D2L was founded in 1999 by President and CEOJohn Baker M.S.C. in his third year of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Today the company has over 800 employees. In 2004, D2L first introduced support for Competency Based Education, and launched an integrated ePortfolio product to allow learners to document their own learning. D2L embraced open standards including SCORM, IMS LTI, IMS Course Packaging, IMS Common Cartridge and IMS Caliper. In 2011, D2L acquired Captual Technologies Inc. and the technology is now known as Brightspace Capture. In 2012, D2L raised $80 million in financing. In the same year, D2L became the recipient of Platinum Learning Impact Award in the event hosted by IMS Global. In 2013, D2L was recognized by the National Federation of the Blind for its leadership in Accessibility with the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award. In the same year, D2L acquired Wiggio, and Knowillage Systems Inc., the creator of the adaptive learning engine called LeaP. In 2014, D2L raised an $85 million series B financing round. In the same year, D2L acquired the Achievement Standards Network to be an open API and open data system for curriculum standards globally. In 2016, D2L was the first and only LMS to partner with the National Federation of the Blind's Strategic Nonvisual Access Partner program to ensure learning systems are fully accessible. Launched in beta in 2016 and made generally available in early 2017, D2L became the first LMS to provide full capability on any mobile device using responsive web design as part of its Daylight User Experience.
Patent battle
In 2006, D2L and Blackboard were involved in a legal dispute over issues related to US Patent 6988138. D2L won the patent case on appeal at the Federal Circuit, and invalidated the patent at the USPTO. In December 2009, the companies issued a joint press release indicating that legal proceedings had ended with both companies.
Products and services
Brightspace
D2L's first Learning Environment clients included University of Guelph, VirtualHighSchool, the University of Waterloo and Fanshawe College. The technology is now used by over 1200 schools, colleges, universities, and businesses around the world. Brightspace was built using micro-services and operates as a software as a service. It incorporates Web Components and Google Polymer, HTML5, and responsive web design to provide a modern user interface that can work on any mobile device. Brightspace combines a Learning Environment, ePortfolio, Learning Repository, Video Recorder, Virtual Classroom, eTextbook platform called Binder, and Mobile apps, in one cloud-based platform.
Engagement Plus
Engagement Plus combines a cloud-based Lecture Capture system, interactive components for engaging course design, and a Course Catelog/Registration System.
Performance Plus
Performance Plus is a bundle of learning analytics to help automate tasks and identify risks. An adaptive learning engine personalizes the content for each learner. Learning Analytics and Intelligent Agents provide early intervention to help learners. And a set of data that can be used to make improvements based upon analysis. In 2016, Fast Company recognized D2L as a leader in Data Science.
Open Courses
In 2008, D2L entered the massive open online course MOOC market to support MOOC pioneers Stephen Downes and George Siemens. D2L then launched Open Courses to facilitate experimentation with new pedagogy and develop new ways to reach global learners. The University of Tasmania used D2L's MOOC platform to support tens of thousands of learners with >70% of those students starting the courses finishing, bucking the trend of low completion rates in large MOOCs.
Services
D2L's services include: cloud-based learning system, end-user help desk support, technical account management, technical data management, advisory consulting, program management, training, course development, customization, and accessibility design support.
