D2L Brightspace
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Clean, Easy-to-Use Courses with Standout Tools and Unmatched D2L Support
What do you like best about the product?
I really like the clear layout of the courses. Courses look fresh, clean, and easy to use for both staff and students. The added bonus that really adds to the experience is tools like QuickEval, Class Progress and Intelligent Agents. These tools make Brightspace stand out from the crowd when it comes to other VLE's and provide our staff with the tools that can help them stage academic interventions. These tools allow our staff to quickly pinpoint students progress and intervene using automated emails. I also like how it integrates with existing tools we use (Turnitin, SCORM, Respondus, YuJa Panorama, Microsoft Teams). The integrations are easy to manage and create a seamless experiences for our staff and learners. Finally I would have to argue that the support from D2L is unmatched, any issues we have faced have been resolved swiftly and the active community sites help with day-to-day queries.
What do you dislike about the product?
There are some areas where I personally feel like Brightspace is lacking data analytics. One example would be when an announcement is posted in a course it would be great to see how many students have read the announcement (this is a feature available in Blackboard). While the impact is minimal it was a well used feature in our previous VLE, allowing staff to track engagement with their learners. I have no major dislikes with the VLE - performance is good, it runs well and quickly, my dislikes are minor "niggles" where I wish you could change the background colour, or have more options for release conditions.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
With our previous VLE we definitely had issues where some teaching teams rarely used the tool. This was usually down to the perceived difficulty in adding materials to a course. Brightspace immediately brought down those barriers for those teams. Its opened up a digital space for those teams to work online with their students and provide an area for materials to be collated as well as encouraged them to try more digital tools and overall boosted their technical knowledge.
This has also encouraged many teams to start using digital assessments (Quizzes) that mark automatically saving time on grading student work. It has also allowed us to save money by ending our contract with a tool that was used for assessment (Questionmark).
This has also encouraged many teams to start using digital assessments (Quizzes) that mark automatically saving time on grading student work. It has also allowed us to save money by ending our contract with a tool that was used for assessment (Questionmark).
Reliable, Accessible LMS with Outstanding D2L Support
What do you like best about the product?
After 17 years of working with D2L Brightspace, I continue to be impressed by its reliability, accessibility, and user centered design. The platform is easy to navigate, with clearly organized tools that support both instructors and learners. Brightspace’s emphasis on accessibility has consistently made it possible to create inclusive, high quality online learning experiences.
Equally valuable is the outstanding support provided by the D2L team. Their responsiveness, expertise, and genuine commitment to customer success have been consistent throughout my experience. Combined with the system’s long term stability and dependable performance, Brightspace has proven to be a trustworthy, well evolved LMS that I’m proud to recommend.
Equally valuable is the outstanding support provided by the D2L team. Their responsiveness, expertise, and genuine commitment to customer success have been consistent throughout my experience. Combined with the system’s long term stability and dependable performance, Brightspace has proven to be a trustworthy, well evolved LMS that I’m proud to recommend.
What do you dislike about the product?
I wouldn’t really use the word “dislike.” There are just a few things I’d like to see improved, especially in the attendance area. For example, the name column isn’t fixed the way it is in the gradebook, which makes the attendance view less user-friendly and a bit harder to navigate.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Brightspace has been a reliable learning management system for us, and we’ve been using it for 17 years. It provides a clean, well-organized space for both instructors and students. That reliability has helped me in my job because I can spend less time dealing with day-to-day issues and more time focusing on other priorities, including introducing new features and improvements within Brightspace.
Effortless Organization and Usability for Students
What do you like best about the product?
I like that D2L Brightspace is easy to use and has a good, simple, forward facing design. It keeps all of my coursework in one place and organized.
What do you dislike about the product?
I don’t have any negative feedback.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
D2L Brightspace keeps all of my coursework in one place and organized.
Easy Course Management with Reliable Support and Long-Term Stability
What do you like best about the product?
What I like best about D2L is the ease of creating and managing a course, especially for instructors who want to get up and running quickly without heavy technical overhead. I also appreciate that most features are well supported by in‑platform help and documentation, which makes it easier to troubleshoot and self‑serve answers when questions come up. From an institutional perspective, having a dedicated Technical Account Manager (TAM) has been extremely valuable for continuity, support, and long‑term planning. Overall, D2L has been a stable and reliable platform for our university since we adopted it in 2012, and that longevity has helped build strong internal expertise and processes around it.
