D2L Fusion User Conference Reflections

Desire2 Learn Fusion Users Conference 2011

Diane Ernst, Associate Professor, LHSON

Attendance Reflections

Based on my attendance at the D2L Fusion Conference, there appears to be many add-ons to the D2L system that are available for a fee.  While each of these add-ons (lecture capture through Capture, Connect Yard social media, etc), a cost/benefit analysis needs to be done on purchasing such add-ons.  The lecture capture on the surface appears to be an appealing and beneficial add-on but a more in-depth examination is warranted.  From the sessions I attended, it appeared that many sessions were provided on the add-ons and fewer sessions on the general use of the basic D2L learning management system.  It was definitely a marketing tool for expanding D2L use.

Conference sessions of how to use the Intelligent Agents built into the D2L system were intriguing and having this power in D2L has the potential of being very beneficial for a faculty and students alike.  Intelligent Agents can be thought of as “the eyes at the back of your head” and can be set-up to automatically send out positive reinforcement and reminders to students.  Faculty can set the parameters such that if students do not read the syllabus, an email is automatically sent to those students with a reminder to read the syllabus.  The dropbox parameters can be developed so that an email is automatically sent to students who have not submitted an assignment by a certain date.  Email reminders can be automatically sent to students who have not accessed the course for a set number of days. These are just a few examples of the use of Intelligent Agents.  Faculty develop if…then……statements to set the release condition for unleashing the power of the Intelligent Agent features.  There can be automatic, active, and passive release conditions set.  Faculty can control access to course components, release remediation and enrichment, news items, personalize discussions as part of the Intelligent Agent options. Faculty can become a member of the D2L Community and then will have access to release condition best practices and examples.  

As a faculty member who uses the “first post” option in Worldclass, I was disappointed that D2L does not have such a feature.  When the “first post” option is set in a Worldclass discussion, students are  not able to see the other students’ posts until they make their first post to the discussion.  One way to do this in D2L is to have the students copy and paste their first post in the dropbox where a release conditions has been set (there is that Intelligent Agent again).  Once the student submits the posting in the dropbox, based on the release condition, the student will then be able to see the posts in the discussion forum.  The student then copy and pastes the post—the same post as made in the dropbox, to the discussion forum.  While it requires the students to go through an extra step, it is probably the best method for doing a “first post” in D2L.

Diane