Illuminate Data & Assessment (DnA) vs. McGraw-Hill Connect

I think it is well suited for K-12 schools, especially for tracking student growth over time. The ability to easily upload state assessment results and produce pre-built reports provides teachers actionable data. The online assessment system is more appropriate for secondary (grades 6-12) students in our district due to the types of assessments our elementary (K-5) students complete. I have some experience with other systems and think that the illuminate software offers more flexibility in the types of data that can be stored.

Incentivized

If you want a prepackaged option for learning that requires minimal instructor input, comes with no support, and offers a limited number of options as far as a dynamic and engaging learning experience, then this is probably the right option for you. If, on the other hand, you want a product that does a lot of different things, has excellent customer service, dynamically engages and challenges the user in a number of different activities and learning exercises, then, uh, please look elsewhere.

• Easy to use
• Item banks
• Outstanding customer service.
• Reasonable pricing models.
• Integrates well with student info systems.

Incentivized

• Integration with Canvas is seamless and easy to use.
• Assignment completion, for students, is straightforward and easy to use.
• The SmartBook allows students to read as they are tested with questions and this helps them learn the material easily without having first trying to read, memorize a chapter and then answer questions.

Incentivized

• Tech support seemed good but our main issue was never resolved. We received attention and someone was working on our issue, but they could never figure out why our student count was off for 1 grade level even though they said our data looked great.
• The customized reports were powerful, but there was so much to learn for the average administrative user, like a principal, to get the detailed data they need. You would have to have a dedicated person to create customized reports.
• At some point, our representative just stopped calling and there was no further contact. Then our rep left the company and the new rep only sent one email notifying us of the change. That was almost a year ago.

Incentivized

• Difficult navigation upon sign-in
• Too many choices per chapter - difficult to know which part to select to walk through assignments with students

Incentivized

Illuminate DnA is a very usable system. A few items to learn and set up can be a bit time-consuming. However, once set up it is easy to use and powerful for a school that staff can master quickly. It has more features then we actually use but I hope we will over time.

Incentivized

Our issue was never resolved so that we could use the software to produce accurate reports. Their tech department looked into the issue several times and could never figure out why our student was off and then they just closed the case. They confirmed we were performing the correct steps to load the data and they confirmed our data looked accurate. Great, but again why was our student count off?

Incentivized

Personally, I did not encounter McGraw-Hill support. However, I worked with colleagues who needed support and were able to receive in a timely manner. Overall, McGraw Hill Connect is user-friendly (at least from teacher interface) and easy to navigate, which minimizes the need to reach out for support. The help button is useful and provides plenty of immediate support.

Incentivized

Illuminate DnA offers more flexibility and additional features that our previous Data Director system offered. We were looking for a system that offered an online assessment portal and the ability to create elementary standard-based report cards when we selected the illuminate DnA software. We were impressed with the ability to easily create custom reports and liked the comprehensive student profile page.

Incentivized

McGraw-Hill Connect does a great job being user friendly and has relevant tasks and activities for what needs to be taught. Blackboard does a good job being used as a communication and quiz board and Cengage operates based on activities similar to Connect.

Incentivized

• Better handle on student achievement.
• Clarity around achievements on specific standards.

Incentivized

• Because it did not integrate well with BBlearn and the adaptive quizzing did not function properly, we lost a great deal of time and had to face a large number of student issues. If it had worked well, we may still be using it.

Incentivized