EdTek Services Review

EdTek Services Inc.
Product:
Vendor:
Founded:
Headquarters:
EdTek LMS
EdTek Services Inc.
2003
Toronto, Canada
Ownership:
Customers:
Deployment Model:
Free Trial:
Private
Unknown
Cloud
Yes
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EdTek LMS At A Glance

Good: Offers LMS variety, affordable all-in-one pricing and an unlimited free trial with support; provides a course designer, course developer and client service consultant.
Bad: Cloud-based, so internet glitches could affect operation.
Bottom Line: EdTek Services knows itsLearning and Topyx LMS, despite being a consultancy and not an LMS developer.

Product Overview

EdTek Services offers a full service, cloud-hosted, turn-key approach to distance learning systems and support. Whether choosing itsLearning or Topyx LMS, EdTek Services provides its customers with a specified campus portal, the selected learning management system, hosting services in the cloud, and system monitoring and maintenance IT staff.

Uniquely, EdTek provides prospective customers with an unlimited and fully supported free trial of both LMS options. This includes EdTek’s building out a portion of a client’s course that can be used to test both the LMS and collaboration with EdTek.

On the backend, EdTek Services gives its customers free version upgrades, free administrator and instructor training, instructional design and course development support, an avid Help Desk and a dedicated Client Service Consultant to help run the organization’s distance learning programs with as few issues as possible.

In addition, every subscriber gets the following with their contract:

  • State-of-the-art hosting in the cloud, with no hardware or software purchases required
  • Branded dashboards for organizations, departments, locations, courses and more
  • An Instructional Designer to help design courses
  • A Course Developer to help build courses
  • Access to photo, graphics, audio and video libraries to utilize content that helps enhance courses

Features

Learning Management System – EdTek Services endorses two specific learning management systems: itsLearning and Topyx. Each of these systems offers users a rich feature set, SCORM and HTML5 compliance, mobile access and open API.

  • itsLearning puts curriculum resources, instructional strategies, objective-based lesson plans and assessments in a central location for elementary, secondary and post-secondary teachers. The platform enhances collaboration and sharing, automates routine teacher tasks and facilitates numerous ways to create lessons and use resources.
  • Created for the workplace, Topyx LMS sports features designed for peer-to-peer, informal and formal learning throughout an organization, wherever colleagues may be located or whichever device they are using.

Course Design Support – EdTek Services assigns an Instructional Designer (ID) as soon as a prospective customer indicates interest in any of the LMS options offered. The ID will confer with a client’s subject matter experts to assess content and begin designing and organizing material to optimize its engagement with the end-learner. The ID devises a blueprint for any course.

Course Build Support – Once the ID conceives the blueprint, it is handed to a Course Developer who begins helping each client build the curriculum. This Course Development Support is included in every contract. Clients that want a little less or more curriculum development, or who’d like to build one-off courses, can contract EdTek for custom course development work.

Target Market

As a full-service eLearning technology and support provider, EdTek Services targets small- to mid-sized organizations, whose educational, corporate and nonprofit learning needs can be met by deploying itsLearning and Topyx. EdTek values its clients’ privacy and prefers to not identify them publicly.

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Implementation/Integration

EdTek’s team provides full implementation services for each customer. EdTek begins each implementation with a readiness assessment administered by the assigned Client Service Consultant, who reviews the results and helps the client choose the LMS that fits best.

Once a client has chosen its LMS, EdTek consultants will begin designing and developing the curriculum with the client’s subject matter experts. EdTek assigns an instructional designer and course developer to assist with the design and build of the client’s courses.

Complete implementation takes anywhere between one to six weeks, depending on the scope of the work.

Finally, at Go-Live and beyond, the Client Service Consultant’s duty becomes maintaining the system’s peak performance.

Customer Service & Support

EdTek Services provides to its customers several means of support that are included with any subscription.

Each customer is assigned a full-time Client Service Consultant (CSC) who helps run the system, trains users on the software and heads off any issues before they escalate. The CSC serves as a “one-stop window” for customers needing support.

A Help Desk is available. Tickets can be submitted via email or phone. An automated password retrieval can be found on the login page.

Free and unlimited training – for instructors, administrators and a client’s subject matter experts – comes with each subscription and can be scheduled according to a customer’s needs and calendar.

Migration services are available and may cost extra depending on the scope of the work. For a fee, EdTek will also train users of itsLearning or Topyx who are not its clients.

Pricing

EdTek Services offers two pricing options and several hybrid versions that combine both.

The Kick Start option has an initial annual cost of between $2,000 and $2,500, and a pay-as-you-go, per-learner fee based on course length. This option is popular with organizations that are not sure how many people will register for courses and want to keep costs aligned with revenue.

The Annual License option is quoted based on the total number of learners in a year. It is popular with organizations that have a set number of staff or customers that will be learners and want a set cost for the year. Subscribers can earn a discount by paying the annual license upfront.

If a subscriber requires more capacity than that of the Annual License, additional licenses can be purchased at a pro-rated cost. If a client does not use all its annual license balance, it gets rolled over into the next contract year.

It’s best to contact EdTek Services, discuss your needs and get a quote.

Shortcomings

As a cloud-hosted solution, it can be vulnerable to the whims of internet operation.

Although expert in the two LMS options offered, EdTek is not the developer of them.

Screenshots

EdTek Services Inc. Screenshot 1
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About

EdTek is a full-service eLearning technology and support provider for small- to mid-size organizations. In the cloud it hosts two leading LMS options: itsLearning and Topyx.

With a unique shared-services business model, EdTek started as a licensed re-seller of the eCollege course management system. Over the next 20 years, EdTek partnered with organizations as small as 50 employees and as large as 1.2 million to help them stretch their eLearning budgets.

It partners with companies, non-profit organizations and traditional education institutions, offering them consulting, training, hands-on administrative support and technology solutions in an all-inclusive package.  It provides a learning management system, course development, instructional design and e-learning services.

EdTek’s value-add is its Kick Start package, an online learning suite of tools designed to launch newly designed programs or enhance existing programs, as well as support that system launch with full-service maintenance, monitoring and overall management.

Founded in 2003, EdTek Services is based in Toronto, Canada, and has cloud-hosting facilities in Texas and Norway.

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  • Last modified: January 12, 2024
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