Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Acorn PLMS VS Open edX

Compare Acorn PLMS VS Open edX and see what are their differences

Acorn PLMS logo Acorn PLMS

Acorn PLMS (performance learning management system) is a dynamic AI-powered platform for learning experiences synchronized to business performance. Acorn addresses the issue of multiple LMSs plaguing orgs, providing one PLMS for all use cases.

Open edX logo Open edX

Open edX is implemented mostly in Python (with some Ruby and NodeJS as well) and the code is being...
  • Acorn PLMS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-11-07

Acorn's AI-powered PLMS addresses the topics of performance & learning in one platform, allowing enterprises, governments and other orgs worldwide to consistently align individual growth with business objectives. With Acorn, leaders can continually assess and improve learners based on specific company and role-based capabilities.

The perfect enabler for employee training, onboarding, compliance training, association learning, & more.

Acorn’s AI collects tangible evidence of behavior change, creating a comprehensive record of individual learning experiences mapped to their impact on performance. This makes it easier for companies to identify people with desired capabilities, promote from within and enhance retention & engagement.

Key features: - Impact, not overload - Deliver effective blended learning - Link learning with performance - Report in minutes not hours

Looking for an AI-powered LMS with boundless configurability? Book a demo at: https://acorn.works/book-a-demo-form

  • Open edX Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-07

Acorn PLMS

$ Details
paid Free Trial
Platforms
Browser Web Mac OSX Google Chrome Cross Platform Safari REST API Chrome OS Internet Explorer Microsoft Teams
Release Date
2014 January

Open edX

Pricing URL
-
$ Details
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

Acorn PLMS features and specs

  • My Profile/My Learning
  • Courses
  • Reporting
  • Performance Management
  • Skills Register
  • Resource Library
  • Advanced Calendar
  • Onboarding/Induction Catalogue
  • Getting Started Videos
  • Studies Assistance
  • Activity Library
  • System Emails
  • Approval Workflow
  • Development Plan
  • Capability Assessment
  • CPD Points
  • Multi Tenancy
  • Workforce Planning
  • Capability Lirbary

Open edX features and specs

  • Flexibility
    Open edX is highly customizable and can be tailored to meet specific educational needs. It supports a variety of course formats, including self-paced, instructor-led, and blended learning.
  • Open Source
    Being an open-source platform, Open edX allows organizations to access and modify the source code, providing full control over the software and the ability to add custom features.
  • Scalability
    The platform is designed to handle a large number of users and courses, making it suitable for institutions of all sizes, from small educational setups to large universities.
  • Robust Feature Set
    Open edX offers a comprehensive set of features, including video lectures, interactive assessments, discussion forums, and analytics tools, enhancing the learning experience.
  • Community Support
    A vibrant community of developers, educators, and institutions supports the platform, contributing to continuous improvement and providing ample resources for problem-solving and innovation.

Possible disadvantages of Open edX

  • Technical Complexity
    Implementing and maintaining an Open edX instance requires significant technical expertise, including knowledge of server management, software development, and system architecture.
  • Initial Setup Cost
    While the platform itself is free, the cost of setting up servers, hiring IT staff, and potentially customizing features can be substantial.
  • Learning Curve
    Due to its extensive feature set and customization options, there is a steep learning curve for both administrators and instructors, requiring time and training to fully utilize its capabilities.
  • Performance Overheads
    Given its rich feature set and the potential for large-scale deployments, Open edX can be resource-intensive, necessitating robust hardware and regular performance tuning.
  • Upgrades and Maintenance
    Regular updates and maintenance are essential to keep the platform secure and up-to-date. This can be challenging for organizations without dedicated technical teams.

Analysis of Acorn PLMS

Overall verdict

  • Overall, Acorn PLMS is a reliable and effective tool for organizations looking to streamline their product management processes and improve operational efficiency.

Why this product is good

  • Acorn PLMS (acorn.works) is considered good because it offers a comprehensive suite of features for managing product lifecycle, including efficient project tracking, collaboration tools, and data analytics. Its user-friendly interface and strong customer support also make it a popular choice among businesses.

Recommended for

  • small to medium enterprises
  • product management teams
  • businesses looking to enhance collaboration
  • organizations needing detailed analytics on product development

Analysis of Open edX

Overall verdict

  • Open edX is considered a powerful and versatile platform for online education, especially valued for its open-source nature and scalability. It is often deemed good for institutions looking for a flexible and community-supported learning management system.

