Cornerstone LMS Reviews

“customized learning”

Pros

Being able to tailor learning experiences is a big plus.

Cons

I'm hopeful the response time improves after a question is submitted.

“Simple for customers”

Pros

It's very simple to manage for the customers we support which has been a big plus.

Cons

The main challenges tend to come up when a third-party vendor is involved.

“stable product”

Pros

It's good to see Cornerstone putting real effort into modernizing some of the older, buggy parts of the platform behind the scenes. I appreciate that they're revisiting features that had become outdated and giving them a fresh look. Overall the product feels stable and consistent which has been a strong point.

Cons

Support has definitely been trying to improve lately and that effort is noticeable but there are still plenty of times when it feels like my concerns are not fully understood. I also keep receiving responses that don't really address the issue or follow-up questions asking for details that were already included in my original request.

“Detailed CSOD learning portal”

Pros

It's CSOD learning portal gives us the tools we need to run our organization's learning programs in an efficient and effective way. From the admin side, we can create, assign, import and deliver different training sessions to different user groups without much trouble. When we were evaluating LMS options, CSOD covered everything we needed at the time, along with the features we expected to need in the near future. On top of that, the platform is updated several times a year which helps us stay aligned with new learning trends and keeps our organization current as those trends evolve.

Cons

The frequent update schedule is helpful for keeping up with changing trends but it can also be difficult to manage all of those changes and keep our portal fully up to date. Having more support in this area would make a difference.

“capable platform”

Pros

From an admin standpoint, CSOD has been one of the simplest systems to get comfortable with and the level of detail in it feels logical. I also appreciate the pride its employees seem to have in the product and the direction the company is trying to take within its space. Like most SaaS companies, it constantly needs to adapt and evolve and up to this point the changes have consistently felt like improvements.

Cons

Where things fall short is in the connection between clients and client success managers. It does not feel like there is much synergy there and it is not because people are not trying but more because there has not been enough innovation in that relationship. I keep hoping CSOD will take a bigger risk and approach things in a much more different way. The Client Success Centers and ticketing are acceptable but most of my questions could be answered with less than 10 minutes of direct conversation and a little thought. Instead of leaving clients to piece together the CSOD ecosystem on their own, CSMs should really be acting more like guides and navigators.

“Learner home lets us tailor learner experience”

Pros

The learner home is one of my favorite parts especially because of how much flexibility there is to tailor the learner experience. We've also been building out playlists and recently launched our first ones which has been a really positive step for us.

Cons

The learner home interface could use some design improvement. It feels a bit too busy visually. Also, after finishing a learning object in a playlist, getting back to that same playlist feels buggy. There should be a better, more smooth way to return to the playlist and continue with the remaining learning objects.

“friendly learning interface”

Pros

The CSOD learning interface is something I really appreciate. It feels user-friendly and works well for both end users and administrators.

Cons

The certification feature is where things get frustrating. It isn't user-friendly and CSOD offers very limited support when it comes to certification troubleshooting. I often end up having to walk the GPS associate through the issue over the phone before they even understand what's actually going wrong. I've also run into unexpected problems after patches or releases. More often than not some part of CSOD stops working after an update and then we have to report it to GPS and wait for a fix.

“Better learner experience overall”

Pros

It's been nice to see how much easier it has become to tailor learner experiences in Cornerstone. The end-user usability has definitely improved over the years which makes a real difference. I also enjoy the playlist feature although I'd love to see it do more of what Degreed already offers.

Cons

the learner home page feels limited. We can create custom site and welcome pages but being able to make more direct changes to the learner home would make things much simpler. It would help to rename certain carousels or adjust how they function. I'd also be interested in other content display options beyond cards, like a line-item layout with images. The page builder is usable but I'm not completely sold on it. The widget tool feels outdated compared to current design standards even though it still has value in some situations. A more modern calendar experience for class planning would also be a big improvement. It would be helpful if users could select classes without fixed dates so we'd know when to trigger reactive training sessions although that may partly be a training issue on my side. The biggest thing I'd love from Cornerstone is the ability to create a catalog experience more like ESRI.com. Their setup for calendars, new training items and drill-down catalog browsing does a much better job of keeping users focused on what they need while showing possible learning paths. I also really appreciate the built-in chat and document repository but the layout and behavior feel a little off when content is restricted to a specific group or organization. It's hard to measure exactly why but it doesn't feel fully complete.

“Usability has improved”

Pros

Over the past few years, CSOD has noticeably improved both its interface and overall usability. Features like Learner Home and Express Class have helped create a much better experience for users. It also handles a wide range of learning objects without much trouble which makes it an excellent platform overall.

Cons

Custom reporting across multiple modules can be pretty challenging although that may be improving with Reporting 2.0 since I haven't had the chance to explore it fully yet. There are also occasional quirks with learning objects such as not being able to batch update materials to mark them as mobile-ready or recurring. Those issues can definitely be frustrating but they're not serious enough to outweigh the benefits.

