Read our in-depth Paradiso LMS review – we believe this is a powerful and highly flexible learning management system for both Higher Education and Corporate L&D users.
There really is a lot to like with this LMS from Paradiso
Paradiso have produced an LMS featuring some considerable innovation and multiple feature sets. Unlike a lot of the more simple SaaS LMS solutions, Paradiso LMS presents the opportunity for some very powerful customisation, which is to be welcomed – especially by the more sophisticated and discerning LMS customer.
This is a cross over LMS. It has demonstrable pedigree in Higher Education and in Corporate Learning and Development. It is rare to find an LMS that can acquit itself well in both domains, but Paradiso does so with its rich set of features that are highly integrated and allow for advanced levels of learner engagement, course creation and learner management.
Paradiso introduces us to the ‘SMAC’ LMS: Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud. It is on these principles that this LMS is built, but what does this actually mean?
Paradiso has integrated with social media platforms to enable users to login from social media platforms; it is fully mobile enabled for Android and IoS; the platform has a comprehensive analytics suite (more on this later), and it is hosted on the Amazon Cloud.
There is a lot more to this LMS than just these four principles; this is a feature-rich learning management system with some exciting innovations that mean this is an LMS to reckon with. It is the attention to detail and innovation which makes Paradiso LMS stand out from the crowd.
Learner Engagement
From a learner perspective there, is a lot to like about this LMS: it is engaging, informative and includes an awful lot interaction opportunities that learning management systems are not really noted for. The notebook option allows learners to add notes as they learn that are auto saved: simple, but very effective.
The look and feel of the LMS is modern, very clear, clean and highly customisable, not just in colours and branding, but in layout and interface design. The interface design itself has been well thought through and brings a strong marketing theme to the learner engagement.
Learning Light are massive fans of design for learner engagement from the off, and the Paradiso solution of using marketing as the model for engagement is to be applauded.
There is no doubt that from the beginning the client will need help setting up and configuring this LMS, and depending upon the requirements vis-a-vis the user numbers there may be a charge. This is not a simple SaaS platform, it is something far more sophisticated and nuanced.
Paradiso LMS includes the usual features that one expects in a modern LMS, plus some impressive ones:
Paradiso is fully mobile-enabled and it does mobile with some panache indeed, given its very clean design.
Paradiso supports up to 80 different languages. Is this an LMS record? (There may be a charge to implement these and they will not be ready from the get go)
Gamification is built in to a very good level and a mechanism to reward learners for activities includes discount coupon provisions. This is certainly on trend in North America and likely to arrive in Europe quite soon.
Course Creation and Management
Video Curation
The interactive video tool is one of the most interesting innovations. Videos can have activities embedded to ensure activities take place on the screen during the video delivered course. These short engagements, such as tests, can be authored quickly and easily in the LMS and can turn a passive video watching experience into an engaging learning exercise.
Video is increasingly coming to dominate e-learning delivery, and while the concept of micro-videos is interesting not every learning module is capable of being handled in micro bites or chunks. However, the interactive video tool gives us a solution for ensuring better levels of engagement with video from Paradiso. You can now make your videos more micro and certainly more engaging.
Course management
Paradiso has a strong feature set when it comes to course management. Learning materials of various formats can be easily and quickly uploaded and ordered into courses or much more sophisticated Learning Pathways.
Learning Pathways allows for the creation of pathways for learners to follow built around different modules of learning and the application of differing levels of learner credits. The LMS tutors are empowered to set the credits a learner can earn from each of the course components that makes up the pathway. Sadly, competencies are not yet supported in Paradiso, but we are informed they will be in the coming months.
Naturally, this LMS handles pretty much any content format, including SCORM, HTML5 and Tin Can materials. In addition, the Paradiso LMS offers enough management features to track classroom based learning as well. The classroom management feature set is effective and well integrated into the platform.
The LMS offers a very comprehensive feature set to build out courses, using existing resources and SCORM materials and more. It is here that learner engagement activities (gamification and more) can be introduced.
This creation tool set is beautifully presented and exceptionally intuitive to use. This is absolutely on trend to allow for organisations and learners to build out courses even with learners as producers.
Courses can be created with one of 4 attributes: Self-paced e-learning, Blended learning, for the classroom, and for the virtual classroom.
There are then 6 choices or formats to build out the self paced e-learning courses: The Paradiso format, the topic format, the grid format, the weekly format, the social format and the activity format.
Each format sets the style of the courses and is easy to use to pull in digital assets to build out the course.
The use of icons to add the assets to the courses is very impressive and well thought-through.
Blended Learning
Paradiso can support Instructor Led Training in the classroom and has the ability to take online attendance, course bookings, wait lists and course integrations with calendars.
Assessment
At the assessment phase, learners can use their own video cameras to self-record. Again, this is a simple but neat solution, and the workflow that has been built around assessment and reporting is some of the most impressive we have seen.
It is also great to see that open badges are integrated into the LMS.
Organisation Alignment
Paradiso is leading in integrating with Customer Relationships Management systems and other platforms. Paradiso supports integrations with Salesforce, Sugar CRM, Microsoft Dynamics, Adobe Connect and Webex.
The ability to make the Paradiso LMS reflect the organisational structure is a major plus in our view. Organisational structures or hierarchies can be modelled very effectively indeed in Paradiso.
This feature is hugely impressive with a matrix allowing user levels to be given attributes and will allow for learners to be course authors for example, but not publishers.
From the learner’s perspective some very considerable thought has gone into the LMS design to ensure a very smooth series of integrations to allow learners to use the rich set of features effectively, without being overwhelmed by them.
For the organisation, this LMS is highly configurable without limitations.
Help feature
There is a help wiki and dynamic help built in to the LMS, as well as online chat support which is always available. This is a really helpful solution, which is well integrated for administrators using the platform.
Review Summary
As a result of our Paradiso LMS review, We have no hesitation in adding it to our reference collection of learning management systems that really set the standards for the industry.
Paradiso sits as our reference for its range of features, friendly interface and first class engagement. It is powerful and capable LMS, and an ideal choice for corporates who wish to roll out a learning management system with potential to scale in many different directions such as analytics, gamification, course creation and of course be fully mobile.
With its market-leading abilities to integrate, this is an LMS that would be hugely effective when added to the corporate stack. Stacking new platforms that offer new LMS functions (such as those offered by Paradiso) is a growing trend, instead of organisations ripping out the old LMS from the stack.
For education, Paradiso could be considered a little left field, but non the less it is one LMS that should be given series consideration when stepping beyond the usual suspects, as it is easy to use, incredibly flexible, fully configured and very intergratable. Crucially, learners will like it.
Learn more about the Paradiso LMS on their website.
