Founder: John Baker, President and Chief Executive Officer
Venture: D2L (Desire2Learn) Brightspace is a Learning Management System (LMS) platform used by K-12, higher education, government, and private corporations to deliver adaptable online learning. They are used worldwide with millions of learners. In addition to traditional LMS features of course management and evaluation, they have added new no-code creation and AI-driven evaluation features (Creator+ and Performance+, respectively) to further enhance user and learner experience.
Bio: As John Baker has been well-cited before (see below), I will briefly highlight his bio. Impressively, he founded D2L in 1999 at the age of 22, while attending the University of Waterloo. He graduated with an Honours B.A.Sc. in Systems Design Engineering, with First Class Honours and an option in Management Sciences. He has been recognized with multiple awards as an entrepreneur and leader in education technology.
Manoeuvring during the Pandemic: A common story related about John Baker is his perseverance and tenacity, especially when starting out with D2L and convincing skeptics about the value of online learning done right. This was put to test once again during the pandemic restrictions, as he relates in an interview with Bloomberg News, when an influx of ‘emergency type’ reactions made full use of D2L Brightspace and demanded more, as existing and new customers essentially wanted to ‘put everything on [Brightspace]’. As challenging as this increased demand was, John Baker relates that the real challenge now is sustaining current users in a more steady-state scenario (rather than the initial knee-jerk reaction induced by the pandemic). He believes that this can be accomplished by focusing on the user experience and balancing the need for online learning and face-to-face learning.
The future of D2L: Despite a downturn in their stocks since going public, most forecast analysts are recommending D2L Brightspace as a discount buy. The current focus on user experience, by debuting their Creator+ tool, which allows no-/low-code creator solutions, has been warmly received. In addition, finding efficiencies in cloud optimization and reducing redundancies in their platforms are main priorities. Finally, in a recent blog on the D2L website, John espouses the benefits of generative AI and AI tools in general and how that is changing learning, and importantly how D2L is already leading the space in the incorporation of AI in their LMS.
My thoughts: Key take-aways for me in learning about John Baker are his tenacity and perseverance. In the Bloomberg video, he was asked about whether the timing of going public (and D2L losing 68% since their IPO) was a mistake. Instead, he believes that this was in fact an opportunity and that despite the downturn, he and D2L actually believe that there is much growth and room for more. This has allowed the leadership team to focus on the priorities mentioned above. Having this unshakable belief and an eye towards the future are very important characteristics of an entrepreneur.
Resources:
https://www.cantechletter.com/2023/01/d2l-is-a-top-pick-for-2023-says-eight-capital/
Previous ETEC 522 posts:
2014: https://virtual.educ.ubc.ca/wp/etec522/2014/09/25/d2l/
2017: https://virtual.educ.ubc.ca/wp/etec522/2017/06/05/john-baker-president-and-ceo-of-d2l/
2018: https://virtual.educ.ubc.ca/wp/etec522/2018/09/29/d2l-founder-john-baker/
D2L has a business model that appears to favour vertical integration, building resource libraries, learning design services, and content creation tools. They have pursued not just the public education market, but also corporate education. I think that they have intentionally targeted the more lucrative markets by offering premium services – kind of the opposite of Moodle. And it looks to be working!
Totally agree. I think much like a lot of businesses that made it out of the pandemic (for better or for worse), D2L have had to also do a lot of pivoting and prioritization. I am definitely partial to Moodle but honestly do not know how they are making an open-source venture so successful.
By the looks of it, D2L and Baker’s unconventional approach in the LMS space is admirable if not impressive. As someone who is generally risk-adverse, maintaining the vision after losing 68% since the IPO is a level of resolve I’m not sure I could mimic. While I have never used D2L myself, I have heard anecdotally that the UI may not be as intuitive as a Canvas or a Google Classroom.
However, the way D2L has positioned themselves is appealing. Adding a streaming platform and the incorporation of AI all sounds like they are aligning with current trends, and it does seem that the long could reap benefits in the not too distant future. I’m interested to see where these investments in tech add ons will take them.