Bridge Learning Platform vs. Moodle

Bridge is suited for scenarios where you need ppl to complete steps in order or test that they received the correct amount of knowledge after watching a video. I do think Bridge is less appropriate for companies that use it in external training scenarios as there is some key functionality missing. We gotten very good at brainstorming and finding solutions/ways to get Bridge to work the way that we need it to

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

• Superb Customer Support: Getting help from Bridge is so accessible; whether it's via our customer relations rep, the chat or email option. I know I can always get immediate help when I need it.
• Events: The Bridge annual conference is a wonderful way to connect with Bridge and other companies who use it to get inspired and share ideas.
• Constantly improving: Every Bridge comes out with additions and improvements to make the user experience better.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• There is a 'language' that is used by Bridge staff which takes some getting used to. So many terms are 'tech speak' and it does take some extra time to learn those terms.
• The menus and links to reports, etc. are not as intuitive as they could be. I find myself frustrated at times trying to navigate. I don't automatically relate terms like 'insights' and 'instance' in the way they are used by Bridge.
• I've asked for a notification via email when a user completes the program. I recognize that this has been a work in progress but it seems like it should be a relatively simple fix.
• Initially, Bridge provided sessions which were designed to educate a new user on every aspect of everything Bridge has to offer. Much of this was a waste of time in our case. The training sessions should have asked first what we intended to do and provided only the information needed to get us going. We needed only a push in the right direction, not an overview of every possibility we may encounter.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

It has been very useful to our organization in getting compliance training complete. We have a 24/7/365 organization with some folks only working 2 days a week during the summer only, many work full-time jobs elsewhere and can't make weekday programs and facilities don't have to alter schedules to get mass numbers of people through training like you have to do with live training..

Incentivized

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.

Even our folks who fought using it realized how easy it was once they took their first course.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Always timely and knowledgeable assistance. Very patient explaining answers to novice users.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

I have used a few sites and they were adequate but my best learning experience was face to face and hands on.

Incentivized

Our challenges were internal - nothing with Bridge. We had regular, productive meetings with our implementation representative.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Our previous LMS was Symphony. Hands down, there is no comparison. Switching to Bridge was the best decision made by our management team. All we used Symphony for was for our monthly compliance training. Many times people would complain that they would need to retake their compliance course as Symphony would lose records. It became a hassle having to retake a course because you didn't save a copy of the completion certificate. Bridge allows for more than just compliance training AND we are able to see if learners didn't complete their courses via the reports.

Incentivized

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.

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.

Incentivized

• Bridge has allowed us to centralize our compliance training allowing for easy tracking. Bridge Learn has also made it easy for managers to track employee up-skilling from a learning perspective.
• Bridge Learn's native authoring tool makes it easy for SMEs to enter content directly into Bridge.
• One of the unexpected results of using Bridge Learn has been the high demand for professional development material. Employees want to use Bridge to learn more about the careers that they aspire to. This has increased learner engagement significantly on the platform.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized