Brightspace vs OpenSesame

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

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Product Basics

Brightspace is a cloud-based LMS that supports personalized learning for educational institutions, corporations, healthcare institutions, nonprofits and more. For K-12 schools, it offers blended and virtual learning options, along with tools for professional learning. For companies, it provides an engaging learning platform to train employees, customers and partners.


Key features include tools for tailored learning experiences, intelligent agents, analytics for tracking progress, course authoring and a gradebook with a mastery view. You can choose from flexible options to build and curate content, and use its mobile-friendly design for on-the-go learning.

Users praise Brightspace for its extensive features, user-friendly interface and proactive support. A large number of reviews mention its exceptional implementation and onboarding process, praising the responsiveness and speed of the support team. While the majority of users are impressed by the solution’s capabilities, some mentioned that it may have a learning curve for new users.

The exact pricing of the solution isn’t mentioned online. For accurate pricing details based on the size and requirements of your institution, you can contact the vendor for a custom quote.

On the bright side, you can access the 30-day free trial to get hands-on experience with the platform. It includes a variety of pre-loaded courses to explore and a sandbox area where you can experiment with creating your own course.

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OpenSesame is a comprehensive software solution designed to streamline the management of learning management systems (LMS), making it an ideal choice for organizations looking to enhance their e-learning capabilities. It stands out for its ability to cater to a wide range of industries by offering a vast library of curated online courses that cover various subjects, from business skills to compliance training. One of the key benefits of OpenSesame is its flexibility in integration, allowing it to seamlessly connect with most LMS platforms, thereby enhancing user experience and facilitating easier access to learning resources. Users particularly appreciate its user-friendly interface and the extensive support provided, which significantly simplifies the process of course selection and deployment. When compared to similar products, OpenSesame is often praised for its comprehensive content library and the effectiveness of its customer support. Pricing considerations vary, typically depending on the number of users and the specific courses selected, with options for subscription-based payments that allow for scalability and adaptability to different organizational needs.

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Product Insights

  • Revolutionizes Learning with AI: D2L Lumi uses AI to simplify tasks for both teachers and admins in Brightspace. It can automatically generate practice questions and custom learning paths for students, speeding up course setup. For learners, Lumi provides personalized feedback and helps with note-taking, making learning more efficient and boosting training outcomes.
  • Digitizes Courses: Brightspace’s Content Experience platform makes it easy to build interactive courses with videos, images and even external tools like Google Drive and OneDrive. Pre-made templates simplify course design, and tools like Video Note come with automatic captions, ensuring accessibility for learners with special needs.
  • Facilitates Performance Review With Grading Tools: Based on our data, Brightspace scores 93 for the Assessments module. Its Gradebook and Mastery View make it easy to grade and track student progress in one place. With the Creator+ add-on, AI helps you by automatically generating quizzes and practice questions, saving you time. Advanced Analytics give you clear insights into student engagement and performance, so you can quickly spot who may need extra support and adjust your teaching to fit their needs.
  • Improves Decision-Making: With predictive models, you can actually forecast how learners will perform and fill in any knowledge gaps with personalized learning paths. Plus, real-time reports and visualizations give you a clear view of how effective your courses are and how engaged learners are.
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  • Better Integration: Get adaptable courses with SCORM or AICC-compatible courses. Add courses and monitor progress completion. 
  • Greater Ease of Use: Get pre-built integrations for a better interface and reduce IT burden. 
  • Curated Courses: Choose the best learning and training program according to the enterprise’s needs. Improve learning and employee engagement with advice from advisors. 
  • Upskilled Workers: Build soft skills to develop leadership and management qualities. Improve communication, negotiation and project management. 
  • Reduce Workload: Make implementation easier with constant technical support, simplifying the administration process. 
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  • Roles and Permissions: Create, define, modify and delete user roles, and assign permissions to control access to features like creating discussions or editing navigation bars. Apply roles to users for specific org units to determine their access levels, and use cascading roles to extend permissions to all subordinate org units for easier management.
  • Calendar: Display all upcoming events to learners in one central location. Post essential dates like project deadlines, office hours, in-class events and more on the calendar.
  • Assignments: Create and edit assignments using the Assignments tool, track submission times and review work directly. Associate assignments with rubrics and competencies, and return them with grades and feedback. Organize them into categories, and set restrictions by date, group membership or special access.
  • Mobile App: Use the Brightspace Pulse mobile app to let learners access course calendars, assignments, grades and announcements from one place. Send real-time alerts for cancellations, room changes, and new content or grades. Allow them to view schedules and weekly tasks with built-in visualization tools to track what’s due today, this week and later.
  • Portfolio: Use the Portfolio tool to help learners capture and showcase their learning journey. Create and update digital portfolios to track progress over time. Use the app to collect evidence, record audio and video reflections, and document achievements.
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  • Vendor Consolidation: Combine vendors to cut costs and save time. Navigate through comprehensive lists of courses with ease. 
  • Varied Courses: Get access to 22,000+ courses on a variety of topics in various formats. 
  • Certification: Validate skills and competency through professional certifications like PMI/PMP, CompTIA, ITIL, Microsoft, HRCI, Six Sigma and more. 
  • Compliance: Track course completion data with a robust dashboard. Access the latest courses to meet compliance requirements. Ensure adherence to workplace regulations to avoid litigation. 
  • DIE Courses: Train organizations in diversity, equity and inclusion. Access 900 courses on DIE with multiple formats and languages. Take DIE surveys to get actionable insights. 
  • L&D Courses: Learn from a variety of training courses with regular optimization, minimum administration and maximum utilization. 
  • Safety Courses: Implement industry-specific safety courses like OSHA, first aid, ladders and electrical safety to prevent risk and litigation. Get mobile and microlearning formats to learn from anywhere. 
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Product Ranking

