TopHat vs SkyPrep

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Our analysts compared TopHat vs SkyPrep based on data from our 400+ point analysis of LMS Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

TopHat Software Tool

Product Basics

Top Hat is an online teaching platform that offers digital classrooms, discussions, customizable questions, textbooks, lectures, videos, attendance, assignments and more. Learners can get real-time feedback, proctor tests and quizzes and stream lectures. Administrators can track progress and look at overall trends.


It integrates with other education programs and works for students and instructors. Overall, the tools let users design workspaces, create interactive materials, make quick assignments and proctor exams. In many classes, it’s used to replace clickers which allowed teachers to show materials on-screen and students to choose answers via a handheld device at their desk. The resulting answers are shown via a bar graph on the screen for a visual representation of the group’s understanding. Its specialty is helping educators find and publish quality open education resources.
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SkyPrep offers corporate eLearning solutions to help companies conduct online training and share knowledge within their organizations. It provides features like course creation, user management, customization, workflow automation and third-party integrations. It’s accessible on mobile devices, compliant with SCORM guidelines and allows you to create courses using built-in authoring tools.

Users like that the solution is easy to use and navigate. They appreciate its course creation and employee training capabilities, responsive customer support and learner progress tracking tools.

SkyPrep has three subscription plans: Lite, Premium and Enterprise Training Suite, pricing for which are available upon request.

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$33 Monthly
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$4,188 Annually
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Product Insights

