there, but I can't imagine anything being more user-friendly for students than this!

Cons

I did not realize course access expires when I first started using D2L for my school work. I didn't bother downloading a lot of my class materials to my computer beacuse I assumed it would always be there for me to reference. I looked back a year or two later and saw that my classes had disappeared. I understand why, but I really wish there was a counter or notification before course removal so I could download any content I wanted. This is probably something managable by the school, but it would be great if D2L would notify the students.