Moodle vs. Unique Learning System

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Moodle
Score 7.7 out of 10
N/A
Moodle is an open source learning management system with hundreds of millions of users around the globe and translated into over 100 languages, used by organizations to support their education and training needs.N/A
Unique Learning System
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Unique Learning System (ULS) is a special education solution that supports students with disabilities from Pre-K through transition. It provides differentiated, standards-aligned lessons in ELA, math, science, social studies, and life skills with built-in assessments, progress tracking, and automated differentiation.N/A
Pricing
MoodleUnique Learning System
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
MoodleUnique Learning System
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
MoodleUnique Learning System
Features
MoodleUnique Learning System
Learning Management
Comparison of Learning Management features of Product A and Product B
Moodle
8.0
Ratings
3% below category average
Unique Learning System
-
Ratings
Course authoring8.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Course catalog or library8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Player/Portal8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning content7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile friendly5.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Progress tracking & certifications8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Assignments8.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance management9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning administration8.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning reporting & analytics9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Social learning7.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Gamification6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign On (SSO) Enabled Learning8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
MoodleUnique Learning System
Small Businesses
iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn
Score 9.6 out of 10
Freckle by Renaissance
Freckle by Renaissance
Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Schoology Learning
Schoology Learning
Score 9.7 out of 10
Schoology Learning
Schoology Learning
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Schoology Learning
Schoology Learning
Score 9.7 out of 10
Schoology Learning
Schoology Learning
Score 9.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
MoodleUnique Learning System
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
6.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.8
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
MoodleUnique Learning System
Likelihood to Recommend
Moodle is a Learning Management System and is best suited for just that. We didn't like the assessment piece of our full scale Learning Management System (nor did we want to purchase the entire assessment module) so we chose to use Moodle for this, and it works well. Installing this application with the intention of only using a portion of its capabilities can be successful in environments where you have technical skills and a broad understanding of integration between your systems. For institutions that lack these, you're better suited to using a full scale of an LMS with assessment inside that same application.
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Unique Learning System is well suited for students in self-contained classrooms who need to access grade-level curriculum. I would love to see more life skills incorporated for students who are working on functional skills. It doesn’t translate well to the general education classroom for students who go to inclusive settings.
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Pros
  • Moodle's grade book works well. Assignments are integrated so the grades are recorded automatically.
  • Moodle is customizable by administrators, so our version only gives us the options we need. NO Clutter.
  • The discussion board offers several options for instructors that help with grading. I use "sum of points", but there are other options as well.
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  • differentiated reading levels with picture support
  • constantly updated articles and materials
  • ease of login for students with disabilities
  • broad variety of topics
  • easily accessible games for students of all cognitive levels
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Cons
  • Rubric Management. This may have been addressed in a plugin module.
  • Better tools for examining outcomes from exams and rubrics across a class, course, or organization. This may have been addressed in a plugin module.
  • Improved content management within the default installation. While there are modules that support products such as Drupal, building into the default product would ease adoption.
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  • I would like the print options to be easier to use. I wish I could create a file of the pages I want to print instead of downloading the entire PDF across multiple levels and picking and choosing. My students do not all have digital access due to a variety of reasons and print is a better option for many.
  • I would like Unique Learning System to offer shared licensing. We have classrooms of 6 students where there may be 1 teacher, 5 paraprofessionals, 1 BCBA, 1 SLP, 1 OT, etc. It is a group effort to prepare learning materials for the students and deliver the instruction. I would prefer the licensing to be by student instead of by teacher, it takes a village.
  • I dislike how complicated materials have become with courses, the library, the units, etc. I wish there was a way it could all be organized a little better. I would also love small graphics to be paired with the materials so I don't need to open everything to find what I am looking for. Such as in the Transition Portfolio section.
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Likelihood to Renew
We use it because it is what have committed to back in 2011. Perhaps Moodle will evolve and advance in a positive way that will alleviate most of our user-based gripes? Perhaps it will not appear to be as cost effective given the need for a certain level of engineering and support staff to maintain it at a future level of sustainability? It's hard to say. As an enterprise scale critical application, we like it, but don't love it. Our instructors don't particularly like it at all.
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No answers on this topic
Usability
I've been able to figure out Moodle through my own experimentation and some help from the Moodle support pages. It's not always obvious where to make certain some changes and It can be a little confusing in determining which pages blocks will appear. If this is your first time using Moodle as an admin/course designer you should expect to spend a some time experimenting because knowing where to make certain changes isn't always intuitive. Additionally, plan to explore the course as a student vs. as admin because the UI is different based upon your settings
