Member Article

BMJ selects D2L's Brightspace to enhance its online learning experience

D2L, the global learning technology leader, has announced that BMJ, a global healthcare knowledge provider, has chosen the Brightspace Learning Management System (LMS) to help improve its learning environment. The platform will be rolled out on its Research to Publication product — a global research methodology and publishing programme for early career academics in healthcare research that has been created in partnership with the University of California, San Francisco.

The healthcare research programme had been using an in-house built learning platform. As the business grew, it became clear that the platform was limited technically and was becoming difficult to maintain. BMJ decided to work with a third party to build a more sophisticated platform to meet their growing requirements.

“The platform we built five or six years ago worked for us at the time, however the scale of our business has increased and we found it was becoming more difficult to meet our customers’ and learners’ needs,” said Ross Whistler, product manager at BMJ. “Our Research to Publication programme includes 52 modules that offer step-by-step research advice to academics all over the world, making it not only vast, but also complex. On top of that, we work with many different customers worldwide, with each having their own specific learner and branding requirements. We also have different levels of learners using the programme, from novice to experienced academics. This level of diversity meant it was essential we had a platform that could adapt depending on each individual customer and learner’s needs.”

Brightspace is mobile responsive, offers real-time analytics, a personalised learning experience and is built with accessibility in mind, all within one flexible LMS. The dynamic and mobile Daylight interface lets instructors design courses easily, create content and grade assignments on their phone or tablet. Brightspace’s built-in analytics lets BMJ’s customers monitor courses and tailor each learner’s experience.

“Following our intensive testing process with D2L, it became apparent early on that Brightspace was the best platform for us. Not only have we been able to customise the platform to accommodate our volume of content, but it is engaging and easy to use. Usability is paramount for us as we need our learners to like the interface and user experience so they keep coming back to us. Brightspace features such as its search and find functionality, ePortfolios and detailed analytics are also key in helping us deliver a much more comprehensive learning platform. Indeed, our customers now have access to tools that help their academics learn faster and more effectively, plus they have full insight into each learner’s progress and attendance – something we’ve never been able to provide before,” said Whistler.

“We are very excited and honoured to be working with BMJ,” said Elliot Gowans, Senior VP International, D2L. “The research journal has a lot of niche requirements and we’re delighted that we have been able to tailor Brightspace to meet all these needs effectively. Brightspace’s flexibility, accessibility and usability are three key reasons why it was the right platform for BMJ and we look forward to extending our relationship to additional programmes in the future.”

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