Absorb or Cornerstone feedback (Help, Heroes!)

Mar 17, 2014

Hello, Heroes! We could use your advice. My company is about to invest in an LMS, after a disastrous first attempt with Interactyx. Any feedback – good, bad, gossip – would be helpful!! We are a tech company looking to expand our world, and we’re using Articulate Storyline to do it.

Here’s what we need from an LMS.

  • Self-registration for user accounts 

  • Role-based administration – giving different regional managers access to student information in their region.

  • Email templates to send reminder emails, student registration.

  • Provide coupons and discounts for different groups of users for exams and course sessions.

  • Paypal integration to pay for course sessions or exams

  • Web-based Course Evaluations/Surveys

  • Access to content management system for creating Aerohive look and feel on web pages

  • Saleforce Integration for updating student records. Required for exams, courses taken, learning paths completed, etc

  • Students about to view course catalog and see learning path for both sales & technical learners

  • Provide a registration mechanism that allows for using a non company email, and a way of specifying a company name and company alternative email for our records

  • Provide a calendar of events with limits on attendance, show the number of available slots, create waitlist

3 Replies
Bob S

Hi Roslyn,

I cannot say for absolute certain that Absorb handles all those things directly (eg PayPal integration), but I can give you a solid general reccomendation for their platform. I've worked with a fair number of LMSs over the years, and IMHO Absorb have struck the best balance between "do anything you can imagine" power, and "so simple your dog could do it if he had thumbs" useability. 

The thing that many people forget when they choose and LMS, is that all the cool customized things they want to do usually come at a price... and it's often paid in increased overhead/expertise required to maintain the platform long-term. Absorb understands this better than most companies I've dealt with and as a result have built their platform quite cleverly.  In addition, they have several API's available for integration and expert services available to assits in that process.

To your specifc stated needs... At first blush, I believe Absorb can handle most/all of them. And you might be surprised at the clever and easy to maintain options they have for doing so. Just as an example...

One example.... Self Registration:

They have several options including an excellent Enrollment Key system that allows you to easily pre-build the account rules/course access. In addition, naturally they have a wide variety of fields you can make mandatory or optional at registration. And you can even use their internal survey tool to drive info back into the user's data fields!!!  Combine all of that  with the standard Smart Departments logic, and you can quite simply create a bunch of If-Then/Or/But Not X type rules that allow your self-registered learners to have a seamless customized experience.... without someone having to babysit the enrollments.  Just one example of the balance between power and ease of use that Absorb strikes so well.

Hope this helps and good luck with your search,

Bob

PS: No relationship with Absorb other than as a satisfied customer.

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