Robust and diverse LMS for best results

I think this app is equally useful for both teachers and students. It is perfect for sharing files between users, it can keep people organized, and it also can provide with a high level of communication, as it has features that are not available in other platforms.

Pros

This app has everything students can use to avoid failing deadlines. It helps students to keep all critical data in one place, so it makes them more organized and aware of the education process. In Brightspace you can drag and drop all kind of files, as well as rearrange them, so new content can be easily seen. For teachers, it is also easy to create different types of tests or quizzes without spending much time or many resources. Brightspace is a well-known LMS and is used across our college as the learning management platform. It is used to distribute the different type of information, assignments tests, which makes the education process for both students and teachers more convenient.

Cons

This app lacks an intuitive interface. It is difficult to get used it, and it requires time to understand how to activate one feature or another. You need time to customize your interface; otherwise, it will be cluttered and even more complicated to use. There is an option to create discussions, but it is hard to organize them. It also would be nice to have a video chat option so that some lectures can be given online. Tech support can be improved, as it is not helpful and it usually blames users instead of fixing the problem.

Brightspace is a bright choice

Overall, Brightspace is great and functional. I love it compared to all the other platforms that I am engaged with. I find this to be very easy and organic feeling, but I do run into minor issues here and there. I was obligated to use this software from my institution that I work at, but if given the choice, I'd select this product. I also have worked with many blog-based websites and this feels more similar to the tools in building a Wordpress or on Blogger. If you are familiar with platforms like that, this should feel very native.

Pros

I've used a lot of similar products for educational reasons like Sakai, Blackboard, WebCT, Canvas and so on and one of the pros for me that Brightspace offers is that it's very clean looking compared to some of the above. I personally find it very organic and easy to use, but I've also been using similar programs since college. Still, I feel like the tutorials on Brightspacde and the layout of it is very clean and well organized that even someone very new to this software could work with it. Some of the things I really love is the ability to customize my individual courses with colors, banners and so on, and embedding videos and images is much easier --especially when creating several courses and linking a pre-made quiz or re-uploading a video. I concurrently used this alongside Sakai since I teach at two different colleges and another feature that I'm very pleased with is the ease of connecting TurnItIn

Cons

There's very few items I dislike, and they may just reflect me and my colleagues. Some of the cons are as follows: I have a lot of issues with the grade book that comes with this software. This seems to be an issue I share with my colleagues as well. Some of the grade book issues range from students not being able to view grades, even after I make them visible to them and the site showing a percentage or point instead of a letter grade, even when I click the option for that. I've also had issues with making internal links to site material. For me, I'll be able to view my links, but my students are often unable to. For instance, you can create announcements that are sent out to your collaborators and in that you can put links or embedd videos and images. When I put hyperlinks to external resources, it'll work fine --same with embedding videos. However, when I link an internal link to something like course material or a lesson, it'll give my students an error, yet the student can still log into the assignment or module by going through the tabs on our course's Brightspace. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It's not a make or break aspect either. For the most part, much of this software works great.

Online learning

Was a life-saver with the sudden move to distance learning during COVID-19.

Pros

Gives the teacher a good amount of control, and customization options. Allows me to "set it and forget it", which has been helpful during this pandemic.

Cons

The "new layout" is tough for small screens. Keep in mind that many students may be working off tablets/Chromebooks, and don't have a lot of screen to work with.

Poor excuse for a modern LMS

No benefits realized. Purely a frustrating experience having to use this LMS to manage my post-secondary classes.

Pros

Nothing at all. The LMS has a LONG list of features but nearly all of them are poorly designed and frustrating to use. I have moved back to old solutions that I used before I was given this piece of software. Clearly no teachers with any experience were consulted in the design of this. There was a huge opportunity for D2L when they moved from their old solution to a new Cloud based one. They missed the opportunity

Cons

The interface was not intuitive. There were very few clear best practices in the interface. The way that you complete tasks changes depending on which part of the interface you are using. Non-technical users will become quickly frustrated with the number of steps required to complete even the most basic of tasks. The interface feels like it was built by different groups of developers and designers who didn't communicate with each other. Every developer had their own idea about how to accomplish a task. Many default options are counter to what an actual teacher would need in their day-to-day tasks. Nothing in the interface saves you work. Every task prolongs how long it takes me to do something. After months of trying to use this tool I have given up and am now searching for alternative tools that make my life easier not harder.

D2L Brightspace

Overall Brightspace is a great tool with much promise. My biggest takeaway here is that context matters - smaller schools likely would not be a great fit - cost is relatively steep, and complexity seems to be a significant factor on the back-end. That said, i'm cautiously optimistic that this LMS could continue to grow and outpace competitors based on the interface and design i'm seeing currently.

Pros

Brightspace has a really lovely minimalist interface, allowing faculty and students to focus on what's most important. Compared to other LMS's i've used over the years, Brightspace has made serious progress in providing meaningful visualizations and analytics on student progress and forward-thinking features. The system looks and feels like a modern LMS, clearly standing out from some of the big traditional companies which can't seem to move forward from their early-2000s design. Mobile experience is great as well.

Cons

One of my biggest complaints is that i cannot directly mark up my students papers as i can in other LMS's - this feature is one of the key components in my own move to paperless grading, so it was very frustrating. Although i'm not directly an admin, I do get the sense that D2L operates much more around a 'suite' of resources that seems a bit more complicated to manage than other LMS's i'm familiar with.