Likelihood to Recommend You must have an IT staff with knowledge of PHP in order to install and maintain the system. This is not a plug and play solution by any means. If you have that staff, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. It's a very robust system. Once we solved initial bugs caused by our own errors during installation, the support desk requests have dropped to almost zero, with nearly 2,000 users online every day. That's a good, solid program.
Read full review - During the pandemic, the college needs a fast and easy solution to conduct Google Classroom. The integration with Google Accounts and Google Meet allows the university to run and access the Classroom on a large scale. - The teacher wants to conduct some exams in third-party software like Moodle. But we have not found any plugin for this famous open-source learning platform. The exam system in Google Classroom is so poor that it doesn't even fully screen the test when students are writing their exams.
Read full review Pros courses management quizes management variety of addons Read full review Student-teacher communication - I love using Classroom for this because my students can always go back and check what was on Classroom by looking through the stream. This way they don't have to go dig through emails to find what they're looking for. Posting to multiple classes - I can post the same announcement or assignment to multiple classes at once without having to repeat the process or send separate emails. Streamlining grading - when students turn work in on Classroom, it all goes to one place and then when I'm grading I can open their documents directly from Classroom or my Drive folder. This way, I'm not looking through emails and Google Doc shared files for their assignment. Read full review Cons Merging this software may be difficult and cumbersome at times Reporting features can be worked on for better and easier usability Not very easy to organize files/folders in the system Read full review Although usually in the discussion with other LMS apps such as Schoology and Canvas, Google Classroom doesn't possess as in-depth of a platform. There is no ability to set individual learning paths, pace student work with completion settings, or embed other apps directly into teacher-created assignments. The assignment creation options are limited. Teachers can only choose from creating an assignment (usually a link with directions), a material (usually a doc/slide/website, etc), a question, and a quiz. With gamification taking on a new lens in education, there really isn't any way to use gamification elements with Google Classroom. There isn't any way to create Individual learning paths, or use badges and micro-credentials within Classroom. Outside programs would have to be used. Read full review Likelihood to Renew I'm not sure what else is out there that has the ability to do what our organization needs. We've come across things we didn't like about it, but due to costs of switching and possibly lack of other options, we'd probably renew with eFront. Also, we've invested a lot of time in the software and it seems to be satisfactory at this point.
Read full review Testing is particularly important in online learning, and Google Classroom falls far short of other learning management systems in this regard. Security is also a concern: while account control is reasonable for the account used with Google Classroom, the person controlling a particular account is often able to, for example, forward or download proprietary materials.
Read full review Usability For most situations, it is extremely easy to learn and use. There are ergonomic issues that seem a bit tedious, but overall, we are seeing a very high success rate with new registrants. They are learning the material and earning their certificates at a rapid pace. This is a good program once it is properly installed by a knowledgeable systems architect.
Read full review This is only a product I would recommend to a humanities teacher. Math and science teachers cannot use this product the same way that I can as an English teacher. It is great for word process and for reading, but unable to handle the demands of math and science. Therefore, I would highly recommend this product to English or Social Studies teachers, but NOT math or science teachers
Read full review Reliability and Availability We have had very little trouble in accessing Google Classroom. Our issues, if any, have risen from our server and not the Google servers.
Read full review Support Rating Two disadvantages: 1. Many staffers who respond don't know how to solve the problem using the User Interface - they want to work from the back end, to which I have no access. 2. The support staff are in Europe and I am in California, so there is an overnight delay in getting a response.
Read full review Since this platform is provided by Google, the technical support is better than any others, and we are not required to bother about the space constraints for adding the contents. If we have a good uninterrupted internet facility we can access Google Classroom without any delay or lag. They have app support in both Android and iPhone.
Read full review Online Training I'm not the most technical person, so some of the training didn't make sense to me. It wasn't a complete training - it was more topical. The people working at EFront were happy to answer my questions later when I resorted to learning it by doing. This was very valuable to me.
Read full review Implementation Rating It's important to have a robust course catalog before launching. Courses should be QC'ed to be sure there are no errors or other problems. Don't let engineers write quiz questions! Remember that well-formed quiz questions are not designed to trick or fool the user - they are used to reinforce learning through repetition of important concepts. The "grade" isn't as important as the assurance the information has stuck.
Read full review It was relatively easy to implement due to the simplicity of the platform. Even our more technology challenged teachers found it easy to get started with Google Classroom.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Unfortunately I have not had the chance to try other products, however I would think eFront would stack up fairly well against competitors and it provides all the necessary tools to stay compliant and excel at having efficient KICs.
Read full review I haven't tested or evaluated another digital classroom website or application. I feel like Google Classroom is convenient for many reasons such as compatibility to Google docs, slides, etc. I also love the ability to link to YouTube and other sites. I don't know if there would be a site that is easier to maneuver.
Read full review Scalability It is very easy to push out this program across our buildings. Teachers are able to use it without much trouble.
Read full review Return on Investment We decided not to continue the trial because it will be either very expensive or impossible to modify the system to our requirements Read full review Students are able to continue learning in a remote environment Parents have a single, consistent organization structure to make it easy to track assignments and progress for multiple children Much better solution than the quickly assembled Zoom-and-gloom of the previous spring when school abruptly went remote with no planning Read full review ScreenShots eFront Learning Screenshots