u/Yuzhername

Hi everyone,
I’m volunteering with a nonprofit that’s building a tuition-free online university, and I’ve been tasked with evaluating Learning Management Systems (LMSs) and this is time bound. Appreciate responses asap.
Our enrolment will likely be 500 - 1000 users .

We’re currently speaking with vendors. I recently had a demo with Absorb LMS. While it looked like a solid platform, it felt much more geared toward corporate learning and employee training than a traditional academic environment with faculties, degree programs, instructors and students.

My benchmark is D2L Brightspace, as I completed my MBA using it at a Canadian University and thought it was an excellent higher education platform. However, I realize from other reddit posts, it may be outside our budget, so we’re trying to understand all of our options.

Specifically, I’m looking for:
- Contacts (sales, partnerships or higher education teams) at D2L Brightspace, Canvas (Instructure) or Moodle.
- Anyone who’s worked with these vendors on a new institution or nonprofit implementation.
- Advice on nonprofit or startup pricing (if available).
- Recommendations for other LMSs that provide a true higher education experience rather than a corporate training platform.

Some of the capabilities we’re looking for include:
Degree and certificate programs
Download options of materials and uploads by students
Assignments, quizzes, exams and gradebook
Discussion forums
Student and faculty portals
White-label branding
Reporting and analytics
Zoom/Microsoft Teams integrations
Digital certificates/transcripts
Scalability from a few hundred students to thousands

From my research so far, Brightspace, Canvas and Moodle seem to be the strongest higher education options, while many other LMSs appear to focus primarily on corporate learning.

If you have a contact you’d be willing to share (either publicly or via DM), or any lessons learned from selecting an LMS for a university or college, I’d really appreciate it.

Thank you!