D2L Partners With IBM to Evolve Its Analytics Portfolio

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE--(Marketwired - July 14, 2014) - D2L-the EdTech company that created Brightspace, the world's first truly integrated learning platform (ILP)-today announces that it has partnered with IBM to embed its Cognos business intelligence engine into D2L Insights™ to provide an enterprise-class business intelligence tool for the education industry. The partnership enables D2L to offer the type of breadth that only IBM can deliver to empower education customers with the best enterprise analytics-reporting engine available today.

"Effective use of data is vital for success in today's business world and in education, leveraging analytics is increasingly critical, promising to transform teaching and learning," said John Baker, President and CEO, D2L. "With IBM's Cognos business intelligence engine, Brightspace by D2L can empower organizations' decision-makers by combining academic classroom data, such as grades and attendance, together with their enterprise data, such as financial aid and registrar data."

The integration with the Cognos business intelligence engine enhances D2L Insights by expanding the field of view for learning data to levels beyond an individual organization. Educational institutions will now be able to integrate their data sources to display a single view of education data.

"At a time when expectations for data in education are increasing, institutions must strengthen their analytics capabilities as a means to help make sense of the data deluge they are faced with," said Michael D. King, Vice President, Global Education Industry at IBM. "The expanded relationship between D2L and IBM is an example of the collaboration that is needed to create exceptional student experiences and outstanding outcomes in education, for students and institutions alike."

From business intelligence to financial performance and strategy management, Cognos software is at the core of helping institutions become top performing and analytics-driven. D2L's partnership with IBM presents opportunities for education clients of each company to take advantage of an enterprise-class solution set that can extract new insights from the explosion of available data and ultimately help improve student performance.

The D2L Analytics portfolio includes:

• D2L Analytics Essentials™, for instructors, provides information on day-to-day learner progression and achievement, allowing for real-time decision-making right at the moment of learning
• The D2L Insights Student Success System™ tool, a predictive analytics technology, unlocks the relationships between content, grades, and student engagement to predict which students are at-risk of failing (verses achieving academic success) right when it matters most-while they are in-flight within the course
• D2L Degree Compass™, a predictive technology, maps structural course sequence data against historical student achievement data to make course recommendations to students that will help increase their chances of success
• D2L Insights, the basis of the portfolio and the product with which the Cognos integration will occur, provides information on key learning outcomes, student engagement and enrollment metrics, and student grades data

The announcement was made at FUSION 2014, Desire2Learn's annual users conference.

ABOUT D2L

A global leader in EdTech, D2L is the creator of Brightspace, the world's first integrated learning platform. The company partners with thought-leading organizations to improve learning through data-driven technology that helps deliver a personalized experience to every learner, regardless of geography or ability. D2L's open and extensible platform is used by more than 1,100 clients and 15 million individual learners in higher education, K-12, healthcare, government, and the enterprise sector-including Fortune 1000 companies. The company has operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil, and Singapore. www.brightspace.com, www.D2L.com

The D2L Family of Companies includes Desire2Learn Incorporated in Canada, D2L Ltd. in the U.S., Desire2Learn Australia Pty Ltd in Australia, Desire2Learn UK Ltd. in England and Wales, Desire2Learn Singapore Pte Ltd in Singapore and D2L Brazil Soluções de Tecnologia para Educação Ltda. in Brazil.

ABOUT IBM

IBM improves student and institutional outcomes through the dynamic use of enterprise data and self-learning systems. This enables personalized learning and an exceptional student experience, aligning students to career pathways and fostering economic vitality. For more information about IBM education, please visit ibm.com/education.