D2L: Education at Its Core Is Innately Human
And of course, we have Brightspace itself, one of the most powerful learning platforms out there. We continue to innovate on it and to lead the way with competency-based, stackable, and modular learning. We've added assessments and innovations with Performance+. But the whole creation side was boosted substantially with the addition of Creator+, so now we are accounting strongly for the whole life cycle.
And another area where we are working is that transition out of the university into career and lifelong learning. We've introduced a product called Wave, which allows our university partners to access and address corporate learners more easily. We're embracing the notion of job transformation and that learning doesn't end after the university. Wave will help make sure that learning is accessible throughout one's career.
Grush: D2L is certainly covering all the bases for today's learning lifecycle. How are you looking to the future as the environment changes?
Laster: We subscribe to an agile organization. We are looking ahead, particularly near-term and medium term. What I've spoken about here is very near-term, with immediate benefits. We also have a lab that's experimenting with new types of interaction and new ways of using technology to learn. While I'm not able to comment specifically, I can assure you that we understand that the interface of technology needs to evolve. We're constantly looking into how to bring new types of interactions into our ways of learning. Remember, the company was founded by John Baker to transform the way the world learns. We'll be there, as the technology interface evolves.
We're constantly looking into how to bring new types of interactions into our ways of learning.
Grush: Do you feel that for your own two children, the learning environment is much different today than it was for you? Does their world, in terms of how they learn, look anything like yours did?
Laster: I feel like the learning environment today is unrecognizable from what mine was. The two worlds don't look anything like each other, except for one constant: The most impactful learning I've ever had was delivered by instructors who inspired me. For my kids, that remains a hundred percent true today, and I think ten years from now it will continue to be true.
I think the powerful thing about D2L is, we get that human relationship — and we get that education is innately human. We're using technology to make that stronger.
About the Author
Mary Grush is Editor and Conference Program Director, Campus Technology.