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Software Preview
First Look: Desire2Learn Essentials
3/1/2007
This week Desire2Learn introduced a new course management/learning management system targeted toward smaller institutions: those with fewer than 5,000 users. We have an exclusive first look at the new system.
The new tool, called Desire2Learn Essentials, offers functionality similar to that of D2L's large-scale Desire2Learn Learning Environment, along with customization features designed to enhance experiences for students and faculty alike. The hosted solution (hosted by Desire2Learn) is designed to deliver full-scale features but in a compact, modular design that can be customized at virtually every level of the interface--from the welcome screen all the way down to individual courses.
We'll take a look at these features from two user perspectives: student and instructor.
Interface
This "modular" interface is based on interface elements contained within "widgets." These are, essentially, blocks of information and links contained within modular sections. The screen shot below shows one possible configuration on a D2L Essentials home page.
This page contains six such widgets: a welcome box, which holds user preferences and other settings; an Updates box, which can contain notifications for users; an Events box listing due dates, new tests, etc.; a central News box, which contains a welcome message, general instructions and other information; a "MyCourses" box listing courses in which the user is enrolled; and a User Guides widget, which, in this case, contains links to PDF-based user manuals.
Each of these widgets can be fully customized to include additional information (or no information at all. For example, here we see the Updates box containing information just about e-mail messages.
And here's a version of the same widget containing e-mail messages and alerts regarding discussions and quizzes.
In addition, navigation elements at the top of the interface, as well as the look and feel and branding of the interface, can be customized according to the needs of the instructor or institution.
As a side note to this modular structure, the login widget for D2L Essentials can also be customized and placed anywhere on a school's site to provide easy access for students and other users.
Migration
For those moving from another CMS/LMS, Desire2Learn Essentials provides the capability to import SCORM- and IMS-compliant courses. t also includes a wizard-like interface for batch converting IMS-compliant packages.
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