LMS and Quality Matters Evaluation
The problems: 1. A need to consider the "behind the scenes" functionality of the Learning Management Systems. 2. A need to make sure the company supporting the LMS is financially solvent and provides adequate technical support and training. 3. A desire to make sure that customer satisfaction levels are high.
LMS Evaluation Introduction
The task this week is to compare two learning management systems (LMSs): D2L Brightspace and Canvas by Instructure to see which of the two is more efficient, more intuitive and more functional for both faculty and students. For both of the learning management systems this week, the following will be compared:
1. customer satisfaction levels.
2. training.
3. technical support.
4. costs.
5. analytic data provided from LMS.
Much of the data obtained for this report came from presentations and interviews of LMS administrators from midsize to large universities in the Mid West. This information is not cited to maintain their privacy. All information taken from academic sources and online are properly cited.
1. customer satisfaction levels.
2. training.
3. technical support.
4. costs.
5. analytic data provided from LMS.
Much of the data obtained for this report came from presentations and interviews of LMS administrators from midsize to large universities in the Mid West. This information is not cited to maintain their privacy. All information taken from academic sources and online are properly cited.
D2L Brightspace LMS Evaluation |
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Brightspace Customer Satisfaction level
Brightspace seems to have a high customer service rating. They are felt to be reliable. Even when the user is not on the cloud there were no major outages. On the negative side, some people felt they were not good at communication, especially during upgrades. They have a very active D2L community, but unless you are constantly watching the community updates, you will not have the most recent information. According to an administrator, the top three factors for customer satisfaction are technology support, 24/7 chat support and self help/JIT resources.
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Brightspace was felt to integrate well with third party applications include Google Apps and Microsoft Office. When social mentions were analyzed by FinancesOnline, D2L was found to have 99 positive social mentions and 2 negative mentions.
Another administrator voiced some concerns with the discussion board, hidden costs with 3rd party applications and difficulty integrating some third party add-ons. |
D2L has a slow and steady growth rate with its Brightspace learning platform. Except for a few schools, the entire customer base is running the latest version of their platform and is cloud hosted. (edutechnica, 2017)
According to lms.softwareinsider.com Brightspace has above average administrative features, far above average collaboration features, above average course development features and among the best for instruction methods ("Brightspace", 2017).
Eduventures stated that D2L received more than 1/4th of its new features from a community of Brightspace users called the Product Idea Exchange. D2L enjoys a nearly 99% client retention rate (eduventures 2017).
According to lms.softwareinsider.com Brightspace has above average administrative features, far above average collaboration features, above average course development features and among the best for instruction methods ("Brightspace", 2017).
Eduventures stated that D2L received more than 1/4th of its new features from a community of Brightspace users called the Product Idea Exchange. D2L enjoys a nearly 99% client retention rate (eduventures 2017).
Brightspace Training Capabilities
Brightspace provides a migration package to migrate from another LMS to Brightspace. The training provided overall was felt to be minimal especially the administrative training, but it has been improving, according to one administrator. The training manuals are written on a general level and frequently have to be rewritten to be relevant to the faculty. The cost of training materials are built into the basic package.
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According to Finances Online, D2L is felt to have a devoted technical support team. They feel that the D2L system really does not require training, but there is website training material available. The costs of training materials are built into the basic package.
There are a wide range of tutorial videos in Atomic Learning as well as the Brightspace D2L web page. |
Brightspace Level of Technical Support
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According to an administrator, the level of technical support was felt to be excellent if you pay for a technical account manager who acts as the institution's point of contact. Benefits of this service include weekly meetings and escalated tickets. D2L is also moving toward continuous delivery which will minimize the need for upgrades and the associated downtime.
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The administrator interviewed was from a school that self-hosted D2L. This means that they are responsible for some of their own technical support including preservation of data, but the result is a lower overall cost.