What do you dislike about the product?
One of my main concerns is the pace and timing of platform changes. Changes are sometimes introduced with limited advance notice, which does not always provide institutions enough time to properly plan, test, update documentation, and communicate effectively with faculty and students. While individual changes may appear simple from a product perspective, they often have broader downstream impacts on support processes, training materials, and user expectations.
I also feel there is an opportunity to improve administrator‑focused resources, particularly videos and walkthroughs related to reporting and major upcoming changes. These types of resources would help administrators better understand not just how something works, but why it is changing and what the operational implications are.
Finally, I would like to see D2L engage more broadly with a larger group of universities earlier in the change process. Broader consultation would help ensure that proposed changes better reflect the diversity of institutional contexts and reduce unintended impacts on support teams and end users.
I would like D2L to place greater emphasis on listening to the institutions that actively use and support the platform. As customers who have invested significant time and resources into D2L, our feedback often reflects real operational and support realities that are difficult to capture through a Product Exchange submission alone.
As we work through implementing the New Content Experience, it’s clear that earlier and broader consultation with institutions would lead to a stronger end product. While the Product Exchange is a useful tool, it can feel limiting when feedback is reduced to individual feature requests rather than collaborative discussion. More direct engagement with universities during the design and planning stages would help ensure new experiences better align with instructional workflows, support capacity, and institutional change management needs.
I believe that if D2L incorporated more active listening and collaborative dialogue with a wider group of institutions, the New Content Experience—and future enhancements—would be an even better option for everyone.
I also feel there is an opportunity to improve administrator‑focused resources, particularly videos and walkthroughs related to reporting and major upcoming changes. These types of resources would help administrators better understand not just how something works, but why it is changing and what the operational implications are.
Finally, I would like to see D2L engage more broadly with a larger group of universities earlier in the change process. Broader consultation would help ensure that proposed changes better reflect the diversity of institutional contexts and reduce unintended impacts on support teams and end users.
I would like D2L to place greater emphasis on listening to the institutions that actively use and support the platform. As customers who have invested significant time and resources into D2L, our feedback often reflects real operational and support realities that are difficult to capture through a Product Exchange submission alone.
As we work through implementing the New Content Experience, it’s clear that earlier and broader consultation with institutions would lead to a stronger end product. While the Product Exchange is a useful tool, it can feel limiting when feedback is reduced to individual feature requests rather than collaborative discussion. More direct engagement with universities during the design and planning stages would help ensure new experiences better align with instructional workflows, support capacity, and institutional change management needs.
I believe that if D2L incorporated more active listening and collaborative dialogue with a wider group of institutions, the New Content Experience—and future enhancements—would be an even better option for everyone.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
They are making changes to the new content experience so that it is easier to move from the old content experience. I think with a few more changes that the new experience will be a wonderful tool.
Well-Organized and Easy to Navigate—Keeps Me on Track
What do you like best about the product?
I like how D2L Brightspace is well-organized and easy to navigate, making it simple to access course materials, assignments, and grades in one place. The clear layout helps me stay on track with deadlines, and the ability to submit assignments and receive feedback directly on the platform is very convenient. I also appreciate the announcements and calendar features, which keep me updated and help me manage my time effectively.
What do you dislike about the product?
One downside of D2L Brightspace is that it can sometimes be difficult to navigate, especially when course layouts vary between instructors. This inconsistency can make it harder to quickly find assignments or important information. Additionally, the platform can occasionally be slow or glitchy, which can be frustrating when trying to access materials or submit work on time.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
D2L Brightspace helps solve the problem of managing coursework, communication, and deadlines in one centralized platform. It allows me to easily access all my course materials, submit assignments, track grades, and stay updated through announcements. This benefits me by saving time, keeping everything organized, and helping me stay on top of my responsibilities, which improves my overall productivity and learning experience.
Intuitive Student Experience, but Admin and Tool Integrations Can Be a Chore
What do you like best about the product?
One of the strongest upsides to D2L Brightspace is the intuitive student experience. From the student perspective, they have a very intuative interface that takes them right into the learning with minimal fuss preventing them from getting right to the learning. The implementation team was very helpful, but it was also challenging for us as we were implementing right as they crossed over to a new data platform. From the customer support standpoint D2L walked with us hand-in-hand across implementation and into the frontier of CBE. For the most part, D2L's heavy use of LTI functionality allowed us to integrate many of the tools we were already using in other systems. The system is used on a daily basis by students and weekly by faculty.
