Case Study: Alpena Public Schools achieves personalized, student-centered blended learning with D2L Brightspace

Becoming a District of Choices for Students

Alpena Public Schools, a Michigan district of about 4,100 students, set out to become a leader in personalized, competency-based learning but faced tight budgets, limited student and teacher experience with educational technology, and frustration with overly complex LMS platforms that made course creation difficult.

The district adopted D2L’s Brightspace to deliver intuitive online and blended courses, combine vendor and locally created content, and support project-based and technical education. In three years online enrollments have grown rapidly—17% of high school students now take online courses—with course completion rates over 90%; teachers can easily build, share and reuse materials, student tech proficiency has increased, and Alpena is expanding the program in partnership with Michigan Virtual.

Alpena Public Schools

Melissa Jarema

Teacher