Brightspace Reviews

Pros

I found this software very easy to use and pretty intuitive. It is fresh looking on the screen and I've not had any issues with the system not working as it should.

Cons

There are a few extra clicks that have to take place in some parts of the software to get back to where you want to be. That is somewhat annoying, but a minor 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.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Brightspace

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Brightspace

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.

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

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

Pros

The support, virtual events and advertising.

Cons

The IT support, video tutorials about features teacher or students use everyday. Features other platforms have very easy to implement.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Brightspace

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Brightspace

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.

Pros

- UI has been modernized and made responsive
- useful on a large scale

Cons

- no integration with PeopleSoft
- administrative functions are not user-friendly; functions hidden behind too many buttons
- lack of up-to-date documentation
- very expensive

Pros

Brightspace offers a great LMS with lots of options for customization. You can completely run an online or in-person class with ease using Brightspace. Everything from assignments to discussions to grading to groupwork is integrated.

Cons

Brightspace isn't especially user-friendly and there's a pretty steep learning curve. Also, there aren't a lot of good tools for collaborative work, and I typically rely on Google Drive for when I want to have students collaborate.

Pros

A helpful platform for managing online courses. I especially like the ability for professors to create a checklist for each module.

Cons

Some of the email messaging features are a little clunky.

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.

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....

Pros

The interface looks nice, and it's easy to sort student. The discussion board threading works well, and the left hand menu bar is easy to navigate. I appreciate that there are multiple ways to arrive at different areas in the course, and the seminar integration is really easy and nice.

Cons

I wish the seminar would let me review the actual comments as I grade, the integration of a competency based rubric is clunky, when you have a CLA as well as something else for an assignment one overwrites the other in a very maddening way taking multiple steps to finish up a grade. The announcements section is now difficult for students to read, but that could just be our set up as well.

Pros

I love how user friendly this software is. As a daily user, I can easily navigate the different portals on this software and find all my class's resources quickly. It is very organized, and has great assessible features such as clear text, and high contrasting colours. Grades are easily accessible, and there offer all features necessary to succeed in your course, eg. discussion boards, class list, attendance, course content etc.

Cons

The notifications are quite overwhelming, every time any professor makes any adjustment to their course you get a notification that piles up throughout the day. Moreover, the notifications for upcoming assignments are sometimes inconsistent, as assignments not done through the D2L will not show up at all, causing confusion for upcoming work to be done for the student.

Pros

BrightSpace includes all of the typical features of any LMS. However, D2L has improved the platform over time and has made the system more intuitive and user friendly. I also use CourseDen (the higher ed version of BrightSpace) for my college courses and the features are essentially the same with a few differences. However, the two platforms are enough alike that, once you know one system, learning to use the other one is a cinch. The features allow for very specific customization of assessments, discussions, and other features. I have built my own courses within the LMS, so I am familiar with a majority of the features and capabilities of the LMS.

Pros

Brightspace has tons of features and capabilities that teachers and students can use in learning! Through assignments with release conditions, video and audio recording for instructions and responses, homepage customization, and much more. There are few things that you are limited to with Brightspace.

Cons

Though there are many features in Brightspace, they can often be tedious and complicated to create and use. For example, creating tests/quizzes in brightspace is a very important tool for teachers to give formative assessments. The creation tool works, but takes many more steps and work when compared to other quiz creation tools, such as Google Forms. This applies to almost all features on Brightspace. When using this with younger students - Pre-K through 5th grade - that can take a toll on time and learning.

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.

Pros

I took most of my master's level courses using this platform. After learning to navigate it, I became very familiar with it, and it was a decent platform for the professors to present material on. I liked how it would show notifications for discussion posts (particularly when someone would reply to something you had written). Also, it would alert you when a professor had submitted a grade for an assignment. These are great features that other learning platforms do not have, and I most definitely miss them when using those platforms.

Cons

It was not a very clean way to present material. It was a little cumbersome at times, took a lot of "getting used to," and was missing some features that would have been helpful that I had experienced on other platforms.

Pros

Our school needed a lot of flexibility and customization, as well as integration capability. They have a rich API layer that allowed us to create an "uber" system - a next-gen learning system that all appeared to be a single entity even though it was made up of multiple platforms.

Cons

The costs for flexibility and data are problematic - it's an issue for all LMS companies but it would be great to see more progressive thinking around our school's data.

Pros

Brightspace is functional - you can upload work, access grades, etc.

Cons

It's ugly - the user interface isn't intuitive

Pros

I use D2L, Moodle, and Blackboard in my multiple jobs. D2L is the most visually attractive of these, and the "drag and drop" functionality of course building makes things much easier than in Blackboard, for example.

Cons

When grading, I wish the rubrics appeared in the margin of same tab as the assignment, rather than a separate pop-up window, though this is already an improvement from earlier iterations.

Pros

I like the ability to stay on top of my assignments in classes and know what is to be expected throughout the semester. It is easy to see what is due week by week under the course content. I think the site is set up fairly well.

Cons

I sometimes have trouble with the discussions section where I need to manually press that I have read another members posts, I wish it appeared automatically. It also took a bit to be able to navigate the site but after becoming familiar I have had no problems.

Pros

This LMS is an upgrade from Sakai. The overall platform is more aesthetically pleasing. Some added features like uploading of video and student-teacher interaction capacity. Grading interface is more professional and user-friendly; before you had to cut and paste, now the rubrics are embedded.

Cons

I've been using it for almost two years and am only now discovering features. The company should provide schools with a new user training webinar or course. I feel that there are so many untapped resources.

Pros

Flexible and versatile. Provides many basic features that facilitate the learning of students in our K-12 DL school. Students and parents find it easy to use and teachers find it easy to provide quality content in their courses.

Cons

Difficult to get specific detailed help on specific issues particular to our K-12 organization. Help to implement single sign on and Google integration to our Education Google Apps account seems difficult to get.

Pros

Nice look to the web pages as expected from any product.
There are many ways for students to view course content.

Cons

The workflow to setup the class and create activities and assignments is completely illogical. Managing the grades gets worse.
Dropbox folders, assignments are optionally associated with gradebook items. Gradebook items don't show up as graded until a dropbox evaluation is 'published'. Dropbox drill-down is cumbersome for the instructor in order to confirm or re-evaluate grades for individual students.
Constant slow total page-refresh any time simple changes are made. Save buttons stay highlighted even if no changes have been made.
There is zero help except to send the frustrated instructor to a community page, with no contact available.