Brightspace

Hands down the best learning software to date

Comments: My other experience with this software it has made me love to learn again maybe love school again it’s so easy to use. It’s so user-friendly I can’t say that enough it is hands-down, the best learning software there is.

Pros:

Everything about this software is super user-friendly they think about the student when they made this it’s not hard to years. It’s not hard to follow as long as you do the tutorials and follow what they say. At the beginning you can’t go wrong there’s nothing negative I can say about it. I’ve never had any issues using this and I’ve used this software at two different colleges. Hands down the best.

Cons:

There’s only one thing that I kind of don’t really understand is the virtual classroom thing I’ve still not understood why some places use the virtual product classroom and sign the right space software and some don’t but I think that’s more of a college preference instead of a software preference to bright space

Alright There are better options

Comments: My experience with Brightspace has been somewhat positive although I would go researching more alternatives

Pros:

One of the features I like most about Brightspace is the progress tracking. If a student is behind on an assignment or more than it highlights on their course.

Cons:

At the time I was introduced to Brightspace, the previous learning environment stopped operations resulting in everyone having to adjust to Brightspace. One of the features I like the least about bright space is not being able to access Brightspace on mobile. It is difficult to view it on mobile and other classroom tools are able to view it on mobile

Suitable but not great

Comments: Brightspace allows completion of basic tasks for learner management and grade dissemination. However, it is frustrating to use and has more case-by-case / glitching problems that other learning management softwares I have used. It allows me to get the job done, and I suppose I will get used to it eventually, but it is certainly not ideal.

Pros:

Brightspace makes it easy to contact students in a class. I like the 'classlist' feature that lists all the students in a class and their university-related contact email. This simplifies either bulk-emailing students (as an instructor) and finding students to study with (as a student). It is also a secure site to centrally access all the information necessary for all my courses.

Cons:

Brightspace provides multiple places to find the same things. This is confusing, especially when some assignments are loaded in a given course module but not in the 'Assignments' tab, or vice versa. There are multiple levels of redundancy that are not kept consistent throughout the interface, so it is often confusing to locate materials. Brightspace is also slow to load. Often, when moving between tabs when I am creating a quiz for the students I teach or grading material, the browser loads for 30-45 seconds before transitioning pages. This is frustrating. After a class is officially 'over', the course pages are greyed out and prevent access (even when a school has not officially ended yet). This happens immediately after the final in a class, which prevents students from going in to do final grade calculations or download any materials. This is frustrating. Brightspace has had many issues with plugins, such as Kaltura Media Gallery, which disable access or have perpetual loading or glitching. This leaves the software as unreliable.

D2L LMS Review

Comments: My overall experience with D2L is a great experience. I enjoy using this product as a staff, as well as a student. There are also many tutorial videos out there to search through when having an issue.

Pros:

What I like most about this product is the ease of navigating each feature of the product. There are quite a few features, all of them being outstanding and easy to use.

Cons:

There seem to be quite a few bugs for us with this product. However, the product has been integrated going on two years, so there is bound to be some issues going forward.

Aesthetically Pleasing and Easy to Use

Comments: We have been able to boost productivity consistency, and quality using Brightspace. It is easier to build out courses and map them in a simple hierarchy. Course templating allows us to ensure consistency when building copies of courses or new versions.
Brightspace has also allowed us to automate a number of functions we would normally need to perform in terms of student management, which has freed up personnel for other tasks but also removed human error from the equation.

Pros:

Brightspace is very intuitive; users can jump into the LMS and figure out what they need to do with little to no instructions. I like the power it gives admins to build in automation and customize how students work through the course. This is done via intelligent agents and release conditions. Brightspace just looks great. Is the most aesthetically pleasing LMS on the market as far as I have seen.

Cons:

The platform seems more geared toward traditional schooling systems rather than asynchronous models at times. For example, there is no easy way for students to add their own due dates to assessments; they can only be added for the entire course, which does not work when students are all pacing differently. Brightspace for Parents is also not as strong as I would have expected. There seems to be limited features and out parents are just not really interested in using it.

One of the Best Softwares to Use as a Student

Pros:

What I liked most was the simple and effective organization. It was a software that was definitely created in mind to set students up to succeed. Firstly, the way the Chapters, sections, topics, and individual assignments were organized on the side was something that was consistent for each of the subjects I was studying. Then on the top bar, you were able to click on pages that would essentially "filter" the types of class material. You could see all the assessments in one place, all the assignments in one place, and your grades. On top of that, every single thing was linked back to the corresponding item. For example, if you couldn't recall what "assignment 2" was when looking at it in the gradebook, you were able to click it and redirect it to the original post. There was also notifications for when assignments were open and reminders for when exams and homework was due. As someone who has used canvas, blackboard, google classrooms, and a few other softwares for school, these functions were not common. There were also times where it would be extremely hard and confusing to navigate. However I never ran into that issue with D2L.

Cons:

It is hard to find any qualms about D2L Brightspace, there is nothing negative I've noticed the entire time I have been using the software.

Brightspace

Comments: It was a competent platform which allowed me to do the things I need to teach the course. I would have liked a longer transition period to adjust from the previous platform.

