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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    MindTap

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AMindTap is an eLearning course management solution from Cengage, a digital learning content and technology provider. For educators, it includes pre-made interactive course materials (such as homework assignments, assessments, etc.), analytics around student engagement and performance, and the ability to customize courses. For students, MindTap offers a mobile app to access eBooks, flashcards, quizzes, grades, and due date reminders.N/A

    Ion Interactive

    Score8 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    Ion is an enterprise-grade content experience platform that empowers modern marketers and designers to create no-code interactive content experiences integrated with their CRM or marketing automation tools.N/A
    Pricing
    MindTapIon Interactive
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Managed Services + SaaS
    Custom
    per year
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    MindTapIon Interactive
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee$5,500 per customer
    Additional Details—ion’s Build Anything SaaS platform provides organizations with an entirely new and agile interactive content marketing capability. It enables non-technical marketers and designers to create, test and measure an unlimited number of all types of interactive content marketing experiences. It includes unlimited seats, experiences, tests, customization, phone and email support, analytics and more.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    MindTapIon Interactive
    Considered Both Products
    Cengage
    No answer on this topic
    Ion Interactive LLC
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    86%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    86%
    Delivers good value for the price
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    86%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    83%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    86%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    MindTapIon Interactive
    Content Creation
    Comparison of Content Creation features of Cengage MindTap and Ion Interactive
    Feature
    Cengage MindTap
    -
    Ratings
    Ion Interactive
    7.5
    105 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Ideation00 Ratings10.099 Ratings
    Content collaboration00 Ratings5.094 Ratings
    Content Publishing
    Comparison of Content Publishing features of Cengage MindTap and Ion Interactive
    Feature
    Cengage MindTap
    -
    Ratings
    Ion Interactive
    8.7
    120 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Content hub00 Ratings10.0104 Ratings
    Forms / Gated content00 Ratings10.0107 Ratings
    Embedded CTAs00 Ratings10.0108 Ratings
    Content distribution00 Ratings8.093 Ratings
    Content promotion00 Ratings8.086 Ratings
    Content automation00 Ratings6.090 Ratings
    Content Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Content Reporting & Analytics features of Cengage MindTap and Ion Interactive
    Feature
    Cengage MindTap
    -
    Ratings
    Ion Interactive
    8.5
    118 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Audience profiling and targeting00 Ratings6.091 Ratings
    Closed-loop tracking and reporting00 Ratings8.095 Ratings
    Content performance analytics00 Ratings10.0116 Ratings
    Campaign optimization dashboard00 Ratings10.0107 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    MindTapIon Interactive
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Contently
    Score9.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    CoSchedule Marketing Suite
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    PathFactory
    Score8.3 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    MindTapIon Interactive
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.5
    (8 ratings)
    10.0
    (135 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    7.0
    (22 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.4
    (17 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.9
    (3 ratings)
    10.0
    (18 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (6 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    MindTapIon Interactive
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cengage
    We started using the application optimally at the beginning as a digital learning and consultation platform. In it we imported all kinds of bibliographic material so that students could access them with the ease of a tap. The application is perfect for those instructors who are not beginners in HTML. In that case, the application very practically allows them to create a complete course in the shortest possible time because it has a state-of-the-art instructional design. It was excellent for unifying all the basic course plans between teachers teaching the same subject, giving the advantage that all courses at the same level would have exactly the same information and nothing would be overlooked
    Incentivized
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    Ion Interactive LLC
    If you want to choose a quick start template and fill in the fields with your content, Ion will be fantastic for you. We've done this with whitepapers and quizzes and it's been great and extremely easy to use. If you have an exact idea of what you want, and a background in web development, you may get frustrated. Ion has some quirks that make it tricky to fully customize - everyone once in a while I really just want to go into the HTML and make some changes, but can't. If you are looking to reuse a piece of content for specific targeting (industry or account-specific), Ion is great. The dynamic substitutions are great and very helpful.
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    Pros
    Cengage
    • digital textbook platform with accessibility tools (read-aloud, note taking)
    • interactive exercises and practice tools
    • assessments including self-check quizzes and customizable exams
    • LTI integration to pass grade information to learning management system
    • excellent support for faculty
    Incentivized
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    Ion Interactive LLC
    • Quick Starts make it so easy to get started.
    • Real-time updates are awesome and save a ton of wasteful process.
    • The combination of user friendliness for simple things and the flexibility to do more complex things is great.
    • Chat support is excellent and deeper-dive support has been super helpful.
    • The ability to use these tools in the cloud or embedded has given us tactic flexibility.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Cengage
    • The biggest issue our first-time users have with Mindtap is that ad/pop-up blockers often stop the tool from opening. (Mindtap typically opens in a new window vs inside the LMS) This leads to a lot of initial frustration amongst the students early in the course.
    • MindTap lacks a really strong set of roles outside of Instructor and Student. There is no Teaching Assistant role or and IT/Course Builder role. Additionally setting up students workers as TAs in one course while they may be a student in another concurrently has been more than a little cumbersome.
    • The UI is a bit dated and it doesn't implement many responsive web design features, though this can typically be worked around by downloading the free app.
    • The mobile app experience is not as strong for Instructors as it is for students.
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    Ion Interactive LLC
