D2L Brightspace vs. VAIRKKO

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
D2L Brightspace
Score 6.1 out of 10
N/A
Brightspace is an academic and corporate learning management platform. It provides core e-learning features, as well as mobile accessibility and granular personalization and analytics insights.N/A
VAIRKKO
Score 7.5 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
VAIRKKO offers a unique a-la-carte software eco-system offering both Learning Management and HR Products all from within a single platform. Users can purchase only the modules that they want, when they want them. Solutions to meet organizations' needs include Tracking Training, Learning Management Systems(LMS), HRIS (Human Resources Information System), Performance Management, Onboarding, Applicant Tracking, Policy and Document Management.
$1
per month per user
Pricing
D2L BrightspaceVAIRKKO
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
D2L BrightspaceVAIRKKO
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee$500 one-time fee
Additional DetailsMust contact vendor for pricing information. 30-day free trial is available.
More Pricing Information
Features
D2L BrightspaceVAIRKKO
Learning Management
Comparison of Learning Management features of Product A and Product B
D2L Brightspace
5.8
10 Ratings
34% below category average
VAIRKKO
7.2
3 Ratings
13% below category average
Course authoring2.010 Ratings8.21 Ratings
Course catalog or library10.06 Ratings3.61 Ratings
Player/Portal9.87 Ratings7.31 Ratings
Learning content9.69 Ratings6.42 Ratings
Mobile friendly1.09 Ratings6.53 Ratings
Progress tracking & certifications9.49 Ratings8.53 Ratings
Assignments2.010 Ratings8.23 Ratings
Compliance management8.01 Ratings8.53 Ratings
Learning administration2.09 Ratings8.32 Ratings
Learning reporting & analytics2.010 Ratings8.23 Ratings
Social learning8.49 Ratings6.41 Ratings
Single Sign On (SSO) Enabled Learning00 Ratings6.41 Ratings
Best Alternatives
D2L BrightspaceVAIRKKO
Small Businesses
iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn
Score 9.4 out of 10
iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn
Score 9.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Schoology Learning
Schoology Learning
Score 9.7 out of 10
iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn
Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
Schoology Learning
Schoology Learning
Score 9.7 out of 10
Axonify
Axonify
Score 9.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
D2L BrightspaceVAIRKKO
Likelihood to Recommend
1.0
(45 ratings)
7.5
(3 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(25 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
6.4
(11 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
4.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
1.6
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
D2L BrightspaceVAIRKKO
Likelihood to Recommend
D2L
If you're an educational institution (K-12, Higher Ed, etc.), this is an amazing tool, and it will provide you all the functionality to support anything you may want and need it to do. If you are looking at Brightspace as a tool for corporate training, I'm not sure exactly how good or bad it will be for you. My guess would be that it likely depends on your organization's size. Along that line, what I can speak to is how we use it for our customized training and in-house professional development/training, and it works fantastically for that. While we primarily use it for normal higher ed coursework, we regularly do training and professional development for all of our employees and I manage those along with our HR department. Because we use it for many other things as well, all of our employees are familiar with the product, which makes our trainings go that much smoother and makes my job that much easier.
Read full review
VAIRKKO
VAIRKKO is very well-suited to track HR information and scheduling. It is a bit more difficult to create training and disseminate it to employees, but once you get past the learning curve, it works nicely. It's easy to track your employees' certifications and credentials, with reminders for recertifying and the ability to update certs as needed. Scheduling is not difficult, and one can track staffing issues easily.
Read full review
Pros
D2L
  • Allowing users to embed content links from YouTube or Google Drive enables learners to experience a richer lesson.
  • Providing a powerful editor that allows developers to also include content from Adobe Stock as well as textbook publishers and cloud storage companies gives more power and creative ability to instructors.
  • Providing scaling for mobile and traditional computer systems ensures students will not have issues on the go.
  • The customization of home pages and groups enable courses to be used for small training sessions with breakout groups, large courses with separate sections, and even just more engaging courses that present themed icons and logos.
Read full review
VAIRKKO
  • Certificate assignment
  • Reporting
  • Giving insights
Read full review
Cons
D2L
  • One can feel a bit rushed on the Brightspace platform during the log-out period. Security requirements may require this, but it makes end-users more conscious about getting through content than taking notes.
  • From my experience, there is not a direct connection between the platform and Outlook.
  • Some content on the platform can feel redundant.
Read full review
VAIRKKO
  • When I update an employee's general information page - if they do not have Custom User name listed - it puts my name in there and my password - when this happens the information I added is not going to be saved. If I am working on the top of the page - I don't see this unless I remember to check. Please don't let this be an automatic fill in.
  • Too many search tools - highlighting the most used would be great
  • When a person's schedule is changed - you lose their previous schedule. So when we need to look back and see when a person worked but realize they changed shifts and we no longer have it in Vairkko - it becomes very challenging.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
D2L
I would never give any system a perfect score. In the technology environment today we need to be constantly looking at ways to improve the user experience and LMS companies like Desire2Learn need to know that we have options today with other systems and they need to stay current with features and listen to their customers.
Read full review
VAIRKKO
No answers on this topic
Usability
D2L
Overall, the learning environment works as expected. However, there are plenty of bugs. For example, for a few versions, trying to print out a PDF from the Content screen in several browsers would produce a blank page. We inform D2L support about these issues, most of which are known issues. However, they are very slow to respond. D2L seems to spend more time selling than actually coding and testing their product. Most of the issues are not major -- however, there have been a few that are unbelievable. In fact, this past week we had a sudden issue where the "Submit" button in quizzes would not appear if users had a certain browser/operating system combination. This is a major problem, if students cannot submit their exams! D2L is slow to respond to these kinds of situations, which do occur more often than I would like.
Read full review
VAIRKKO
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
D2L
Both students and instructor enjoy the 24-hoiur access. After, all isn't that the point of online learning. As an instructor located in an Eastern time zone state it is great to connect with students located in a Pacific time zone state. I have gotten comments about the early hours I am in the course room grading assignments . . . 4:00 a.m. PST; 7:00 a.m. EST So, it's sleep time for my students and "first cup of coffee" time for me.
Read full review
VAIRKKO
No answers on this topic
Performance
D2L
Easy to navigate; little to no delay from one section of the course room to another; actually fun to use after overcoming the learning curve.
Read full review
VAIRKKO
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
D2L
I have had excellent support from Desire2Learn. Any ticket that I submit is acknowledged immediately and the correction is usually almost as quick. We use this for thousands of classes and it is pretty well liked by both faculty and students. We have been using it for almost 4 years now and most of our instructors have become pretty proficient with it.
Read full review
VAIRKKO
No answers on this topic
In-Person Training
D2L
Did not participate in the in-person training due to distance; training was completed online
Read full review
VAIRKKO
No answers on this topic
Online Training
D2L
The training provided online did not, necessarily, fit the version of the system that I was using. Screens were somewhat different and not all options were readily available. This could have been due to customization on the part of my institution however, I rather believe it was due to version changes and training materials not yet being updated.
Read full review
VAIRKKO
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
D2L
The D2L implementation team listened to our concerns and built a system based upon our needs. We wanted to keep them after the initial implementation.
Read full review
VAIRKKO
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
D2L
I have used Blackboard Learn 8 and 9. I am currently learning about Canvas. Blackboard is overall much clunkier and lacks the intuitive feel in some parts of D2L. Its grade book is much harder to control and manipulate than D2L's. Its navigation menu can be more radically modified from the default than D2L's, but this doesn't seem that useful to me. Discussions in Blackboard can be more easily reorganized than in D2L, but no grading of discussions is possible. Blackboard Assignments is a good innovation which allows markup directly in the students' submissions, but it displays student work in a confusing manner that doesn't allow for any customization, and its markup options need further tweaking. Furthermore, no rubrics can be used in Blackboard in any way to grade any kind of work (that I am aware of). Overall, I would choose D2L over Blackboard.
Read full review
VAIRKKO
Certification Cloud is easy to use and stands out from a pricing point of view. It just does the job at a really low price point
Read full review
Scalability
D2L
During my first semester working with Desire2Learn the integrated learning management system was more down than up. This meant reconfiguring assignment due dates, frustration for both the instructor, students, and help desk staff. After an upgrade, Desire2Learn has been reliable.
Read full review
VAIRKKO
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
D2L
  • I cannot speak to whether this system is less expensive than the more fully featured Blackboard, but employees are far less efficient, frustrated, and require frequent calls to the help center to set up fairly simple course templates.
  • I have been asked to consider teaching courses which will be completely online at my current institution. I have done such online courses several times at other universities, but I have decided Desire2Learn is too frustrating and cumbersome to do so. I am now exploring using Google Drive to teach a course online. Otherwise, I will not teach online until required or I find an alternate system.
Read full review
VAIRKKO
  • It's cleaned up our former filing process and simplified record access
  • It's allowed management to perform at-a-glance training performance, and given us the ability to modify our training on-the-fly.
Read full review
ScreenShots

D2L Brightspace Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of

VAIRKKO Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of