Pros:

It is a pretty standard educational online platform for E-Learning. Was able to pick up how to use Brightspace in a short learning curve.

Cons:

School switched to Brightspace without any real transition from previous platform. This made it a bit difficult for faculty and students to transition to this new platform.

Brightspace as D2L

Comments: My overall experience is very positive. With little touch ups, the tool can be a lot better.

Pros:

It's easy to use and it has a friendly user interface.

Cons:

Tools such as entering the grades, individual reporting, etc. might have been a little better.

Brightspace user (Bigsky)

Comments: I love using Brightspace (Bigsky). It is easy to learn, and I even volunteer to assist other faculty members.
As a retired faculty member, I would look for the features I enjoyed with Brightspace when given the opportunity to use other LMS.

Pros:

It has gamification, and once the course has been set up, everything is like clockwork.

Cons:

Just the setting up at the start of every semester, BUT, it is worth the time.

A Good LMS Option

Comments: The school made the right choice in switching to Brightspace. It's quick and easy to understand

Pros:

It has many of the same features of other LMS options, such as Blackboard and Angel. It has many advantages over a product such as Moodle. It's easy to understand and the cleanest user interface of all major college LMSs

Cons:

It needs a video class option, similar to Blackboard UltraCollaborate

Very useful

Comments: Very easy to use

Pros:

Easy to use, I can view all coursework and courses and grades

Cons:

Overall I like it all, nothing found that I haven't liked yet

Average but does the job

Comments: I won't say it was either good or bad. My school would not let me integrate other products into Brightspace.

Pros:

I think because it is similar to other LMS systems, it does not take long to learn if you know others.

Cons:

I had to often find user YouTube videos on how to do things. Users that struggled with finding answers themselves.

D2L Brightspace

Comments: Tracks students progress and grades so that students and faculty may track student progress.

Pros:

It is easy for faculty and student to use and integrates with publisher assignments.

Cons:

There is nothing that is missing to that I don't like about D2L.

Top Tier LMS

Pros:

It’s extremely customizable, but no matter how each course might be built, there is a feeling of familiarity. I love the assessments, open ended plugins to embed for my faculty, user support, and the student experience. I really love the course builder. It’s an easy to use yet extremely effective tool.

Cons:

I would say the fact that it is so customizable and open ended at first is daunting to faculty. However with proper training and support, my faculty have really excelled with the LMS.

Brightspace

Comments: My overall experience with BrightSpace is positive. Learners also find the LMS easy to use and navigate.

Pros:

The most impactful features of BrightSpace are discussion opportunities, auto-grading, and navigation.

Cons:

The cost of the LMS is the only drawback.

Robust and diverse LMS for best results

Comments: I think this app is equally useful for both teachers and students. It is perfect for sharing files between users, it can keep people organized, and it also can provide with a high level of communication, as it has features that are not available in other platforms.

Pros:

This app has everything students can use to avoid failing deadlines. It helps students to keep all critical data in one place, so it makes them more organized and aware of the education process. In Brightspace you can drag and drop all kind of files, as well as rearrange them, so new content can be easily seen. For teachers, it is also easy to create different types of tests or quizzes without spending much time or many resources. Brightspace is a well-known LMS and is used across our college as the learning management platform. It is used to distribute the different type of information, assignments tests, which makes the education process for both students and teachers more convenient.

Cons:

This app lacks an intuitive interface. It is difficult to get used it, and it requires time to understand how to activate one feature or another. You need time to customize your interface; otherwise, it will be cluttered and even more complicated to use. There is an option to create discussions, but it is hard to organize them. It also would be nice to have a video chat option so that some lectures can be given online. Tech support can be improved, as it is not helpful and it usually blames users instead of fixing the problem.

an unnecessarily complicated system

Comments: stressful

Pros:

adding modules, changing the course image

Cons:

The gradebook is a nightmare! Every semester its a nightmare. Something that should be so intuitive is so complicated on Brightspace. When I create an assignment it doesn't just go into the gradebook--I have to "link it". But then when brightspace duplicates a column in the gradebook I cannot just "delete" a column in the gradebook! You cannot do anything in the gradebook simply! I also cannot trust the gradebook's math because it will count somethings and not others! One semester it duplicated a whole assignment (but I only had ONE dropbox for it?!?!) and I could not get rid of it---all students ended up with duplicate grade for it. I loved the original D2L--so easy to use! This brightspace? a disaster....

Good for online schooling

Comments: I like how easy it makes online courses.

Pros:

I like that Brightspace is easy to use. In previous online courses, we had used another program, which was a hot mess. Brightspace is user-friendly and really easy to find what you're looking for. The useability, however, depends mainly on the professor/teacher/whoever that may set up the course. Currently, everything is laid out in weeks, so each "module" contains what is due that week. Very simple to use, from a student standpoint.

Cons:

I have noticed that when posting/replying to a discussion board, there are no notifications. And by this I mean there are no "push" notifications, so it's sometimes hard to see if people are responding to my post. Once I log in on a desktop/laptop, I can easily see if people have responded. However, if I'm using the app on my phone, it doesn't necessarily "pop up" and say that someone commented or posted something new. I personally would like a notification when this happens.

