Brightspace

Pros

Polished software with a multitude of features makes this an outstanding "investment".

Cons

Pricing is competitive, however some value-added services are locked behind a premium/paid tier.

Alternatives Considered

Switched From

Pros

Very trustable
Visibility of team productivity
Helpful students reports

Cons

Hard to assemble
Negotiation complicated
Small support

Pros

Nothing. See comments below about experiences.

Cons

Everything. See comments below about experiences.

Pros

I enjoy the way in which the content or each class is organized.

Cons

I am not a fan of the amount of email notifications sent by Brightspace (discussions, announcements, etc.). If you do not want to receive any of these notifications, you have to unsubscribe from each thread. It is timely and clutters the inbox.

Pros

One of the features I like most about Brightspace is the progress tracking. If a student is behind on an assignment or more than it highlights on their course.

Cons

At the time I was introduced to Brightspace, the previous learning environment stopped operations resulting in everyone having to adjust to Brightspace. One of the features I like the least about bright space is not being able to access Brightspace on mobile. It is difficult to view it on mobile and other classroom tools are able to view it on mobile

Pros

I like that you can attend classes on your phone or on your computer using brightspace.

Cons

Viewing the instructor, power point , and the chat is not possible. You can only do either the chat view slides or the teacher.

Pros

It has gamification, and once the course has been set up, everything is like clockwork.

Cons

Just the setting up at the start of every semester, BUT, it is worth the time.

Pros

D2L is always looking ahead and improving and adding new features

Cons

Some features have a few got ya's such as not being able to manage due dates in discussions

Pros

Bright space is easy to use. I can easily find where my work is and when it needs to be done.

Cons

Sometimes, things can get lost but this is usually a teacher error.

Pros

I like this LMS because it gives us the necessary functions to manage online learning. I also really liked the user interface and being able to create content and grade intuitively.

Cons

Everything is going well except the analysis which usually gives some problems.

Pros

I think because it is similar to other LMS systems, it does not take long to learn if you know others.

Cons

I had to often find user YouTube videos on how to do things. Users that struggled with finding answers themselves.

Pros

There’s a lot of different things to access from this software

Cons

It’s not that user friendly, I have a hard time navigating thru it.

Pros

I used D2L Brightspace throughout all of university. In terms of uploading any learning documents such as assignments, solutions, homework, PowerPoints, lecture videos, and more, it was always very easy to navigate and get what you need on your computer or on mobile. Navigation is very simple, and the user interface is easy to learn. The best feature was the notifications bell which I used the most to have consistent and clear updates for all of my courses.

Cons

I think there are some aspects of the user interface which could be redesigned to be more aesthetically pleasing. Some features and sections appear out of date and could use some visual improvements. The onus of including or excluding certain sections I believe is on the onus of the professor, but maybe there could be more clear instruction to them on how to best format course pages/sections.

Pros

I know this is bad, but I can honestly say I haven’t found anything I like about the Brightspace program! The only good thing I can think of is the college has selected a bolt-on (Zoom) and it is important for live synchronous meetings. The recordings can be easily accessed from within the course tools.

Cons

Brightspace is not user friendly from an instructor’s perspective. Points have to be changed in multiple places. Constantly having to switch to the “student view” to see if instructions have loaded correctly or saved recent changes is not an efficient way to function or make course edits. You can’t add points when reading discussions, you have to go out to a separate page to enter points/grades. The list could go on and on.

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.

Pros

Brightspace has tons of features and capabilities that teachers and students can use in learning! Through assignments with release conditions, video and audio recording for instructions and responses, homepage customization, and much more. There are few things that you are limited to with Brightspace.

Cons

Though there are many features in Brightspace, they can often be tedious and complicated to create and use. For example, creating tests/quizzes in brightspace is a very important tool for teachers to give formative assessments. The creation tool works, but takes many more steps and work when compared to other quiz creation tools, such as Google Forms. This applies to almost all features on Brightspace. When using this with younger students - Pre-K through 5th grade - that can take a toll on time and learning.

