TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Ellucian Colleague vs. Skyward Student Management System

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Ellucian Colleague

    Score7.4 out of 10
    N/AEllucian offers Colleague educational ERP, including a student information system supporting higher education institutions with student admissions and registration, academics, curriculum management, and other aspects of student management.N/A

    Skyward Student Management System

    Score7.7 out of 10
    N/ASkyward, headquartered in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, offers the Skyward Student Management System, a k-12 student information system which provides classroom tools (e.g. gradebook, attendance tracking, etc), Family Engagement tools with portal, as well as admin and student services task management.N/A
    Pricing
    Ellucian ColleagueSkyward Student Management System
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Ellucian ColleagueSkyward Student Management System
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Ellucian ColleagueSkyward Student Management System
    Considered Both Products
    Ellucian
    No answer on this topic
    Skyward
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    83%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    5 Answers
    83%
    Happy with the feature set
    5 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Ellucian ColleagueSkyward Student Management System
    Student and Faculty Administration
    Comparison of Student and Faculty Administration features of Ellucian Colleague and Skyward Student Management System
    Feature
    Ellucian Colleague
    7.8
    3 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Skyward Student Management System
    6.9
    4 Ratings
    18% below category average
    Integrations with 3rd-Party Education Technology7.03 Ratings5.92 Ratings
    Online Registration Management8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    District Communications, such as messaging and alerting7.02 Ratings7.03 Ratings
    Roster Management8.02 Ratings8.34 Ratings
    Platform Customization8.03 Ratings3.12 Ratings
    Teacher Self-Service8.02 Ratings6.33 Ratings
    Student Data Security8.03 Ratings8.74 Ratings
    Community Support7.02 Ratings3.01 Ratings
    Class Scheduling8.03 Ratings9.02 Ratings
    State and National-level Reporting8.03 Ratings8.52 Ratings
    Compliance Support8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Teacher and Parent Mobile Application8.02 Ratings9.52 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Ellucian ColleagueSkyward Student Management System
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Schoolmint Hero
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Schoolmint Hero
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Schoolmint Hero
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Schoolmint Hero
    Score9.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Ellucian ColleagueSkyward Student Management System
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.5
    (12 ratings)
    7.7
    (16 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.0
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Ellucian ColleagueSkyward Student Management System
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Ellucian
    Ellucian Colleague is wonderful at streamlining processes and unifying data related to students, finance, human resources, and financial aid. It continues to support and manage administrative needs, enhance student experiences, and improve operational efficiency across the University. Ellucian Colleague is less suited for quick data retrieval and comprehensive financial reporting. These functions could use some improvement to optimize the user experience.
    Read full review
    Skyward
    There is nothing specific that I would say sets it apart from any other LMS, but once you are used to the user interface and various features, it does everything that is needed and integrates well enough with other software to function. Probably isn't necessary in a smaller setting, but for multiple building districts, it is certainly robust enough to handle data collection and storage.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Ellucian
    • Colleague Student allows us to integrate services across the university for students with staff in various departments able to see the information about a student that they need to serve the student well.
    • Colleague Student makes it easy to see our students current academic record as well as transfer courses (and information) and their past records here at the university. Our old system required a lot of homegrown connection points to be able to see all of this information. It was neither quick nor easy.
    • Colleague Student makes the registration process for our students much easier. Our old system was clunky and would often prevent students from registering for a class but not provide information for them about why. Colleague Student makes it easy for students to see if they are missing a pre-requisite, have a hold, etc., so they can know how to get their registration back on track.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Skyward
    • Flexibility. This multitude of fields available makes it easy to capture data the way we want or need to.
    • Quick response to trouble tickets. The company strives to reach out to the customer within an hour and start the process of resolution.
    • User focused. Improvements to the system always look at how the end user experience can be enhanced.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Ellucian
    • Develop API's that are vendor agnostic rather than selecting specific vendors (Clearinghouse, ImageNow).
    • Colleague tends to be to reactionary to the changing needs in higher education rather than developing the future.
    • Hound clients to pay extra for consulting (consultants are usually bad), rather than helping institutions to use the product. Seems to be the first thing help line personnel jump to rather than working with clients to figure out creative solutions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Skyward
    • Confusion when it comes to student grades- sometimes there are two different letter grades for a student for what is posted as "TR1" and "PR1." How does a teacher know which of these grades will be posted to a student's report card? How does a teacher know what the student's actual grade is for a particular course?
    • Switching between the Educator Access Plus and Student Management tabs can be complicated, especially for those new to the system. Why can't everything be in one place?
    • I recognize that Skyward logs out after a certain period of inactivity to preserve privacy of users, but is there a way to change those settings so that Skyward does not log out as frequently? It is difficult to keep having to log back in completely again.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Ellucian
    No answers on this topic
    Skyward
    It is the system I am most comfortable with, so having to learn a new system outweighs any problems I have with Skyward.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Ellucian
    For decades, Ellucian Colleague has served the University as our primary student record-retention CRM. Its functionality has weathered many recent trends in CRM development and continues to produce the needed results for our constituency and the size of our university. We look forward to continuing to utilize Ellucian Colleague in the future.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Skyward
    It takes some time to get used to navigating the features and layers, but once you know your way around it, it's pretty good.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Ellucian
    No answers on this topic
    Skyward
    Overall great job, issues were taken care of. People in support do care.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Ellucian
    No answers on this topic
    Skyward
    Yes, I was part of the implementation team.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Ellucian
    I did not use Jenzabar as extensively as Colleague, but they perform similar functions for student information tracking. I think Colleague is more appropriate for use across campus, as its student billing and scheduling options exceed Jenzabar. Jenzabar, however, offers better tools for use exclusively in student affairs. If an organization wants to track all student data, they should consider Colleague.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Skyward
    I, personally, have not used other Student Management Systems, but having used Skyward, I do not necessarily feel any overwhelming desire to seek out the competitive software programs. Skyward does what it says it will and provides my school district with an easy and organized way to share and access all of the relevant student and family information we need. It serves it's purpose well and meets our needs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Ellucian
    • By keeping student's academic work, financial aid, and accounts receivable information in one location we are able to report without the need for data aggregation.
    • Colleague's web applications allow the students themselves to perform tasks such as enrollment without assistance from staff members.
    • Using customized rules that we can set up in Colleague we can trigger events to happen as data is entered. This eliminates the need not only for someone to remember to perform an additional task, but it also saves the time of performing the actual task.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Skyward
    • Overall, Skyward has had a positive impact. One way is the student information that is shared and available to see. If I need to know something about a student’s academic history, Skyward has it.
    • Another way it has impacted our district is the way it has streamlined all of our payroll information. I can see check histories, different parts of my salary, and the year-end totals all in one place.
    • Skyward has also made a big impact on our district by making it easier to communicate with parents. All the parents’ contact information is available and email is even included in the program.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots