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LMS Shopping: Like buying a car, know what your money buys you
June 24, 2014

LMS Shopping: Like buying a car, know what your money buys you

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Was Geo Engage and was bought out by SumTotal

Modules Used

  • SumTotal Learning Management

Overall Satisfaction with SumTotal Learn

We use it to provide eLearning asynchronous training to our clients. We decide what to develop, and our clients buy subscriptions to our training library. Our training supports their requirements to earn CLPs and certifications in their fields. Our employees also use it for the same purpose.
  • SumTotal has a very user friendly design, making it easy for non-programmers to configure their LMS interface, customize various environments for different groups, and to integrate numerous external web applications through iFraming, such as social media or news feeds. I was able to configure a custom environment for several different clients, making it feel like their own LMS, such as a custom color scheme and logos, custom widgets (which are section of any page), news feeds, training messages, and custom learning plans.
  • SumTotal can not yet support media-rich mobile learning. Our eLearning design use instructional video, text, interactions, pop-ups with course resources and other information, etc... The SumTotal mobile capability right now does not support our design; ie our pop-ups won't pop-up, even those that simply open a PDF or document, and non of the hyperlinks will work.
  • The ROI has been positive, and we are able to train more of our clients than ever before.
  • articulate
When I came to my company, they had been using a "light" LMS called Articulate. It was cheap and bare bones; i.e. not a lot of features, really just a platform to launch eLearning from and not real interface for student to utilize. When I began to overhaul the training department, this was one of the first things I changed. Articulate would only run courses built in their software, and the software was not 508 compliant. In addition, we had no ability to create learning plans, house transcripts, customize the interface, or manage the students. I made the choice to select and LMS that was a true LMS with all of the features that were critical to our clients' needs. Thus far, SumTotal has been able to support all of our needs, except one; mobile learning that is media rich.
When choosing an LMS, you need to decide what features are most important. Things like single-sign on, 508 compliance, ability to support mobile learning, price per user, ability to customize for various audiences, and technical support. When I chose our LMS, it was called GeoEngage because of price and all of the tech support was on the East Coast. The LMS was bought by SumTotal a few years ago. We originally wanted SumTotal, but it was too expensive for our small company. Now we get both, and we continue to get great customer support.

Using SumTotal Learn

We have been with SumTotal for 4 years, and will renew for a 5th. We like to product and we have not yet grown to a size where a custom "homegrown" LMS is necessary. The only reason we would leave SumTotal would be if the ROI is no longer positive and we can make more profit by creating our own LMS and hosting internally.