Pros

Great platform for continuing education. The PGA of Canada course are well laid out

Cons

Nothing negative to report from my experience with the software

Pros

I enjoyed the formatting and how easy to use brightspace was compared to the previous software my university used. It made tracking grades and all of the content my teacher posted so much easier to follow. It also shows how your grades were compared to other students and allows you to track your own performance.

When I was a TA, it was also really easy to post news items, enter grades and insert comments on students' papers.

Easy to understand for all users!

Cons

It can be difficult to operate on mobile devices - there are less buttons to navigate the pages but it's not impossible to use.

Pros

It’s easy to see what’s next/where you’re at. Cuts down on much of the visual clutter and steps you need to take to get where you want.

Cons

It could be a bit slow at times, but I think that was a server/isolated IT issue.

Pros

I use D2L, Moodle, and Blackboard in my multiple jobs. D2L is the most visually attractive of these, and the "drag and drop" functionality of course building makes things much easier than in Blackboard, for example.

Cons

When grading, I wish the rubrics appeared in the margin of same tab as the assignment, rather than a separate pop-up window, though this is already an improvement from earlier iterations.

Pros

I really like the feature where you can open up quizzes or surveys for individual students. I use this when I have set a time/date for an item to close by and then students give me a valid excuse, then I can open it back up for them for whatever length of time I choose for them to complete the assignment. I also like that it is easy for a skilled user to navigate.

Cons

Even though I know how to navigate through the online set up now, it is sometimes troublesome for my students because there are just so many different options and different ways to navigate to the same thing. I usually have to do a short run through on how to use the software before the class begins and then I always have those that reach out with numerous questions regarding how to find something. This too has to do with the laziness of some students since I had no problem teaching myself how to use it.

Pros

I've used Brightspace (D2L) for the past 3 years as part of teaching responsibilities at a University I work for. I find the integration of video and multimedia assignment types and rubrics to be well integrated and relatively user friendly.

Cons

Integration with external apps such as Bongo can be somewhat disjointed, but this has gotten better in the last year. Transcription of video has also improved.

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.

Pros

I really enjoy the simplicity of how to find assignments and course work. Something else that is great is that anytime you send it an assignment the software will send you a confirmation email assuring your completion and submission. Technical support always knows how to correct an issue that is going on.

Cons

I have experienced the software glitching on many occasions. I will need to complete an assignment and turn it in to a specific place and that submission title is not uploaded in my course selection for the week. I have also contacted technical support many times, in which they reply pretty slowly.

Pros

Module functions are easy to use. Great for asynchronous learning. Easy to copy over content each semester.

Cons

Turn it on doesn't work on pdfs. Students struggle to see answers on quizzes.

Pros

It has many of the same features of other LMS options, such as Blackboard and Angel. It has many advantages over a product such as Moodle. It's easy to understand and the cleanest user interface of all major college LMSs

Cons

It needs a video class option, similar to Blackboard UltraCollaborate

Pros

I like how brightspace provides an area for all information to be put together in one place.

Cons

I find brightspace to be annoying sometimes mostly because of the way the website is set up. It could easily be improved to fix this.

Pros

Easy to use, I can view all coursework and courses and grades

Cons

Overall I like it all, nothing found that I haven't liked yet

Pros

As a professor, I've used D2L Brightspace for many years and have found it to be an excellent tool for managing my courses. I love that I can easily post class content, syllabus, and grade assignments all in one place. It's also great for creating forums and discussions for students to engage with each other. One of my favorite features is creating folders for students to submit their assignments. It makes it easy to grade and provide feedback all in one place.

Cons

Some advanced features may require additional training or guidance.

Pros

Brightspace is straightforward and to the point. Developing courses in Brightspace is simple and the end result is quite beautiful and attractive for students.

Cons

Brightspace lacks many features of other LMSs such as Canvas and Blackboard.

