Desire2Learn Client Success Story
KARDINIA INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE
Empowering individual learners with a consolidated platform
Kardinia International College is a progressive Australian independent K-12 school based in Geelong, Victoria. Founded in 1996, Kardinia
has grown from a population of 30 students to over 1,850 and now ranks in the top 5% for Senior academic results in the state. The
school’s founder, Mr. Yoshimaro Katsumata, built the institution on a former school site to emphasize the new beginning energized by
Kardinia’s motto: “Wisdom leads to Respect and Friendship.”
The Profile: Modern Practices and Structures Catering to the Individual Student
Kardinia’s International Baccalaureate program is mandatory for primary students and optional
for Victorian Certificate Education students. Seniors use a vertical curriculum of over three
hundred subjects to design an individual timetable. All students have an email account and
access to the school intranet.
The Challenge: Integrating Content and Administration into a Single, Scalable
Platform
Kardinia had previously used various content management products to meet academic and
organizational requirements. Beginning in Year 5, for example, students were issued their own
tablet to minimize the purchase of physical texts and access content more efficiently online.
Staff, likewise, spent a great deal of time developing online content but required a tool that
facilitated more than just document exchange.
Primarily using Microsoft® SharePoint® and only one developer to fulfill update requests, Kardinia
felt it had reached a technological limit and began searching for a product that could consolidate
their requirements into a single platform with sufficient flexibility and scalability for future growth. A
potential solution also had to further enable parent involvement and help Year 9 students on exchange
in Chiang Mai, Thailand to keep up with classroom subjects on the home campus.
The Solution: A Desire2Learn Pilot Project
While investigating how to broaden the capabilities of its existing learning platform, Kardinia
discovered that the Desire2Learn product suite had a dedicated team of two hundred developers
creating the kind of customized functionality required by their enterprise. A Desire2Learn technology
pilot project – intentionally structured with a representative sampling of teachers of varying technical
ability, diversified content expertise, and different ages – was introduced into the Kardinia environment.
“The Desire2Learn platform provided the flexibility and
Key Benefits:
scalability we need to grow.We were also drawn to the
•
supportive Desire2Learn community, both within Australia
•
and internationally, that would ease the transition to the
•
Significant increase in learner engagement
Students able to shape their own experience and inform instructional delivery
Consolidation of learning systems eliminated redundancy and improved accessibility
new product line. We have found that there is a high degree of
information sharing and best practices implementation in the
greater Desire2Learn community.”
Diana Murase | Manager, Information
and Communications Technology,
Kardinia International College
The Result: Learner Success and Engagement Drive Adoption
and Further Implementation
The pilot program’s feedback was immediate – and very positive. Students in the pilot courses saw
immediate benefits and actually encouraged other teachers to adopt the program for other subjects
as soon as possible. There was a dramatic increase in the number of students taking the initiative to
learn subject material beyond course requirements. This sudden demonstration of heightened learner
engagement demonstrated the best kind of unexpected success: students were not only assimilating
knowledge, but actively contributing to the instruction process and informing delivery methods.
The new platform has encouraged Kardinia students to take an interdisciplinary approach to their
studies. Desire2Learn Learning Environment has been successfully adopted as the senior years’ tool
of choice for staff, student, and parent interaction. Pre-class preparation has also been enhanced:
students can watch a video or read a paper prior to class and subsequently focus on deeper exploration
of subject material during maximized face-to-face time with teachers. Absent students can visit online
portals to see what they have missed.
Continuing on Kardinia’s initial success, a Desire2Learn Campus Life pilot project is scheduled for
2013 to replace an existing online portal used by parents. The Campus Life mobile application will
enable parents to access campus news in real time using subscription and RSS feeds. They can also
access up-to-date information without having to log in. If necessary, parents may log in to the full
Learning Environment for a more detailed analysis of student progress. Many parents identified an
ongoing progressive review of their children’s achievements, as opposed to relying on scheduled end
of semester reports, as a priority.
From an institutional perspective, a consolidated Desire2Learn solution allowed Kardinia to eliminate
redundant processes and data duplication across multiple platforms. Built-in efficiencies also
contributed to a decreased administrative load which, in turn, improved pedagogical processes. These
benefits ultimately helped devote more resources to continuous content renewal and learner support in
the classroom, driving the story’s real success: the implementation of Desire2Learn technology drove
increased student engagement and encouraged learners to adopt greater responsibility in the shaping
of their individual journey.
“The pilot project was an incredible success. It created a buzz
on campus. I was seeing benefits that had not been possible
before - instant feedback, improved access to desired learning
materials, less time required for administrative tasks, and more
time for teaching and content development. The engagement
and initiative we saw from students wanting to adopt a wider
implementation of the platform was the best result we could
Kardinia is also in the process of implementing Desire2Learn ePortfolio across its Junior school to help
over four hundred students organize their lives and build a lifelong professional development diary that
ensures permanent visibility of their work and accomplishments from K-12. Junior students will be able
to access information they explored during the day to share and extend learning with their families.
have hoped for.”
Diana Murase | Manager, Information
and Communications Technology,
Kardinia International College
Desire2Learn helps improve our world by pioneering innovative methods and
environments to engage and inspire learners throughout their lives. Making education
more accessible helps learners reach their full potential by reflecting the unique needs
of organizations, instructors, and students.
A global leader in cloud-based (SaaS) learning solutions, Desire2Learn provides an
open and extensible platform to more than 700 clients and 10 million learners in higher
education, K–12, healthcare, government and the corporate sector, including Fortune
100 companies. Desire2Learn has personnel in the United States, Canada, Europe,
Australia, Brazil and Singapore.
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