Why this product is good

  • ["features", "The platform offers a wide range of features like video lectures, discussion forums, and peer assessments to enhance the learning experience."]
  • ["community", "There is an active open-source community that contributes to the ongoing development and improvement of the platform, ensuring it stays current with educational trends."]
  • ["flexibility", "Open edX is highly customizable, allowing institutions to tailor the platform to their specific educational needs."]
  • ["scalability", "Its robust infrastructure supports both small-scale implementations and large, global deployments."]

Recommended for

    {"developers" => "Tech-savvy users or organizations that can take advantage of its open-source customization options.", "non-profits" => "Educational non-profits wanting a cost-effective yet comprehensive online learning solution.", "corporations" => "Organizations looking to implement large-scale training and development programs.", "universities" => "Higher education institutions seeking to expand their online course offerings."}

Acorn PLMS videos

Acorn LMS in 2 Minutes

Open edX videos

Open edX - What is it, how it works and why use it?

More videos:

  • Tutorial - How to Build A Branded Open edX Training Site in 30 Minutes

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Acorn PLMS and Open edX)
Education
58 58%
42% 42
LMS
40 40%
60% 60
Corporate LMS And Training
Online Learning
21 21%
79% 79

Questions and Answers

As answered by people managing Acorn PLMS and Open edX.

Who are some of the biggest customers of your product?

Acorn PLMS's answer

  • USRowing
  • Feeding America
  • Yale University
  • Federation of Virginia Food Banks
  • Alinta Energy
  • The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
  • Australian Attorney-General's Department
  • Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
  • Australian Government Department of Education
  • Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC)
  • Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
  • Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts
  • Department of Social Services (DSS)
  • Department of Finance
  • Comcare
  • Queensland Corrective Services

What makes your product unique?

Acorn PLMS's answer

Acorn PLMS uniquely allows organizations to address the topics of performance and learning in one platform, something legacy LMSs, performance solutions, and other hr tech tools struggle with addressing. With Acorn’s Performance Learning Management System, people leaders can continually assess and improve learners based on their specific company and role-based capabilities.

Acorn is the only solution that guides learners step by step to master the specific capabilities of their roles that will accelerate organizational performance.

How would you describe your primary audience?

Acorn PLMS's answer

Acorn's primary audience at an organizational level is any organization that has a business priority to link learning and performance. Plus, they are solving for this by having a capability- and competency-led learning strategy.

Unlike legacy Learning Management Systems, a PLMS can tangibly impact business performance. Our audience includes the HR leadership and L&D teams, but Acorn also supports those in roles such as Organizational Development, Organizational Effectiveness and Human Resource Business Partners and directors who support large departments in enterprise-size businesses.

What's the story behind your product?

Acorn PLMS's answer

Across our years in the L&D space, we've spoken directly to thousands of global industry leaders and end users. We've heard many times over from both sides of the table that corporate learning is disconnected from performance; there isn't a proper solution for this problem. Legacy LMS and Performance solutions have failed to inspire growth. Expectations for businesses, governments, nonprofits and other institutions to perform have skyrocketed as the world gets more connected, busier and focused on efficiency. However, organizations are bogged down by their slowest link – smart people who could be operating at their maximum potential but aren’t.

Acorn is the antidote as a PLMS - we've created this software solution to address these issues. Modern L&D experiences need a Performance Learning Management System (PLMS) platform to link learning and performance so that organizations can meet their goals in one place. It is important that this is done in one system, after decades of failed integrations from disparate systems built for different goals.

To L&D and HR professionals, Acorn is the platform for building inspiring and efficient training experiences that engage people to be exceptional at their companies.

To business leaders, Acorn is the PLMS platform that tightly syncs L&D investments to performance, helping organizations meet and exceed their goals.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

Acorn PLMS's answer

Acorn PLMS is developed using PHP and Javascript as the primary programming languages, providing a robust foundation for both backend and data processing tasks. For the front end, we employ JavaScript with React, ensuring a dynamic and responsive user interface. The server-side logic and functionality are powered by PHP, allowing for efficient handling of concurrent connections. Our hosting infrastructure is built on Amazon Web Services (AWS), leveraging the scalability, reliability, and security features that AWS offers to ensure a seamless and secure learning environment.

