Item: Illuminate Data & Assessment (DnA)
Rating: 8
Author: Laurance J. Specht

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it school-wide for assessment creation, administration and data analysis to inform instruction and personalize learning. Illuminate has the ability to generate a great level of insightful reports without great amounts of effort. When building assessments you have a couple of different options that allow for a wide variety of question types that are standards aligned.

Pros and Cons

Online assessment creation
Online assessment administration
Data analysis
Data tracking

Front end interface needs to have more tools
Language and semantics of the system can be cumbersome
Updating the system is time consuming

Return on Investment

Positive ROI. The tool is powerful for the cost
Quick data gathering and analysis
Easy assessment administration
Reduced paper consumption

Alternatives Considered

PowerSchool Assessment

Illuminate is a more powerful tool with great support and analysis tools. Having the database is great for teachers to build assessments that are standards-aligned in a short amount of time. PowerSchool Assessment is nearly as powerful. It's harder to set up and use. Illuminate has many more features for the price.

Other Software Used

GoGuardian Admin, GoGuardian Teacher, Cisco Meraki MS Switches

Likelihood to Recommend

Great for a school with dedicated IT support and technology available. Limited tech environments will find it hard to leverage the power of the tool. The data is easy to pull out and use with many reports available quickly from available options. There are additional options for building your own reports based on your own needs.

Products Replaced

Key Differentiators

Price
Product Features
Product Reputation
Prior Experience with the Product
Vendor Reputation

The tools and of features of Illuminate make it powerful and reasonable for the price. The assessment database is huge, standards-aligned and easy to use. Multiple ways to administer assessments make it very flexible. Their support and professional development teams are excellent. Very responsive and willing to walk you through anything you need.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

We would not change our process at all. It has led us to a great tool that we want to continue to grow with and leverage to improve teaching and learning.

Usability

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.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Feel confident using	None

Easy Tasks

Online assessment administration
Online assessment building
Data review and reporting

Difficult Tasks

Initial set up can be cumbersome
Front end need interface for certain feature changes
Custom reports needs time to learn to use

Illuminate is worth the investment and is getting better.

Overall Satisfaction with Illuminate Data & Assessment (DnA)