GoGuardian Admin vs. Google Classroom

GoGuardian is excellent for any district with a 1:1 Chromebook program. Our program would not be nearly as successful without it. GoGuardian does work with other devices (Windows, iPads) but I believe some features do not work as well in those setups. We haven't tried using it for anything other than Chromebooks and I am not aware of anyone using it for iPad/Windows or Macs.

Incentivized

Google Classroom allows teachers to post for daily lessons and assignments. It also allows teachers to be able to communicate with students easily outside of class. Students are able to stay connected and know where to find all information and resources easily in a streamlined manner for all of their classes.

Incentivized

• The reporting Dashboard page gives you a great picture of what your users are doing on the internet.
• The Theft recovery piece works very well and helps recover devices that are missing in action.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• With the new Minnesota state laws regarding student data privacy - it made it somewhat challenging for us to continue utilizing GoGuardian Admin. However, they provided some updates to their software to address these issues.
• GoGuardian Admin recently put out an option to checkbox COPPA/CIPA compliance verifications for web filtering. It seems that this still needs some work, as several educational websites we utilize are coming up as "uncategorized" - and then are being falsely flagged and declining access.

Incentivized

• The content management of the Classroom is not that good. The sub-section for notes, syllabus, or discussion is missing.
• It doesn't have parental control feature.
• It converts the excel output into a normal file. All the formulas and pivots got changed into plain text.

Does what we need it to do and more in a very cost-effective manner. Relatively easy to use and great customer support. They are quick and clear and will walk you through things in real time.

Incentivized

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.

Simple design and seamless integration with Google tools and drive, but missing some key features. However, since it is limited in overall functions and ability to truly personalize / customize, it is quite user friendly and easy to set up and get going, other than sending out the code to your course or dropping students in via their gmail account. Users of Google Forms and sites will find the layout similar in design.

Incentivized

We have had very little trouble in accessing Google Classroom. Our issues, if any, have risen from our server and not the Google servers.

Incentivized

GoGuardian support is the best in the business. Within seconds of the business day I can chat with a human being about any issue.

Incentivized

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.

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.

Incentivized

GoGuardian Admin has been leading the way in content filtering for both on and off site with an easy-to-use interface. At the time, it was one of the first to offer cloud-based off-site filtering for Chromebooks. They continue to grow and provide new features every year with great tutorials and updates.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

It is very easy to push out this program across our buildings. Teachers are able to use it without much trouble.

Incentivized

• GG Admin has made it easy to justify the use of Chromebooks in our district.
• GG Admin has alerted us to times where students might be in a dangerous/unwanted situation.
• GG Admin has helped us locate quite a few lost or stolen devices over the years.

Incentivized

• 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

Incentivized