Learn@UW / Desire2Learn

Facilitating collaborative teaching and learning through course web sites

Learn@UW/D2L is an online course management service that is centrally hosted for UW System institutions by the Learn@UW Utility, located at UW-Madison. Learn@UW/D2L is powered by the Desire2Learn Learning Environment software.

This system provides a web-based suite of tools that enable instructors to create course web sites with contemporary communication, collaboration, content delivery and student assessment capabilities. It can be used to develop standalone online courses for distance education or to create resource-rich web sites to supplement campus courses. Learn@UW/D2L courses allow "anytime, anywhere" access to syllabi, readings, multimedia files, electronic drop-boxes, online quizzes, communication, grading, student progress reports and more.

Students are provided with a customized and personalized online learning experience through their Learn@UW/D2L course web sites. Students benefit by having access to course materials 24/7, the ability to upload files to their instructor; the means to communicate via threaded discussions, chat or pager; and the technology to participate in online quizzes and surveys.

Learn@UW has expanded upon Desire2Learn’s Learning Environment platform to also include integrated services with campus information systems—student enrollment, grade submission, and course site creation.

Courses, enrollments, grade submissions, and login attempts are tracked as measurements to assess use of the service, and each semester the number of faculty and students using the Learn@UW/D2L service continues to grow.

View the 9/23/2009 status report of the Learn@UW utility. (PDF)