Pros

I love how user friendly this software is. As a daily user, I can easily navigate the different portals on this software and find all my class's resources quickly. It is very organized, and has great assessible features such as clear text, and high contrasting colours. Grades are easily accessible, and there offer all features necessary to succeed in your course, eg. discussion boards, class list, attendance, course content etc.

Cons

The notifications are quite overwhelming, every time any professor makes any adjustment to their course you get a notification that piles up throughout the day. Moreover, the notifications for upcoming assignments are sometimes inconsistent, as assignments not done through the D2L will not show up at all, causing confusion for upcoming work to be done for the student.

Pros

Everything about this software is super user-friendly they think about the student when they made this it’s not hard to years. It’s not hard to follow as long as you do the tutorials and follow what they say. At the beginning you can’t go wrong there’s nothing negative I can say about it. I’ve never had any issues using this and I’ve used this software at two different colleges. Hands down the best.

Cons

There’s only one thing that I kind of don’t really understand is the virtual classroom thing I’ve still not understood why some places use the virtual product classroom and sign the right space software and some don’t but I think that’s more of a college preference instead of a software preference to bright space

Pros

It is easy for faculty and student to use and integrates with publisher assignments.

Cons

There is nothing that is missing to that I don't like about D2L.

Pros

Overall, Brightspace allows educators to design useful online courses that enable students to succeed and achieve a degree from the comfort of their homes if reaching a campus is not a possibility.

Cons

Brightspace has attempted to integrate a video feature where a course can be held online through a video platform however this feature is constantly lagging and still needs much work before it will function well.

Pros

Brightspace is flawless. It makes seeing your grades, assignments, class resources, discussion forums, and online lectures accessible from anywhere. It is compatible with every device (laptop, desktop, phones). Brightspace help services are clearly stated and always available. Great customer service skills as well.

Cons

Brightspace is not the easiest when teachers do not know how to properly use it. A simple video how to guide for each feature would enhance all aspects of Brightspace.

Pros

What I like most about this product is the ease of navigating each feature of the product. There are quite a few features, all of them being outstanding and easy to use.

Cons

There seem to be quite a few bugs for us with this product. However, the product has been integrated going on two years, so there is bound to be some issues going forward.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Brightspace

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Brightspace

Pros

It’s extremely customizable, but no matter how each course might be built, there is a feeling of familiarity. I love the assessments, open ended plugins to embed for my faculty, user support, and the student experience.

I really love the course builder. It’s an easy to use yet extremely effective tool.

Cons

I would say the fact that it is so customizable and open ended at first is daunting to faculty. However with proper training and support, my faculty have really excelled with the LMS.

Pros

Brightspace is very intuitive; users can jump into the LMS and figure out what they need to do with little to no instructions.
I like the power it gives admins to build in automation and customize how students work through the course. This is done via intelligent agents and release conditions.
Brightspace just looks great. Is the most aesthetically pleasing LMS on the market as far as I have seen.

Cons

The platform seems more geared toward traditional schooling systems rather than asynchronous models at times. For example, there is no easy way for students to add their own due dates to assessments; they can only be added for the entire course, which does not work when students are all pacing differently. Brightspace for Parents is also not as strong as I would have expected. There seems to be limited features and out parents are just not really interested in using it.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Brightspace

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Brightspace

Pros

Brightspace makes it easy to contact students in a class. I like the 'classlist' feature that lists all the students in a class and their university-related contact email. This simplifies either bulk-emailing students (as an instructor) and finding students to study with (as a student). It is also a secure site to centrally access all the information necessary for all my courses.

