Open LMS vs. LearnUpon: Which LMS Offers Robust Features and Flexibility to Best Meet Your Training Needs?

Your organization and its talent are unique, and you deserve a learning management system that fits your L&D needs. The right LMS should streamline your processes, manage your various business units’ training requirements with ease, and provide robust tools and features that help you reach your goals.

This article compares two popular eLearning solutions, Open LMS and LearnUpon, to help you make an informed decision about which LMS is right for your organization.

Meet the Contenders!

Open LMS

Based on open-source Moodle™, Open LMS is a fully customizable eLearning solution that makes it easy to deliver highly effective digital learning and training experiences for every user. Open LMS employs features and extensions like personalized learning options robust training analytics, extensive customization capabilities, and offline mobile access to give every learner, instructor, and administrator an accessible and flexible experience.

Open LMS is a scalable SaaS solution hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS). With the help of AWS, Open LMS has nearly limitless resources to protect your sensitive information, including a multiple-level backup strategy to secure your data in the event of an unexpected outage. Additionally, every Open LMS software instance includes high-level administrative support from a team of global software experts that respond to your requests in an average of just 50 minutes. This extra layer of software assistance is available to clients at no additional cost.

Two versions of the Open LMS platform are available:

• Open LMS WORK: Focused on employee training, targeted at businesses and organizations with existing learning and development (L&D) programs, or those looking to implement one.
• Open LMS EDU: Tailored for academic instruction, aimed at schools and tertiary education institutions such as colleges, vocational education and training (VET) institutes, and universities.

LearnUpon

LearnUpon is a cloud-based LMS serving small and medium-sized corporate clients with their professional development training needs. LearnUpon includes common features like basic reporting functionalities, third-party integrations, and course management.

Open LMS: Key Product Features

1) Extensive Customization Options

Open LMS offers the ability to have a learning platform that’s as unique as your organization. Choose how your LMS instance looks and feels to your end-users, and integrate your existing logos, color schemes, fonts, and other branding elements into the system. Open LMS’s highly configurable platform makes it easy for you to give your users a consistent and cohesive experience that serves as an extension of your larger organizational culture. Open LMS clients also have the option of white-labeling their LMS instance at no additional cost.

Configure your system even further with back-end customizations and unique plugins designed by a team of software engineers specifically to meet your needs. These custom plugins solve your pain points and further distinguish your platform from other organizations. You can use the customizations to import data from your HR, CRM, ERP, and other systems to create a centralized user management and reporting system within the LMS.

2) Extensive Administrative Support

Open LMS ensures your platform runs smoothly with its global team of software developers and LMS experts. As part of its standard LMS agreement, Open LMS representatives are available to assist with your administrative support requests and offers high-level support at no additional cost.

The Open LMS Academy is another resource available to provide guidance and support. This comprehensive collection of professional development courses helps you improve your skills in areas like:

• Course creation
• LMS features and functionalities
• Digital learning pedagogy and andragogy
  

Open LMS provides both free and paid resources in its professional development catalog, and Open LMS clients receive discounted access to premium content.

3) Exclusive Ecommerce Suite

Open LMS offers a native ecommerce suite that helps organizations and learning institutions increase their revenue. You can use the ecommerce features to sell your training content as a single instance or as a subscription to appeal to a larger audience of learners and broaden your organization’s services. Leverage the ecommerce features to create customized catalogs for selling courses and certifications with a variety of content options like:

• Free courses that contain optional materials for an added fee
• Seats for your live events
• Skills certifications that learners can share on LinkedIn
• Subscriptions to your learning programs
• Multiple quiz attempts
  

Advertise your content offerings with Open LMS eCommerce. The feature lets you provide direct course purchase links that can be embedded into your digital promotional materials. With these links, your customers are taken directly to a purchase page. This reduces their number of clicks and gives users a cleaner experience, increasing their odds of buying your product.

LEARN THE BENEFITS OF AN LMS WITH ECOMMERCE | ‘How an LMS With Ecommerce Capabilities Benefits Your Bottom Line: 5 Tips for Implementation’

4) Personalized Learning Designer (PLD)

Every learner’s journey is unique, and the Open LMS PLD makes it easy for your instructors to ensure that each person has a training or learning experience that’s specific to their needs. With the PLD, instructors can automate elements of their courses to give each learner a differentiated experience based on their actions with a course. Some automated actions include:

• Sending personalized assessment feedback to learners based on their performance on specific activities
• Reminding learners to complete their assignments or engage with their courses when they’ve been inactive for a period of time, as determined by the instructor at the start of the course
• Providing content recommendations to learners based on their previous coursework or learning history
  

The PLD is exclusive to Open LMS and lets instructors spend less time on repetitive, manual processes so they can put their skills to use in other critical training areas.

