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Looking at LearnUpon? Maybe you’ve already given it a go and decided it’s not the learning management system (LMS) for you? Whatever drove you to this post, we’re here to help!
We’ll talk you through some pros and cons for LearnUpon, before doing the same for seven alternative platforms and systems.
What’s the deal with LearnUpon?
Take a look at LearnUpon’s website homepage and two things are clear: they pride themselves on being user focussed and delivering training on a large scale. But how successfully do they pull those two things off? And is that reflected in customer reviews for this LMS?
Pros
It might shout about its ability to drive training on the large scale, but small teams also seem to love LearnUpon. Possibly because, as several users pointed out, it’s a platform that can scale with your business. Others highlighted the easy setup that let them hit the ground running.
When it comes to content types, you can mix and match to create courses that meet your learning needs. On measuring progress, the exams, surveys and certifications were well-liked features, while its forum enables social learning.
Cons
You’ll notice it throughout this article, but reporting is clearly important to LMS and LXP users. More noticeably, they’ve got a beady eye for when it’s not up to scratch and don’t mind telling you in their reviews.
Well, reviewers flagged a few pain points when it comes to reporting. Some claimed it was limited and others were frustrated that they were unable to access certain reports at Manager level (below Admin). Lastly, there were people who bemoaned that it’s not highly customisable, with only colours and branding available to customise on the lower tiers.
“It would be nice to have more layers of program curation that provide the ability to curate multiple learning paths into more complex programs.”
This review supports the idea that perhaps there isn’t enough ability to customise learning or the freedom to learn more independently. On the topic of customisation, some users flagged the inability to change default settings, while others felt limited by their capability to modify content. One review even highlighted that they couldn’t end their course once it had been published.
If you got here, then you’ve probably got a pretty good idea of what a learning management system or platform is all about. And that means we’re not going to list every single feature or labour points as we present these alternatives. Instead, we’ll talk you through pros and cons for each, all based on genuine user reviews from across the internet.
We might be one of the new kids on the learning block, but that means we’re not obsessed with how things used to be! So, what we’re interested in is delivering something that meets learner needs today.
That’s less ticking a box to say something’s been completed, and more measuring which skills people have developed along the way. Learning today should be about meeting people where they’re already working and giving them the tools to find resources they need, when they need them. Here’s how we do it.
Pros
1. Find the information you need, when you need it, everywhere you already work.
If you need to find knowledge at work, you shouldn’t have to leave the tools you’re already using to go and find it. Putting it bluntly, it disrupts your flow and harms productivity levels.
HowNow acts as a central brain for all of your scattered resources, meaning all of your knowledge can be found behind one front door. Integrate with the apps and tools that your teams already use and voila, the knowledge you need is everywhere you are.
Check out the video below and discover our Microsoft Teams integration for yourself. This is how you capture any knowledge that’s sent through messages and share content within the app. We integrate with Slack and plenty of other tools too.
Where do most of us turn to when we really want to know something? Of course, it’s Google. In fact, there are more than 3.5 billion daily searches. You can either fight to break that habit or work with it…
We decided to go with the latter, which is why our Browser Extension surfaces relevant content from your knowledge base as you search in Google.
Let’s round this up with some numbers that hammer home this point. On average, we spend 25% of our time at work trying to find information. Having a central base for knowledge has been shown to cut that by up to 35%. Lastly, this is how learners like to learn – 49% prefer to find information at their point of need.
2. Social learning and knowledge sharing for all
When you use a traditional learning management system, a few people decide on the learning content, and it travels in one direction, from the top down. That misses out on all the skills, talent and experiences of your subject matter experts.
HowNow empowers people to capture and share knowledge or resources with their peers in the form of Nuggets, helping to break that knowledge out of silos. Which is handy, because 70% of what we learn at work happens through social interactions with our teammates.
3. Identify and close your skill gaps
A big part of progress and development is understanding the skills people have, need and the gap between. Which is why we’re more concerned with helping you measure skills than ticking boxes.
Build skills profiles for everyone in your team by using self- and peer-review, automating skills to job roles in HowNow. To help you understand how your skills compare to those that are in-demand, we analyse more than 500,000 live job roles to enable skill benchmarking.
Once you’ve identified the skills gaps, it’s time close them! Use HowNow to create personalised learning pathways for your people, while giving them the tools to search for and find knowledge independently.
4. Content recommendations based on your behaviour and interests
Ever seen people compare learning platforms to Netflix? The in-demand format and recommendation aspect make it a pretty good comparison, but there’s one thing those people have forgotten. Netflix wants to hang around, that’s why you get those messages asking if you’re still there and auto-playing next episodes.
Well, we don’t want you binge-watching in HowNow for hours on end, we want to connect you with the information you need, in a format that helps you learn and apply it quickly.
We use AI to send you content that relates to your behaviour, goals and interests. The more you use HowNow, the more we understand you and the better those recommendations get.
If you closely at the image above, you’ll spot Channels on the left-hand side. This is where you can subscribe to topics that interest you and find knowledge independently – it’s not all about the recommendations.
5. We’re driving performance and development across 10,000+ teams at forward-thinking companies.
Here are just some of the companies that we’re helping to onboard, upskill and enable their people: Gymshark, Infinity Works, Investec, Telefonica, Telenor, Deutsche Bank and plenty more.
Take HowNow for a spin and book your free trial today!
Cons
We’re going to be pretty shameless here and do the classic trick of turning a con into a pro, but at least we’re honest about it. So, we’ve not been around as some of the learning management systems on this list. But that means we’re still growing, evolving and listening to the people that use our platform every day.
