Kitchener, Waterloo, June 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- D2L, the global learning technology leader, and Top Hat, the leading digital courseware platform for higher education, today announced a strategic partnership to help institutions and educators put student outcomes at the heart of course design and delivery. By bringing together D2L’s and Top Hat’s powerful tools, services, and support, educators and institutions can now deliver engaging, motivating, and rewarding learning experiences to higher education students.
It has been more than a year since higher education institutions around the world pivoted to emergency remote learning. While students have appreciated the care, consideration, and hard work of their instructors to minimize disruptions of their education, recent research from Top Hat highlights the need for renewed focus on student outcomes and engagement. Students emphasize that learning experiences that are active and engaging through discussion, collaboration, and interactive activities are crucial to helping them realize the value of their higher education investment.1 It’s more important than ever for institutions and educators to create the right conditions for students to become active participants in meaningful learning experiences.
That’s where the strategic partnership between D2L and Top Hat comes in. New tools will help educators easily create and deliver engaging and effective learning experiences. With D2L’s Brightspace platform, instructors can better organize their courses, give students access to course content, and track student and class performance, all in one place.
Together with Top Hat, D2L’s Brightspace is delivering a content experience that is more powerful than ever. Instructors can now deploy the powerful tools and rich interactive content available with Top Hat’s digital courseware in addition to the engaging and interactive experiences offered in D2L’s Brightspace. Top Hat’s courseware supercharges learning materials, bringing them to life with built-in interactions and engagement directly in lectures, digital textbooks, and in-class discussions.
Top Hat makes active learning easier than ever with access to real-time actionable insights and the ability to build true end-to-end classroom engagement:
· Before class, students can engage with interactive readings that enable them to engage with course materials and to assess their learning as they go, before they set foot in the classroom.
· During class, instructors can ask poll questions, give quizzes, hold discussions, and offer activities so that students can engage with the content, their professors, and each other.
· After class, educators create a full-circle feedback loop that paints complete portraits of individual student journeys — successes, struggles, and opportunities for timely help.
“One of the biggest challenges facing higher education is demonstrating to students that they are getting value from their investment,” said Nina Bilimoria Angelo, VP of Product Marketing & Strategy at Top Hat. “As campuses begin to reopen, the pressure on institutions to demonstrate value will only intensify. Providing engaging and motivating experiences for students will be essential, and we are excited to partner with D2L to provide educators and institutions with everything they need to plan their courses, engage their students, and support individual student success.”
“As we’ve seen in universities and colleges all around the world during COVID-19, it has been hard for institutions and learners to adjust to changing classroom circumstances while staying engaged and on task in their learning,” said Tom Donnelly, Chief Corporate Development Officer at D2L. “This disruption accelerated both digital adoption and the use of blended learning environments, and we are delighted to partner with an organization that, like ours, is focused on continually improving the experience for students. This partnership with Top Hat gives learners in higher education better access to more of the content they need to get the most out of their education, while also giving educators powerful new ways of teaching and reaching learners. That’s great news today, as we come out of COVID-19, and for the future, as we continue to recover and rebuild to create the best learning experiences.”
To learn more, visit d2l.com.
Sources
1 Top Hat Field Report: 3,052 College Students on the Good, the Bad and Learning Post-Covid. April 2021.
ABOUT D2L
D2L is transforming the way the world learns — helping learners of all ages achieve more than they dreamed possible. Working closely with clients all around the world, D2L is supporting millions of people learning online and in person. Our more than 950 global employees are dedicated to making the best learning products to leave the world better than they found it. Learn more about D2L for K-12, higher education, and businesses at www.D2L.com.
ABOUT D2L’s BRIGHTSPACE
D2L’s Brightspace is a cloud-based learning platform built for people who care deeply about student success and helping prepare students for what comes next.
It gives faculty across your institution tools they’re going to love and makes it easy to support exceptional student experiences in the classroom or fully online. D2L’s Brightspace is designed in close collaboration with clients around the world — building a pedagogically rich set of features to improve engagement, retention, and learning outcomes. It also makes it easier to do assessments and give feedback.
D2L’s Brightspace is worry-free, with 99.99% reliability. It’s highly accessible and looks beautiful on any mobile device, making it easier for educators to reach every learner.
D2L’s Brightspace has won multiple industry awards, including being named the #1 LMS Technology for next-generation online teaching and learning. To learn more, visit D2L for Higher Education.
ABOUT TOP HAT
Top Hat is the only digital courseware that enables active learning — a proven student-centered pedagogy that promotes deep understanding, critical thinking, and subject mastery — providing educators with interactive course content, tools, assessment capabilities, and insights in a single, easy-to-use application. Millions of students at 750 leading North American colleges and universities use Top Hat to teach and engage with students before, during, and after class, in both in-person and online education.
TOP HAT MEDIA CONTACT
Dianna Lai Read
Director, Communications
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D2L MEDIA CONTACT
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Director, External Strategic Communications, D2L Corporation
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