Likelihood to Recommend Orah (Previously Boardingware)
This is hands down the best application on the market in terms of making sure parents and staff understand where students are at any given time during the day. It also has done a great job of expanding into buy-in areas for students such as having event sign-ups inside the application. Having parent accounts also does a great job of keeping lines of communication open between the parents, school, and students.
Read full review There is nothing specific that I would say sets it apart from any other LMS, but once you are used to the user interface and various features, it does everything that is needed and integrates well enough with other software to function. Probably isn't necessary in a smaller setting, but for multiple building districts, it is certainly robust enough to handle data collection and storage.
Read full review Pros Orah (Previously Boardingware)
Keeping all information organized in one place. Having my entire student database at the touch of a screen. Read full review Flexibility. This multitude of fields available makes it easy to capture data the way we want or need to. Quick response to trouble tickets. The company strives to reach out to the customer within an hour and start the process of resolution. User focused. Improvements to the system always look at how the end user experience can be enhanced. Read full review Cons Orah (Previously Boardingware)
I would like to see all parents having to capture weekend arrangements, whether they are going out or staying in. An automatic reminder SMS sent to parents who have not made arrangements by a certain time. Read full review Confusion when it comes to student grades- sometimes there are two different letter grades for a student for what is posted as "TR1" and "PR1." How does a teacher know which of these grades will be posted to a student's report card? How does a teacher know what the student's actual grade is for a particular course? Switching between the Educator Access Plus and Student Management tabs can be complicated, especially for those new to the system. Why can't everything be in one place? I recognize that Skyward logs out after a certain period of inactivity to preserve privacy of users, but is there a way to change those settings so that Skyward does not log out as frequently? It is difficult to keep having to log back in completely again. Read full review Likelihood to Renew Orah (Previously Boardingware)
It is the system I am most comfortable with, so having to learn a new system outweighs any problems I have with Skyward.
Read full review Usability Orah (Previously Boardingware)
It takes some time to get used to navigating the features and layers, but once you know your way around it, it's pretty good.
Read full review Support Rating Orah (Previously Boardingware)
I gave this rating because Boardingware support is unbelievable. They are quick to reply and have a chat feature that they not only are there for most of the day but you can leave a note if they are not available and they get back to you very quickly. I thoroughly enjoyed any conversations I had with support from Boardingware.
Read full review Overall great job, issues were taken care of. People in support do care.
Read full review Implementation Rating Orah (Previously Boardingware)
Yes, I was part of the implementation team.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Orah (Previously Boardingware)
Senior Systems did not work as well and the functionality from the administrative side is not as user-friendly. I often felt like it was down and not working properly, or that I could not find where certain documents are. I believe that for a boarding school community Boardingware was much more user-friendly, and did not take as many steps in order to get the job done quickly.
Read full review I, personally, have not used other Student Management Systems, but having used Skyward, I do not necessarily feel any overwhelming desire to seek out the competitive software programs. Skyward does what it says it will and provides my school district with an easy and organized way to share and access all of the relevant student and family information we need. It serves it's purpose well and meets our needs.
Read full review Return on Investment Orah (Previously Boardingware)
We were tracking student leave by hand or by an in-house program. Both of these became inefficient and/or unusable. Having Boardingware has expedited the process. It's hard to give numbers, but we're several days ahead of where we used to be in terms of tracking students' leave for Thanksgiving break. Parent involvement was always an issue, but with Boardingware parents must approve a leave before we (the school) does. This makes parents take responsibility for their child which happens less than it should. Having access to flagged students with health issues makes it much easier to plan field trips. We can easily know who should have what meds or epi pens based on their Boardingware profile. Safety awareness and prevention has gone up due to this feature. Read full review Overall, Skyward has had a positive impact. One way is the student information that is shared and available to see. If I need to know something about a student’s academic history, Skyward has it. Another way it has impacted our district is the way it has streamlined all of our payroll information. I can see check histories, different parts of my salary, and the year-end totals all in one place. Skyward has also made a big impact on our district by making it easier to communicate with parents. All the parents’ contact information is available and email is even included in the program. Read full review ScreenShots