Blackboard Learn vs Skilljar

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Our analysts compared Blackboard Learn vs Skilljar based on data from our 400+ point analysis of LMS Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

Blackboard is an educational management tool used commonly in K-12, higher education, online education and corporate training. It’s cloud-based and has several add ons including Learn, Open LMS, Classroom, Predict, Intelligence, Ally, Collaborate and more. All have different specialties that add to the primary online education functions.

The core product, Blackboard Learn, includes course management, mobile accessibility and insights into data and analytics. Upgraded versions have more robust facilities, including advanced web conferencing, virtual classrooms and more in-depth reporting.
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Skilljar is a cloud-hosted solution that helps companies scale their partner and customer training modules. It lets enterprises deliver effective training programs to customers, channel partners, contractors and community members. It integrates with businesses to measure revenue and customer activity.

It speeds up customer engagement and onboarding by supporting multimedia course production, automated CRM data integration and mobile-friendly learning ecosystem. Educators can upload courses, add company branding and publish them online without any technical knowledge. Training is available in audio, video, instructor-led or live formats. Its video tools simplify the creation and distribution of training materials and integrate data with numerous business applications like Marketo and Salesforce.

It supports integrations with ERP systems and provides social certifications, payments engine and advanced analytics for businesses to create courses with ease. Programs can be distributed easily to mobile and web devices. It helps companies provide comprehensive and consistent customer training and boosts product renewal and adoption rates.
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Product Insights

