I'm always looking for innovative ways to create professional courses. Unfortunately, I would not use this tool with clients even if it was free as it is quite bad!

1) Confusing name– This is a course builder (not an LMS) through they sell a separate product with a similar name but without "AI" in the title (huh?). They essentially took their old course creator from 5 years ago, rebranded it and appended AI to it.

2) Gaudy design aesthetic– The video characters look very outdated, the slide layouts are crude, and the animated images are cheesy and unnecessary. Just look at some of their own examples- https://openelms.ai/examples

The last example on that page shows a video character (founder?) with green screen artifacts around his head instructing the user to click on a green button that does not exist on the screen. This character is still in the app and is referencing an older interface.

3) Poor AI generation– I tested the AI by uploading a PDF brochure from their Open eLMS site. I then entered my learning objectives to focus on "What makes Open eLMS different" since there was a section dedicated to it in the PDF. However, much of the AI-generated course covered topics and quiz questions that were not the focus of my learning objectives. So, clearly, their AI is not great at extracting critical information from documents which is supposed to be one of its main selling points. It even struggles with generating relevant images. Unfortunately, regenerating new drafts to address this did not resolve the issue and I quickly reached my plan limit.

4) Terrible Editor– I spent days dealing with and reporting over a dozen issues with their editor which is terribly outdated and very unintuitive:
- Several video settings won't work (e.g., turning off video characters, adjusting video animations)
- Cannot easily change the color of a button without having to upload your own. Who has button images saved on their computer with the specific color they need? You can't even place a button over a text box.
- The previous button does not appear when you need to navigate back through topics/sections even though you can navigate forward through the same screens with no issue. However, the previous button appears only in subsections (huh?). This is not an industry standard and is quite confusing for new users.

5) Inconsistent limitations– Creating new screens/sections after you generate a course will require an upgrade. However, you can create as many new sub-screens as you like using the copy function in the editor. You can also copy menu sections and add new screens this way. So why allow this as a workaround instead?

6) Courses are not keyboard-accessible or screen-reader-accessible– Accessibility is a fundamental aspect of good design and user experience. For example, a visually impaired user can’t use the Tab and Enter keys on their keyboard to cycle through and select buttons or navigation elements (which most common websites allow). Also, screen readers can't read the slide content other than the course title which is another industry standard this platform doesn't meet.

7) Not suitable for viewing on mobile devices– The course design is not responsive since the layout does not adjust to your screen. This makes the course content and buttons (especially the ones at the top of the screen) difficult to see and interact with as they appear tiny on a phone. Another issue is that the transcript button does not work in Safari since it is programmed to act like a pop-up in Safari rather than a separate tab. However, most major browsers block pop-ups by default for security reasons. You also can't pinch and zoom easily unless you place your fingers only over an image in the course since doing so over a text box will not work.

8) Stuck with their logo– The highest tier still offers no option to remove the logo (though there is a manual workaround that does it).

9) Good luck with support– Their platform offers no direct link to request help. The easiest way to do so is by email, even though the email address is not advertised and can only be found on your AppSumo purchase details page. You then have to register a separate account just to be able to view/respond to their emailed ticket status notifications (which isn't explained). Once you submit a ticket, be prepared for three different confirmation emails that they received it (why?). Next, prepare to have most of your concerns dismissed or be treated like a nuisance for pointing out bugs/issues and erratic connectivity with their platform. Then, if you insist on a resolution, you'll be escalated multiple times before finally being ignored without explanation (though it's likely because they don't like constructive feedback).

If there's a response to this review, I hope it will not be as dismissive or rationalize their poor decisions.

If any Sumoling wants to reach me with any questions about my experiences with Open eLMS AI, please see my contact info in my profile.