What do you dislike about the product?
The administration of the D2L platform is kind of a chore. There are so many differentiated parts and the integration and implementation of new tools can be very burdonsome.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Brightspace D2L helped us deliver quality Comptency Based education courses to our students with ease. This helped us set up and launch our CBE program in a very limited amount of time. They make it really easy to design, develop, and launch courses with ease.
Creator+ and H5P
What do you like best about the product?
It is easy to use and the Creator+ features are excellent.
What do you dislike about the product?
Finding settings on the admin side can be challenging.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
The H5P tools help make gamification of learning easier.
Organizes Assignments Nicely and Easy to Use
What do you like best about the product?
Organizes all my assignments nicely and easy to use
What do you dislike about the product?
The email option and instant messenger on the D2L Brightspace is not the greatest
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Helps me do all of my online schooling and it is more convenient for me.
Clean Interface and Highly Customizable LMS for Higher Education
What do you like best about the product?
The interface is clean and offers straightforward navigation for both students and instructors. It includes all the essential features required for a higher education LMS, and integrating additional tools is simple. I also appreciate how customizable it is.
What do you dislike about the product?
While very customizable, I find the permissions and configuration variables to be quite overwhelming. Navigating through these options is not intuitive, and the setup process feels disorganized and lacking in logical structure. Additionally, customer success and technical support could be more seamlessly integrated. There are a number of costly add-on features and support options that, in my opinion, would be more valuable if they were included as part of the overall success partnership.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
They are willing to participate in integrations with other vendors through partnerships and pilots (CRM, plagiarism tool). We are involved in a pilot with our CRM using API calls to create early alerts from Brightspace datasets.
A Technical and Pedagogical Brightspace Review from the Lead LMS Administrator at a Large University
What do you like best about the product?
One of the key strengths of D2L Brightspace is its reliability and efficiency. The platform integrates seamlessly with our digital learning ecosystem, minimizing the need for additional external tools and thereby saving both time and money. Faculty members value the platform’s clean design and intuitive navigation, while our support team benefits from its consistent and stable performance. D2L Brightspace stands out as one of the few LMS platforms that actively evolves its features in response to real educator feedback. The high degree of administrative customizability further reduces support overhead, as the ability to tailor roles, permissions, workflows, and integrations allows us to maintain a streamlined ecosystem and provide more effective support to instructors. Moreover, D2L Brightspace excels in supporting meaningful, student-centered learning. Features such as Release Conditions, Intelligent Agents, and the accessibility checker empower instructors to create personalized and inclusive learning experiences. Faculty are able to develop high-quality courses without facing technical obstacles, and students benefit from clear navigation and a consistent structure across all their classes.
What do you dislike about the product?
Some areas of Brightspace could be more streamlined for both administrators and instructors. Certain system settings are distributed across several menus, which can increase configuration time, especially at scale. A few features also require more clicks than expected for routine support tasks, and a clearer separation between legacy and modernized workflows would help reduce confusion for both instructors and administrators. Faculty sometimes encounter interface components that still follow older design patterns. Although D2L continues to modernize the platform, the mix of older and newer experiences can create inconsistent navigation and add time to training. While the platform offers strong customizability, several advanced features still require administrator involvement rather than being self-service for instructors. Continued modernization, phasing out legacy interfaces, and expanding instructor-facing configuration options would make the platform even more efficient and intuitive for our campus community.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Brightspace enables us to centralize and streamline our digital learning environment by minimizing reliance on external tools and creating efficient workflows for both instructors and administrators. This saves time, reduces support demands, and allows us to manage thousands of courses each semester with consistency and reliability. The platform enhances teaching and learning through intuitive navigation, accessible design features, and dependable performance, which helps prevent confusion and allows faculty to stay focused on instruction rather than troubleshooting. Brightspace also provides valuable insight into student progress through features such as Class Progress, Release Conditions, and Intelligent Agents. These tools empower instructors to personalize the learning experience, even in large classes, by quickly identifying students who need additional support and enabling timely intervention. This strengthens our student success initiatives, reduces training requirements, increases faculty satisfaction, and supports the delivery of high-quality learning at scale.
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