Desire2Learn makes applications for use on mobile devices. However, “(Contra Costa College faculty) has not pushed them as much as the computer versions,” Technology Systems Manager James Eyestone said.

Judy Flum, distance education coordinator said, “Why worry about D2L if we’re moving to Canvas?”

D2L and Canvas are learning management systems, which are used by teachers to put information related to their classes online so that it can be accessed by students.

D2L has a few applications available for Android and  iOS, which were released last summer, Flum said.

Brightspace Pulse is for students to check assignments, grades and notifications from teachers. Brightspace Assignment Grader is an app which allows teachers to grade assignments. D2L Binder allows students to read assignments on their mobile devices.

“I only use (Pulse) to check for teacher updates and sometimes for homework,” said Roland West, a liberal arts major.

Flum said a unique feature Pulse has is that students can email the teacher directly from it. Even if the students have the emails forwarded to your personal email address, they would still have to log into D2L to respond to them.

The interface is “fairly intuitive,”  high school senior Alexander Ponce said.

“Nothing really shows up because my professor doesn’t post stuff,” he said.

Administration of justice major Darrylisha Denson said, “If there was an app for a phone, I’d use that. She said she currently has notifications from D2L texted to her phone.

Most students likely do not know about the mobile apps, even though Pulse is mentioned on D2L’s homepage, Flum said. “We haven’t done a very good job of promoting (the apps).”

Those who notice Pulse mentioned on the D2L website likely will try it out, Flum said.

Healthcare major Kathryn Lofton said, “I mostly do my stuff on a computer.”

Flum said the apps on mobile devices should be used as additional tools to be used alongside the computer version.

“I’m afraid the students wouldn’t see everything on a phone that they could see on a computer.” Using a tablet would be comparable to a computer, though, she said.

Brightspace Assignment Grader is used by some teachers because there are certain features the mobile version has that makes it preferable to the computer version, Eyestone said.