D2L Brightspace has been chosen by the University of Cape Town (UCT) to provide its digital learning infrastructure over the coming decade.
The decision came after staff and students at South Africa’s oldest university put a range of options through their paces during the competitive tender process.
Other stakeholder representatives also participated in the formal procurement process, defining their requirements and evaluating bids.
“Our goal is to unleash the creative energy and intellectual capacity of UCT, and critical to this is ensuring equitable student success,” said Sukaina Walji, director of the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching at the UCT, and who oversaw the bidding process.
“As digital tools and technologies play a significant role in all faculties and departments, and at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, we sought a new, cloud-hosted learning management system [LMS].”
UCT’s current LMS dates back to 2006, and can no longer meet the needs of 29,000 students and 5,000 academic and administrative staff with an ever-increasing demand for online access.
“D2L Brightspace is intuitive, supports a wide range of teaching modes, provides strong communication and assessment features, a robust mobile app, enhanced learning analytics, excellent integration with MS Teams and comprehensive accessibility support for UCT students with disabilities,” added Walji.
“Importantly, the platform provides a competitive set of features right now, while also having the flexibility to adapt to our future needs in response to the changing higher education and technology landscape.”
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