Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Socrative vs. Infuselearning

Socrative vs. Infuselearning

Formative assessment is a powerful tool for teachers. Quality and timely formative assessment helps teachers make informed instructional decisions. These instructional decisions make all the difference for students. In some classrooms, teachers are utilizing proprietary clickers for these formative assessments. If you have these devices, then clickers are a great tool for formative assessment. But if you don't have clickers and do not want to invest in these devices, there are two quality free, web-based options to choose. Socrative and Infuselearning perform all the same tasks as clickers and then some but which is the better choice?

Question Types
Socrative - Multiple Choice, True/False, Short Answer
Infuselearning - True/False, Multiple Choice, Sort and Order, Text Response, Numeric Response, Likert Scale, draw response(only available in quick assessment mode)

    
Socrative Question Types

Infuse Learning Question Types


As you can see, Infuselearning has more available question types. Unfortunately, draw response cannot be used when using a teacher-created quiz. The draw response is a great informal tool that is utilized in the quick assessment mode. Depending on the question or concept, a drawing is a great alternative way to show understanding.

Although Socrative has less question types, it does come with some premade assessments. These pre-made quizzes are nice but I usually want to create exactly what I want instead of using a pre-made quiz. I do not think I would use this feature very much at all.

Both programs allow you to ask questions on the fly without having to make a pre-made quiz. This gives the user greater flexibility in how they want to use the programs.

Socrative allows the teacher to run the assessment from the web or through their teacher app. Infuselearning is run exclusively through the website. Even though it lacks its own app, Infuselearning looks great on a tablet or phone.

Question Type Winner: Infuselearning

User Experience
Socrative - Internet Connected Devices, Student and Teacher App for IOS and Andriod
InfuseLearning - Internet Connected Devices

Students only need a room number for Socrative

Students using Socrative can connect from the student website or they can connect through the student app. Upon entering the student login interface, students needs to enter the room number. In Socrative, the room number will be the same for all quizzes. Once signed in, students will then be in a waiting screen until the assessment is ready to begin. Students using Socrative can also use any web browser.

A room number and name is needed in each enrollment setup

For Infuselearning, students will go to the student login page and enter their room number and name. A difference with Infuselearing is that each created assessment will have a different room number. On the fly assessments will use the same room number. Using the different room numbers could create some confusion for students. Another big minus is the lack of Internet Explorer support. As much I love Google Chrome, I think not supporting Internet Explorer alienates a large chunk of potential users.

Both programs offer users a similar experience when taking an assessment. There are no noticeable differences when taking an assessment. Depending on teacher settings, students may know if they got the question correct instantly.

User Experience Winner: Socrative

Teacher Experience
When a teacher logs into Socrative, all of their options are divided into easy to use sections. I like how teachers can see how many students are in the room ready to use Socrative. From the main screen it is easy to do a single question or go in and prepare a quiz. When starting a previously created quiz, teachers can choose from student paced or teacher led mode. As students are taking a quiz, the teacher can track progress for each student. Quizzes can also be shared with other users which is a nice feature. Another great feature is that you can download reports from past quizzes. So if you forget to download the report after the assessment, you can go get it later! Editing your profile is a breeze too. Finally a small feature like "Clear Room" is an added bonus. When using the teacher app, the user experience is exactly the same. That is useful so teachers do not need to learn two separate interfaces.

Infuselearning provides an equally great user experience. After logging into Infuselearning, teachers have the options to perform many tasks. Single question items are a click away and it is also easy to create a quiz. When choosing to start a previously created quiz, the only option is student paced. There is no teacher led mode for these types of quizzes. Another difference with Infuselearning is the enrollment option. When starting a session or taking attendance, you can set enrollment to "open" or you can pick a particular class. When creating classes, teachers need to add their students into the class. This can be done manually or with a student import. When starting a session with a particular class, students will need to enter their names (as they appear in the class list) and the room number. Of course all this can be skipped with the open enrollment option. This class feature might be great for some and others will never use it. I like that there is an option. Teachers also have options to change profile preferences just like Socrative. Also like Socrative, teachers can share quizzes and download past quiz data as an Excel spreadsheet. Infuse Learning does not have an app but the web interface is easy to use on your phone.

