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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Absorb LMS

    Score9.2 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    Absorb LMS aims to empower organizations to train employees with the skills needed to stay modern and relevant in today's fast-paced world. The LMS software focuses on aligning learning needs with business demands.N/A

    Blackboard Learn by Anthology

    Score6 out of 10
    N/ABlackboard Inc. is an enterprise learning management systems vendor. Blackboard was founded in 1997 and became a public company in 2004. The company provides education, mobile, communication, and commerce software and related services to clients including education providers, corporations and government organizations. As of December 2010, Blackboard software and services are used by over 9,300 institutions in more than 60 countries. Blackboard Learn is the company's flagship LMS, supporting…N/A
    Pricing
    Absorb LMSBlackboard Learn by Anthology
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Absorb LMSBlackboard Learn by Anthology
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredOptional
    Additional Details—Must contact vendor for pricing information.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Absorb LMSBlackboard Learn by Anthology
    Considered Both Products
    Absorb Software Inc.
    Chose Absorb LMS
    Absorb [LMS] had [many] of the same features. Many of the vendors had a lower base price with additional pricing for the add-ons. From a cost perspective, the majority of software providers' costs were higher with all of the required addons. For the features required Absorb …
    Incentivized
    Chose Absorb LMS
    Absorb support is way better than others and I feel more valued and listened to than the other LMS that I have checked out
    Incentivized
    Anthology, Inc
    Chose Blackboard Learn by Anthology
    Blackboard Learn compares favorably to the other learning management solutions out there but has a leg up if you are using other Blackboard products. We liked Absorb a lot but it was ultimately more costly for us based on our current infrastructure. Moodle and Canvas are …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    98%
    Would buy again
    97 Answers
    78%
    Would buy again
    14 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    86 Answers
    82%
    Delivers good value for the price
    9 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    98 Answers
    72%
    Happy with the feature set
    13 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    69 Answers
    67%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    4 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    91%
    Implementation went as expected
    72 Answers
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    Features
    Absorb LMSBlackboard Learn by Anthology
    Learning Management
    Comparison of Learning Management features of Absorb LMS and Blackboard Learn by Anthology
    Feature
    Absorb LMS
    8.9
    90 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Blackboard Learn by Anthology
    8.6
    30 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Course authoring8.073 Ratings9.024 Ratings
    Course catalog or library9.478 Ratings9.024 Ratings
    Player/Portal9.182 Ratings8.021 Ratings
    Learning content8.963 Ratings6.127 Ratings
    Mobile friendly7.567 Ratings9.030 Ratings
    Progress tracking & certifications9.985 Ratings7.024 Ratings
    Assignments9.974 Ratings9.030 Ratings
    Compliance management9.969 Ratings9.017 Ratings
    Learning administration9.787 Ratings10.025 Ratings
    Learning reporting & analytics8.685 Ratings9.026 Ratings
    Social learning8.044 Ratings9.022 Ratings
    Gamification6.939 Ratings00 Ratings
    Single Sign On (SSO) Enabled Learning9.461 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Absorb LMSBlackboard Learn by Anthology
    Small Businesses
    Tovuti LMS
    Score10 out of 10
    Google Classroom
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    iSpring Learn
    Score9.6 out of 10
    Schoology Learning
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Bridge Learning Platform
    Score7.4 out of 10
    Axonify
    Score10 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Absorb LMSBlackboard Learn by Anthology
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.2
    (92 ratings)
    9.9
    (58 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (6 ratings)
    4.6
    (11 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (5 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.5
    (78 ratings)
    7.7
    (14 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Absorb LMSBlackboard Learn by Anthology
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Absorb Software Inc.
    My (internal) project build team consisted of three people - one with experience setting up an LMS previously, and two with no experience. I have experienced 'out of the box' builds before and they are rarely intuitive and/or easy to navigate and set up. This was not the case with Absorb LMS. The eLearning modules and face-to-face support provided was thorough and there was a lack of unneccessary complexity to setting up the platform. My novices now know there way around every inch of the platform and love using it. This was not our first LMS, but it may well be our last. The functionality (from reporting for admins to ease of access for learners) far exceeds our previous experiences and we have a product that looks great, works seemlessly and that we are very proud of.
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    A school with a well-established technology imprint with their students (for example, ours is a BYOB school where every student has their own laptop and must bring it to school every day and where over 99% of our families have reliable broadband at home) is a reasonable scenario for using The arrogance and intransigence of the sales force is quite disconcerting… They are no longer the only game in town and don't yet realize it. Less well-off schools/families may find it a challenge if students must be on campus or at a public library in order to use the technology. Obviously, during the pandemic, this became problematic for some districts.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Absorb Software Inc.
    • Customizing the user interface was fairly simple and our learners WANT to use the platform because it looks so nice.
    • Admins have so many tools at their fingertips to pull reports, create new users, author new courses, and more!
    • Absorb LMS has been the solution to so many problems we had experienced in our previous LMS: ease of use, course library, course authoring, tracking, reporting, etc.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    • Blackboard Learn makes submitting assignments electronically simple and provides a variety of built-in Web-based tools like e-portfolios, wikis, and blogs that our students use to create their own content.
    • Blackboard Learn is intuitive and easy to navigate from a students perspective
    • Blackboard Learn has many integrations available for connecting this LMS to other tools we use at our institution.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Absorb Software Inc.
    • The "And" and "Or" rules for self + automatic enrollment could be spelled out more to clarify who we're enrolling into courses
    • The thumbnail and poster "Upload photo" section is confusing. There should be a "Favorites" folder where we can easily find most commonly used posters and thumbnails
    • more education around Absorb analyze essentials
    • How the Featured courses section ranks courses is confusing on the back-end. I need to switch the primary one to second place to feature the new one first. But if the previous one now becomes second place, what happens to the old course that was in second place? I've noticed the order you select on the back-end for this isn't always reflected on user side
