Case Study: Hamilton Wentworth District School Board achieves 70% student adoption and unified blended learning with D2L Brightspace

A flexible learning platform gives all students access to enriched resources

Hamilton Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB), serving about 48,000 K–12 students, faced a fragmented mix of Web 2.0 tools with different logins and limited oversight. The Board needed a single, scalable learning platform with single sign-on, parent visibility, and the flexibility to support a blended-learning strategy that teachers and students would actually use.

HWDSB deployed D2L Brightspace, integrating the board’s active directory, Student Information System (SIS) and LTI links to third‑party tools to create a seamless portal that empowers teachers to enrich instruction and track student progress. Adoption soared—secondary usage jumped from under 20% to 70% and elementary users grew from fewer than 100 to 1,000 in six months—while teachers began using flipped-classroom approaches and the platform scaled easily across the board.

Hamilton Wentworth District School Board

Paul Hatala

Blended Learning Instructional Coach