Cornerstone LMS Reviews

“Great LMS system - easy to use and track”

Pros

Creating and loading new training modules into the system, as well as assigning tasks to team members, is straightforward. The reporting feature for training compliance is also commendable.

Cons

The system can be quirky at times. There are specific procedures that must be followed, and taking shortcuts won't complete a task.

“Quality product, poor support, costly price tag”

Pros

Offering full functionality for an LMS, Cornerstone can integrate with various other enterprise systems. The introduction of new learner experience features brings a modern touch to corporate learning, and support for xAPI is a welcome addition.

Cons

Global Product Support has had issues for several years. Response times for tickets are poor. The cost can be quite high compared to other LMS companies. They demand a certain percentage increase each year, even if it isn't justified.

“Great tool for Learning management”

Pros

Our HR department implemented Cornerstone last year for our Continuing Education needs, covering everything from workplace safety to health tips and best business practices.

Cons

I have not encountered anything with Cornerstone that I dislike. It is been fantastic.

“dated experience”

Pros

From the Learning suite and parts of the Performance suite, Cornerstone has worked well for our organization when it comes to enrolling thousands of employees in both required and optional training. It handles that volume reliably, keeps the information organized and serves as our official system of record.

Cons

On the learner side, the interface feels outdated and not very modern and getting to the right place often takes far too many clicks. Reporting is another weak spot, the built-in reports are too limited so we regularly have to create custom reports and rely on outside tools like Tableau to get the reporting we actually need.

“Nice, simple training tool”

Pros

I appreciate the simplicity of this program. Training should be straightforward, and this software provides the essential features while remaining easy to navigate.

Cons

The UI could be cleaner in appearance. This might be due to our company's instance of it. Apart from that, I love it.

“helpful search feature”

Pros

The search feature has been the most useful part for me. It's simple to use when I can't find something specific in my transcript.

Cons

One downside is that not every assignment or training shows up on the home page or in the transcript.

“Rigid roster”

Pros

Having one instance of the system work across multiple sites keeps things consistent and it's helpful to be able to view students from all locations in one place.

Cons

The downside is that the roster can't be customized to show staff department and position.

“Bulky and confusing LMS”

Pros

Cornerstone or CSOD, is a well-known Learning Management System that has established itself as a major platform. It carries a reputation similar to Salesforce in the talent development space so having experience with it is valuable for employees. While I was using it at a bilingual company, we were also able to set up some limited user integration in English and another language.

Cons

Working with it felt very complex. It takes quite a bit of time to learn and the system is not especially user-friendly or engaging. Navigation is difficult and the overall setup can be really confusing. It got to the point where we had a Cornerstone representative meeting with us every month to review the problems we were running into and we still had to spend time figuring out features such as ILT. On top of that, this LMS really pushes you into doing a lot of spreadsheet-based work.

“Overall, Cornerstone on Demand has been a frustrating process for us.”

Pros

There are abundant options for customizing the layout and content, along with the ability to host various file formats, which is convenient.

Cons

Since we launched the tool, there have been behavioral issues. We continue to encounter problems with courses not loading or not being recorded as complete. Recurring training seems to work inconsistently, allowing some to retake while others cannot.

“More friendly than our previous system”

Pros

Compared with the learning management system we used before, CornerStone feels much more user friendly, faster and better organized. The interface is laid out in a way that makes sense and running or generating reports is very simple. Editing existing sessions is simple and creating new ones is just as manageable. It's also convenient to move registrants from one session to another whenever dates change or adjustments need to be made. On top of that, the platform does an excellent job of tracking employee learning which helps us as administrators see which sessions are in the highest demand. That visibility makes it easier to support our audience well and be more responsible with spending since we can invest in offerings that clearly provide strong value.

Cons

there doesn't seem to be a simple way to contact employees registered for a session unless the email is sent directly through CornerStone. It would be much more practical for our team if we could pull registrant email addresses from the system and send messages through Outlook instead. I'm also not a fan of the fact that middle names are not included in the system.

“Makes sense”

Pros

The platform feels very user-friendly and is simple to navigate. Everything is organized in a way that makes sense.

Cons

I do receive an email when a training is assigned but it would be much more helpful to also get a reminder when the due date is within 48 hours. When there are a lot of training assignments at once, it's easy to lose track of what's coming due.

“Solid content management, frustrating admin side”

Pros

From an administration standpoint, Cornerstone does a good job of housing content and assigning it where it needs to go. On the employee side, it's simple to locate and complete training especially required courses. It has also made onboarding easier and helped automate a lot of L&D tasks that used to be handled manually.

Cons

Working in CSOD as an admin comes with a pretty steep learning curve and even after two years as a co-admin managing content, I still feel like I'm figuring things out. The problems we've run into have been everything from major integration defects to smaller, messy inconsistencies, like deleting one item by checking a box and another by clicking a trash icon which makes retraining people harder than it should be. We've also had to build several workarounds because some needed features just aren't there. On top of that, CSOD Support is often slow to respond, leaves tickets sitting for too long and tends to be unhelpful in the way they handle issues and requests. Around our admin team, saying "Ugh, Cornerstone" has become pretty common.

