Desire2Learn Adds Integration with CourseSmart Digital Resources
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 11/28/11
Desire2Learn has struck a deal to make digital course materials from CourseSmart available to its learning management system customers as a new addition to its Partner Network. About a month ago the LMS company had announced a similar integration with resources from Cengage. CourseSmart is an online vendor that distributes digital material from a number of textbook publishers, including Pearson, McGraw-Hill Education, John Wiley & Sons, and Cengage.
Under the latest arrangement, students and faculty will have single sign-on access to CourseSmart's catalog of 20000 etextbooks and other digital course materials from within Desire2Learn.
The integration also provides instructors with free access to evaluate digital resources and use them more seamlessly within their Desire2Learn courses, the companies said in a statement. Without leaving the course, instructors will be able to link to required reading assignments, homework problems, and other activities that reside in the digital materials and share those links with students.
"CourseSmart is continually exploring new partnership opportunities that allow us to further streamline both the student and faculty's workflow, ensuring that our digital course materials are readily available and easily accessible by all," said CourseSmart CEO, Sean Devine.
"The Partner Network aims to foster collaboration between eLearning brands with a similar passion for enhancing the user learning experience," said Desire2Learn Chief Operating Officer, Jeremy Auger. "Through this partnership, CourseSmart and Desire2Learn provide a more integrated, comprehensive, and enriched learning solution for higher education institutions and their users."
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.