Kirkwood Community College Chooses Brightspace to Transform the Learning Experience for More Than 20,000 Students

KITCHENER-WATERLOO, ON--(Marketwired - January 28, 2015) - D2L (formerly Desire2Learn), the EdTech company that created Brightspace -- the world's first truly integrated learning platform (ILP) -- today announced that Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa has selected Brightspace to replace its existing learning management system (LMS). Brightspace will provide Kirkwood's 20,000 traditional, distance and continuing education students with a leading-edge learning platform that delivers advanced software built to assess, promote and support learner success.

Kirkwood administrators, students and faculty selected Brightspace out of a need to transition away from an outdated learning management system to a single, integrated platform that could help them improve learning outcomes while enabling students and faculty to easily share information, collaborate and discuss courses. Mobile and multimedia support -- ensuring that students and faculty can access course content anytime, anywhere -- also factored heavily in the college's decision to choose the Brightspace platform. As the leader in EdTech innovations, Brightspace will empower Kirkwood to embrace new educational models, creating exciting and meaningful new ways to engage students, inspire faculty and improve achievement outcomes for all students.

"We felt our previous LMS technology was only focused on managing learning, which simply isn't sufficient for the challenges we're trying to overcome today and in the future. Our faculty and students' needs have drastically changed and we are facing a new set of higher education challenges that require us to improve learning, not just manage it," said Jon Neff, CIO/Associate Vice President, Kirkwood Community College. "Brightspace puts the best tools in the hands of both our faculty and students, giving them the power to do just that."

Kirkwood's focus on improved learning outcomes led to the strategic decision to invest in D2L Insights^™, an advanced analytics offering that will help the school transform its learning environment data into actionable information at the course, program and institutional level. At the course level, teachers can monitor, evaluate and predict learner performance to pre-emptively mentor at-risk learners and personalize instruction for those students that need additional help in order to succeed. At the program and institutional level, these analytics will allow the college to benchmark achievements and identify areas for improvement while also supporting the institution's accreditation reporting needs.

"It's critical to the future of education that we meet the unique needs of each and every student, whether on-campus or through distance learning," said John Baker, President and CEO of D2L. "To transform learning, colleges such as Kirkwood require more than a traditional learning system -- they need a platform that can easily grow and adapt, providing opportunities to directly improve the learning experience of today's students and faculty. Brightspace meets these needs and surpasses them, helping students achieve their full potential in a learning environment that is perceptive, pervasive and personalized."

D2L's End-User Support service, a 24/7/365 help desk, allows Kirkwood instructors the freedom to concentrate on guiding and teaching students instead of managing software. Other user-friendly tools available on the platform include Open Educational Resources (OERs) and external learning object repositories and libraries. With course content accessible through a single search interface, Kirkwood instructors can painlessly pull the materials they need, freeing them from the burdens of managing software, so they can get back to the task at hand -- educating and engaging students.

Kirkwood's student body is made up of those enrolled in two-year college programs, online learners, continuing education programs, certificate programs and company-sponsored employee training courses -- all under the Brightspace installation. Launching in spring 2015, the school joins other prominent institutions in Iowa -- such as the University of Iowa, Briar Cliff University, Mercy College of Health Sciences and Palmer College of Chiropractic -- which are all currently using the Brightspace platform. 

ABOUT D2L
A global leader in EdTech, D2L is the creator of Brightspace, the world's first integrated learning platform. The company partners with thought-leading organizations to improve learning through data-driven technology that helps deliver a personalized experience to every learner, regardless of geography or ability. D2L's open and extensible platform is used by more than 1,100 clients and almost 15 million individual learners in higher education, K-12, healthcare, government, and the enterprise sector -- including Fortune 1000 companies. The company has operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil, and Singapore. www.brightspace.com, www.D2L.com

^© 2015 D2L Corporation.

The D2L family of companies includes D2L Corporation, D2L Ltd, D2L Australia Pty Ltd, D2L Europe Ltd, D2L Asia Pte Ltd, and D2L Brasil Soluções de Tecnologia para Educação Ltda.

Brightspace, D2L, and other marks ("D2L marks") are trademarks of D2L Corporation, registered in the U.S. and other countries. Please visit d2l.com/trademarks for a list of other D2L marks.