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According to Eduventure (see chart above) Brightspace is one of three LMSs that have the most comprehensive, holistic platforms designed to support instructional designers through both importing course from other LMSs and authoring new courses. They feel that strengths of the system include their training and support community and the fact that they integrate well will a number of other systems (eduventure, 2016).
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Brightspace Costs
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According to TrainingOnline website the pricing scheme for D2L is flexible and each user receives a separate quote based on needs and expectations. In D2L there is pressure on users to move to the cloud which has a higher intrinsic cost. In addition to cloud storage and backup costs there are licensing fees charged by the geographic location where the cloud is located.
Like most learning management systems the cost will vary depending on negotiation, number of users and number of add-ons that the school requires. In one university the annual cost for D2L was $125,000 for approximately 15,000 students. Upgrades cost an average of $5,000 each. There was also an approximately $10,000 cost to transition from another LMS. According to lms.softwareinsider.com detailed pricing information is not publicly available. You must contact a vendor in order to get a price quote. |
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Brightspace Analytic Data
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According to FinancesOnline, Brightspace has a powerful built in analytics feature, but a university surveyed said that Brightspace does provide analytic data, but they have not worked well. In addition, the data analytics package did not integrate well with other university systems.
According to Brightspace, data from their entire learning platform can be analyzed in real time. Instructors can use specific metrics to analyze where their students are succeeding and where they are struggling. Data can be used from inside the Brightspace LMS as well as outside learning sources via Caliper standards (Brightspace, 2017). |
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Canvas by Instructure Evaluation |
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Canvas Customer Satisfaction Levels
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Faculty buy-in is the driving force in whether there will be support for a learning management system. Canvas is a cloud based service so when the cloud services go down the LMS also goes down. They are 99.95% of the time up and on time. Canvas is felt to be strong in student to student and student to faculty interaction, but in 2012 were felt to be lacking in administrative tools.
According to Phil Hill on e-Literate website, Canvas is the fastest-growing LMS and there is no other solution that is even close to matching Canvas's growth. |
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In the Spring, 2017 update on edutechnica.com Canvas is stated to be the #2 LMS in US higher education, passing Moodle in both number of institutions and student enrollments.
Another administrator from a midwest university said that the faculty universally loves Canvas. He said that Canvas also provides a 99.5% up time guarantee and this was backed up by a contract that if they fail to meet this standard the university does not have to pay. |
Canvas Training Capabilities
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Canvas provides a train the trainer model from which the university can develop training modules. Online modules seem to work much more effectively than printed manuals.
Canvas Commons was well received by a number of instructors. It is a learning object repository where quizzes, modules and courses can be shared. Templates for every style course are available to help new course creators quickly get started (PC Magazine, 2017). An administrator for a mid-western university said that Canvas provides updates, like clockwork, every three weeks and the on site trainers are pre-notified of changes. This allows them to develop a webinar to train faculty about the available updates. |
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Canvas Level of Technical Support
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Canvas is felt to have good integration with 3rd party applications. Like most learning management systems they provide differential service levels with associated differential costs.
According to PC Magazine, Canvas's standard web hosting will reduce maintenance costs, it is simpler to use and it is free to try. All three of these features make Canvas an attractive choice for a LMS (PC Magazine, 2017) |
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Canvas explains their tiers of support on their web site. They have a standard bundle and a 24/7 for an additional fee bundle. In both plans the institution provides Tier 1 help at their help desk for all users. In the standard version admins can call Canvas support from 6am-6pm local time M-F. Admins can choose to escalate tickets. In the 24/7 plan, admins get support 24/7 and can escalate tickets. There are additional fee based plans in which Canvas provides Tier 1 support for just faculty and admins or for all users.
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Canvas Costs
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According to PC magazine, Canvas boasts transparency and affordability to its pricing structure, but the author was unable to secure any hard numbers. Canvas is priced slightly better than Blackboard, which is believed to be on the high end of LMSs. Canvas does charge a one-time setup fee, an annual subscription fee and then determines pricing based on size, training and the support needs of the institution (PC Magazine, 2017).
