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Schoology vs. Haiku. By Rachel Smith . What are other schools using?.
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Schoology vs. Haiku By Rachel Smith
I understand what you mean about Moodle. Last year, we had very few teachers who liked and used it (probably fewer than 20 classes used it). That is the reason we went searching for another one. By contrast, we have almost 200 classes using Haiku this year in some capacity. Some classes get a ton of use (submitting assignments, testing, etc), others just put homework out there. I originally only purchased 300 licenses, figuring that this first year will be a slow pilot. By mid-September, I had to up my user licenses to more than 680! Teacher always comment on how easy it is to use, and kids love it when all their assignments are in one place. • One of the best things about Haiku is that it does interface with other SIS providers. All class and student accounts are synced with Veracross. They connect to Veracross hourly to see if there are any updates to classes. So, if Johnny moves from Honors Geometry to Regular Geometry in Veracross, the change will be reflected in the two class rosters in Haiku as well. Teachers like that. • We went with Haiku instead of using Veracross because we wanted a real LMS. Veracross offers class webpages to post assignments and make resources available, however, all the communication is one way. Students can't submit documents through Veracross, nor can they create a class wiki or blog. It is really just a website. We wanted more than that. Testimonials: Charles Walker, Taft
I am using Schoology this year... it's pretty good but has some issues embedding video from the screencasts that I create from my iPad. I have to try something different this semester. • My students had a hard time figuring out when things were assigned vs. when they were due. I need to clarify it...especially when it is a long range assignment. • Students also seemed to have difficult time finding resources that were posted after they fell off the newsfeed... • The online assessments were a little clunky compared to quia or study blue. You should have some teachers test it out. I think it really depends on how you are going to use it. Testimonials:Lorri Carroll, Hamden Hall
Haiku is a "pretty elegant system", especially if you use Google Apps--looks like DropBox but works better because it's in your own namespace. • They use Google namespace to integrate with Haiku--if someone is in their email system, they're already logged into Haiku. • Classes and rosters are all updated in Haiku (from VC) within a half-hour of change being made. • They also evaluated Schoology--he used it himself in his CS class. Didn't have enough hosting behind it at that point--it was in the early days of Schoology. • Steve feels Haiku is the best thing out there as far as LMS's are concerned. Testimonials: Steve Reynolds, Ethel Walker
Teachers create pages, and put material on each page • Classes are run through a cms-like interface How does Haiku work?
Teachers create folders and put material in those folders • Classes are run through a facebook-like interface How does Schoology work?
Uploading documents for students (syllabus, handouts, guides, lecture notes, powerpoints, etc.) • Posting homework & information, like announcements • Surveying students • Posting images • Creating assessments, like quizzes and writing responses • Embedding programs from other sites (quizlet, youtube, etc.) • Forums • Sharing resources and courses between faculty • Handing in assignments online • Organizing by topic/date/unit • Wikis, chats • Teams/Club pages & Academic dept. resource pages • Post audio files • Calendars LMS features most used byKent faculty
Student feedback 50% of students preferred Haiku, and 50% of students preferred Schoology
Schoology Bottom line: $7,150 Recurring fees: $5,500/year Haiku • Bottom line: $5,800 • Recurring fees: $4,800/year (plus $500/every two years for custom domain name) Price
Schoology Train the trainer (web): $300/two-hour session On-site trainig: $1,500/six hours (plus expenses) API Configuration: $2,000/day (remote) Haiku • Train the trainer: free • Domain-admin. training: free • On-site training: $2,500/day Optional features
Based on the feedback from other independent schools, I’d recommend Haiku. • It’s intuitive interface is user-friendly and offers teachers great flexibility in the design of their course. • The transition from Moodle to Haiku may be easier for power Moodle users, as the philosophy behind Haiku’s lms is similar to Moodle’s philosophy. • Schoology may not be the right fit for Kent’s faculty as the philosophy behind its lms enables facebook-like technology-based communication and we’d like to encourage face to face communication. • In addition, Schoology’s interface may be tricky for teachers who do notembrace facebook. Rachel’s recommendation