DigitalChalk, by Sciolytix vs. ProProfs LMS Software

Digital Chalk is perfect for organizations who are looking for an easy to use Learning Management System and don't need all the bells, whistles, and bulk of the LMS giants, like Cornerstone or SuccessFactors. Digital Chalk doesn't require an administrative specialist to learn a whole new language and environment with endless options and settings. It's very easy to use for both learners and administrators, and yet at the same time provides the exact functions you need.

Incentivized

Well-suited for:

• Teachers who want to give their quizzes to many students (not just through their own university's LMS).
• Teachers who don't need something to dazzle their students.

Incentivized

• While I used the platform, it improved its integrations with PowerPoint, making it easy to convert slides to the DigitalChalk format.
• The editing layers for audio underneath the slides is very user-friendly and easy to use.
• While we didn't use the quiz randomization, I liked how there was a structure built to it so that those who had more robust usage situations than ours would be able to improve engagement and assess learning at a higher level.

Incentivized

• Our larger projects are easy to manage now.
• Easy video uploading helps us to entice the learners.
• I love the fact that I can access the development and performance tracking within the same platform.

• The administration of Digital Chalk is very easy. The function I think may be missing is an easy way to add revisions and assign them to the students who need them. For example, when you update a piece of a course it would have an indication that it is version xxx and would ask who would like to assign it to - everyone who has taken it before or just new students.
• It would nice to have the system recognize when a student has already completed an element of a course that may be used in another course. For example, if video A is part of courses 1 and 2, and the student already watched it in course 1, it would ask the administrator if they should get automated credit for it in course 2, as well.

Incentivized

• ProProfs is very bland-looking, rather Web 1.0. They have a very limited-number of templates, and they are not customizable. If the company is making any money, I think they should try to make it as aesthetically pleasing as possible.
• ProProfs quizzes are not responsive to devices. A quiz looks exactly the same on an iPhone as it does on a computer screen. Students live in a world where everything they access online is customized to the device they use, but a ProProfs quiz will have small type on an iPhone, and won't allow a zoom by pinching.
• Uploading images, audio, and video when making a quiz is a time-consuming task. Takes a lot of clicks. And there's no way to see your own library of uploaded stuff, so when you want to use a previously-uploaded image, you can't just find it in your account and attach it, you have to upload the same image every time. It's tedious.
• Other LMSs I've used in the past year, like BookWidgets and iSpring Quiz Maker have a good deal more variety of question types than ProProfs. For example, you can't touch, drag and drop an answer on a blank from a word bank with a ProProfs quiz. Matching-type questions in ProProfs are limited to drop-down menu choices or radio buttons. There's no HTML5 magic at work.
• ProProfs support is not bad (response within a day), but they can't explain frequent glitches that occur. Example: Nearly every time a class takes a quiz, there's ONE student who presses "submit" and their answers don't get submitted; instead, the loading circle just keeps rotating and the student panics, and then the student has to press refresh on their web browser, and --sometimes, but not always-- all their responses are erased and they have to take the quiz again. And there's nothing that a teacher can do. It's dreadful. Tell ProProfs about it, and they dodge the bullet because I wasn't able to give them enough info they required (e.g. what kind of phone?, what kind of OS?, what version?, was the device facing North?, etc).
• ProProfs UI has not changed significantly in the 4 years I've been using them. I get the feeling that they're not trying hard enough.

Incentivized

As I mentioned previously, Digital Chalk's customer support is excellent. I also got a reply back within an hour, and it was usually the same person. So, they were familiar with our needs and how we were using the system. Honestly, most of the time we had to contact their support, it was an issue on the user's side, not in the software. Yet, they still helped identify the issue and consulted on how to fix it.

Incentivized

ProProfs deserves the best of the best ratings. It makes learners the prime focus of every step of learning, and that’s the greatest thing about it. Besides, arranging and putting different relevant content together is a walk in the park. Everything is so straightforward. If you look at the customization options, they are equally amazing.

DigitalChalk gave the organization the hands-on ownership of content creation and delivery while meeting our usage case of hands-off course management on a daily basis and extending the reach of the course content and certificate to as many people as possible. It's easy to use, very cost-effective to implement, and the overall experience means that the course participants get what they need out of the course without a lot of effort on their part.

Incentivized

Since the tool is built for enterprise training programs and is incredibly easy to use, I’d say it is highly recommendable.

• DigtialChalk's ROI is positive - the cost model of low up-front costs to get started, then paying a small amount per course participant means that organizations implementing DigitalChalk as their platform get more than their money's worth from it. It returns profit quickly and on a consistent basis.
• The asynchronous nature of the platform, combined with the targeted usage situation of hands-off course delivery and management, means that resources to create, deliver, and maintain courses can be held with either one person (like an instructional designer) or even an outside contractor. This means that there's little impact to the fixed operating costs involved with hiring someone else to manage it.

Incentivized

• ProProfs irons out all the hurdles to efficient and effective training.
• We see greater engagement and assignment completion rate with trainees.
• Room for customization gives a sense of ownership to us.