Frontline Professional Growth vs. Nearpod

This is perfect for the district looking to convert older physical forms to digital copies, and mitigate the tracking of forms from desk to desk. Frontline will do it all digitally. Those in the approval process can approve or deny, or even ask for more information, which sends the form back to the user who submitted it. This is also good for those looking for a way to manage professional development in their district and all that comes with it, including tracking workshops, awarding hours, etc. Most districts use Frontline programs somewhere, so this is another piece to that. However, this is cost-heavy.

Incentivized

Nearpod works great in any classroom, but the presentation must be projected or each student must have access to a internet connected device.

Incentivized

• Frontline Professional Growth is set up to organize and document all aspects of a teacher's evaluation. Artifacts are archived and can be used in multiple areas.
• SGOs, observations, PDPs, and documentation logs can all be shared between the staff member and the administration.
• The forms are easy to fill out, can be saved as drafts in progress, and can be referred to from year to year.
• The Professional Development Workshop section offers a calendar of workshops in catalog format as well as calendar format.
• As a workshop presenter, enrollment tools are easy to use and offer multiple ways to access your roster.
• As a workshop participant, workshops are listed as in progress and completed. Hours are tabulated and saved each year.

Incentivized

• Provide timely and individualized feedback.
• Allow for the teacher to check for understanding, for the entire class, in one view.
• Present an array of different interactive lesson items, at the fingertips of every student.

Incentivized

• Confusing sign-on processes.
• AESOP (absence management) is not integrated with Professional Growth as advertised.

Incentivized

• I would love Nearpod to have more free activities.
• I would love Nearpod to be free for educators.
• I would love if teachers could assign homework on Nearpod.

Incentivized

Goal is to continue our subscription for the 2019-2020 school year

Incentivized

Web-based or using the app, Nearpod is easy to use

Incentivized

Overall, Frontline Professional Growth manages observations, SGOs, documentation logs, and Professional Development Plans. In addition to these evaluation pieces, it allows our district to manage our Professional Development Workshops (in-house), Professional Development requests (for out-of-district), and many online request forms. The only real negative is that some of the menus are a bit cumbersome, and it takes several steps to get around the system.

Incentivized

The support staff for Nearpod is top-notch. I have not had technical issues, but I did have a concern about my bill and they reached out to me nearly immediately to address the problem. I was very satisfied with how they handled the interaction from beginning to end. They did a great job.

Incentivized

I have only used this and GCN trainings. I think it helps having more choices that hold value to your work day.

Incentivized

The custom, integrated, online content, along with school libraries, makes this product superior to PearDeck. Nearpod exceeds PowerPoint because of the ease of use, the student paced lessons, and the ability to embed CFUs.

Incentivized

• We have used a lot less paper over the past few years which leads to cost savings.
• The time it takes to submit a form and get approval has sped up since this is all digital.
• The time it takes to track and award professional development hours has sped up.

Incentivized

• The impact is awesome. It gives students a digital option other than PowerPoint for presentations.
• The feedback tool allows you to follow students in realtime.
• The shallow learning curve made it easy encourage other faculty to try it.