Mobile Learning | News
Desire2Learn Mobile Platform Adds ePortfolio Module
Desire2Learn has released updates to three of its mobile solutions: Desire2Learn Campus Life, Capture, and Assignment Grader. The updates were announced the this week at FUSION 2012, the company's ninth annual users' conference.
Campus Life is a mobile platform that enables educational institutions to create and customize a branded mobile app for their school, so students can access information through their iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry smart phones. Campus Life provides customizable modules, such as the learning management system module, campus directory, campus services, media library, and residence and housing.
New modules now available in Desire2Learn Campus Life include:
- ePortfolio module, which enables students to access their Desire2Learn ePortfolio;
- Classlist module, which enables students and faculty to access each others' profiles for easier contact; and
- Gradebook module, which enables students to access their grades.
Desire2Learn also reported improvements to the offline capabilities of Campus Life.
Desire2Learn Capture is a rich media webcasting solution that enables educational institutions to capture and broadcast rich-media presentations live and on-demand to online audiences.
Capture now supports on-demand playback of presentations on iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, or Windows smartphones, as well as participation in live broadcasts through flash-enabled devices.
Desire2Learn Assignment Grader is an iPad app that enables instructors to grade assignments both online and offline. Instructors can grade assignments that were saved in Microsoft Office, Apple iWork, and numerous other formats, including text, graphic, audio, and video files.
"I love the fact that you can view multiple file types seamlessly, such as moving from a text file to a spreadsheet with no noticeable lag," said William Folden an instructor at York Technical College. "The rubric and comment functions worked perfectly, and the voice feedback system seemed like it must have been optimized for the iPad mic. Even without a headset or other supplementary equipment, the audio was recorded perfectly without any ambient noise. I tried typing with my Bluetooth keyboard in the comments section and it worked immediately."
Assignment Grader is available as both a free demo version and as a full version for $9.99 and requires access to Desire2Learn Learning Environment 9.4 or higher through the instructor's educational institution.
Updates to Campus Life and Capture are also available now through Desire2Learn.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].