  • Better Content: The solution can help create and deliver high-quality content. Learners keep access to their materials even after the lesson is over. It also changes up boring PDFs and replaces them with interactive content with embedded videos, questions and graphics.
    • Digital Textbooks: Instructors can create, adapt, share and customize textbooks and other interactive materials for their course. They are always up-to-date. Users can embed assessments right into the material to see how students are absorbing material as they read. The text can also integrate videos and animations for more engaging material. It’s free or low-cost for the students and constantly added to by a community of educators.
    • Marketplace: It provides different integrated applications for coursework and content. Learners and teachers have access to thousands of textbooks, educational materials, question packs and over 20,000 open classroom resources. The subjects include anthropology, arts, biology, business, chemistry, computer science, cultural studies, earth science, education, engineering, ethics, health, humanities, law, math, medicine, physics, religious studies, science and more.
    • Customizing and OER: Users can change up the digital textbooks for intro courses to add and remove relevant information. Content is up to date and easy to modernize in the places where it may be lacking. It can take feedback and give changes in real-time. Through the marketplace, it’s easy to get open education resources from places like OpenStax and Saylor. This makes it easy for the school library to find the OER they need.
  • Greater Student Engagement: Students can receive more encouragement to participate, learn and have a voice. Some tools include a discussion prompt added between slides, awarding participation points and anonymous participation for shy students. Students can vote for responses in a queue, giving teachers an idea of where the group isn’t understanding the material. For creative questions, students can even submit drawings. The solution allows instructors to sync slides with students’ devices while students can’t move ahead of the class. This forces them to pay attention. Educators can share the responses of students in fun, interactive ways with visual graphs, heat maps and word clouds. Upon the end of the lecture, instructors can let their students see slides in review mode so they can study.
  • Better Interoperability: While the solution does some of the same things as the learning solutions, it also integrates with other more complex platforms such as Blackboard, Canvas, D2L and Moodle. For those who already have an LMS and SIS set up, this connects seamlessly to bump up the experience without getting rid of present tools.
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  • Tests Knowledge Retention: The Knowledge Booster tool helps users remember what they’ve learned after finishing a course. It automatically sends important content and materials to them at set times and includes short quizzes to test their knowledge.
  • Supports Automated Grading: Unlike other leading LMS software like TalentLMS and Blackboard Learn, SkyPrep uses AI to grade assessments based on preset criteria automatically. This feature saves you time, provides accurate scores and ensures faster turnaround times.
  • Industry Leader: SkyPrep, with an analyst rating of 80, ranks among our top ten LMS products, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with industry leaders like LearnUpon (81), Docebo (81) and Absorb (81). It comes packed with straight-out-of-the-box features like collaboration, reporting, eCommerce, and user management and gamification, and is also our best-rated product for collaboration capabilities.
  • Tracks Learner Proficiency: Learners earn skill points when they complete certain training activities, like completing assessments, checklists, courses or learning paths. These points show what a user is good at and help measure their competence. 
  • Uses Innovation To Enhance Training: The software’s AI chatbot, Sky, gives quick and personalized support to learners during training. It helps manage deadlines by showing courses with upcoming due dates and direct links to complete them. Sky also displays upcoming instructor-led training sessions with links so users don’t miss classes. Additionally, it recommends courses and learning paths based on the skills they want to develop.
  • Supports Multiple Languages: SkyPrep lets both learners and administrators use the platform in many languages. They can choose from Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese.
  • People’s Choice: The solution won best-in-class honors in the 2024 SelectHub awards (LMS category) for assessments, collaboration, content and course management, platform capabilities, user management, gamification and integrations. It also earned an “Excellent” rating as a User Favorite. SkyPrep is our top pick for organizations seeking an LMS with excellent collaboration and integration features.
  • Helps Learners Retain Content: SkyPrep’s Knowledge Checks module, created in-house, allows you to insert questions within courses to track their progress. It helps learners remember and use training content effectively. You can create, schedule and provide feedback on questions to improve content quality. Visual reports show how well your team grasps the material, with clear charts to guide data-driven training improvements. 
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  • Testing: With built-in security, users can host tests, quizzes and exams in a virtual environment where students can bring their own devices. Tests are easy to build and customize with multiple formats for questions. The fourteen unique question types include fill-in-the-blank, word answers, multiple-choice, numeric answers, click-on-target and many others. Students can also do video assignments, drawings or chemistry questions. Several behavioral algorithms help teachers monitor students and prevent cheating. If they do, they’re immediately locked out. Instructors can also see a real-time report and can offer secure codes so students can get into the proper test. Once the exam is complete, educators can automatically grade and have results show up immediately in the gradebook. This system is compatible with smartphones, laptops and tablets and doesn’t require a separate app. Grades can transfer to an LMS or other solution. Once grading is complete, it’s easy to review results and identify at-risk learners.