“Simple to upload classes”

Pros

Uploading classes to our catalog and assigning them to employees is really simple which saves a lot of time. The ILT side of the system is simple to configure and finishing rosters is hassle-free. I also appreciate how customizable the email functionality is, with triggers available for just about every situation we run into.

Cons

One thing I'd change is having all the upload and system integration tools gathered in one place. Right now, you have to move between several pages to finish the full process and that can cause newer admins to miss important steps at the beginning.

“all-in-one learning hub”

Pros

Having all of my learning in one place is amazing and Connect adds a lot to the overall learning experience. I also appreciate being able to build widgets and the new Learning page has been a nice improvement.

Cons

The transcript area is still pretty confusing. Course titles should open the course directly instead of taking you to the details page. Events and Sessions really ought to be merged and the terminology should be customizable to match how our company describes different training formats. We also train customers and use independent consultants as instructors for classroom and virtual sessions and since they are not regular users of the system, it is especially important that the platform feels user-friendly and makes everything they need easy to find when they log in.

“Made learning process manageable”

Pros

Having Learning in a single system lets our employees register for and complete their training without jumping between different platforms. Since our college district had been relying on several products before, this has made the whole learning process much more organized and manageable.

Cons

From an administrator's side, the frustrating part is how the template list keeps collapsing while I'm editing a set of emails. Each of our colleges uses location-specific emails so every time I move to another college template, I have to track down the email group and open it again. It would be much better if the email group I'm actively working in stayed expanded until I chose to collapse it myself.

“user-friendly learning suite”

Pros

Using the CSOD Learning suite has been very simple. It gives my company a solid way to offer high-quality training opportunities to our members.

Cons

Limited technical documentation is a problem. Since I handle integrating our other systems with CSOD as part of my IT role, I've spent a lot of extra time trying to figure out how certain integrations work because the documentation doesn't explain them well.

“Valuable features”

Pros

its strong integrations and the learner home experience are impressive. It's very user-friendly for the end user and the platform comes with a lot of valuable features that give it nearly unlimited potential.

Cons

Getting up to speed with Cornerstone has been challenging. I joined after my company had already implemented it so I've had to figure out a lot of the setup on my own. The person before me also wasn't using the system to its full potential and now I'm trying to unlock all the useful things it can do while also teaching myself how the platform works.

“feature-packed and flexible”

Pros

There's a lot packed into Cornerstone and it handles everything from simple tasks to very complex needs across different levels of scale and scope. The Office Hours support has been especially valuable. I also appreciate the different security permission levels since people only get access to what they need without making things overly complicated for either users or admins. Building curriculums is simple and really useful and the custom reporting adds a lot of flexibility.

Cons

The online help often misses the mark and isn't very useful. Since it's not scenario-based, it can be hard to apply the information to a real-world issue. Also, if you don't perform a task regularly, it's sometimes difficult to remember the steps later on.

“Helps us reach more people”

Pros

It does a really good job of letting you adjust the learning experience. Being able to build your own training, buy content or upload existing materials gives us a lot of flexibility and helps us reach more people in an effective way.

Cons

Starting out with it can feel overwhelming. There are so many options and customization settings that it takes a while before you feel like you're truly using the platform to its full potential.

“Learning at your fingertips”

Pros

Cornerstone Learning really brings training right to users, letting them choose the courses they want while also recommending new ones to keep learning going.

Cons

Giving users the option to remove themselves from online courses if they decide not to continue with them will make it better.

“fantastic Learner home page”

Pros

The newer additions especially the Learner Home Page and Playlist, feel much more personalized and aligned with what learners are actually interested in.

Cons

Nothing specific to call out right now. We're still reviewing ways to refresh and optimize our existing Cornerstone interface which hasn't really changed in years. Once we identify where the feature gaps are, we'll be in a better position to comment.

“handles standard communications efficiently”

Pros

Its very flexible when it comes to automating processes. It handles standard communications like assignment notifications, due date reminders and ILT schedule details very efficiently which takes a lot of the administrative burden off the team. I also appreciate that new features are being released on a regular basis.

Cons

some of the older but still standard functionality hasn't been updated. For instance, you still can't create deeplinks to evaluations and custom fields for training can't be controlled through the data load wizard. There are also a few long-standing limitations that have been raised for years and still haven't been resolved.

“good range of templates”

Pros

A customized learning suite, a good range of templates to choose from and mobile-friendly access make Cornerstone a solid platform to use.

Cons

The content module doesn't offer much customization and the mobile experience still needs work since carousel and thumbnail images get cut off. Training titles are also truncated on both mobile and desktop, while custom headers and footers don't carry over to the mobile app. On top of that, the mobile app's UX has limited flexibility when it comes to UI and UX customization.