    • Same comment as Featured Courses but for appearance of billboards. Hard to position each in the right order
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    • Blackboard Learn has some limitations when it comes to submissions
    • It is not that user friendly, I had to spend some time to get a hang of it in the beginning
    • I have been struggling a bit with deletion of manually added courses
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Absorb Software Inc.
    We love the ability to have a user-friendly system that integrates well with our different HR interfaces (we have 3 systems that feed data/employees into the system). It makes it easy to track course completions and report out on metrics enterprise-wide. In addition, the ability to provide consistent education to staff who are geographically dispersed is a huge incentive for us, and Absorb LMS does this seamlessly.
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    There are several aspects of Desire2Learn that outweigh the benefits of using Blackboard. I find that the Desire2Learn system is a bit more user friendly and looks more up-to-date. However, the decision to renew systems is not up to me because the entire University uses the same system. Regardless, I think I would choose Desire2Learn over Blackboard because of its improved user interface.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Absorb Software Inc.
    It is very intuitive, not just from an admin perspective to manage courses and track completions, but also from a learners' perspective. It is very easy to find courses, search for courses, and track personal course progress. The interface is well designed, which makes it simpler for our audience to navigate the portal and find what they are looking for
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    It is very usable for both faculty and students. The interface is pretty intuitive and most students can use it without a lot of additional training. Faculty do need some training to effectively use the interface, but they usually get it pretty quickly. We have had to create some additional programming to give faculty a way to delve deeper into the content.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Absorb Software Inc.
    We have never had any major issue with Absorb's availability. Any outages that have occurred have been planned an communicated. Any small issues that occur within the Absorb platform have been addressed efficiently and quickly by support and the development team
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Absorb Software Inc.
    Absorb LMS's performance is very reliable and consistent. Pages load quickly. Report are generated within a reasonable amount of time (even with significant amounts of data), etc. Nothing seems to slow it down.
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Absorb Software Inc.
    [...] is a ROCK star- having her as part of our support team has been a game changer. She is a true problem solver at heart and has an unique ability to retain who we are as a company and match that with what can help us most. She has been a game changer for our internal admin team and is supporting us through a business review to help guide us in the best direction on our constant growth.
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    My Blackboard support comes from the university I work with. They are responsive--eventually... but it takes them sometimes a week to respond to a reported issue. For example, I reported 2 issues last week and one was resolved and I was contacted about one still open option today. That is too long for a tech issue. I have not contacted any support offered directly by Blackboard, which may be a completely different experience altogether.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Absorb Software Inc.
    Absorb was able to provide an initial training of the platform, covering all our basic needs. Additionally, there are Absorb learning modules available for further learning that can be accessed at anytime. There is also the ability to review Absorb's extensive resource library to find the answers to questions/troubleshooting. Beyond that, we opted for the Premier Support so our organization has access to a dedicated Customer Success Manager.
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Absorb Software Inc.
    The implementation of Absorb went very seamlessly. We previously had the Oracle LMS and importing user data and getting the new system up to speed was painless. The smooth transition helped leaders and staff gain confidence early in the application/company and we have had a successful partnership with Absorb since.
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    Blackboard's Managed Hosting was top-notch in getting us up and running quickly.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Absorb Software Inc.
    All sites provided at least a basic LMS platform, and Talent was probably the closest in terms of features and like-for-like comparison. Ultimately, none of the others had the same level of course creation and it would either have meant outsourcing or spending a significant amount of time building the courses which was not ideal as we would still be paying for the service during this time. Absorb had the best course creation software of all evaluated which is why we chose it, although it was also by far the most expensive of those evaluated.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    Coursera offers a variety of modules in which a team is able to work on then, but [Blackboard Learn] offers more options to understand how are the team members developing and which tasks have offered a harder challenger for them. [Blackboard Learn] also offers a variety of reports that can be generate by a team lead.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Absorb Software Inc.
    Seems very expensive for limitations we have experienced.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    Absorb Software Inc.
    We have already scaled our LMS from a couple hundred users to 1000 users and have plans to scale even larger. We use the LMS across multiple internal departments. countries and user types. Absorb has made it easy to integrate and scale and we will continue to scale in the near future.
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    No answers on this topic
    Professional Services
    Absorb Software Inc.
    I believe this question speaks to additional professional service hours that we had built into our contract to work with a set of staff members for purposes of changes or enhancements to our specific instance of Absorb. Again, I have nothing but positive things to say regarding our dealings with people at all levels of the organization. The PMs, the technical experts, the help desk staff are all friendly, knowledgeable, helpful and efficient
    Read full review
    Anthology, Inc
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Absorb Software Inc.
    • Lighter administrative load, we went from 20-30 support tickets per month to 1 or 2.
    • Our course setup and configuration time now takes less than 5 minutes. In our previous system it took us close to 15 minutes to publish a course.
    • We have been able to push administrative responsibilities to department level administrators, because of the ability to have department level admins, who only have access and control of their department users and content.
    Incentivized
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    Anthology, Inc
    • At one of the institutions that I worked for, the ROI was excellent for the number of users we were serving; however, I could not speak to other instances as I was not aware of the overall cost of the contract.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Absorb LMS Screenshots

