Canvas vs. iSpring Suite

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

iSpring Suite gives me a platform to easily create training courses for any number of subjects, custom-designed to fit my workplace. I can include quizzes that allow me to track both the completion rate of the course and the success rate of the training. Its user-friendliness stands out and makes my role as Training Director much easier on a day-to-day basis.

• 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

• Great range of images to use to show real people in the slides across the slideset because of the number of different actions they are doing
• Support is easy to access and always helpful with easy to understand advice as well as links to further knowledge
• Recording narration and editing within the iSpring Suite presentation makes it easy to use this function as a novice.

Incentivized

• 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

• More facial expressions of the characters.
• Update independent of my prompting/box checking.
• Add details on what the customized play includes when the mouse hovers over the icon. It took a bit of time to realize that this was where we could select different layouts.

Incentivized

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

I would give it 10 but I also like to try new solutions.

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

iSpring Suite is a perfect tool overall to create contents in collaboration with colleagues. There are some difficulties though in usability but the usability is OK in total. We are fully satisfied with the customer support. There are simple online tutorials and a team of competent support colleagues. The support content is sometimes not simply accessible, you need to search for them longer.

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

Great software is only exceeded by their fantastic support. Prompt responses, complete with clearly outlined steps to follow, are just the beginning. There are tremendous resources and continual webinars to challenge what we think we know about the iSpring Suite. I often use PowerPoint to lay out marketing slides, add music and narration, then publish them as an MP4 video. I can count on iSpring support to assist me when I need help.

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.

Ultimately, I selected iSpring Suite because of the ease of use and small learning curve. I needed to be able to start creating content immediately, and after doing trial periods with iSpring as well as some of the other options, it was clear that I could be up and running the quickest with iSpring. I don't see any features that are missing for what I need, and it was also the cheapest option.

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

• The ROI on this product has been great
• It has enhance my reputation personally within the organization. This has led to other departments requesting me by name to head up eLearning development projects, even delaying their own deadlines to ensure that I am involved.
• Other than a few duds (I let some inexperienced vocal talent slip thru in the heat of multiple conflicting deadlines), learner feedback has skyrocketed over that developed before I became involved and standardized the effort on iSpring