Teacher Experience: Draw - Both interfaces are great. Each has their own little differences that make them unique and will appeal to different users.

Overall: You cannot go wrong with either Infuselearning or Socrative for formative assessment in your classroom. The differences between each contender are small. I would choose Infuselearning as my winner if it supported Internet Explorer. That is a major drawback but the draw response is awesome and cannot be duplicated in Socrative. So if Internet Explorer is not an issue for you, I would probably recommend Infuselearning. For those districts using Internet Explorer or have a large portion of their school using personal devices, I would recommend Socrative because of the free app for teachers and students and the ability to use Internet Explorer.

For those using these resources in your classroom, what do you think?



8 comments:

  1. I loved Socrative!! Loved it. However, for the past 3 weeks, it has been sluggish, unresponsive, sometimes just plain won't work!! Customer support has been non-existent. I know they are doing some updates, but this has brought my class to a standstill. I'm switching to a new program now.

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    Replies
    1. I agree. Although I had been planning to in-service my staff in Socrative for the past two months, I finally switched to InfuseLearning and am delighted that I did. It's much, much faster and more versatile.

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  2. Interesting. I was thinking about suggesting to teachers, but I was most curious about customer support as I work the IT help desk... and we all know my job would be easier if client support was BA.

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  3. Another application that should be on every teacher and administrator's radar is ExitTicket.

    ExitTicket captures the student's progress, checks for not only understanding of the specific question, but the understanding of the concepts and curriculum and engages the students with gamification and badging. We are still in our Early Adopter stage, preparing for the full launch August 19th, sign up today to get grandfathered into the Early adopters group while you compare these for FREE.

    "ExitTicket is a engaging student response system delivering instant feedback and performance metrics to teachers and students, allowing immediate intervention and reteaching with a tap of a finger, while tracking the student's progress."

    http://exitticket.org

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  4. I am fed up with Socrative. Their update took longer than they expected and now the newest version does not allow you to have access to your tests or activities that you already had created in their 1.0 version. I sent the following to their website: beta.socrative.com


    On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 2:44 PM, Brooke> wrote:
    This update was silly. You shut down the entire site for 5 days and the only way to access the improvements is through a completely NEW website? And what I have in the 1.0 version is not and will not show up in the 2.0 version and vice versa. However, I received emails stating that I would be able to access the new updated app WITH my saved files/tests.

    My students like the app; but I will not be using the beta version as I do not trust it. Not to mention I would have to re-create many tests in order to even use the new "improved" version- which I have no time for. I am one less customer, I will be on the hunt for a website that will work with my students needs.
    Brooke

    Their response:
    On Oct 18, 2013, at 2:06 PM, "Beta Socrative" wrote:

    Best of luck to you in your search and sorry for your frustrations. We're a team of three people offering a free product and working as hard as possible. By the way, 2.0 is pretty awesome


    My response:
    Three people working on a major software update doesn't found like a good plan. How is it awesome if I can't access the tests I've already created?
    While you think 2.0 is awesome, I know awesome- I'm certified and drizzled in awesomeness, and 2.0 is not awesome.

    So for those of you who are feeling that the customer support is non existent- there are only 3 people apparently working on it. I do not have time to wait for it to work and be compatible with what I have already created. I am going to check out infuse learning or other apps like socrative.

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    Replies
    1. Like he said... you're getting it free. Do you work for nothing?

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    2. I love the way some people bitch about something they are getting for free. If they want/need tech support and hand holding perhaps they should look for a PAID app. Keep up the hard work guys.

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  5. I think it has been brillliant and a lot of teachers at my school use it alot. I had a recent problem and the tech support got back to me very quickly.
    I particularly love the reports you can generate in a flash.

    ReplyDelete