We’re not set in our ways, we’ll always listen to your feedback and encourage you to help up shape the HowNow of tomorrow, today.
Pros
One thing that’s pretty clear from the reviews is that Lessonly is quite straightforward to use. You can drop media directly into your lessons and then pop them into your courses. The reporting experience backs this up, as it’s easy to report on individual resources, courses, learners and groups.
Lessonly also receives a lot of praise for its self-testing capabilities. Learners can practice what they’ve learnt using Flip and Reveal Cards, as well as practising pitches and much more.
Cons
Source: Software Advice
Offering an intuitive search function when you’re finding content is key, yet sadly reviewers hinted at the opposite for Lessonly – which might limit its usefulness as your knowledge base. Others highlighted that you can’t flag sections of resources that you’d want to revisit later if only there was a way to do that…
If you’re looking for lots of customisation, look away now. Limitations on branding, the fonts at your disposal and the samey look and feel to courses were concerns for reviewers. If you’ve got loads of content, you want it to be fresh and exciting! Yet “Lessonly lessons have to fit a strict format/style guide.”
Pros
Docebo is another alternative that people find easy to use and understand. You can build out admin dashboards and learner pages in drag and drop style, while the platform automatically tags your content. Using AI, it can then connect the right people with it. Their Q&A function encourages people to share their experiences and learn from each other. So far, so good! But, as you can see in the review below, there might be better options…
Cons
Source: Capterra
Don’t you hate it when a new feature’s released, you get excited, and then there’s a bug! Well, you’d find common ground with a fair few users and reviewers. Of course, they’re fixed pretty quickly but it’s still frustrating. Custom reporting was another area that left people feeling a little flat, and others didn’t speak too glowingly of the integration capabilities.
Source: Capterra
Pros
The great Thrive dilemma, there’s lots of content readily available but is it a little limited?
At time of writing, there are more than 130 courses available, and that means lots of off-the-shelf e-learning modules. Reviewers stated that they’re varied enough to prevent them feeling too similar. The focus is on microlearning, meaning their catalogue cuts out the unnecessary and focuses on what’s crucial. However, as you’ll see in the cons, some were left wanting more.
It’s also worth highlighting that the platform encourages people to learn socially and creating their own content while using AI to recommend relevant resources.
Cons
Back to that microlearning approach, it’s all about the balance between getting the key information in there but making sure resources are extensive enough. However, some reviewers felt that they needed more resources beyond those basics, and the off-the-shelf components caused a similar concern. Others users flagged that it prevented them from tailoring the courses to their brand and adding in the content types that they preferred. Namely, the quizzes and tests, which helps you establish, retain and build on those core ideas.
Pros
Let’s loop you in on Looop, the learning management system with countless reviews about its ease of use. Why? Creating your content is simple, as is sending it out – so you don’t need a full-on training course to get going with it. Speaking of getting going, its mobile app lets you learn on the go and Looop’s integrations help you find resources in more places. Lastly, if you’re looking to automate communications and sending resources to your people, there’s a Campaigns feature for that.
Cons
It’s important to point out that even when people highlight the negatives, you can tell that they like Looop. They start along the lines of, ‘If there was one thing, I would say…’. However, we still need to let you know what those issues are as they might be dealbreakers for you!
So, here’s the list. Some flagged that re-ordering their courses wasn’t particularly easy, or seeing all of the resources in a workspace. Others wanted better event features and manager dashboards, while there were some left craving greater user insights and less samey content.
Pros
For some reviewers, it was all about the freedom. Freedom to customise according to their brand, edit courses and harness the easy-to-use drag and drop interface. Absorb LMS offers a library of pre-built courses so that you can hit the ground running from day one. The ability to incorporate the in-built tests and quizzes allows you to measure progress, while there’s an eCommerce feature for those wanting to sell courses.
Cons
Source: Capterra
For some users, the reporting functions of this learning management system were a little underwhelming. In fact, one even stated that “the reporting capabilities leaves a lot to be desired”. The ability to customise what’s included when you’re exporting reports and running reports for courses that include subcategories. Similarly, others flagged frustrations with the limitations of the assessment tools.
If you look at the review above, the issues of transitions from a platform that Absorb LMS acquired doesn’t give the impression of it being easy to use. Which is something supported by the one below.
Pros
The first thing to point out is Degreed‘s content library. Reportedly, they curate more than 200,000 resources from a total of 1,000 providers. And there’s useful search and filter functionality to help you navigate through it all. It’s not all about learning from those external sources, Degreed gives you visibility into your peers’ learning and offers a place to discuss content and progress with them. You can also bookmark useful content as you come across it, and tap into informal learning, such as books and videos.
Cons
As you might expect, some people found such a huge amount of content an overwhelming prospect when trying to learn. Some cited that the interface wasn’t particularly user friendly, which didn’t help. It also highlights why so many people search for AI-based learning platforms to receive relevant content.
Source: G2
Reporting, the common pain point we’ve seen across this article. And there’s no change here, some bemoaned needing to be a collaborator in order to get full visibility and others wanted it to be clearer what they’d shared.
Meanwhile, some highlighted they found it tricky to add external content, possibly because of a lack of clarity or instruction on how to make the most out of the platform. Lastly, an overwhelming news feed was an issue for some, who felt a little bombarded by content.
Honestly, we don’t know yet… because we haven’t spoken with you. So, with one last nod to our old friend drag and drop, why don’t you drag your mouse to this link, and drop us a message so that we can chat about your learning needs!
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