Item: Adobe Learning Manager
Rating: 8
Author: Ilyssa Russ

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We used Adobe Captivate and Learning Manager to design and develop training for both corporate and retail Apple employees. This included engineers, program managers, Tech & merch pros in the stores, and so on. Apple is a very private company and so using cloud-based SaaS is a bit difficult therefore using native Adobe programs is the best option.

Pros and Cons

Single unified platform.
Ease of use.
Accessibility.
Personalization and curation.

Guidance and training.
Easier integration with Articulate and Rise 360.
Simple, modern templates and graphics.

Return on Investment

Apple built its own LMS (The Grove) on top of the Adobe Learning Manager with Saba, so overall it was a great experiment.
Adobe Learning Manager is really useful for bringing learners together in one place, under a unified solution.
Customer satisfaction equals more learners with an appetite to learn.

Usability

Adobe Learning Manager is really easy to use and intuitive to learn. I love the drag and drop features and the ability to do more if you want. The analytics help provide a clear picture for leadership as well so the usability extends beyond just the folks maintaining the backend and the learners taking the courses.

Ease of Integration

Adobe is great at connecting with all of those tools if they're already part of your workflow. I'd like to see Adobe build out integrations with more popular content development platforms like Articulate (Storyline 360 and Rise 360). Most folks are still stuck in a learning curve when it comes to Adobe Captivate (before Project Charm releases), and so the project marketplace is the next best thing right now.

Alternatives Considered

Rippling, Lessonly and Coda

Rippling is mostly an HRIS that now has an LMS component. It's truly meant for one-a-year compliance training as learners cannot return to the courses and review them unless they are re-assigned. It has good features like automatic enrollment, but it doesn't give us the ability to edit courses and republish them. Lessonly is both a content development platform and an LMS. It makes it easy to create content and immediately assign it to learners, but it's...ugly. There are great grading features, but overall it is unimpressive.

Key Insights

Do you think Adobe Learning Manager delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Adobe Learning Manager's feature set?

Yes

Did Adobe Learning Manager live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Adobe Learning Manager go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Adobe Learning Manager again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

Adobe Learning Manager is perfect for an organization that's already bought in to the Adobe suite of products, including Captivate. If you have a large body of employees and/or various personas and learning journeys you need to support, it's a really viable solution. For companies that only have, say, internal employees to train, the number of features might be a bit of an overkill.

A Great Option

Overall Satisfaction with Adobe Learning Manager