Breda University selects Brightspace to deliver personalised learning

D2L, a global learning technology company transforming the way the world learns, today announced that Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas) has selected D2L Brightspace as part of its strategy to personalise and increase the flexibility of education.

Founded in 1966, BUas is a mid-sized higher education institution located in the Netherlands province of Noord-Brabant, offering Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes in the areas of Built Environment, Data Science and AI, Games, Hotel, Facility, Leisure & Events, Tourism, Media, and Logistics to students from more than 80 countries.

The University already had a Learning Management System (LMS) in place, which was supplemented with the use of Microsoft Teams during the pandemic. However, upon evaluation of its future education requirements, BUas needed to completely rethink its digital learning environment and invest in a new core LMS.

“A significant goal for the next three years is to make better use of technology across learning delivery,”

said Wicher Meijer, Director of BUas Education, Research & Information Management.

“We aim to create strong learning communities and greater outcomes for students through learning analytics. Our legacy LMS lacked deep functionality and fell short when it came to user experience. This unfortunately meant that many applications were not being used properly. More specifically, we were not able to offer personalised learning, access the correct information sources or archive documents efficiently to build portfolios.”

BUas initiated a competitive tender process with five vendors in December 2021. As well as flexibility of access, usability, analytics and personalisation capabilities, key selection criteria included the ability to integrate fully with other software and applications within the university’s digital learning environment. D2L scored highly across all of these elements, as well as the compatibility of the D2L team, which would support BUas in reaching its strategic goals. Once the rollout is complete, D2L Brightspace will serve more than 7,000 students, as well as approximately 500 lecturers and 250 external parties. During the months of September-October, BUas expects a peak of around 10,000 users.

“Following a demonstration of the Brightspace feature set, feedback was extremely positive,” continues Meijer.

“Our users commended the usability of the dashboard, which was very responsive and intuitive. This is important to us, as students and teachers will be able to benefit from it without complex instruction. The grading and assignments options were more flexible than our last LMS, and there are many more exciting possibilities with the portfolios feature. Feedback options and integrated rubrics were also impressive. Quality of education is paramount, and we look forward to working with D2L over the coming years.”

“Personalisation is at the heart of what we offer, and so important for modern learners,” said Stewart Watts, VP EMEA, D2L. “That’s why it’s brilliant for Brightspace to be recognised in this capacity. This is a great partnership for D2L, as we have a longstanding commitment to transform the way the world learns, and BUas has clear goals in how and where it will use technology to improve the learning experience for students and teachers alike. We are excited to work closely with the BUas team.”