5) Advanced Multi-Tenancy Capabilities

Open LMS supports multi-tenancy, making it easy for large organizations or companies with multiple business units to manage employee training. Create independently managed tenants under a single LMS, each with its own unique branding, user management, and authentication systems. Easily divide your training and learning resources among your various brands or entities in a controlled, organized environment. Your L&D teams can share learning and training content with tenants of their choosing without duplicating or recreating materials, saving them considerable time and resources.

6) Automatic Recertification Reminders and Course Enrollments

With Open LMS, administrators can configure the system to automatically send users reminders when their credentials are due to expire. Automated reminders help you ensure your end-users remember to complete essential training tasks so your organization stays compliant with regulatory agencies and legal requirements. Open LMS also provides automatic course enrollment to keep your learners on track with their training and skills development.

READ MORE ABOUT COMPLIANCE TRAINING | ‘Streamline Your Compliance Training With the Open LMS Certification Feature’

7) Full Offline Mobile Access

The Open LMS mobile app is available for both learners and instructors so everyone can access their learning and training content offline and on the go. The app is available on Android and iOS and can be fully customized to match your organization’s brand. Mobile push notifications ensure that no one misses out on essential information.

With a phone, tablet, or other mobile-ready device, your users can access:

• Interactive content like videos and synchronous virtual meetings
• Asynchronous course materials
• Calendars and grade books
• File management
• Internal messaging between learners and instructors

8) Extensions and Integrations to Further Personalize Your LMS Service

Sometimes you need more than just a place to house your learning materials. Open LMS maintains strategic partnerships with top-tier organizations to expand the capabilities and functionalities of your LMS. Supplement your training programs with both off-the-shelf and custom eLearning content through Open LMS’s partner, GP Strategies. Ensure your programs are accessible to every learner with an accessibility toolkit from Brickfield Education Labs. Leverage AI-powered tools to detect plagiarism and academic dishonesty with Copyleaks.

Through its extensive partner network, Open LMS also offers automated exam proctoring, AI tools to assist instructors, interactive video tools and virtual whiteboards to engage learners, and much more.

9) Robust Reporting Capabilities

The Open LMS Reports Engine (ORE) is a native reporting tool that lets you control the types of reports you generate without relying on additional support from a programmer or developer. With ORE, you’re empowered to create, edit, and export reports whenever and however you see fit to best meet your organization’s needs. The reports can be configured at a granular level, giving you insights into specific program areas or initiatives so you can make informed decisions. The tool also includes data visualizations that make it easy for you to digest complex sets of information and share the results with other stakeholders.

LEARN MORE ABOUT NATIVE REPORTING TOOLS | ‘Put Your Data to Work With the New Open LMS Reports Engine’

LearnUpon: Key Product Features

1) Native AI Capabilities

LearnUpon includes native generative AI technology to help instructors build courses, create exams, translate text, and write summaries. Using generative AI is intended to save instructors time while still building helpful courses and content. The technology can also give learners course recommendations, but it won’t automatically enroll users. Learners or administrators still need to manually enroll learners into courses or learning programs.

2) Learner Reports

LearnUpon provides out-of-the-box learner reports to help organizations track important metrics like user progression, exam results, survey responses, and training histories. Administrators can schedule reports so they’re consistently delivered to the right stakeholders. The reports can be filtered so users can view some specific data, but they aren’t highly configurable and display a limited range of information.

3) Available Partner Integrations

Like Open LMS, LearnUpon offers various integrations to enhance the platform’s capabilities. These integrations allow users to access additional functionalities like ecommerce and video conferencing, among others.

LearnUpon’s Weaknesses

1) Restrictive Pricing Tiers

Features like multiple language support, certain software integrations, and LMS white-labeling are only available with LearnUpon’s more expensive pricing tiers. Additionally, LearnUpon’s basic and mid-range pricing tiers typically only accommodate up to 150 and 500 users, respectively. Large organizations with more than 500 users will have no choice but to enroll in the highest pricing tier.