Cons

Brightspace provides multiple places to find the same things. This is confusing, especially when some assignments are loaded in a given course module but not in the 'Assignments' tab, or vice versa. There are multiple levels of redundancy that are not kept consistent throughout the interface, so it is often confusing to locate materials.
Brightspace is also slow to load. Often, when moving between tabs when I am creating a quiz for the students I teach or grading material, the browser loads for 30-45 seconds before transitioning pages. This is frustrating.
After a class is officially 'over', the course pages are greyed out and prevent access (even when a school has not officially ended yet). This happens immediately after the final in a class, which prevents students from going in to do final grade calculations or download any materials. This is frustrating.
Brightspace has had many issues with plugins, such as Kaltura Media Gallery, which disable access or have perpetual loading or glitching. This leaves the software as unreliable.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Brightspace

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Brightspace

Pros

What I liked most was the simple and effective organization. It was a software that was definitely created in mind to set students up to succeed. Firstly, the way the Chapters, sections, topics, and individual assignments were organized on the side was something that was consistent for each of the subjects I was studying. Then on the top bar, you were able to click on pages that would essentially "filter" the types of class material. You could see all the assessments in one place, all the assignments in one place, and your grades. On top of that, every single thing was linked back to the corresponding item. For example, if you couldn't recall what "assignment 2" was when looking at it in the gradebook, you were able to click it and redirect it to the original post. There was also notifications for when assignments were open and reminders for when exams and homework was due. As someone who has used canvas, blackboard, google classrooms, and a few other softwares for school, these functions were not common. There were also times where it would be extremely hard and confusing to navigate. However I never ran into that issue with D2L.

Cons

It is hard to find any qualms about D2L Brightspace, there is nothing negative I've noticed the entire time I have been using the software.

Pros

The most impactful features of BrightSpace are discussion opportunities, auto-grading, and navigation.

Cons

The cost of the LMS is the only drawback.

Pros

Brightspace is very easy to navigate and customize. It looks very nice and many uses familiar with something like Wordpress will have a pretty easy time. It is also in many ways similar to other popular social media platforms for students, I imagine, they are pretty comfortable with a platforms like this. Managing grades, assignments and embedding external links is very organic. There are some great tutorials too form D2L. It's also similar enough to other platforms that if you are migrating from another system, this shouldn't have too much of a learning curve. I love how easy it is to build a template course and transition various components or modules to a new one.

Cons

My only con is purely subjective, but I have had issues with embedded links like videos. I find it very hard to remove items from the Grades section (the gradebook). I constantly have to view a tutorial because it is so roundabout to remove an item from that section.

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.

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.

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.

Pros

The interface looks nice, and it's easy to sort student. The discussion board threading works well, and the left hand menu bar is easy to navigate. I appreciate that there are multiple ways to arrive at different areas in the course, and the seminar integration is really easy and nice.

Cons

I wish the seminar would let me review the actual comments as I grade, the integration of a competency based rubric is clunky, when you have a CLA as well as something else for an assignment one overwrites the other in a very maddening way taking multiple steps to finish up a grade. The announcements section is now difficult for students to read, but that could just be our set up as well.

Pros

It is a pretty standard educational online platform for E-Learning. Was able to pick up how to use Brightspace in a short learning curve.

Cons

School switched to Brightspace without any real transition from previous platform. This made it a bit difficult for faculty and students to transition to this new platform.

Pros

I found this software very easy to use and pretty intuitive. It is fresh looking on the screen and I've not had any issues with the system not working as it should.

Cons

There are a few extra clicks that have to take place in some parts of the software to get back to where you want to be. That is somewhat annoying, but a minor issue.

Pros

Has addressed many prior user problems experienced with D2L
Well-ordered, clean user interface
Easy to design different courses, quizzes, and tests with minimal investment of time.
Excellent grading features that calculate percentages easily.
Can easily switch from teacher view to student view to check the layout and identify problems before finalizing content.

Cons

Some of the menus are not intuitive. ie) I had trouble figuring out how to include deadline dates for assignments after which the software would no longer accept submissions.
UI interface is too spread out- it doesn't make efficient use of space on small screen tablets.

Pros

The user interface is logical and intuitive. Support is wonderful.

Cons

So far, I haven't found anything I don't like! Hard to believe, but true. My institution has just moved to BrightSpace and I love it. Integration with my publishers appears seemless and course management is a breeze.