Future looks bright with new learning platform

Australia’s Victoria University is implementing the Brightspace integrated learning platform to support the institution’s 40 000 students.

Brightspace, created by Desire2Learn (D2L), offers a solution to the University, who were seeking a new system to benefit students and staff and meet their evolving needs.

“We wanted to revitalise our e-learning environment so it could support our Blended Learning Strategy, and we felt D2L would allow us to do this with its modern, inviting and fully-featured platform,” Dr Lisa Germany, Associate Director of Blended Learning at Victoria University, says.

“With a user-friendly interface, comprehensive course design capabilities, extensive reporting, assessment and collaboration options, the Brightspace platform was the right fit and closely aligned with our strategic development goals.”

Germany says that the University can now create a more pervasive and personalised learning experience for students. Brightspace offers further solutions that integrate with the learning platform, including the D2L ePortfolio, content repository, analytics and mobile applications.

“The ePortfolio mobile app will help our students capture evidence of their learning, as many of them spend quite a lot of time out in the workplace as part of their studies,” said Germany.

“Students will be able to showcase achievements and milestones related to their work experience from their mobile D2L ePortfolio app,” she says.

Victoria University offers vocational training and higher education, with direct pathways between the two. It has several campuses located in Melbourne’s west and the CBD, in Sydney and several partner sites in Asia.

An integrated learning platform is vital for universities in Australia that are experiencing major changes as a result of the Federal Government’s planned deregulation of the higher education sector, Peter Kokkinos, Asia Pacific Sales Director for D2L, says.

“Having real-time analytics offers actionable insights on student progress and engagement levels, enabling teaching staff to determine strategies to further personalise the support for a student’s journey.”

“This plays a pivotal role in increasing student retention and completion rates to ensure continual funding.”

Germany says that new possibilities are now being presented with the arrival of ‘big data’.

“A big component of our Blended Learning Strategy is to be able to support our students effectively and the learning analytics within D2L was a big draw card,” she said. “We are entering the era of big data and if you don’t have a system that offers opportunities to drill down and learn about your students, then you’re doing them a disservice.”