D2L still supports CD-ROM files

This certainly isn’t a bad thing, but it’s also not that cool. While this may prove useful to some users—teachers who use CD-ROMs provided by textbook publishers—it shows that the D2L developers are clinging to antiquated features and tools, which might eventually lead to an overbloated, slow product. And that’s not a good direction to be headed in when the product is already suffering from serious slowdown in certain tools, like Manage Files.

D2L tells you when there’s an error, but not much else

I should clarify: sometimes it doesn’t even tell you there’s an error. But in the cases that it does notify you of an error, D2L does a poor job of describing or explaining the nature of the error.

The above error occurs in the Manage Files area when you are trying to access a directory whose name exceeds the fifty-five-character limit. But instead it gives you some vague description about content path settings. And I’ve left out the best (read: worst) part: you can’t rename the directory from the Mange Files tool. So you’re stuck with a directory that breaks the entire copy-component procedure. The only solution from within D2L is to have the admin go through the database and rename the file manually.

D2L still uses pull-down menus for reordering content

While D2L does give us the option of going to the Course Builder tool where we can drag and drop to reorganize content, it’s just out of the way if you do most of your content building in the Manage Content area.

By the time I’ve gone to the Course Builder tool and reordered the content there, I’ve probably lost track of what I was doing in the first place. And if I use the pull-down menus to reorder in Manage Content, I have a hard time making a mental map of the reordered list once I start switching things around.

My wish list

• Stop supporting legacy features that aren’t likely to be used. Deprecate features like CD-ROM support and remove them in future upgrades.
• Provide more feedback and explanations on error dialogues (and in the error log).
• Make the Course Builder drag-and-drop functionality available in the Manage Content area—even if I have to click “Reorder” first to access it.