Case Study: Halton Catholic District School Board achieves district-wide access to enriched resources with D2L Brightspace

How Ontario’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) gives all students access to enriched resources

Halton Catholic District School Board (HCDSB), which serves about 35,000 students across 45 elementary schools, 9 secondary schools and an adult learning centre in Ontario, needed a way to extend lessons beyond the classroom, improve student accountability, and capture out‑of‑class learning across subjects. Teachers sought a flexible, multimedia platform for blended learning, assessments, field trips and inquiry projects that would work for diverse learners and make feedback and evidence collection simple and accessible.

HCDSB implemented D2L Brightspace’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) with Brightspace Portfolio, enabling teachers to post assignments, collect audio/video/photo evidence, and give digital feedback. The initiative drove broad adoption and measurable impact: in 2017–18 Ontario schools logged over 100,000 pieces of evidence, 12,394+ teacher feedback entries and 586,000+ unique VLE users, while teachers and parents reported higher student engagement, creativity and accountability and continued expansion of VLE use.

Halton Catholic District School Board

Lindsay Cheal

Halton Catholic District School Board