  • Mass Communications: A message can be written and then sent via social media, email, voice message, SMS or push notification to everyone who needs to see it.nbsp;
  • Student Retention: It provides data on incoming and outgoing students, which helps with the development of student retention strategies. Some functions within the dashboard are also specifically geared toward targeting at-risk learners. 
  • Accessibility: Not only does it allow for accessible file formats such as semantic HTML, audio files, ePub and electronic braille, but it can audit content sent out by instructors and return with annotations to improve accessibility. It is also fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. 
  • Parental Involvement: Parents get access to see how students are doing and address potential problems early in the process. 
  • Multiple Translations: Over 15 different languages are available, including Arabic, English, Chinese (both simplified and traditional), Dutch, Russian, Korean and more. 
  • Implementation: Through a partner program, users can get help with implementation through technical support and strategy analysis. 
  • Accreditation Tracking/Documentation: The assessment and accreditation solution makes institutional reporting automatic, helps provide documentation where needed and streamlines evidence collection. 
  • Partnerships: More services are available for buyers who use partner programs. This support may be technical, marketing or strategic and varies depending on the different levels of partnership.  
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  • Responsive Interface: Skilljar is easy-to-use and responsive for businesses and customers. It is intuitive and accommodates company requirements to deliver an enriching learning experience. It stores training materials at a central location for simplified access and delivery to customers. 
  • Scalability:  It can accommodate growing company requirements and is flexible to support an expanding customer base and users. It is consistent in its uptime and lets users complete their tasks on time. 
  • Supports Multiple Languages: Skilljar supports multiple languages for organizations to provide training solutions to a global audience. Educators can provide training content in different languages to suit multiple customers and partners. 
  • Holistic Customer View: It offers businesses a holistic view of their customers. Data from multiple sources like marketing tools, CRMs, service tools, accounting and software lets users create different customer profiles. Customers can also be segmented according to criteria including support needs, usage behavior and subscription models for personalized attention. Companies can monitor customers’ actions and interactions with different teams and create health scores according to client satisfaction. 
  • Training Portals: Skilljar lets companies create separate portals for its varied audience and customize them according to their requirements. Its advanced course authoring lets instructors construct training programs using its pre-built templates. Educators can create instructor-led sessions and learning paths for structured learning. 
  • Integrations: It seamlessly integrates with numerous third-party business applications like Salesforce and Marketo. This functionality helps create and distribute training content swiftly by syncing data with business apps. 
  • Mobile Responsive: Skilljar helps businesses deliver training materials anytime and on any medium. Learners have the flexibility to get trained on their laptops, tablets or smartphones. Availability of training materials on-the-go improves overall course participation. 
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  • Integration: It can be integrated with other essential educational programs such as Student Information Systems, lunch systems, online grade books and others to make collecting data easy. 
  • Collaboration: Through web conferencing and virtual classrooms, students, peers and coworkers can collaborate on projects and content creation. 
  • Mobile App: The app, which is available across several devices, offers mobile-friendly content that’s been adjusted to flip less on a phone screen. Learners can access tests, quizzes, notes and more. 
  • SaaS: It’s a software-as-a-service or cloud-based product. This means the hosting is online and not local. 
  • Templates: When instructors create courses, they can choose from several pre-made templates and customize as needed. 
  • Strategic Planning: Extra services include strategic planning, which comes with market research, help to develop a comprehensive strategy, deployment support and more. 
  • E-Commerce: It allows users to buy or sell courses, training materials and other content. This can be used as a revenue source or to find more information for a program. 
  • Sales Training and Development: In addition to its uses in K-12 and higher education, it helps with the training of employees to keep them in compliance or certified in a corporate setting. Individual workers can be tracked, and areas of improvement can be easily identified. 
  • Registration: It manages learners throughout the enrollment process and can help them sign up along pre-defined learning paths or prerequisites. 
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  • Supports Multiple Content Types: Skilljar comes with flexible content authoring tools for organizations to offer variable content types. It helps businesses create multiple learning pathways based on user skillset, role and more. It supports high-quality audio, video and course content can be easily embedded from external hosts. It is compatible with AICC, SCORM and offers a native quizzing engine. It also provides live training registration and management. 
  • Assessments and Certifications: Its built-in assessment and certification tools lets organizations display their expertise. It comes with a built-in quizzing tool to assess students’ knowledge. Learners automatically receive certificates and badges after course completion; each certificate can be accessed via a unique URL. Students can flaunt their accomplishments with its LinkedIn integration. For high-stakes tests, organizations can make use of its remote proctoring module. 
  • E-Commerce Flexibility: Skilljar offers direct sales and e-commerce functionality for companies to price and package their training materials. Users can sell customer training subscriptions with its robust e-commerce and payment tools. It has flexible prices and packaged course content and aligns payment gateways with a company’s finance division. Its Salesforce integration helps realize revenue. 
  • Customizable: It lets businesses customize their training portals to match their branding and visual identity with tailored designs. Administrators can create custom objects, fields, calculations, views and rules according to their workflows. Its advanced customization capabilities like CSS, Javascript and HTML let users tailor their portals to offer a unique experience. It offers pre-built templates and dynamic theme control options for enhanced appeal. Learners can self-register through SSO, Salesforce or APIs for instant access. 
  • Secure and Reliable: Skilljar is designed for stringent security protocols for global users. It supports enterprise-grade security and is SOC2 certified. Its robust integrations and APIs accommodate multifarious programs and complex cases. It also offers support for premium implementation and customer success. 
  • Advanced Analytics: Skilljar lets users interact with its centralized dashboard. It generates pre-built and customized reports that offer deep business insights. Its extensive reporting tools help companies make data-driven decisions about customer health and training. It also aggregates data on learners’ performance and other key metrics and displays on dashboards and reports. 
  • While Labeling: Skilljar lets users customize their account with the company's branding, logo and a personalized URL. Administrators can implement personalized branding throughout the application. 
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Product Ranking

#6

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#56

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Analyst Rating Summary

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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Blackboard Learn
Skilljar
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AI-based Capabilities Assessments Collaboration Compliance Content And Course Management ECommerce Learning Delivery Mobile Capabilities Platform Capabilities Reporting And Dashboard User Management And Gamification 14 82 100 100 91 0 68 78 87 100 91 0 25 50 75 100
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User Sentiment Summary

Good User Sentiment 1521 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 314 reviews
79%
of users recommend this product

Blackboard Learn has a 'good' User Satisfaction Rating of 79% when considering 1521 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

91%
of users recommend this product

Skilljar has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 91% when considering 314 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

4.9 (18)
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3.9 (789)
4.6 (181)
4.1 (456)
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4.6 (29)
4.2 (54)
4.5 (23)
3.8 (204)
4.5 (81)

Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Blackboard Learn and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Compliance.