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I’ve been using Unique Learning System for about 12 1/2 years. And I feel like I am very well-versed and all of the different features. I will say it did take me time to get to this comfortability level. However, if you aren’t afraid to explore and learn, then it will be very easy for you to Figure out
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Reliability and Availability
I have worked in Moodle for over 10 years in two different organizations, and I have never experienced an outage. We have about 600 courses in our current account and the only outage we have had is FlashChat add-in we use for live chats, within Moodle, hence the reason for the nine (9). If you all know of Moodle vendors willing to help us upgrade from 1.9, Please wend me their info.
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No answers on this topic
Performance
Moodle is an excellent LMS in relationship to any other one that I have seen or used. The pages load quickly and the reports complete in a reasonable time frame. Moodle has taken on Respondus, StudyMate, BigBlueButton, Turning Tech, Turnitin2, Certificates, Attendance, Tegrity, Questionnaire, Virtual Programming Lab, and Badges. All of these programs work right in with Moodle and do not cause any issues. Instructors may also use Camtasia and Snagit software as well as using webcams, downloading videos from the Internet, adding into books, or any of the many other areas within Moodle. Our instructors use the grade books without many problems and really don't ask questions much anymore. We upgrade Moodle every semester and are currently on 2.9+. Our instructors have basically learned to use most of the resources and activities.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
I can consider Moodle as one of the pioneer in providing online learning. Before the introduction of other Learning Management Software, Moodle has been in place already in the field of education and so I believe that Moodle is definitely one of a kind software that all teachers should try and utilize in making sure that the online learning is a good experience.
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The individuals helping have always been great. The response to requests for changes in functionality or reporting less so.
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Online Training
I have used a few sites and they were adequate but my best learning experience was face to face and hands on.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Find a partner who will work with you during the implementation process. Be sure to provide ample training for veteran users on the changes and for newbies on the overall product.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Moodle, being open source, is the foundation a lot of other tools like it are based on. It provides almost all of the same functionality and feature set as Google Classtoom, Canvas, etc., although those products are a bit more polished. All can do content delivery, progress tracking, attendance, reporting, etc. with ease, but Moodle also does this as a completely open source product that can be code-reviewed, audited, modified, extended, etc. at will, provided the expertise is present.
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Unique Learning System is by far easier to utilize. The Vizzle system was fraught with issues for me and the students just used their learning online systems as games and clicked through to the finish with total disregard to what the computer was asking or saying to them. They did not have as much available for level one students and you could not easily assign work or print materials as you can in Unique Learning System.
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Scalability
Well, I administer Moodle for a dozen of our divisions and there is a wide range of flexibility between offerings. I have course instructors who use every module i their course, chock full of videos, pictures, links to web tools for synchronous sessions within the asynchronous course. I also have others who are content with a syllabus, a few pdfs, links to podcast lectures and a few simple assignments. No matter if your organization is big or small, or if your requirements are strict for credentialing or non-existent (for internal know-how), Moodle can accommodate you.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • Moodle has allowed the business to track all training initiatives. Since, November 2014 we have loaded 54 courses, 339 users, 889 resources, issued 719 badges, and created over 100 course modules.
  • Our company just got a new applicant tracking system for the recruiters to use. In order to get all of the employees up to speed we created trainings that we loaded into Moodle. The participants and participation was tracked and we were able to find correlations between users engaged in training and their activity in the new applicant tracking system. This is a significant win for the training department, our learners, our company, and especially Moodle.
  • Moodle also provides great customer service for our internal employees. They now have one place to go to find all their resources, all their training, and all the help they need for any training questions. Instead of scattering information on the intranet. Training is more official when it has its own domain.
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  • There has been nearly 100% improvement in data collection for teachers who began implementing Benchmark assessments and Unit Checkpoints. Many teachers don't have the time or capacity to create their own data tracking tools - if it's not provided, it falls through the cracks.
  • When content is applicable, Unique Learning System saves on planning time immensely. It is a grab and go resource, but also customizable based on student needs.
  • I like how the checkpoints are modeled in a similar fashion to our Florida Alternate Assessment. This helps students practice how to test take throughout the year.
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ScreenShots

Moodle Screenshots

Screenshot of Moodle offers activities and resources to create courses.Screenshot of The course dashboard shows the courses which an student is enrolled in.Screenshot of Inside a course view shows the course complete index of activities and resources.
The course view can be customised to be cleaner allowing the student to focus on learning.Screenshot of Moodle Workplace includes all features in Moodle LMS and other exclusive features like multi-tenancy, dynamic rules, and report builder.Screenshot of Programs help users stay up-to-date with compliance, and help with designing learning paths for a teams so that they can develop the right competencies. Certificates can also be issued to validate learning and compliance.Screenshot of Dynamic Rules help to avoid the tedious tasks and create and manage automated rules for several groups of users. Learning experiences based on location, department, position, roles and other criteria are available.

Unique Learning System Screenshots

Screenshot of assessments and progress monitoringScreenshot of lesson planningScreenshot of research based contentScreenshot of Science of Reading coursesScreenshot of a system overviewScreenshot of teacher reference materials