    Screenshot of a company's unique identity with a training interface that is custom-designed for the brand.Screenshot of a company's image and values with a training interface that is tailored to the brand's specific needs.Screenshot of the course creation workflow, that offer a diverse set of formats, including instructional videos, quizzes, and assessments.Screenshot of Absorb's course details page, accessible from the course catalog dashboard, used to give learners an understanding of the course material.Screenshot of learners' progress insights, used to make data-driven decisions with the reporting capabilities of Absorb LMS.Screenshot of course creation with Create AI Beta.

    Blackboard Learn by Anthology Screenshots

    Screenshot of A modern and intuitive learning management system (LMS) designed in collaboration with the global education community, providing students and faculty with a more inclusive, flexible, and insightful experience.Screenshot of Fostering a sense of belonging is essential to student success. To truly create an inclusive learning environment requires a holistic approach, and Blackboard Learn leads the market in many critical areas which allow your institution to meet students of all backgrounds where they are. Built to be mobile-first, Blackboard Learn is the only LMS that provides the same great experience on PC, tablet, and smartphone. And we're proud that Blackboard Learn was the First LMS to achieve accessibility Certification from the National Federation of the Blind and all of our interfaces undergo rigorous accessibility testing. Learn also has the best integration with our market-leading accessibility product, Ally, of any LMS. Learn also ensures that every user has an experience which reflects – and celebrates – their unique identity. To take just one example, users can record their name pronunciation, and choose their preferred pronouns.Screenshot of Blackboard Learn supports instructors with multiple formative and summative assessment methods, and features capabilities that reduce stress for students. For example, we’ve recently released features that allow students to use different test-taking strategies and understand their progress through assessments – including a timer that can be hidden – to maximize their result and minimize anxiety. Grading workflows have been designed to increase efficiency for instructors and give more insightful feedback to students. For instance, we’ve recently revamped the overall grade functionality to make it easier for instructors to change weightings between tasks and tailor to individual students. Blackboard Learn also offers deep integrations with hundreds of partners to create even more interactive and engaging courses, including the deepest interaction of any LMS with Microsoft Teams.Screenshot of Blackboard Learn presents insights embedded right into instructor and student workflows - making useful information readily available, and making it easier for instructors to help students where and when they need it most. Learn's progress tracking tools help students and instructors always know how they're tracking to achieve their goals - and where there is opportunity for improvement. Quick actions are tied to these insights, like following up with students in groups or individually. Blackboard Learn also provides built-in value with Blackboard Data Reporting to help leaders understand how the LMS is being used, student performance, and surfacing opportunities for continuous improvement.