Canvas vs. HealthStream Learning & Performance

It is really well suited for school situations like knowing what [assignments] need to be done when, getting feedback, getting points, finding the slides that the teacher used for explaining an [assignment] or theory. I think It would be less suited in business situations because it's [primarily] made to be a [one-way] communication tool for schools. Businesses need more control on individual levels I think[.]

Incentivized

HealthStream is a wonderful tool for assigning assessments and evaluating knowledge. The assessments have a large pool of questions to pull from. The exams are timed and will generate a test report at the end of the exam so the clinical team can see what tests were passed and failed. These are helpful in ensuring we know what the nurse needs extra education on. HealthStream would be less suited for education items that would need to be validated in person...skills such as CPR.

Incentivized

• Creativity options for teachers to create a virtual space that still has fun graphics and accessibility options.
• Canvas has versatility in viewing options for assignment due dates such as the calendar built in feature as well as the dashboard options to display upcoming and due assignments.
• Allowing teachers to create community with each other and collaborate in each-other's space.
• Discussion platforms within classrooms for students to communicate with each-other and with their teachers.
• Easy messaging portal within each virtual classroom.

Incentivized

• Reporting. Having the ability to track compliance (and non-compliance) at our fingertips ensures that we are up-to-date with Federal, State, Local and internal policies, requirements and educational initiatives
• Customization. Developing in-house materials, specific to our variable training needs is a huge plus - HealthStream's commitment to SCORM-ready content since 2011 has made it simple for us to connect, engage and interact with all of our staff and providers.
• Integration. Allowing us to interface with our HRM/HRIS systems is invaluable. Keeping up with a dynamic workforce, both in terms of retention and attrition, would not be possible without our current interface structures.

• Their integration with Big Blue Button was a bust for distance learning. Would be great to see them collaborate with Zoom or Google Meets.
• Their "feature request" process is slow and cumbersome at times because it relies on user "up votes" to get ideas addressed by the developers.
• They seem to have a lot of turn-over with their staff. We get a new Customer Success Manager far more frequently than with other vendors.

Incentivized

• Embedding elearning tutorials into HealthStream can be a bit complicated, and even slow down the site for the end user. In my experience, I found it much easier to just offer a link to the tutorial through the assessment portion.
• Keeping users synced into the most up-to-date user groups can be a bit tricky. If you create your own student groups, and then these students transfer to a different job role or department, you will manually have to make these changes yourself. A more automated process would be great.

The other LMS tools have fallen behind. One reason is they are not able to update their systems, features, toolsets in a timely manner. While other LMS providers release bug fixes and new features several times a year, schools struggle to install and implement them in a timely manner. It is not uncommon for a school to take 6 months to a year to fully install and implement new releases on other LMS platforms. With Canvas, those features are released every 3 weeks, and there is nothing for a school to do other than choose to turn them on once released. This has allowed Instructure to innovate faster, and get new features and tools to customers quicker. Other factors include great pricing, customer support, and the innovative way in which LTI is implemented in the tool.

Incentivized

We just can't imagine NOT having HealthStream as it has become such a part of our training system. The per user cost has actually gone down from 3 years ago. However, we are using more courses we have purchased. This allows us to be more efficient with our time and more convenient for the end users. We are considering purchasing other aspects of the system.

The functions in Canvas are well integrated and consistent across the application, and mostly intuitive. Overall navigation and setup is streamlined through integrated features and navigation. The feedback we've gotten from our program participants is that it is easy to learn to use. It also integrates well with third party software like Google Docs and Blackboard Collaborate web conferencing software

Incentivized

I do not personally use Canvas support since we have a central office that helps us. However, our central office always has the answers we need and are always able to solve our issues - so I would assume that get great support from the Canvas team on their end. They also offer great training, which uses materials directly from Canvas

Incentivized

I only used HealthStream for a short time, but it wasn’t overly user-friendly or pretty. There were some quirks that I didn’t like, like the quiz builder or uploading lists. Whenever you assigned a group it was difficult to tell and confirm that the assignment went out. Overall I like other systems better.

Incentivized

The training sessions were broken down into several days as well as different levels depending upon the knowledge of the user

Incentivized

The online tutorials and videos are very clear and addressed the issues/questions that I had about using the system.

Incentivized

Once you purchase and sign the contract there is nothing to install or hardware to buy. You can almost immediately start using it and have courses up and going within weeks. We signed in December and had pilot courses online ready to go for the start of school in January

Incentivized

Canvas is more secure, has a cleaner design, and has more features. For the features, they have in common canvas still stacks up against [Smart school] by going for the extra mile. Besidfor e that, [the] canvas looks a lot more [professional] than [Smart school]. I didn't make the decision myself to get canvas instead of [Smart school] but I'm happy they did.

The interface for HealthStream is 1000x better than My Learning. I still struggle to find my assignments and upcoming in person training on My Learning. It is not intuitive and doesn't have a dashboard when you sign on to see everything at once. HealthStream lets me easily see my assignments, their due dates, and any upcoming dates

Incentivized

• Canvas has helped us provide a more robust online component to our courses.
• Canvas has helped us better adapt to a rapidly changing educational landscape.
• Canvas has reduced the time that we have to spend training faculty on how to use our learning management system.

Incentivized

• More efficiency. Easy way to implement training to a larger group of people.
• Helps to orientate new hires to our organization quicker.
• Consistency with training messages. We can communicate a method that can be easily adopted and implement across the organization.