Experience With Using D2L's Microsoft 365 Widget

Hello,

We recently transitioned from the internal D2L email system to Microsoft Outlook 365. Based on feedback from a recent survey, our end users have expressed interest in receiving notifications for new email messages within Brightspace—similar to the functionality offered by the previous internal email system.

We reviewed D2L's Microsoft 365 Widget to determine its feasibility. During our review, we noted that the unread email counter only reflects the number of unread messages among the most recent 20 emails. For example, if a user has 40 unread messages in their Outlook inbox, the counter will still display a maximum of 20 (assuming the most recent 20 messages are all unread).

For institutions that have implemented this widget, was this a point of confusion for your end users? How did you communicate this information to your students?

Additionally, the Microsoft 365 Widget has a Calendar tab linking to the Microsoft 365 Calendar. Our courses use the internal D2L Calendar, which is not connected to the Microsoft Calendar. Did this cause any confusion for your students?

We would love to hear any feedback/comments/suggestions from institutions that have implemented the Microsoft 365 Widget or those that considered it but decided not to implement it.

Thank you,

Greg