    • Ion University, while stacked with a wealth of information, is difficult to navigate from a troubleshooting perspective. The tutorial videos are all very helpful, but they are also very long. Sometimes I would want to search for how to address a particular issue I was struggling with and it would be a two-minute segment buried in a 45-minute video.
    • Again, getting back the self-guidance side of things. I think a lot of the tutorials are set up in a way that makes sense to Ion, but not as much to the end user.
    • I think the controls admins use when creating new users could be a bit more straightforward.
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Cengage
    It's hard to imagine not renewing it as the professors would not want to go back to the way their courses were previously populated. The only thing that would cause us to change would be in the textbook changed and the new company offered a better tool
    Incentivized
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    Ion Interactive LLC
    We use it for every landing page and we plan on only doing more dynamic content creation. We dont see that option coming in-house any time ever in the future. ION has a very robust platform for us to work with that really allows us to do more for our customers in regards to having the one-to-one conversation.
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    Usability
    Cengage
    Very easy to use.
    Incentivized
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    Ion Interactive LLC
    Usability is straightforward, with extensive documentation and tutorials provided to ensure landing pages are built to specifications and can be optimized for performance. Built-in platform funnels give insight into customer dropoff, success/failures, and conversions (at a glance). Setting up a landing page can be done quickly and easily, with numerous integrations (CRMs like SalesForce, for instance) supported
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Cengage
    No answers on this topic
    Ion Interactive LLC
    Sometimes the editor can be a little slow.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Cengage
    The effort from them always feels strong - I'd just recommend they be more prepared for OS (mac) and LMS (blackboard) upgrades
    Incentivized
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    Ion Interactive LLC
    The ION support team is amazing. There has not been a single issue they they could not solve for me. If there is a feature or request that they do not have, they have even, on occasion, created custom scripts for our team. *Update 6/5/17 - ION has continued to delight on multiple occasions. I appreciate their attention to detail and ability to solve whatever issue I have. After 3+ years of use and support, ION still has my full endorsement.
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    Online Training
    Cengage
    No answers on this topic
    Ion Interactive LLC
    They offer a great amount of online training, videos, articles, etc. There is usually an answer available if you run into an issue. I would recommend taking advantage of the online training they offer. I wish I would have done it sooner.
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    Implementation Rating
    Cengage
    It worked seamlessly with Blackboard
    Incentivized
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    Ion Interactive LLC
    There were a lot of things we learned about the tool once we really got in and got our hands dirty. Being hands-on was essential for our team to be able to utilize ION in the most effective manner.
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    Alternatives Considered
    Cengage
    MindTap is the only learning software I currently use, but in the past I have used Pearson and McGraw Hill learning content. All of these companies are progresses at a similar rate and making great improvements to their educational materials. MindTap, in my opinion has the best customer service support and representatives in the business. Our rep. has been very responsive.
    Incentivized
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    Ion Interactive LLC
    I was not the decision maker to choose this over Uberflip, but the UI is much more appealing to me. It's incredibly easy to use, clean, and from a backend standpoint, it requires little to no tech savvy'ness. Our team has really enjoyed using it and has required no training what-so-ever.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Cengage
    No answers on this topic
    Ion Interactive LLC
    Separate client portfolios enable scalability, however, some elements are still grouped for all accounts so it's difficult to scale for an ad agency with multiple clients. Would prefer totally separate sections of the platform for all clients with each element housed separately.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Cengage
    • The positive impact is to help students practice statistics to solve business problems.
    • The negative side is that the pricing might be too high compared to other free options available, even though the free options might not have the same features MindTap has.
    Incentivized
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    Ion Interactive LLC
    • Though we have not had the service long enough to see any measurable outcomes, we've been able to create interactive web content faster than ever before
    • The speed with which we can build interactive pages and re-use assets has been critical as projects we've done with Ion have made their way around and more and more internal clients have said "me too" for their own projects
    • It is very pricey at $28K for the base annual subscription (dropping to $24k after the first year), so depending on your budgetary situation, that may make no sense for your team--but we had contract money set aside for a company to build us a microsite for around the amount, so we just used it for Ion instead and will now be building the microsite ourselves using it
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    Ion Interactive Screenshots

    Screenshot of ion empowers your other marketing technologies to deliver higher fidelity, data-driven scoring, targeting, segmentation and personalization.Screenshot of The types of interactive experiences the ion platform can create is near-endless. These are the most common types used by our customers: Assessments, Calculators, eBooks, Interactive Infographics, Interactive White Papers, Landing Pages, Lookbooks, Quizzes, Resource Library, Solution Finder.Screenshot of See what our customers are saying about our platform and services!Screenshot of Starting at $2,000 per month, you get an unlimited, scalable interactive content platform with our full feature set. Including: Unlimited experiences, unlimited use of Quick Starts, Unlimited Seats/Users, Unlimited A/B/n Testing, Unlimited Sell-Side Experiences, Unlimited Phone, email & chat support, unlimited analytics... PLUS a FREE custom-branded theme that can be applied to all of your experiences.Screenshot of You have the option to start from a template or entirely from scratch. Our Quick Start template library includes more than 100 fully tested, responsive and flexible interactive experiences you can brand, customize and launch.Screenshot of ion is the only interactive content platform that provides the scalable foundation to grow from one interactive experience to one thousand interactive experiences. With ion, interactive content development complexity, long timelines, high costs and maintenance problems are replaced with freedom and agility.