Nice interface but not intuitive or easy to use

Comments: Overall, my experience with Brightspace is negative. It looks deceivingly simple to use because of their modern look and Bright color scheme that is often associated with newer websites with easy functionality, but menus are often hard to find and it is difficult to do basic tasks like scoring quizzes.

Pros:

I like the ability for there to be an online classroom and I like that it records the lectures. I like how the online classroom allows for screensharing and chatting also. I also like the look of the software; it doesn't look dated.

Cons:

At this point, I have used several types of software like Brightspace as I have been in higher education for almost 7 years now as an undergraduate student and now, a graduate student. I think out of all those other software that I have used, Brightspace is the least intuitive to navigate. On the outset, I think the website looks clean and modern and it feels like a website that would be easy to navigate. But when you actually do start navigating the website, you find out how hard it is to find simple commands. For example, to simply program and then score a quiz online is much harder than it needs to be. Menus for basic things like how to see the students' grades were hard to find and I had to ultimately turn to google to figure out how to grade the quiz. I am new to this software, so maybe it just takes some getting used to, but so far, as a new user, I am finding that Brightspace is not intuitive or easy to navigate.

Love the Ease!

Pros:

Never had an issue with being able to see the assignments. Love how we get push notifications when items are graded and we can see the over all grade for the course.

Cons:

I do not believe anything is missing with Brightspace.

Fantastic for everyone from beginners to people who want to do some unique activities and grading

Pros:

I was recently employed by Texas Christian University as an adjunct professor, and this was the first time I had ever taught a class at a different university. I had never used Brightspace before and to be honest I was a little bit overwhelmed with it at first. There are so many different functions and options that at first glance it seems like it will take months to learn. However, I think their help section is really user friendly and within a day I had my class pretty much set up. I love all of the more advanced grading features and automatic % calculations that this does, it saves so much time as I used to do this all in Excel. Also, I was only on campus once/week and was driving from over 40 minutes away on days that I was there. So, having office hours on days off was pretty much not going to happen. However, Brightspace has an amazing feature that can connect you to students over video chat from anywhere! This allowed me to have more personal 1-on-1 time with students who needed help while not having to drive all the way to campus!

Cons:

There is quite a bit of a learning curve to get to the more complex stuff, but after you learn it your productivity skyrockets.

Brightspace is user friendly from a faculty perspective

Pros:

The ease of use. Some of it may be how my university has set it up for the faculty, but I can jump right into a classroom and figure out what to do next. Grading is easy.

Cons:

I think the Discussion area could be set up a little more user friendly. For instance, It's a little hard to see what discussions have been responded to and where I need to put my focus in responding back to students.

Admin Experience with Brightspace

Pros:

As an administrator at my previous employer, I appreciated the flexibility to change pretty much anything that I wanted in the system. The ability to change what things were called in the system were very nice. In the most recent version that I had used, Brightspace had taken steps to make some changes on how system settings were handled to update the interface. Previously, the interface of the DOME was one of the most painful parts of the system. I also appreciated the service desk that Brightspace has built up over the last three years. When I began using Brightspace, items could get lost very easily with the technical teams, but after some difficult issues, Brightspace has turned around a great deal, and updates to tickets were timely and applicable for a while before I stopped using it.

Cons:

I found that there were little things that Brightspace did not do well. For instance, workflows between different tools were very different based on the time that the original tool was designed. This led to user frustration and an increase of time training users on the common functions of the LMS. I also found that Brightspace tended to minimize small updates or fixes in order to focus on major updates. While major updates are important to survive in the field, sometimes known bugs would remain for years without a fix.

I use Brightspace every single day!

Comments: My experience with Brightspace has only been within the last two years, but the experience has been a rich and pleasant one. I am a Graduate student who spends hours, and hours, on Brightspace every single day. The organization of the site is exceptional. The navigation is easy for anyone to understand. It's made school all the easier simply because of the ease that comes with the use of Brightspace. It's a great source, and I would recommend it to everyone!

Pros:

The simplicity of navigation is amazing. I have to navigate through multiple courses within Brightspace, and it's very well organized and categorized. Which makes school all the easier. There is never any confusion regarding what I am trying to find, and how to find it.

Cons:

The only negative thing I can say about Brightspace is the inability to access previous courses and work submitted within the courses. With that being said, I believe that is a school-based setting, and not a fault of Brightspace.

Love using Brightspace to deliver online courses

Comments: I absolutely love using Brightspace to deliver online learning. I love the additional tools it has that allows you to add a virtual classroom option. I also love that it give you the option to store materials you are not using rather than just deleting them. I highly recommend this software!

Pros:

Brightspace is an easy to navigate software for delivering online courses! It provides ample data, on things such as when a student last logged into the course materials, or how long students spent on an assignment. I find the information it provides is great!

Cons:

I am a bit hesitant on some of the data Brightspace provides, such as how much time someone spends on an assignment, because they could have easily just downloaded it and looked at it on their own time.