GoGuardian Teacher vs. Synergy Education Platform

GoGuardian Teacher is great for a teacher who needs a way to monitor student activities and work time on a laptop. It is easy to set up, simple to use and helps to keep students accountable when online in class. It integrates with Google Classroom which is a big help. It is more powerful for teachers experienced in using tech in the classroom. The archiving ability is great but the UX needs to improve.

Incentivized

Synergy is well-suited for seamlessly bridging enrollment and student information. Other organizations I have worked at used two separate platforms for this purpose. Synergy also merges, seamlessly, parent contact functions, using one platform.

Incentivized

• Cloud-based. Teachers do not have to monitor from just one device - they can do it from any device.
• GoGuardian allows teachers to lock a student's screen when he/she needs the students attention.
• GoGuardian allows the teacher to view all students' devices simultaneously.

Incentivized

• IEP and 504 are accessible
• student information is easily found in one place for teachers and administration
• Please update this process it is very slow

• Scope of device monitoring (laptops, desktop computers and not just Chromebooks)
• Needs an updated interface to more accurately fit advances in technology
• Ability to more easily interact and adjust with a student's device

Incentivized

• More education tools
• Improve and cleaner design

Incentivized

For a technology-heavy school, it is a necessary and good tool for managing classroom use of laptops. It is easy to set up and use. Helps track time on task and internet usage. Another source of data when speaking to parents about student work and activity. Can help plan and manage work time when you have limited devices.

Incentivized

The support is great. On the rare occasion that I've had to reach out to support they have been very quick to respond and extremely helpful. I've also had teachers reach out directly to support themselves. Most of the time I don't even know that a teacher has reached out to support until after the fact. They always seem satisfied.

Incentivized

I have used Hapara in a previous school district. GoGuardian is more user-friendly and easier to setup. I do think GoGuardian has some room on improving the ease of finding some areas of the program, but once you know the path to get there it is quick.

Incentivized

I like how synergy has everything in one place.

Incentivized

• We have been able to identify inappropriate websites that students have discovered. For example anonymous proxies, movie streaming, etc. Through this software, we have been able to identify the students and in turn block the websites.
• We have been able to identify which students have been using other user's accounts. This was an unintended side effect of the software. If a teacher knows that a student is using a Chromebook but the student is not showing up in the software, we are easily able to deduce that the user must be using another student's account.

Incentivized

• it takes longer to do everything because it involves to many clicks to enter data and save it
• longer time
• because it does not autosave, you have to start from scratch if you hit the back button or change the screen