One midwestern university shared that their cost was $252,000 year or about $15.75 student/year. The university moved from Blackboard and found Canvas was significantly less expensive. |
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Canvas Analytic Data
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Canvas says that they developed a dashboard approach to analytics so that students can see a dashboard of their performance, course activity and performance in comparison to the rest of the class. Teachers can monitor a whole class, compare courses side by side, identify at-risk students and intervene when needed.
One reviewer on Trustradius.com said that they feel that the data is not very accessible on Canvas despite API availability. That users are charged for access to their own data. PC Magazine said that Canvas ties all assessments to specific outcomes which allows robust student tracking. The customizable dashboard is useful to both instructor and student. Visual charts, graphs and tables make analyzing data easy and intuitive (PC Magazine, 2017).
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An administrator who uses Canvas said that the analytics will never be to the level that is required for accreditation, but some faculty users have developed ways to develop analytic data. This ability differs based on on-premise verses in the cloud. System wide he feels that Canvas provides good data about the system and its use.
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LMS Weekly Recommendation
1. Customer Satisfaction Level
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Both Canvas by Instructure and Brightspace D2L have very high customer service ratings. On financeonline.com they were compared head-to-head for client experience and Canvas scored 100% while Brightspace score 98%.
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2. Training and Support
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Brightspace provides phone, ticket training and live support, whereas Canvas provides phone support and training. Brightspace seems to prevail in this category.
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3. Technical Support
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Both LMSs provide different packages of technical support. D2L provides the opportunity to have a technical account manager who provides ready service. Canvas provides a number of tiers with access to a help desk. Brightspace seems to excel in this category.
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4.Costs and Hidden Costs
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Costs and hidden costs are difficult to adequately compare because of the number of variables involved so they would be rated as equal due to lack of information.
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5. Analytical Data Provided by LMS
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Both Learning Management Systems say that they have robust data analytics, but the reviews were mixed for both Learning Management Systems so this category cannot be fairly evaluated.
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Weekly Recommendation: D2L won based on individual assessment categories, but the data was difficult to interpret and was subjective and Canvas has a lot of faculty support.
Editor rating: excellent Comments September 08, 2016. (n.d.). Instructure Canvas LMS. Retrieved April 07, 2017, from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2490586,00.asp
"Brightspace". Lms.softwareinsider.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 7 Apr. 2017.
Five EdTech Companies to Watch: Q2. (2017, April 03). Retrieved April 07, 2017, from http://www.eduventures.com/2017/04/5-edtech-companies-watch-q2/
"D2L's Brightspace Ranked The #1 LMS For Next-Gen Online Teaching And Learning By Global Analyst Firm Ovum". Finance.yahoo.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 7 Apr. 2017.
State of Higher Ed LMS Market for US and Canada: Spring 2016 Edition. (2017, February 23). Retrieved April 05, 2017, from http://mfeldstein.com/state-higher-ed-lms-market-spring-2016/
(n.d.). Retrieved April 05, 2017, from http://edutechnica.com/2017/03/12/lms-data-spring-2017-updates/
"Brightspace". Lms.softwareinsider.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 7 Apr. 2017.
Five EdTech Companies to Watch: Q2. (2017, April 03). Retrieved April 07, 2017, from http://www.eduventures.com/2017/04/5-edtech-companies-watch-q2/
"D2L's Brightspace Ranked The #1 LMS For Next-Gen Online Teaching And Learning By Global Analyst Firm Ovum". Finance.yahoo.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 7 Apr. 2017.
State of Higher Ed LMS Market for US and Canada: Spring 2016 Edition. (2017, February 23). Retrieved April 05, 2017, from http://mfeldstein.com/state-higher-ed-lms-market-spring-2016/
(n.d.). Retrieved April 05, 2017, from http://edutechnica.com/2017/03/12/lms-data-spring-2017-updates/
