Written by: Joseph Chapman, Group Product Manager, D2L.
Our mission at D2L is to transform the way the world learns, and for well over a decade, artificial intelligence (AI) has been built into our products in order to expedite that transformation. Tools like Performance+ use AI to enhance personalized learning and identify at-risk learners. Advanced video tools in Brightspace Core leverage AI to support multi-language and auto-captioning to make learning more accessible. More recently, the Brightspace Virtual Assistant leverages AI to provide contextualized help to answer questions quickly. As AI technology advances, D2L continues its longstanding commitment of innovation with new generative AI capabilities focused on improving workflow efficiencies for course creators and educators in the July release (20.24.7) as part of D2L Lumi Pro for Brightspace and D2L Lumi for Creator+.
Our Approach
As we move into this next phase of our AI journey with generative AI, we must first focus on D2L’s Responsible AI Principles. These principles ground the product development work we do every day and ensure the AI capabilities result in fair and productive learning experiences. In line with our commitment to transparency, we are sharing that we have chosen to leverage Anthropic's Large Language Model (LLM) Claude to power these new AI features. D2L designs and engineers the prompts while user content is submitted as input. For launch, D2L recommends English content be used as input although Brightspace does not prevent non-English language content from being submitted. It’s important to note that user content is not used to train or refine the LLM. Administrators are also in full control of whether or not AI is enabled on their site, and if so, in which courses and for which users.
In addition to aligning to D2L’s Responsible AI Principles, the design and development of these new AI capabilities were built alongside you, our users. Insights were gained through a variety of research methods including strategic surveys, exploratory research sessions, co-design activities, usability studies, and interviews with existing Brightspace users who had early beta access to these capabilities. Our understanding of key user tasks, pain points, and opportunities were considered alongside the types of tasks generative AI is suitable to support. It’s in the intersection of real-world user problems and emerging technologies where we formed our latest product solutions.
Use Cases
Our AI solutions are designed to help educators and course creators accomplish key workflows and common tasks. These new AI experiences have been thoughtfully designed to ensure human-led, pedagogical expertise is front and center. Let’s explore some scenarios and see how users can work alongside AI in Brightspace to accomplish their goals.
Uplifting course material year-over-year can be a challenge. Did a previous discussion topic elicit the level of learner engagement desired? Does last year’s homework assignment need a slight refresh because of new or updated content? These are important tasks and ones where AI can help accelerate and suggest new approaches. D2L Lumi Idea for Discussions and D2L Lumi Idea for Assignments are new workflows that allow educators and course creators to seamlessly work alongside AI when refreshing course material. AI generated ideas are inspired by your content in Brightspace to help ensure timeliness and relevancy. Use these ideas as-is or leverage them as a starter to ignite your inner creativity.
Writing and authoring new quiz questions can be time-consuming; and building out a robust question bank with enough variability and relevancy for new and updated course content can be a challenge. D2L Lumi Questions leverages AI to create new quiz questions while keeping subject matter experts in the loop to ensure these assessment questions are accurate, relevant, and up-to-date. Refining question generation to meet specific pedagogical needs and goals is supported with both our seamless integration with Learning Outcomes and the ability to select a Bloom's Taxonomy level.
Do you have existing pages with walls of text that aren't very engaging for learners? Brightspace Creator+ solves this by enabling users to build delightful interactives and knowledge checks right into the learning experience. D2L Lumi Practice streamlines authoring new Practices while maintaining human control and oversight. In just a few clicks, AI generates a new Practice based on the page content and is easily reviewable prior to inserting.
Now these are just some use cases where our AI solutions are designed to help educators and course creators. Do you have additional ideas or workflows where AI can assist? Please contribute and share your experiences in Brightspace Community in our Product Idea Exchange (PIE).
AI Insights and Administration
Administering how AI gets used in Brightspace is extremely important. Enabling AI when the time is right for your organization is critical. Having the ability to pilot AI capabilities with select users and/or departments is desired. New Brightspace configuration variables and permissions give organizations complete control and flexibility over managing the use of AI.
In addition to roles and permissions, we're also delivering valuable insights. The new Consumption Dashboard in Brightspace allows administrators to see which users are leveraging AI and in which courses. New metadata appears in questions, assignments, and discussions that informs educators whether or not these built-in Brightspace AI capabilities were used and the level of AI involvement. Also, coming in the September release (20.24.9), existing Brightspace data sets for assignments, quizzes, and discussions will be updated to include this new AI metadata information so that leaders can see the impact these AI features are having in their organization.
Next Steps
Contact your D2L representative to learn more about accessing these AI capabilities as part of D2L Lumi Pro for Brightspace and D2L Lumi for Creator+.
For a deeper dive into the July release (20.24.7) functionality, review the following material: