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[bone_gal]

Hi. One of the schools I teach for is moving from WebCT Vista to Desire 2 Learn (I think in 2010). I'm sure I'll get training on D2L, but for now I'm just curious... has anyone used D2L? What do you think of it? What features do you use that you like?

[mathprofdk]

We use D2L, and I've been pretty happy with it.  Unfortunately, I've never been exposed to anything else, so I can't give you a comparison.

I like how the drop box and discussions can be connected directly to the gradebook.  In other words, I can use the grading feature in the discussions, and those grades are then automatically connected to the gradebook (if I set it up that way).  Same goes for the drop box.

The content is fairly easy to work with.  I like that you can design it like a regular web page, with relative links.  You can work on the files on your desktop, zip them all together, upload the zip file, and then unpack it in D2L.  This is great if you have lots of files to upload at once.

I also use the survey tool to give students periodic opportunities to give feedback.  I think I had had three this semester, and I got some good feedback using it.

In case you're curious, there are some downsides, too.  Our distance learning specialist will tell you that it hasn't been the easiest working with D2L.  They're not always as responsive as you'd like.  The gradebook is kind of difficult to work with, though I'm pretty used to it now.  It's just cumbersome to enter grades in D2L.  I usually export a CSV file and then enter the grades in Excel.

All in all, I've found it very useful, but as I mentioned earlier, I really have no frame of reference to compare.