Member Article

Delft University launches D2L’s LMS for 20,000 students

D2L, a global learning technology leader, has announced that the largest and oldest Dutch public technological university, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), has selected its Brightspace Learning Management System (LMS) to deliver a more engaging and personalised learning experience to its 20,000 students.

Located in Delft, Netherlands, TU Delft hosts students and scientists across eight faculties and numerous research institutes. In 2012, TU Delft, Leiden University and Erasmus University Rotterdam formed a strategic alliance to collaborate in many fields of education, research and valorisation.

The University’s commitment to excellence and innovation was made evident in the 2016-2017 World University Rankings in which TU Delft jumped an impressive six places from last year, placing it at number 59, with the Netherlands coming second only to Singapore when ranking the overall scores of countries and their Higher Education sector, further demonstrating both the University’s and the country’s alignment with D2L’s focus on enhancing teaching and learning through technological innovation.

After 17 years using a competing LMS from Blackboard, TU Delft put the project out to tender to evaluate other providers and ensure that it could continue to invest in the most innovative learning technology on the market. TU Delft opted for a Best Value Procurement approach to the tender, inviting suppliers to propose the best solution to meet its strategic goals. Their approach placed far greater emphasis on evaluating the quality and proven performance of suppliers and their solutions than traditional requirements only based procurement.

The Brightspace platform from D2L includes a number of features that were attractive to the University, including a mobile-friendly user experience that enables students to engage in online, blended, and competency based education programs on a single platform. Since the platform incorporates personalised learning, teachers can deliver their lessons with much greater flexibility and give each student the personal experience they need to succeed. Additionally, Brightspace includes powerful real-time learning analytics to provide data that can help improve student outcomes.

“Selecting a strong learning platform was an extremely important decision for us,” said Timo Kos, Director of Education and Student affairs at TU Delft. “We were looking for a partner that is able to support our current education and future developments in teaching and learning. D2L took time to understand our specific challenges and ambitions and offered a solution that not only met these challenges, but exceeded them too. We are confident that we have chosen a strong, long-term partner that will work with us in our continued effort to provide the best possible collaborative learning experience for our students.”

Once the rollout is complete, TU Delft will be able to harness all the benefits of Brightspace, making it easy for instructors to design courses, create content, and grade assignments. D2L’s track record of innovation, which was a central element of TU Delft’s selection of Brightspace, has been widely recognised. In March, Fast Company Ranked D2L #6 on the Most Innovative Companies of 2016 List in the Data Science Category, amongst Google, IBM, Spotify, Costco, and Blue Cross Blue Shield. Brightspace was also named the #1 LMS in Higher Education by Ovum Research.

“We are delighted to be working with a university that shares our vision for innovation in the future of education,” said Elliot Gowans, VP EMEA at D2L. “TU Delft has a strong reputation and forging an alliance with such a well-respected institution is an exciting milestone for us in the Dutch market.”

TU Delft has created a short video about its transition to Brightspace, which can be viewed here.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Desire2Learn (D2L) .