  • Attendance: Teachers can verify attendance in several ways. First, they can prompt students to sign in using a unique code and assign grades to reward students who are present. Second, the solution can verify the students’ physical location so only those in class get counted. It sends points for roll call and participation straight into the gradebook. Alternatively, instructors can build options for excused absences.
  • Grading and Reporting: Users can track learner progress, implement weighted grading and track attendance and performance. All of this transfers to the gradebook automatically. Instructors can weigh factors such as questions, participation and attendance. From there, administrators can analyze information and adjust for future lessons. To make sure teachers miss nothing it automatically captures student replies and participation grades in the gradebook.
  • Course Creation: Users can integrate quizzes, tests and other course materials. They can also track through analytics and port results over to other software. The system is FERPA compliant and has extensive support. Some other functions are the discussion tool where students can collaborate, offline mode, multiple file type capabilities, access to the marketplace, design consulting and more. Administrators can include gamification, flip classrooms and use devices to bump up engagement. Teachers can also stream lectures and students can participate in a live chat.
  • Assignments: It provides the functionality to create, personalize and auto-grade homework. Teachers can assign unique questions based on the group or individual and use interactive questions to engage students and reinforce the material. Homework assignments are easy and quick to assemble. Users can time responses, limit wrong answers or show the correct answers. They can also add images, videos and website links and build existing homework right into the platform. When the homework is complete, instructors can provide feedback immediately with comments. For hard subjects, users can create ungraded homework.
  • Institutions: Broader districts or institutions using the solution can acquire support specifically for their needs. The solution provides help with implementation, scaling, onboarding and other resources. Afterward, the company can help administrators review the program’s success. For organizations looking for more comprehensive help, the company manages support and training for the institution. They also offer workshops that follow the pedagogy and challenges of the faculty. A team of 40 instructional designers works to make this happen while a dedicated account manager communicates one-on-one. It integrates with all major LMSs and works with Shibboleth for easy configuration and single sign-on capability. It comes with institution-paid and student-paid options and has a clicker buyback program for the early transition.
  • Cloud-Based: The solution is a Software-as-a-Service and available without additional hardware or installing. It’s designed to scale smoothly and collects student data to ensure the organization is keeping track of student aptitude and progress.
  • Assessments: These deeper level analytics go after not just individual grades or students, but can track performance, completion, persistence and learning outcomes across the organization. It offers both summative and formative analysis so instructions can both correct the overall course and find individuals who need help. This makes it easier to track, identify, diagnose and fix problems when they arise.
  • Content Creation and Course Authoring: For specialized content, the solution provides authoring tools to create the materials. Users can get help with textbook projects. Instructors who want to share their work on the marketplace still own the copyright and earn royalties. It also provides collaborative projects where multiple educators and experts can come together to make a textbook. Creators can import OER or other content and split the revenue among collaborators.
  • Accessibility: It has various options to accommodate different students and learning styles. This includes allowing students to dial-in to a lecture via phone, transcripts of lecture records and videos of class meetings. It also optimizes assignments and textbooks so students can work from their desired device.
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  • Course Creation: Create course content using existing materials, a content builder or rich HTML editor, embedding links, or uploading videos from Vimeo or YouTube.
    • Add name and description, duration, credits, category, passing rules, points awarded and other details for each course.
    • Search courses by name, keyword, category or tag, and filter them based on status (active/inactive) and category.
    • View each learner and group’s course progress and completion rates.
    • Add course partitions to break your course up into separate sections visually.
  • Dashboard: Get an overview of ungraded assignments, checklists for review, pending certificates, upcoming deadlines and more on a centralized dashboard. Track active users, platform activity, and login trends for managers and learners, as well as manage widgets to configure your dashboard.
  • Mobile App: Allow learners to complete their training anytime and anywhere using the Android and iOS-compatible mobile app. Enable them to complete courses and assessments, browse the course catalog to enroll in courses, access the resource center and more.
  • Checklists: Monitor tasks completed by learners using a 1 to 5 scale, custom point values or yes/no formats. Add optional subtasks, recommend additional materials from the Resource Center, and set skills and points awarded upon completion of the checklist. You can also allow learners to complete Checklist tasks independently.