“rigid licensing”

Pros

There was a lot of solid content available and it was simple to find training for many common topics. It also helped that pre-built trainings could be added without much effort.

Cons

One frustrating part was how quickly they pushed us to increase our license count as we grew but they were far less flexible when we needed to reduce that count after shrinking quite a bit. Definitely something worth watching for in the contract next time.

“strong features, frustrating support gaps”

Pros

Using both the Learning and Performance modules has been a mixed setup for us, mainly because there is not much connecting the two or a particularly strong reason to keep both in the same platform. That said the learning side has been around a long time and includes a lot of solid functionality, with new features continuing to be added regularly. It supports live instructor-led training, online classes and curricula made up of multiple live sessions. There is also quite a bit we can automate which is especially helpful in a larger system. Most admin tasks are fairly user-friendly and the interface keeps getting better with each release. They also manage new releases well by providing helpful information on the support site, webinars for new features solid documentation and reliable timelines. Custom reporting through their proprietary report builder works well overall. Every now and then I run into fields that are unavailable but in most cases I can still get the data I need. Also, where some sections mention we do not use the content creation capability, that is only because we build content with third-party tools like Articulate and Captivate, then upload SCORM packages for online courses with quizzes, videos and similar elements.

Cons

The biggest downside by far is support. Even when there is a high-priority issue affecting all users, it can still take days to get any meaningful response. I can submit tickets through the online support system and call to escalate them but once the issue is anything beyond very basic, it often takes more than five business days before someone actually starts working on it. We even have a dedicated support manager but that still does not seem to help much when it comes to getting traction on serious problems. Thankfully I do not run into issues often because every time I do, the process is frustrating. The online support site does contain a lot of information but the search function is not very helpful. It does not support true boolean searching so if I want to search specifically for something like "Custom Reports," it treats it too broadly and returns huge numbers of irrelevant results. There is also no way to filter by date range so outdated articles from years ago still appear in results and clutter everything up. A lot of admin work also cannot be handled in bulk which makes routine tasks very click-heavy. If I filter a list such as groups, then edit and save one item, I get dumped back into the full unfiltered list and have to search again. It slows everything down and adds far too many extra steps. They have improved some functionality around this but there is still a lot left to fix. On the Performance side, active tasks cannot be edited which creates real problems for ad hoc performance reviews that stay open indefinitely. If something needs to change, I have to create a new task but then I cannot inactivate the old one without losing reporting access or access to the PDF reviews tied to it. Support can make the edit but only if we pay for it which makes it feel like there is little motivation to let admins handle this themselves. Groups also need more flexibility such as being able to include active or inactive users for reporting purposes and using relative dates like "hire date is 30 days from today." Right now I can only set a fixed date so if I want groups to auto-assign onboarding curricula to new hires, I have to manually update those groups every month. And while custom reporting is useful and improving, sharing those reports is awkward because admins cannot organize them properly for end users. We can share a report but it just lands in a general area instead of being sorted into folders or any meaningful structure.

“backend hurdles”

Pros

Our organization uses Cornerstone for online training modules and the platform feels user-friendly overall.

Cons

At times, the back-end admin side, like uploading participants and handling similar tasks, can be tricky to understand.

“Highly configurable for diverse needs”

Pros

It provides a very flexible setup that can support a wide range of needs across the same organization.

Cons

I'd just like to see more options available for configuring Groups.

“Initiative end user learning experience”

Pros

It is easy to review the course catalog, read descriptions, and enroll in courses. As an end-user, it is convenient to see if enrollment has been approved quickly. The built-in workflow for courses requiring approval is a plus.

Cons

At times, I found myself lost and frustrated trying to navigate the course catalog and could notfind the course I was looking for. After using this software a few times, I was able to navigate it much more easily.

“Adding and tracking attendance for our training courses is easy to maintain with Cornerstone.”

Pros

What I find most valuable about Cornerstone is its ability to add and track our courses and customers who attend them. Since most of our courses are offered virtually, effectively tracking attendance simplifies our processes.

Cons

Sometimes, our customers struggle to locate where to launch a course they are scheduled to attend. They have to navigate to their User Profile and check their transcript. While most customers can find this, some cannot. It would be preferable if it were easier, ensuring high customer attendance and facilitating continued education on our offered products.

“Doesn't seem like it was built for a modern user experience.”

Pros

I LIKE that Cornerstone offers a centralized portal for all our learning opportunities, transcripts, goals, and helpful tutorials, contributing to our professional development within the company.

Cons

I am not a fan of the user experience. It feels sluggish, and working on goals is not intuitive. Many actions or desired "buttons" require too many clicks and are located in unfamiliar places.

“bite-sized learning”

Pros

It helps me pick up new skills just by listening and answering a few short quizzes.

Cons

At times, the online training lets you skip through the slides.