This pricing model means that smaller organizations that still want certain features must pay for more users than they need, while larger organizations might be forced to pay for features that they don’t want. In contrast, Open LMS offers per-user pricing and is piloting a seat-based pricing model estimated to be available for all users by late 2024, giving organizations more flexibility so they only pay for what they need.

LEARN MORE ABOUT SEAT-BASED PRICING: READ THE CASE STUDY | Piloting a Cost-Effective Future: How Young Life Scales Learning Initiatives With a New Seat-Based Pricing Model From Open LMS

2) Fewer Customization Options

LearnUpon doesn’t offer high-level customization options. By contrast, Open LMS supports standards-based external tools integrations and can be customized on the back-end with unique plugins to solve clients’ pain points. LearnUpon doesn’t have the same flexibility. Its code can’t be customized, and LearnUpon clients are charged an additional fee if they want to white-label their LMS.

3) Limited Content Design Support

Although LearnUpon offers generative AI capabilities, its course authoring functionality is still limited. Its AI technology can generate useful components for building courses, but unlike Open LMS, LearnUpon doesn’t offer native H5P course authoring tools. H5P allows users to create, share, and reuse interactive content, among other things. Without this feature, LearnUpon’s course creation abilities are rather limited, even with the assistance of AI.

LearnUpon also doesn’t offer off-the-shelf training courses or custom content design services, meaning its clients have to hone their own course building skills or reach out to third-party providers to support that need.

4) Minimal Automated Features

Unlike Open LMS’s PLD, LearnUpon doesn’t have the capability to automatically send personalized communications to users based on their interactions within the training platform. LearnUpon’s AI technology can recommend training content for users, but the LMS can’t automatically enroll users into the appropriate courses.

5) Mobile Learning Limitations

LearnUpon offers an app for both iOS and Android devices, but unlike Open LMS, LearnUpon’s app is limited to its learners. There isn’t a mobile option for instructors or administrators to work on the go, meaning they must use the desktop version of the LMS to offer grade assessments, offer feedback, and work on other tasks within their courses. Additionally, the learner app has limited functionality and will redirect users to their device browser when users need to access their assignments or xAPI modules within their courses. Learners also can’t view their learning paths within the app and must access them through a web browser.

Open LMS’s Weaknesses

1) Some Features Only Available Through Partnerships

An Open LMS standard software agreement includes an extensive list of native features like robust analytics and personalized learning automations, but some functionalities like generative AI and accessibility audits are only accessible through integrations with partner organizations.

2) Clients Share Control With an Expert Team

Open LMS clients share control of their platform with a team of software and L&D experts. The experts ensure your investment is protected if an unexpected error occurs, while you’re still free to customize the platform to your unique needs. The Open LMS software engineers and L&D professionals keep your plugins running smoothly and keep your sensitive data secure, giving you the time and energy to focus on delivering top-tier training programs.

When Is Open LMS Not a Good Fit?

Open LMS might not be the best fit for you if:

• You don’t need flexible pricing options
• You don't expect to benefit from extensive custom reporting features
• Your users won’t benefit from automated course enrollments, deadline reminders, and personalized feedback messages
• You don't need back-end customization or unique plugins
  

KEEP READING | ‘5 Ways to Improve Productivity With Features and Tools From Open LMS’

When Is LearnUpon Not a Good Fit?

LearnUpon may not be the ideal learning software solution if:

• You need an LMS capable of automating learner communications and course enrollments
• You require a training platform that can be fully customized on the back-end to reflect your unique values and culture
• Your learners and instructors need mobile learning environments with the same functionalities available on the desktop site
• You need native authoring tools like H5P to create interactive, engaging training content
• You need robust reporting capabilities to help you meet your L&D goals
• You want to manage multiple brands or entities with unique learning environments under a unified learning platform

One Key Takeaway: Choose Open LMS!

With Open LMS, you get unbeatable administrative support, extensive features and functionalities, a fully customizable learning environment, flexible pricing options, and a team of experts that’s there to help you succeed. Choosing Open LMS means:

• Customizing your LMS on the back-end and the front-end to your specifications to represent what matters most to your organization
• Increasing your revenue potential with advanced, native ecommerce capabilities
• Giving your learners differentiated experiences that support their professional goals while staying aligned with your organization’s L&D initiatives
• Saving your instructors valuable time with automated reports, reminders, and personalized learner communications
• Managing learning for your large institution, organization, or extended enterprise with ease using multi-tenancy capabilities
• Giving your users access to course content both online and offline through a customizable mobile app
• Having your software backed by a team of dedicated experts
• And more!