Compliance Award

Skilljar stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Grading: A total of 80% of users who mentioned the grading capabilities felt it worked well and saved them time.
Effective Communication: Over 70% of users who mentioned communications features were thrilled with the discussion boards, messaging, live classrooms and other features.
Great Customer Support: More than two-thirds of reviewers who mentioned the customer support had good experiences with the staff.
Easy to Use: Users felt that the UI worked well in over 50% of reviews.
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Easy to Use: Skilljar is known for its user-friendly interface, which allows for easy navigation and customization, even without deep technical expertise.
Integrations: Skilljar integrates seamlessly with various tools, including CRM systems, to streamline data management and enhance functionality.
Strong Support: Skilljar is recognized for its excellent customer support, particularly during the initial setup and ongoing use of the platform.
Analytics Capabilities: Skilljar offers robust analytics features that allow businesses to monitor customer engagement and assess the effectiveness of their training programs.
Versatile Content Creation: Skilljar supports a wide range of content formats, including videos, quizzes, and downloadable materials, to create engaging and diverse learning experiences.
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Poor Mobile Function: Around 75% who mentioned the app said they had issues with the design, especially on mobile.
Issues with Features: Over 41% of users said there were holes in the functionality of the integrations, grading features and said there was too much text on the website.
Steep Learning Curve: While many said the UI was easy-to-use, over 40% of those mentioned it said it took a long time to learn.
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Limited Gamification: While Skilljar offers some gamification elements, users seeking advanced features like elaborate point systems or interactive challenges might find the current options somewhat limited.
Basic Collaboration Tools: Skilljar's collaborative features, such as discussion forums, are considered rudimentary by some users. Businesses looking for robust real-time collaboration tools within the platform might need to consider integrations or alternative solutions.
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Blackboard is an online learning solution used most commonly in educational institutions. As one of the biggest players in the market, its users appreciate its features, useability, grading functions and the different channels of communication. The most common complaint was that it’s hard to learn. However, many said it was easy to navigate after getting over the initial learning curve. Though many people liked its features, there were gaps and additional functionalities wished for in almost every category. Its lack of accessibility was also an issue for some users. This solution is good for institutions looking to implement a standardized learning solution. However, it’s important to compare it to its big competitors as some complained it was generic or too similar to other systems. Still, this can be an extremely efficient platform for online and blended learning.

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Is Skilljar really all it's cracked up to be, or will it leave you feeling jarred? User reviews from the past year paint a largely positive picture of Skilljar as a customer and partner education platform. Users consistently praise its user-friendly interface, highlighting its intuitive design that allows for easy navigation and content creation. One user even described it as "easy to dive right in and start creating content." Skilljar's strength in integrations is also frequently lauded, with users appreciating its compatibility with various business tools, which streamlines workflows and centralizes data. However, some users have voiced concerns about Skilljar's limitations in advanced reporting and customization. While the platform offers basic reporting features, some users find them restrictive for in-depth analysis. Similarly, although Skilljar provides customization options, some users note that achieving more complex customizations often requires coding knowledge, which can be a hurdle for those without technical expertise. Skilljar differentiates itself through its specialized focus on external training, setting it apart from more general-purpose LMS platforms. Its features are tailored specifically for customer and partner education, including audience-specific portals, robust analytics for tracking learner progress and content effectiveness, and seamless integration with CRM and marketing automation tools. These aspects are crucial for businesses aiming to enhance customer onboarding, improve product adoption, and drive customer engagement and retention. For instance, one user highlighted how Skilljar's API connections allowed them to personalize the training experience by directing users to specific landing pages with relevant content, a feature not available in their previous system. In conclusion, Skilljar emerges as a strong contender for businesses seeking a user-friendly and feature-rich platform dedicated to customer and partner education. Its strengths lie in its intuitive interface, robust integrations, and specialized focus on external training. However, businesses requiring advanced reporting and customization capabilities might find the platform's limitations a drawback. Overall, Skilljar is best suited for organizations prioritizing ease of use, seamless integrations, and a dedicated platform for external training, particularly those focused on driving customer success and engagement.

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