Faculty, Staff and Students:

On behalf of our Learn@UW Executive Committee, I/we want you to know that we are taking steps now to improve the performance of Desire2Learn (D2L) systems at all UW campuses.

We are aware that many of you have experienced slow or delayed responses in D2L over the past few days. After D2L was upgraded to version 10 this summer, we noticed some occasional performance issues. Immediately, Learn@UW technical staff (the entity at UW-Madison’s Division of Information Technology that manages the D2L System) and D2L staff began working on solutions to improve performance. Later, Microsoft experts were engaged to help solve the problem.  Numerous patches to the system have been applied. However, these efforts have yielded only temporary success, and the root cause of these performance problems has not yet been identified. This is not uncommon in a complex environment like ours, but it is still very, very frustrating.

We will not tolerate this level of performance. While technical experts continue around the clock to resolve the issues, the Learn@UW Executive Committee is exploring alternatives. We are consulting with top D2L executives to determine what assistance D2L can provide beyond finding the problem and what viable alternatives exist.

We are confident that we are receiving the best attention possible from both vendors. Top leadership at UW System, Learn@UW Utility and Desire2Learn are engaged in this process.

As we work through this we ask for your continued patience, and we will continue to keep you posted on our efforts to restore the level of performance that faculty, staff, and students deserve.

Thank you.
Chris Clements, Chair
Learn@UW Exec Committee

Lorna Wong
Director, Learning Technology Development
University of Wisconsin System Administration