Press Release
LONDON, UK – 10th December, 2020 – D2L, a global learning technology leader, today announced that The National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) has successfully launched Brightspace as the new learning platform to expand its online offering and help deliver more learning opportunities and support to adults with literacy, numeracy and digital skills needs as part of its 2020-2022 Strategic Plan.
NALA is an independent charity committed to making Ireland more inclusive by creating learning opportunities and pathways for adults looking to improve their literacy, numeracy, and digital skills. For over 40 years NALA has pioneered new teaching methods, developing guidelines for adult education and tutor training programmes. It currently provides supports to adult learners through a personalised, over-the-phone, one to one service, and through online learning which leads to nationally accredited awards. NALA also supports practitioners in adult education through webinar workshops, e-learning courses, centre access to its online learning platform, regular tutor call-support and in-person tuition.
NALA strives for innovation in how it uses technology to improve training and ensure adults can access learning and support whenever it is needed. As part of its strategic plan, NALA wanted to migrate all its work and training online, offering more accessible and tailored learning pathways for users. NALA required a more flexible platform that enabled its team to regularly update courses, track learner progression, and offer more scalability to accommodate its growth plans.
Following a tender process, NALA selected D2L’s feature-rich Brightspace platform because of its flexibility and ability to enable more detailed backend reporting.
“At NALA, we prioritise the needs and interests of our learners. Regular, accessible support is crucial for the learners we support. We could not measure how learners were engaging with their courses in our previous system. With the Brightspace platform, we have complete visibility into where individuals are in their programmes – it allows for crucial two-way communication,” said Elaine Cohalan, Innovation Manager at NALA.
D2L has assisted with the full migration of NALA’s courses since March 2019, and will continue to work with them as they move all courses onto the new platform. Currently, 100 education centres across Ireland have already adopted the platform, with over a thousand learners currently engaged with its online programmes.
“Our teams have been working closely over the past year and we are proud that the strength and flexibility of our platform has enabled NALA to achieve its learning goals,” said Alan Hiddleston, Director of Corporate Learning at D2L. “Welcoming this partnership, I hope NALA continues to explore Brightspace’s potential throughout its courses, benchmarking adult education and establishing new ways of learning.”
ABOUT THE NATIONAL ADULT LITERACY AGENCY (NALA)
The National Adult Literacy Agency is a charity that works to ensure people with literacy and numeracy difficulties can fully take part in society and have access to educational opportunities that meet their needs.
Since we were set up in 1980, we have been involved with tutor training, developing teaching materials, education services, policy making, research and campaigns to raise awareness of adult literacy issues and services in Ireland.
Many individuals and organisations have contributed to adult literacy work in Ireland. For our part, we have put literacy on the political agenda and secured funding for adult literacy services. Currently there are 60,000 adults attending adult literacy courses nationwide
ABOUT BRIGHTSPACE
Brightspace is a cloud-based learning platform built by educators, for educators that works on any device. It is a secure, worry-free platform that allows you to create engaging courses using your technology to fit your needs. With Brightspace, you can easily set up individualised learning paths for your students, keep them on track with automated nudges, give them personalised feedback and engage them through gamification, social tools, video and other powerful features.
Brightspace is the only learning platform chosen as a partner of the National Federation of the Blind’s Centre of Excellence in Nonvisual Access. Brightspace was named the #1 LMS for Next-Gen Online Teaching and Learning by Ovum Research, #1 in Adaptive Learning by eLearning Magazine and Aragon Research also included D2L in its Hot Vendors In Learning list. Brightspace was also named the Best K-12 Learning Management System and Best Professional Learning Solution for Faculty and Administrative Staff at the SIIA CODiE Awards. To learn more, visit the Higher Education and Schools pages on our website.
ABOUT D2L
D2L believes learning is the foundation upon which all progress and achievement rests. Working closely with organisations globally, D2L has transformed the way millions of people learn online and in the classroom. Learn more about D2L for schools, higher education and businesses at www.D2L.com.
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