As the transition to D2L-Brightspace from Blackboard continues, faculty members and students have been kicking the wheels of our new learning management system (LMS). The test drive results provide important feedback as we continue to work out the kinks as part of the LMS Transformation Project.
Over the 2023 winter semester, five George Brown faculty members used D2L-Brightspace in their classes and reported back. The participants included Adeesha Hack, Professor, CPLS-General Education; Joanna Friend, Professor, Early Childhood Education; Stella Bastone, Professor-Instructional Designer, Teaching & Learning Exchange (TLX); Jason Inniss, Professor, Centre for Hospitality & Culinary Arts; and Celina Costa, Professor, English as a Second Language.
"Transformation in teaching and learning can only occur when faculty embrace new possibilities, push their practice to create forward momentum and share their experience to enable our collective growth," said Dr. Eileen De Courcy, Vice-President, Academic. "I would like to commend and thank these faculty members for their leadership, commitment to teaching and learning and for being fearless teachers."
Creator Plus tools in Brightspace help with organization, faculty member says
Costa said Brightspace made it easy to organize her teaching materials into a consistent schedule, as well as add supplementary content that her students may find interesting. Uploading assignments, quizzes and written and oral feedback to students to the platform was also seamless.
"I make full use of the various elements available, such as accordions, tabs, timelines, click and reveal features, among others," she said. "These elements not only enhance the presentation of the content but also provide interactivity, prevent information overload, and ensure a well-rounded learning experience for students. I highly recommend utilizing these Creator Plus tools to enhance the teaching and learning process."
Students "easily adapted to using the platform," she added, and "love having the ability to access course materials on their phones." Student feedback suggests they find the platform intuitive because they have experience with it, either in high school or at other post-secondary institutions.
Good interaction with third-party apps, another faculty member says
Inniss said the program is extremely user-friendly, interacts well with third party apps, and has a clean interface.
"There are many ways for professors to create inclusive interactive experiences," he said. "Almost all of my Blackboard content transferred over seamlessly. I use D2L to share all of my course information, skills videos, announcements, PowerPoint assignments and tests. I embed Microsoft Forms survey's right into the system for anonymous feedback."
Work continues to smooth out transition issues
While a small group of instructors reported positive results during a winter-semester test run, the bigger exercise hasn't been without its hiccups. This spring, faculty members reported that they required further training and experienced course content migration challenges.
Need help? We got you!
If you run into trouble through the transition to D2L-Brightspace, don't worry! Help is available. Visit the Instructors Brightspace Support page and the Students Brightspace Support page on the TLX site, where you'll find resources, instructions and FAQ. You can also register for drop-in help sessions and subscribe to the Brightspace newsletter for the latest news on the transition project.
Play in the sandbox
Do you want a safe space to experiment in D2L-Brightspace without anyone seeing your content? Try the sandbox.
Don't forget! Blackboard will be decommissioned on August 31 at 11:59:59 P.M.
