An overview of the course management system used at the
University of Arizona as well as other universities across the country
By Adrienne Kaiser, Dana Pagnan, Mike Schlossberg, Robin Rarick
Page by Adrienne Kaiser
What is D2L
anyway?
Desire2Learn is an instructional, course
management system allowing students and
instructors to work with materials via the
internet
How can I
access D2L?
All you need is a computer, an Internet
connection, and an Internet browser such as
Mozilla or SeaMonkey
Is my
information
safe?
Yes! D2L is a system that keeps your
information between you and your instructor.
Confidentiality is no hurdle here
What can I
access on D2L?
Instructors can enable all sorts of applications
on D2L from dropboxes and profiles to syllabi
and discussions. D2L is often used for
quizzes, workshops, and assessments
Who uses D2L?
Instructors and their students use D2L to
connect within a virtual classroom
environment or to support a traditional
classroom environment

http://www.mnstate.edu/instrtech/D2L/StudentHelp/D2LStudentGuide.pdf
Page by Adrienne Kaiser & Dana Pagnan
Here is a link to an example
walk-through on how to use
D2L. This is just a sample and
may not look exactly like the
D2L page for your specific
university or classroom.
Page by Adrienne Kaiser





D2L has become a staple at many universities, with over 5
million members from higher education institutions. The
following link provides a list: List of Higher Institutions
D2L is an asset to instructors, providing automatically
graded quizzes as well as one common location for papers
to be turned in to.
D2L also benefits students as it provides one website that
is able to deliver all of the information necessary to their
classes.
Prior to the D2L system, more paper as well as confusion
occurred in school systems as it could cause chaos and
disorder as too many assignments began in a class.
D2L provides a much more organized way for students
and instructors to communicate and remain up to date
with all activities happening in the classroom.
Page by Dana Pagnan
Positives
-D2L provides students with the opportunity to take classes from
the comfort of their own house, apartment or dorm room
- It provides the opportunity for students to receive immediate
feedback from their peers in discussions, as well as from
instructors on assigned quizzes over the internet
-Drawbacks
For some D2L quizzes the professor only puts in one answer to a
question
- An example of this is when a question asked for the author and
the instructor had listed “Livy” as the answer and students put
“Titus Livy” this was marked incorrect and the students had to go
to the teacher to personally get his grade changed
- D2L makes you rely on internet servers that are subject to
malfunction at any time
-
Michael S. Schlossberg
Comment
Number of People
Keep it the way it is
37
Make some minor changes ^
33
Make Major Changes*
16
Switch to Blackboard~
12
Switch to Pen and Paper
2
Students were polled at a random throughout Northepoint Student
Apartments, as well as a Math 302 B class on January 26th, 2009
^ A minor change can be defined as changing around the layout of the
homepage
*A major change can be defined as changing the way the information is
presented as in creating more animation is the information that is
presented
~ Blackboard is a software company that licenses software applications,
specifically found in academics
Michael S. Schlossberg

Chemistry undergraduate students and faculty at the University of Arizona were surveyed
67% of faculty and 12% of the students responded within 48 hours (only those responses were used in this
study)
Overall satisfaction with aspects of D2L
Response in %

120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Faculty
Students
Robin Rarick
Faculty
•Convenient,
•Customizable
•saves $$ on printing
•great for large classes
•can easily track student
activity
•quick dissemination of
materials to class
•Not intuitive
•Limited ability to transfer grades to
Webroster (UA’s grade reporting
interface)
•Difficult to output class lists into
Excel
•Uneasy about the accuracy of grades
loaded directly into D2L
•feeling of forced conformity to using
this technology
Students
•Convenient
•Intuitive
•good for grade tracking
•good for seeing who is
in the class and
contacting other
students
•Too much room for professor error
when sites are not set up properly
•homework submission not always
good
•content is put into too many different
file types
Overall, both groups give D2L a thumbs up!
Robin Rarick