In terms of database management, we utilize MySQL, a powerful open-source relational database system. This choice enables efficient data storage and retrieval, supporting the PLMS's requirements for managing diverse learning content. The PLMS integrates seamlessly with external systems through Restful APIs, and user authentication is handled securely with OAuth protocols. Version control is managed using Git, facilitating collaborative development and ensuring a systematic approach to code management. Additionally, our PLMS adheres to high-security standards, with IRAP (Information Security Registered Assessors Program) measures in place to safeguard user data and maintain the integrity of the learning platform.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

Acorn PLMS's answer

Acorn PLMS solves a problem in the Learning & Development (L&D) space that has persisted for a long time — corporate learning being disconnected from performance. Legacy LMS tools and performance management processes are too complicated and expensive to manage and ineffective at tying L&D efforts to business performance goals.

Here are the issues driving LMS disparagement and disenchantment: -Too many tools/LMSs to manage -Participant disengagement with required or recommended training as well as perceived disenchantment with the LMS experience generally -Learners are simply not using existing available content despite organizations’ huge investments -Internal peer-to-peer interactions are not captured and shared -Can’t codify capabilities nor accurately map employee progress to individual and organizational performance -Can’t identify individuals possessing capabilities to teach and promote from within the organization

Acorn PLMS was created out of these issues to address them head-on. Modern L&D experiences need a PLMS platform to link learning and performance so that organizations can meet their goals in one place.

With Acorn, leaders can focus on capabilities and competencies uplift across the workforce, deliver effective blended learning, link learning with performance, and lastly, report in minutes not hours.

User comments

Share your experience with using Acorn PLMS and Open edX. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Acorn PLMS and Open edX

Acorn PLMS Reviews

We have no reviews of Acorn PLMS yet.
Be the first one to post

Open edX Reviews

8 Best Open-Source LMS (Moodle Alternatives) in 2024
Open EdX provides a seamless experience for the course instructors and learners through course creation and collaboration features. One of the highlight features of Open EdX is its analytics and reporting. Their analytics platform helps learners make data-driven decisions through valuable insights.
Source: geekflare.com
15 Free Online Learning Management Systems
Open edX: Open edX is an open-source platform for creating and delivering online courses. While it’s free to use, it may require technical expertise to set up and maintain.
Source: www.knack.com
The 20 Best Learning Management Systems Software (2018 Update)
The Open edX is a tool empowering learners to access online course content, including videos and textbooks, plus checking their progress in the online training course. The Open edX LMS also has a discussion forum and a wiki at your disposal, that both learners and course team members can contribute to. There is also a dashboard through which the online instructor can enroll...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Open edX seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 9 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Acorn PLMS mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Acorn PLMS yet. Tracking of Acorn PLMS recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Open edX mentions (9)

  • Integrating Open edX with AppSignal
    Open edX is at the forefront of the e-learning landscape, powering Learning Management Systems for millions worldwide. With a high demand for online education, maintaining a high-quality learning experience becomes increasingly crucial. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Monitor the Performance of Your Python Django App with AppSignal
    In this article, we'll construct a Django-based e-commerce store ready for high-traffic events, integrating AppSignal to monitor, optimize, and ensure it scales seamlessly under load. We'll also demonstrate how to enhance an existing application with AppSignal for improved performance (in this case, the Open edX learning management system). - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Domain Driven Design Reference [pdf]
    OpenEdx [0] the education platform is an example. Here is their design documentation showing their Bounded Contexts [1] in the DDD section of the docs. [0] https://openedx.org/ [1] https://openedx.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/AC/pages/663224968/edX+DDD+Bounded+Contexts. - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago
  • How to automate Open edX deployments using Github Actions
    To learn more about Open edX check their website. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • Ask HN: Why is there no good open-source LMS?
    I thought that some of the MOOC companies open-sourced their LMS. Have you looked at https://open.edx.org/ ? - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Acorn PLMS and Open edX, you can also consider the following products

FlexiQuiz - FlexiQuiz is a powerful online test generator that enables you to create engaging online quizzes, tests, or exams in minutes. Choose from 100's of features to create a customized quiz that meets your objectives for business, education, or fun.

Moodle - Moodle is the world's most popular learning management system. Start creating your online learning site in minutes!

Fiverr Business - Connect with vetted, talented freelancers that help you get every task done.

Canvas by Instructure - The Canvas LMS is the world's fastest growing learning management system. Check out favorite features and schedule a live demo!

Kineo - Kineo is a global workplace learning company that helps businesses improve performance through learning and technology. Specialists in elearning content and LMS

LMS Collaborator - LMS Collaborator is a state-of-the-art learning management system designed to meet the need for corporate training, upskilling, and evaluation with flexible integration abilities.