GradPoint is a K-12 learning management system (LMS) from Pearson, supporting student engagement and communication, student encouragement and self-assessment, and other tools to support student learning and progress.
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Thinkific
Score 7.6 out of 10
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Thinkific headquartered in Vancouver provides their system for online course and content creators to distribute their lessons to unlimited students, featuring content schedule distribution, some marketing features, certifications, as well as quizzes and surveys.
$0
per month
Pricing
GradPoint
Thinkific
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Start
$99.00
per month
Grow
$199.00
per month
Expand
$399.00
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
GradPoint
Thinkific
Free Trial
No
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
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Thinkific customers save 25% when they subscribe on an annual basis.
Great for independent learning, whether in large/small group setting, or individually. Harder for us to have students work on their own though, since it requires constant passwords to move on from one section to another for quizzes and tests. Is going to be especially hard for our students to work independently over the holidays (to stay on pace) when they can only go so far before having to stop for a password before they can go further.
Thinkific is well suited for users who who want to make an impact teaching online, whether that's to B2C with independent course creators, or B2B where you're training clients, partners and internal staff for a company (which is how we deployed the Thinkific Plus plan). Deployment or migration is easy and the speed and ease of course creation and publication is second to none. It's probably the easiest LMS to administer whilst still providing a powerful suite of tools that give you the insight you need to grow your course business.Thinkific is ideal for creating a customer education program for your business, automating onboarding of client training and training partners too. The range of plans Thinkific offer equally make it ideal for smaller personal course creators too.
It is very user-friendly right from the get-go. I am able to navigate throughout the system, and between areas easily, going from one class to another, from one student to another, or pulling in whole classes or groups of students, depending on my needs.
GradPoint is a very useful tool for everyone - our students, paraprofessionals, teachers, directors, and administration. So across the board, it helps us all access the information we need to on a daily basis, whether in the classroom or at home.
As a special education teacher, it allows me to work with my particular students one-on-one and individualize their learning according to their IEP and learning styles. I like the ease of use and versatility, and ability to use it in the classroom and then at home, go over information needed to prepare for the next day.
I have seen multiple mistakes in the questions/answers that need to be corrected/updated. I think these are kinks that need to be worked out and once resolved, will be fine.
When I filter for one student's name and then go to one of their courses, there is no easy way to go back and see all the courses for that one student - it always takes me back to the COURSE which lists all the students, not the one student I was just working with. Would save some steps if there was an easier way to navigate back to the one student and all their courses.
Wish there was a way I could (as a teacher/administrator) copy when reviewing the quiz/test questions with a student, so I could paste it into Google or other search so that we can research the question together. You can't copy/paste anything from inside the quiz/test review section, I am assuming for security reasons, but still, as a special education teacher, makes it a bit harder for me to go back over missed questions and review information.
We will continue to use Thinkific for our company pieces of training. Until we are able to create our own in house portal, this is an excellent source to have a learning management software tool that is easy to use and easy to implement without much technical training to administer
I've used other learning management systems over the last 5 years and believe Thinkific is easily one of the ones that make getting started with zero tech skills or know-how easy peasy. Everything is laid out very well in how to set up your online school, create your courses and market and sell your courses. They provide a lot of great videos tutorials and offer a useful webinar series to help you understand how to market your courses like a pro
I've never had any issues with accessing Thinkific but I can see when it has been a problem for others. When I get updates on when they are doing maintenance to their platform I tend to make sure that is not the day I plan to be working on my school so as not to get frustrated
When it comes to the performance of Thinkific for me I find that it's good but could be better. I tend to think that the larger the files and videos you upload on your courses may add to the impact of it's uploading (not sure if that's actually true or not). But overall the performance of Thinkific via my tablet and desktop is very good when I have a fast speed broadband speed
I rate Thinkific a ten because of its excellent customer service, ease of use, high-quality product, fair price with excellent ROI, and because they keep making improvements. Using Thinkific solved the problems of piecing together our course with various WordPress plugins, iframes, and payment processing software. It's easy to create a course website for people who can't write code.
The implementation period took time like it would in earning and using any new tool. It was more about being organised, having better time management processes in place and having people you were able to reach out to if you were every able stuck. The other key ting with the implementation period was giving yourself a realistic time scale to get the job completed.
While your search bar was only able to find one (that I don't really think applies), the state of Georgia has two programs that are very similar: Georgia Connections Academy and K12. I have been a homeschool teacher for years, and am familiar with both of these programs. I feel that GradPoint stacks up very well to these other online learning platforms, and probably better, especially for administrators. My company selected GradPoint, not me, but I do believe they made a great decision, having used Edgenuity before and having many problems...hence their switch to GradPoint.
Overall, if I had the choice, Thinkific would be one of the tools in using an online course for instructors and private institutions. The higher-tiered plan is a bit steep for contractor instructors who may need to pay for it themselves to show the course would be a good course for the school to create. The free 3-course is helpful without the bells and whistles. The free program offers you to create three courses and keep all the profit from selling your courses minus a small transaction fee that won't break the break.
The opportunities to scale your online course business with Thinkific is endless. They provide a great range of plans with features, integrations and support to suit the needs of any business as different levels. The key here is knowing where to start with the budget you have and then knowing when it's time to scale up and the tools and resources it will require.
Positive Impact: Works well with our independent sites all over the state, yet allows us to still be all connected.
Positive Impact: Works especially well with me and my special education students. Can go back over each and every missed question, review, clarify, discuss, and achieve mastery. For a special education teacher, this is just lovely!
Negative Impact: I really love GradPoint, but the only negative is since GradPoint is so technology driven, if you have a particularly tech savvy student, we have seen they can 'work around' some of GradPoint's features and 'get ahead'. I am not so tech savvy myself, but this is what my site director has told me, and I would think that is not good and should be looked at/further review/investigation.
Ability to attract leads with a FREE membership library option
Ability to quickly and easily deliver course content without much of a learning curve for course creators
If you need affiliates to help sell your product, even though they advertise that they have the option for affiliates, if you want to do it right you must use an additional integration for affiliate software.