#11

among all
LMS Software

#98

among all
LMS Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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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 43 93 100 100 86 92 100 87 93 100 81 0 25 50 75 100
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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 911 reviews
Great User Sentiment 50 reviews
87%
of users recommend this product

Brightspace has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 87% when considering 911 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

80%
of users recommend this product

OpenSesame has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 80% when considering 50 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.

4.4 (598)
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4.0 (25)
4.3 (217)
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4.1 (18)
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Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Brightspace and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Assessments, Compliance and Learning Delivery.

Assessments Award
Compliance Award
Learning Delivery Award

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Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Comprehensive Feature Set: Brightspace gets major props for its "all-in-one" feature set that includes tools for creating and managing courses, delivering content in various formats (videos, quizzes, documents) and promoting collaboration. Users appreciate its support for different instructional approaches, whether it's entirely online, blended or traditional classroom settings.
User-Friendly Interface: The platform's interface is generally described as clean and intuitive, which is crucial for both instructors and students. This minimizes the learning curve, allowing users to focus on teaching and learning rather than navigating a complex system.
Customization: Institutions and instructors like the ability to tailor the platform to their branding and specific needs. This includes customizing themes, layouts and navigation.
Analytics and Reporting: Brightspace provides detailed analytics and reporting tools that allow instructors to track student progress, identify areas where students might be struggling and measure the effectiveness of their teaching methods.
Accessibility: Brightspace is built with accessibility in mind, complying with standards like WCAG 2.1, Section 508 and EN 301 549. Features like screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation and alternative text for images ensure that all learners, including those with disabilities, have equal access to educational content.
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Extensive Course Library: OpenSesame boasts a vast collection of over 20,000 courses spanning diverse topics, catering to various industries and professional development needs. This eliminates the need for organizations to create their own content, saving time and resources.
User-Friendly Interface: The platform's intuitive design simplifies course administration, allowing for easy enrollment, progress tracking, and reporting. This streamlines the learning process for both administrators and learners.
Content Curation Tools: OpenSesame empowers administrators to curate customized learning paths by selecting specific courses and organizing them into relevant categories. This enables personalized learning experiences tailored to individual or team requirements.
Integration Capabilities: OpenSesame seamlessly integrates with various Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS), facilitating data synchronization and a unified learning ecosystem.
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Learning Curve: While the interface is generally user-friendly, some users, especially those new to Brightspace or transitioning from another LMS, may find the initial setup and learning process to be challenging.
Limited Customization in Certain Areas: Although Brightspace offers extensive customization in many areas, some users have reported limitations in specific areas, such as fine-grained control over page layouts and graphics.
Cost: Depending on your organization's size and requirements, the cost of Brightspace can be a significant factor. Additional costs for add-ons or premium features can further increase the overall investment.
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Limited Customization: OpenSesame's course builder offers limited options for branding and customization, making it difficult for organizations to create a consistent learning experience that aligns with their brand identity.
Reporting and Analytics: The platform's reporting and analytics capabilities are relatively basic, lacking the depth and flexibility needed for comprehensive learner progress tracking and data-driven decision-making.
Integrations: OpenSesame's integrations with other business systems, such as HRIS or CRM platforms, are limited, potentially hindering seamless data flow and workflow automation.
