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Blackboard Learning Management vs Cornerstone Learning comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Blackboard Learning Management
Ranking in Learning Management Systems (LMS)
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cornerstone Learning
Ranking in Learning Management Systems (LMS)
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Talent Management (8th), Virtual Training (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Learning Management Systems (LMS) category, the mindshare of Blackboard Learning Management is 2.4%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cornerstone Learning is 4.7%, down from 5.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Learning Management Systems (LMS)
 

Featured Reviews

James Phelps - PeerSpot reviewer
Expandable with good real-time live interactions but is very expensive
Initially, Blackboard had problems for faculty members who were forced to use it to try to get it set up and running. That said, over time, they improved that. Unfortunately, due to its licensing requirements on standalone systems, like at a university on our servers, we run into problems where we can only set it up in one way. The way you teach a biology class is not the way you teach a social science class, for example. It's not flexible. Often you are forced into compromising in such a manner that neither group would be happy. If you need help, the help desk in-house will provide 24-hour help to both students and faculty. That means you have eight people, eight hours a day, supervisors, and an overall manager. It takes at least 12 people to handle maintenance for a 10,000-person campus for 24-hour coverage.
Vibha  Mishra - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlined compliance training and efficient session creation empower diverse industries
Creating a session requires just one click, which makes data ready efficiently. Reporting-wise, Cornerstone is the best. It allows internal content management, playlist creation, using external links for learning, and supports various AI training. All the compliance training, code of conduct, and audits are handled through Cornerstone, making it beneficial.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"One of Blackboard's strengths is its historical prominence as a leading LMS for universities in the US and Europe a decade or more ago."
"It encompasses various components, including course delivery modules, content management, community engagement features, digital classrooms, and mobile integration."
"The modules and courses are flexible."
"It is scalable."
"Blackboard enables instructors to collectively gather all the grading data into one place. If students upload content or post it to a Google Doc, I can do my grading and calculate the grades. It is an excellent holding place for all of that data"
"The solution is easy to use."
"One of the most important features is the possibility of creating unlimited subdomains."
"The most valuable feature is how easy it is to learn and use. It's built off the Microsoft Word format, so if you can use Word, you'll be able to figure this out."
"Stability and scalability are good. They have four releases every year of which learning is a big portion of that. They're constantly refining and defining and they're embedding a lot of new technology into it all the time."
"Combining everything together, our on-time completions have gone from the mid-sixty percentile to over 99% on-time completion."
"The most valuable features of Cornerstone Learning are the welcome page and the learner's home. It is user-friendly and graphically appealing."
"If you want to make the job easier, go for Cornerstone Learning."
"The most valuable features are the Playlists, Learning Assignment Tool, Earner Experience Platform, Machine Learning, and Reporting 2.0."
"The most valuable features of Cornerstone Learning are how extensive the configurable the solution is."
"The Meeting feature is similar to a conference call facility that can be used for virtual meetings."
 

Cons

"The solution must provide better integration with third-party software."
"Blackboard could benefit from significant improvements in its data storage and software functionality to remain competitive with more innovative LMS solutions."
"The system falls short in terms of managing assessments and exams effectively."
"It would be ideal to create a more responsive or more intuitive template for access from telephones or tablets."
"The solution is not flexible."
"Blackboard has limitations in terms of delivering content and assessing student assignments because it can't handle large file sizes. It's also limited in its ability to track student activity. Instructors can see the student's most recent login, but they can't follow the activity."
"Could use more robust reporting or more flexibility and scalability around the reporting side."
"The support for this solution could be improved."
"Cornerstone Learning could be improved with more e-learning content."
"In the next release, I would like to see a Hybrid architecture and to be able to customize the look and feel."
"There are some configuration elements that require Cornerstone engineering resources. It would be nice if we could self-serve. I would like the ability to manage the user interface or the navigation and layout of the pages that are displayed to end-users."
"The automated ticketing system for technical support often has a response time that is quite long, which is something that should be improved."
"The user interface is in need of improvement."
"There is a need for quite a bit of improvement. The reporting side of things definitely needs a lot of improvement. At the moment, it gives you a data dump. You have to open it up in Excel and filter out the bits that you don't want and need."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product pricing tends to be higher than alternatives."
"At the beginning, you can choose a basic plan. As your users grow you can buy a more expensive license."
"Quality always comes at a cost. I would not rate it as expensive. It provides value for money."
"The solution's pricing depends on the specific requirements."
"This solution offers competitive pricing."
"The solution cost approximately $47,000 annually."
"It is a premium product, and it is on par with its competitors. It isn't out of scale with what the market is demanding. We're always looking at ways of trimming costs, but we haven't had a lot of flexibility with pricing and/or options with Cornerstone. So, its price is decent. There are ad hoc engineering costs when we are required to use a Cornerstone resource. Additionally, when we choose to integrate with third-party platforms, there is a setup and maintenance fee for these data integrations. They need to be built into our ongoing budget as we expand our offerings."
"I rate the price of Cornerstone Learning a four out of five. There are not any additional costs other than the standard licensing fees"
"I'm not aware of the costs. It must have been something for which we paid. Every single employee in the company had some kind of access to Cornerstone because that's how they got to their training."
"This is a cost-effective solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
21%
Educational Organization
20%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
7%
Educational Organization
60%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Financial Services Firm
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Blackboard Learning Management?
The product pricing tends to be higher than alternatives like Canvas, making Blackboard more suitable for larger universities with substantial budgets.
What needs improvement with Blackboard Learning Management?
Blackboard could benefit from significant improvements in its data storage and software functionality to remain competitive with more innovative LMS solutions.
Is Cornerstone Learning reliable for content organization?
I think the organizational management of Cornerstone Learning is great. My organization uses this learning software and the way different content types are managed is very useful for our training ...
Does Cornerstone Learning provide you with good reports?
Cornerstone Learning provides great reports for your training programs and the performance of your employees on them. What's more, you get skills graphs which my company finds the most valuable for...
Why would you recommend Cornerstone as a platform for virtual training?
Hello, I think that Cornerstone is more than suitable for virtual training. For one, it gives you a really big array of tools and customizations to be able to deliver your employees high-quality t...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Cornerstone Learning Suite, Saba Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

University of Derby, University of Warwick, John Moore's University
Advantage Sales and Marketing
Find out what your peers are saying about Blackboard Learning Management vs. Cornerstone Learning and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.