The Challenge
Striving To Engage And Balance Quality
Converting content to a digital format posed a challenge. “We worked under a very limited policy and teachers didn’t have the technical knowledge to add their own content to the platform,” explains Rodrigo Sangiovanni Lima, Educational Technology Center, Universidade Tiradentes. Without an automation component, educators were unable to optimize their administrative tasks.
Integrating technology ultimately became a roadblock and Unit was torn between a desire for innovation in education and the need for a more flexible system to suit faculty workflow—as well as different learning paces and styles.
The more that students, instructors, and administrators tried adapting to the previous platform, the more they drifted away from what mattered most: teaching and learning. Unit needed to implement a solution that enabled each and every user to achieve their full potential. This meant adapting technology to individual learning paces and automating certain faculty tasks, allowing educators to create truly meaningful content. A solution that took care of all the mechanical work would provide teachers with the freedom to unleash their creativity.
The Solution
Freedom To Teach And Learn
After Unit implemented the Brightspace platform, educators at the university started creating their courses directly within it: they produced natively digital content instead of digitally adapted content. Brightspace also allowed users to leverage a centralized repository of curricular content, which facilitated sharing of material across different courses, units, and faculty members.
Delivering On Custom Needs
In order to meet a specific need within the Brazilian market, Unit partnered with D2L to develop a custom module to help students contact course coordinators. The Coordination Room, developed through Brightspace Valence—in partnership with the D2L team using open APIs—creates a direct line of communication between students and coordinators.
By combining D2L’s experience with the flexibility to deploy custom solutions that would meet Brazil’s requirements, Unit was able to expand its international relations. The institution has partnered with the University of Massachusetts in America to establish a student, teacher, and information exchange program. Cerqueira do Vale believes this achievement would not have been possible without D2L’s partnership and commitment.
The D2L team played a key role in our successful implementation of the platform. We could see that sparkle in the eyes of every D2L team member that visited our university. The team believes in education and shares our vision of delivering excellence and innovation.
Lucas Cerqueira do Vale, IT Coordinator – Brightspace Learning Suite
The Results
A Recipe For Success
By partnering with D2L to implement Brightspace, Universidade Tiradentes was able to optimize faculty workflow and promote a comprehensive learning experience for students.
After only six months, 70% of users reported that they were satisfied with the solution—a significant improvement from the previous system’s 50% satisfaction rate.[1] The university also reported a significant increase in student performance rates, with more students achieving passing grades.
[1] Results courtesy of Universidade Tiradentes
