Bridge Learning Platform vs. Totara LMS

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

As a real estate services company with properties (& employees) in six states, Totara LMS is well suited for implementing and our employee learning platform to our many team members that work remotely and cannot benefit from regular in-person learning courses. Totara LMS's comprehensive and customizable reporting system also allows us to accurately review and tell the story of employee performance and talent development, while tailoring this reporting to the needs of different internal stakeholders.

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

• Easy user interface with good ability to brand to your own environment.
• Relatively easy to administrate yourself.

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

• The expansive capabilities of Totara LMS out of the box can be intimidating to those first starting out with an LMS.
• Cost of deployment is high and the ramp up is time consuming.
• Help documentation is limited, but we hear it will be improved in the future.

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

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

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

Easy to access both local support and support/advice from other Totara LMS users as we keep in regular contact as a part of the totara government users group. Our vendor also keeps in touch with this group and a lot of knowledge is shared. It's easy to access the Totara LMS users academy, and one of my administrators has also set up a local forum where they ask each other questions and share knowledge as well. Our vendor is easy to access via our support plan and we have monthly catch-ups with our account manager where we hear about anything new coming up.

Incentivized

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

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

• 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

• saved frontal training
• more employees passed training and faster

Incentivized