Top Hat is a worthwhile replacement to Turning Technologies

The initial rollout of Top Hat was not without its issues. Top Hat was very responsive, and even sent representatives to be onsite during the first couple of days of the start of class to help instructors and students. They were very knowledgeable about the product, but the sales team was pushy at times. At several times, we had to inform them not to reach out to instructors directly to pitch their service while we were still piloting.

Top Hat is best suited if the institution is seriously able to consider purchasing a sitewide license. Making students pay in order to participate or take attendance is a hard pill to swallow. Also, if Top Hat is used for grading purposes it puts a very high bar to ensure all the technology works every single time. Can the wifi network handle the additional load of hundreds of students all pinging the access point at the same time? If students are paying, they will expect perfection or riot. It's a bit of chicken and the egg issue. Many faculty will not adopt Top Hat or response collection system if students have to pay for it, regardless of whether it provides educational value. However, it's hard to warrant a sitewide license if there's not a great deal of usage of across campus.