  • Compliance Tracking: Ensure employees receive required industry-specific training to understand compliance rules and prevent legal issues and penalties.
    • Easily create, manage and monitor compliance training courses in sectors like healthcare, manufacturing, food and beverage, and finance.
    • Prepare for inspections with automated workflows and schedule performance reports to monitor compliance efforts effectively.
    • Automate compliance courses so they’re auto-assigned to learners.
  • Multi-Tenancy: Create sub-platforms for different segments of learners, and easily navigate and manage them all under one umbrella.
  • Branding: Use custom logos, icons, templates, domain names, CSS and color schemes to brand your platform.
  • Third-Party Integrations: Use the open API to integrate with BigBlueButton, PayPal, Stripe, OpenSesame, G Suite, Microsoft Office 365 and other third-party apps. Sign in easily through single sign-on accounts such as Facebook, G Suite, LinkedIn, Microsoft Active Directory, OneLogin and Windows Live.
  • Gamification:
    • Award points to learners when they start courses, finish checklists, attend ILTs or complete learning paths, among other achievements.
    • Give out badges when learners reach specific point milestones, like earning the Activity Novice badge at 100 points.
    • Rank learners on a company leaderboard, filter them by user type and time frame, and view total badges, points and completed courses on a dashboard.
  • Security: Secures data with SSL-certified infrastructure, HTTPS protocol, login verification, encrypting data at rest, IP and domain restriction, PCI-DSS compliance and more.
  • eCommerce: Sell self-driven or instructor-led content on a branded eCommerce website. Upload pre-existing content from Google Drive or Dropbox, automate course enrollment and reporting, process payments and track all course selling activities on a central dashboard. This includes creating emails, certifications and learning content.
  • Data Backups: Store data from the cloud and store it multiple times per day. It’s saved for up to 90 days off-site, online and on Amazon servers.
  • Reporting: Access real-time data reports on various business processes like user activity, course completion, learner performance, enrolments and more.
    • Dashboard: Get a quick, at-a-glance overview of crucial training metrics like ungraded assessments, upcoming deadlines and re-enrollments. Easily track learner and program performance to spot trends and make data-driven decisions to improve your training.
    • Reporting Wizard: Customize reports to your preferences using filters and data fields. Toggle between spreadsheet and visual views to analyze data. Favorite frequently used reports and schedule them to be emailed out on a recurring basis. Tailor the data by adding, removing or filtering columns.
    • Report Builder: Create detailed reports on learners, courses, groups and overall training. Get performance profiles, automatically grade assessments and generate certificates. Automate user enrollment in courses to streamline your training operations.
    • Advanced Reports: Access a range of reporting options at multiple levels, including user, course, group and summary reports. Accurately measure learning performance with advanced analytics.
  • Industry-Specific Compliance: Comply with HIPPA, OSHA, ISO, SOX, GDPR and other standards.
  • Course Discussion Boards: The course discussion forums are a great place to get help with course content or questions about assessments. Search for similar questions or post your own, and engage by reading and responding to posts from other learners. Mentors and active course participants can reply, and occasionally, course staff and instructors join discussions to provide assistance.
  • Assessments: Easily create assessments by uploading questions via Excel or using existing ones.
    • Choose from various question types, such as fill-in-the-blanks, multiple-choice and true/false.
    • Assign points, provide hints for each question and include feedback for learners.
    • Set skills and award points for completing assessments successfully.
    • Define a passing grade percentage to ensure learners pass the assessment.
    • Set a time limit for how long learners have to answer questions, with an option for unlimited time if needed.
    • Decide on the maximum number of attempts allowed for learners to pass the assessment, or set it to 0 to allow unlimited attempts.
    • Prevent learners from leaving an assessment until it's submitted.
    • Provide post-assessment feedback to learners after they submit their assessment and view their results.
  • Instructor-Led Training: Create ILT training sessions for various courses. Assign instructors, add start and end times, specify time zones and locations and track session progress on a dashboard.
  • Course Catalog: Upload, track and view details of all types of courses in the course catalog.
  • Learner Resource Center: Store all training materials in the learner resource center. Add the name, type and category for each resource, and include details like upload date, uploader, downloadability and any actions taken.
  • Learning Paths: Add courses, names, introductions, images, tags, categories, learners and groups to each path. Track their status and allow learners to self-enroll. Award users a certificate when they complete every course in the path. Set the skills and points awarded for completing the entire learning Path.
  • User Management: Create users and track them on a centralized dashboard. Store their personal information, such as name, email, phone, job roles and location. Add them to groups, courses and learning paths. Use the Permissions & Roles feature under Users & Groups to create custom roles in the platform and control what your users can see and access.
  • Custom Certificates: Create customized course completion certificates for each learner. Fill out the certificates with details like their name, job role, department, and the start and end date of the course.
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Product Ranking