Customer Support: Some users have reported challenges with OpenSesame's customer support, citing slow response times and difficulty resolving technical issues.
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Brightspace is one of our top-rated LMSs with a solid analyst score of 92. It’s designed for large organizations and is popular for both education and corporate training. According to our data, Brightspace has a high score for several LMS modules. These include:  Collaboration: 100 Compliance: 100 Reporting and Dashboard: 100 Assessments: 93One of its standout features is the flexible course builder, allowing you to create interactive courses without technical expertise. With Creator+, you can use ready-made templates to quickly build professional-looking content, complete with quizzes and polls to keep learners engaged.Brightspace also makes it easy to add videos and multimedia, giving courses a dynamic feel. Built-in design styles help ensure that everything looks consistent and polished. The platform’s grading system, including the Gradebook, simplifies the grading process by automatically pulling in scores from assignments, quizzes and discussions. Setting up grading is easy with a step-by-step wizard, and you can provide feedback through text, audio or even annotations.Brightspace’s predictive analytics helps you spot students who might need extra support by analyzing grades, engagement, and activity. Performance+ adds even more reporting power, letting you generate detailed reports, track learning patterns and set up personalized learning paths for each student based on their progress.If you need advanced reporting across courses, the Achievement+ package includes tools for tracking learning outcomes and viewing results over time. This package includes features like the Outcome Achievement Dashboard and the Course Achievement Overview, which offer visual reports that can also be exported for offline use.Brightspace integrates with third-party tools like video conferencing and student information systems. Plus, its mobile-friendly design allows students to access courses from any device, anytime. Based on our data, Brightspace stands out in collaboration, compliance and reporting. Its Performance+ suite offers real-time training insights, and it complies with standards like WCAG and SCORM, while providing strong security measures like encryption and backups.However, compared to other platforms like Docebo or LearnUpon, Brightspace lacks certain AI-powered features such as AI-based tagging and content recommendations, which could be a disadvantage for organizations wanting advanced AI tools. Absorb LMS also offers more options for subscription management and interactive learning, which Brightspace doesn’t fully support — potentially making it less ideal for businesses looking to monetize training or enhance engagement with interactive features.Although Brightspace excels in core features like tracking, reporting, and compliance, it’s missing some capabilities like workload balancing and lesson gating, which can help manage learner progress. Pricing varies by organization size, making it scalable, though some users note a steeper learning curve than with other platforms.For organizations that need a customizable LMS with strong analytics, Brightspace is a worthwhile investment, especially for businesses focused on data-driven training and development strategies.

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Unlocking the potential of your workforce is no easy feat, but OpenSesame might just be the key. User reviews from the past year paint a picture of a platform with a unique blend of strengths and weaknesses. OpenSesame shines in its user-friendly interface and extensive course library, making it a breeze for administrators to manage training programs and for learners to access a diverse range of content. The platform's reporting and analytics capabilities also receive praise, empowering organizations to track progress and measure the impact of their training initiatives. However, some users point out that OpenSesame's customization options can be limited, and integration with other HR systems may require additional effort. What truly sets OpenSesame apart is its focus on curation and quality. Unlike some competitors that offer a vast but unfiltered selection of courses, OpenSesame carefully vets its content providers to ensure high-quality, engaging learning experiences. This emphasis on curation is particularly valuable for organizations seeking to avoid the pitfalls of information overload and ensure their employees are receiving top-notch training. Ultimately, OpenSesame is best suited for small to mid-sized businesses that prioritize ease of use, a diverse course library, and reliable reporting features. For organizations with complex customization needs or extensive integration requirements, exploring alternative solutions might be wise. Keep in mind that the eLearning landscape is constantly evolving, so it's always a good idea to check for the latest updates and user feedback before making a decision.

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