Likelihood to Recommend Intellum leads the field in reporting; something I didn't even know I really needed/wanted until we purchased this LMS. While I realize that most Learning Management Systems are designed to support online, auto-assigned content for people to complete on a device, 80% (sometimes more) of our training is delivered in person (we are a quarry company, and our learners do much better with Instructor Led Training). Sometimes it is difficult to find a workaround in Intellum that allows us the flexibility and consistency we require for managing our in-person learning needs.
Read full review I've used Sakai to supplement my Public Speaking class. Public Speaking is very much a F2F type course, so I didn't use Sakai much for course content delivery. However, I did use it to post my syllabus, post my lecture slides, communicate any class announcements, and to conduct a final exam for the class. Building the final exam was very simple and I was easily able to swap out questions to vary it from term to term. Before I was a staff member and lecturer, I used Sakai as a student. My instructor used Sakai to varying degrees. I really appreciated it being the one-stop-receptacle for all-things class related. If I somehow lost an assignment instruction sheet, I could rely on it being posted there. For multimedia work it was lacking, at that time, but I know Sakai has been updated over time and I hope that part of it has improved. If I was ever frustrated by Sakai, it was because faculty used it in a piecemeal way. It's fine not to want to use the gradebook, but don't enter some grades and not others. It's wonderful to upload class documents to it; but don't do some and not others. Whatever way you're going to use Sakai, commit to it and use it well. Your students will thank you.
Read full review Pros Easy to use interface. The quick options to add content to pages, and drag and drop organization, makes it easy for anyone to jump in and start adding information. Intellum is not just mobile responsive but mobile-friendly. This makes it super easy for people to view our content anywhere they are, any time they want. Intellum support is always quick to respond when we have questions or need help tweaking our setup. They also have a robust selection of self-service training courses available. Read full review Sakai is flexible, providing a way for our customers (instructors) to customize their courses while staying in line with consistency and continuity of course design. This has allowed our courses to be far less cookie-cutter and stale. This is mostly accomplished through Sakai's LTI functionality and it's Lessons tool. This is particularly notable because not every course is the same, nor should it be. Our faculty and course developers can draw from OER resources, course text publisher assessment quiz banks and pull in content from sources from our library databases and services like YouTube. Sakai is customizable, allowing us to pair it with our student information system to automatically create and track with student registration data - including adding new students and removing students who have elected to drop a course. The customization features also include being able to create course templates for individual schools or courses using specific tools or sequences of tools as well as a way to personalize content for students when they engage with each lesson. Sakai is stable in the market. We have been using Sakai for almost 10 years and continue to see it improve; responding to changing trends in browser technologies, mobile platforms and accessibility requirements. Multiple programs offered over the years have been recognized by outside organizations like BestColleges.com for our programs and given high marks by students taking the courses offered in Sakai. Sakai allows our faculty to inform it's continued evolution. We work closely with the developers, having a front seat to how things can work and function for our faculty. There have been multiple occasions where faculty ask, "Can Sakai do this?" and the answer is never "No." Read full review Cons I think that Intellum can greatly improve the functionality of inactive courses existing in the tool in itself. Reporting is unreliable in Intellum which most of the time requires a lot of manipulation and scrubbing to obtain sufficient information. There is no exact idea of how long the time will be taken to tackle any issue encountered when service tickets are soared. Read full review The coming upgrade will address many issues, the visual presentation of sites and courses The Forums (discussion) tool is not natively integrated into the Gradebook, but needs another step to connect the two. The Wiki tool is awkward and not WYSIWYG. But I understand that is common with wikis in most platforms The Help documentation could use some focus on student needs rather that course developer needs Read full review Likelihood to Renew Most of our needs are met with this platform currently and the customer service has been excellent.
Read full review Sakai is a good general learning management system - it is not leading edge but rather a stable system with standard learning management system features. It can be fairly easily customized and is fairly easy to learn from both student learning and faculty administrative vantage points. New paradigms for online learning though are emergent so the current field should also be investigated with competitors.
Read full review Usability The system has changed since I started using it and it has become more intuitive. As a user and admin, I find that it is fairly easy to navigate.
Read full review When faculty are preparing courses from term to term, a portion of the content is static within a specific discipline. The time it takes to import past lessons into new versions of Sakai can be an inefficient use of my time. When I want to add new content and edit from the old content, it's reliant upon me to cut and paste the content from term to term rather than simply import and edit from a backup.
Read full review Support Rating The customer support team is always very helpful and responsive, as is our CSM who goes above and beyond to help us with issues and questions that we have
Read full review Since Sakai is open-source their documentation is often lacking and support is absolutely needed onsite. Internal documentation is more important with Sakai than other services. The Sakai community is fun, passionate, engaged, and absolutely doing their best, but it's an uphill battle against the current market and trends.
Read full review Implementation Rating Very satisfied with the support we received from our CSM and team
Read full review No, I don't
Read full review Alternatives Considered Intellum is in a class of its own. With the good referrals, I got from colleagues in my industry, I was aware that certain processes would be made easier by this software, and we were right. I have seen the positives that have come from this software. It easily takes the cake over its competitors!
Read full review As an adjunct professor, I didn't pick Sakai for the university. I have experience with
Moodle ,
Blackboard , eCollege, iBoard and now Sakai. I would have to say that Sakai is one of my all time favorite LMSs to use as it is very easy to navigate.
Read full review Return on Investment The biggest impact Intellum has had on hc1 would be the space for learner engagement. I still have to work hard to direct our clients to the LMS (link from our hc1 solution) but when they do - they love it! Since the pandemic in 2019, hc1 also has noticed a big up tick in the usage of LMS from our clients because of the need for virtual learning. Read full review Sakai makes it easy for students to monitor grades which puts their minds at ease. Sakai makes it easy for teachers to assign and receive assignments from students. Communication is one of the most important and one of the most taxing parts of an educational system. Sakai makes this process just a little bit easier. Read full review ScreenShots