#31

among all
LMS Software

#140

among all
LMS Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

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User Sentiment Summary

Good User Sentiment 63 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 259 reviews
78%
of users recommend this product

TopHat has a 'good' User Satisfaction Rating of 78% when considering 63 user reviews from 3 recognized software review sites.

95%
of users recommend this product

SkyPrep has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 95% when considering 259 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

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5.0 (12)
4.0 (22)
4.6 (71)
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4.0 (3)
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Awards

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SkyPrep stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Interactive Features: TopHat offers interactive features such as live polling, quizzes, and discussion tools.
Easy Integration: TopHat can be integrated with other educational tools to streamline workflows.
Improved Engagement: TopHat helps increase student participation and engagement during lectures.
Valuable Analytics: Educators gain insights into student performance through TopHat's analytics features.
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Excellent Customer Service: Over 90% of users who discussed support said they were attentive, well-organized and solved problems efficiently.
Good Functionality: More than 90% of users were pleased with the features such as the administrative tools, learning paths customization and more.
Streamlined Course and Content Creation: Over 90% of learners and administrators who discussed course creation capabilities were pleased with the results.
Easy to Use: In discussions of usability, over 80% of users felt the platform was simple to pick up and navigate.
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Cost: TopHat is often more expensive than other LMS options, which can be a barrier for budget-conscious users.
Technical Issues: Some users have reported experiencing occasional technical glitches or difficulties with the platform.
Learning Curve: New users may require some time to familiarize themselves with all of TopHat's features and functionalities, leading to a learning curve.
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Inadequate Testing: Over 70% of the reviews that discussed it found assessment abilities lacking.
Limited Reporting: Over 80% of reviewers who discussed analytic capabilities felt the system was too limited.
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Is TopHat a top-tier learning management system, or does it fall flat? User reviews from the last year reveal a mixed bag. TopHat is praised for its interactive features that boost student participation, such as polls, quizzes, and seamless integration with existing LMS platforms. Educators particularly appreciate its ability to transform lectures into engaging experiences, as highlighted by a professor who lauded TopHat for breathing life into their classroom and facilitating dynamic student interaction. However, some users find the platform's initial navigation somewhat cumbersome and occasionally encounter technical hiccups. A case in point is the "time-constrained attendance marker," which reportedly suffers from lag, impacting user experience. While TopHat's customer support receives mixed reviews, its strengths lie in its user-friendly interface, diverse question formats, and smooth integration capabilities. Its standout feature, the ability to create an interactive and engaging learning environment, makes it a hit among educators. Conversely, the pricing model, which requires students to pay individually, draws criticism for potentially hindering access for some. A user aptly pointed out, "Not all of my students have the means to pay for access (which can really impact their grade if they don't use the platform)." TopHat's differentiating factor lies in its dedication to fostering student engagement and active learning. This is achieved through features like real-time polls, quizzes, and interactive presentations, setting it apart from traditional, static learning platforms. A testament to this is a user's comment, "Top Hat is a great student engagement tool, useful in polling students on the fly or setting up assessments prior to class." In conclusion, TopHat is best suited for educators seeking to infuse their classrooms with interactivity and boost student participation. Its array of engagement-focused tools makes it ideal for educators who prioritize active learning. However, the pricing structure might pose a challenge for students with limited financial resources, making it crucial for institutions to consider alternative funding models or explore site licenses to ensure equitable access for all.

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SkyPrep is a versatile and easy-to-use platform that works well for training in different industries. What really stands out is how intuitive it is, with advanced tools for creating courses and integrating with other software.Its AI capabilities are impressive — you can use AI to build assessments, create courses, generate images and provide feedback, making it a game-changer in online learning. The course builder is also a highlight, letting you upload SCORM files or create content from scratch with simple yet powerful tools. SkyPrep Studio, their built-in content authoring tool, is an excellent feature that allows you to create both text and interactive multimedia content on any device.SkyPrep's knowledge-sharing platform, BoostHQ, is another aspect we love. It helps you share and organize important documents and videos in one place, making it easy for employees to find what they need, discuss ideas and learn from each other. Plus, you get insights into content usage and employee engagement, which is especially useful for keeping a remote workforce connected.The branding tools are flexible and easy to use, and the platform offers enterprise-grade security. With eCommerce tools, third-party integrations, collaboration features and a mobile app, SkyPrep covers all the bases. Their AI chatbot, Sky, and the Knowledge Booster tool add a personalized touch to the learning experience, making it even more effective.The only limitation we found is that it doesn’t have an in-built video conferencing tool. Still, it has a ton of third-party software like Zoom, Teams, GoToMeeting and BigBlueButton for live training sessions or webinars.SkyPrep is undeniably a strong contender in the LMS market. It's user-friendly, feature-rich and caters to the training needs of various industries, with a strict focus on compliance. Whether you need to train 25 or 250 employees, SkyPrep has a set of learning management tools for businesses of all sizes, and if you’re looking for an industry leader, it ranks among our top five LMS products.

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