Case Study: Chattanooga State Community College achieves greater student success and equity with D2L Brightspace

Chattanooga State Community College - Customer Case Study

Chattanooga State Community College’s mathematics department faced low success rates in its Introductory Statistics course, with nearly 40% of students failing each semester and marginalized, Pell-eligible, and first-generation students hit hardest. The college partnered with D2L Brightspace to redesign the course and improve equity, engagement, and access through a pilot using open educational resources.

D2L Brightspace helped Chattanooga State Community College build a more interactive, centralized learning environment by integrating tools like MyOpenMath, OpenStax, Assignment Dropbox, and communication features, along with embedded learning assistants. The results were strong: OER sections achieved an 83% pass rate versus 69% in non-OER sections, with major gains for Black, Hispanic, Pell-eligible, and first-generation students, while saving students about $175 each and roughly $12,000 in the pilot.

Chattanooga State Community College

Anita Polk-Conley

Professor