We performed a comparison between Canvas LMS and CYPHER Learning based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Learning Management Systems (LMS) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."I used a lot of other systems in my IT career and Canvas LMS truly has everything that I would look for in an enterprise system."
"The integration with Zoom is a notable feature. It allows for seamless access to live class sessions directly from Canvas after authentication, enabling quick entry into Zoom calls. You can also schedule Zoom calls or private recordings directly within Canvas, making it convenient, especially for situations like self-recording exams. Additionally, Canvas excels in collaboration and discussion capabilities. Users can engage in discussions on various topics, and there's the option to create custom groups for more focused interactions. These groups provide a level of privacy and isolation from the broader class, which is a significant advantage."
"We have been using Canvas LMS, and overall, it has served our needs well for managing courses and general settings."
"The solution is easy to access."
"It's easy to follow. It flows well, and it's easy to use."
"Its easy adaptability to whatever form or methodology you are using to teach is valuable. It tends to be seamless, and it is very much a self-intuitive product. It requires almost no instruction, and you can be fully up to speed and ready to run on it. You can bring someone in who has never worked with any online learning or LMS system, and in a week's timeframe, they would almost be fully functional because Canvas is so simple to use."
"They have a more extensive support base in terms of infrastructure."
"The product's flexibility is exceptional."
"We also use the platform for automation and adaptive learning purposes. The ability to set trigger rules that show or hide specific class sections or assignments is as optimal as possible. Because it is intuitive, it is easy to create content for students in a personalized way. And it is very intuitive for the students."
"The feature I use the most is the rubrics tool. I have built all my rubrics in the platform and, using them, I can mark the scores that the students have and it provides transparency between the students and the teachers."
"One of the features that is very good is the automation for setting trigger rules that show or hide specific class sections or assignments."
"I mainly use the storage folders that allow students to upload their work in an organized way. By providing a large storage capacity, the system allows students to upload videos and images. I can also rate students and give them feedback with comments or stickers."
"E-commerce is still one of the exotic features, meaning that not all LMS providers offer it. It is critical for us. We have had no trouble implementing payment gateways with this system and it works out-of-the-box without any special tricks."
"Most LMSs have a fixed template for all the courses and the whole school uses it. When it comes to younger ages, they need fewer features so there won't be a lot of hassle for the teachers and parents. That's what we can do using CYPHER Learning: Just turn off anything that we don't need in a specific course."
"It is very easy for educators to communicate with students using the CYPHER Learning messaging system, which is imperative for our organization."
"Another feature that is great for me... is the learning outcomes feature... In CYPHER Learning, it's called the Mastery feature. The learning outcomes feature allows us to measure whether students have achieved competency, based on the encoded learning outcomes."
"In our working, we are encountering many challenges with Canvas LMS. One of the major area is their business model which is having a very different pricing structure. The structure is made in such a way that the license fee is needed to be paid for the complete year even if the student has been enrolled for a programme of short duration. This structure is not conducive with our needs and hence, in the past few years, been increasing our costs manifold. Along with this, Canva LMS also lacks many functionalities such as notifications and adaptive learning. There is a specific issue with the licensing model that affects us in continuous education. The inability to reuse a license for the same course in different terms hinders our cost efficiency. For instance, if a program runs from January to April, we are required to pay for the license twice within the same academic year. This contrasts with other platforms like Hyper, where reusing a license is possible, allowing us to use the same license multiple times in different terms. Along with the use, we are exploring the integration of artificial intelligence into our processes, and Canvas LMS falls short in this regard. While some platforms allow connections with external AI services, Canvas does not currently offer built-in artificial intelligence capabilities, a feature we find valuable for enhancing the learning experience."
"The product could be integrated with a talent management system."
"It would be nice to be able to do more real-time comprehensive reporting with Canvas LMS."
"The solution could be upgraded and improved."
"The high-tech interactivity with other software, like ArcGIS or RSA Archer, can be better. It is not as easily compatible with them. You can put apps in it that the students can then access, but the routing of apps through the Canvas system slows down functionality on the other types of products."
"The learning curve is not steep, but it is intermediate."
"It would be good to be able to do teleconferencing within the LMS."
"There are a couple of areas that could be improved. Firstly, the discussion feature is not very interactive and can be slow to respond, making it less intuitive at the moment. This is an aspect that needs substantial improvement. Another point to consider is related to the cost of the LMS system. It's perceived as relatively expensive, which has led to discussions about transitioning away from Canvas, potentially to a more cost-effective alternative. This cost-related aspect is a significant factor to consider when implementing such a system."
"I would also like CYPHER Learning to constantly give training days for all the institutions that work with them. We recently had face-to-face training, but this could be done more frequently."
"We can see who has accessed the portal, but it is not very intuitive. There is an issue with MATRIX user reporting. It is not that useful a lot of the time because we see conflicting dates in the activity and login. I have tried to work with their engineers, and asked, "Well, what's the real deal here," and there is no clarity around it."
"I'd like a way to set deadlines for assignments to be submitted by learners' onboarding programs based on their enrollment dates. For example, if a learner starts in October, and we want the assignment submitted 30 days after that."
"I would also like to see them improve accessibility for younger kids. Perhaps they could enable us to customize folders in a more playful way."
"I would like to see better integration of the platform with Zoom or Meet so that programming of video conferences would be much more interactive within those platforms. Currently, if we have to do a conference in Zoom or Meet, we have to leave the platform because we cannot do so directly within it."
"An important addition would be training so that we can exploit the platform much more. The platform is advancing and being updated. It is important to know and understand everything in more detail, and how to work with it."
"There needs to be greater granularity of user packages. We don't always have 100 users per month. However, we pay for 100."
"One of the things that I would like to see improvement on is detecting duplicate users by identifying them by their names and not only by their email addresses. Many people change their email addresses but we don't know that they have. This can result in unnecessary duplication of user accounts."
Canvas LMS is ranked 5th in Learning Management Systems (LMS) with 8 reviews while CYPHER Learning is ranked 1st in Learning Management Systems (LMS) with 50 reviews. Canvas LMS is rated 8.6, while CYPHER Learning is rated 9.0. The top reviewer of Canvas LMS writes "Intuitive, easy to learn, and easy to adapt to various teaching methodologies". On the other hand, the top reviewer of CYPHER Learning writes " Rules engine allows us to automate aspects of our training, and we get full visibility into individual students' progress". Canvas LMS is most compared with Google Classroom, Schoology Learning, Moodle, Brightspace and Kajabi Course, whereas CYPHER Learning is most compared with Moodle, TalentLMS, Cornerstone Learning, Blackboard Learning Management and Google Classroom. See our CYPHER Learning vs. Canvas LMS report.
See our list of best Learning Management Systems (LMS) vendors.
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