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Instructure Canvas |
D2L Brightspace |
PowerSchool Schoology |
Moodle | Google Classroom |
Microsoft Teams |
Seesaw | |
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| Classroom management |  |
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| Automatic setup of classes & students from SIS |  |
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| Poll student emotional state each class | |
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| Evidence-based emotion regulation strategies | |
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| Async blended learning social areas per class | |
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| Simple polls, complex surveys | |
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| Class files library | |
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| Per-teacher personal resources areas | |
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| Wiki-like knowledge base for every classroom | |
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| Facilitate student collaboration on assignments | |
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| Virus checking of uploads | |
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| Printable class rosters | |
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| Seating plan | |
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| Google Workspace and O365 integration | |
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| Integrated closed, secure email system | |
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| Teachers can unsend messages | |
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Instructure Canvas |
D2L Brightspace |
PowerSchool Schoology |
Moodle | Google Classroom |
Microsoft Teams |
Seesaw | |
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| Synchronous learning | |
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| Realtime video | |
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| Breakout rooms | |
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| Whiteboarding | |
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| Screensharing | |
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| Realtime text chat | |
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Instructure Canvas |
D2L Brightspace |
PowerSchool Schoology |
Moodle | Google Classroom |
Microsoft Teams |
Seesaw | |
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| Course content | |
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| Author course content in platform | |
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| Organize content by unit, arrange, i.e. planner | |
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| Teacher-managed course models | |
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| District-managed course models slaved to SIS | |
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| Copy & paste content from previous courses | |
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| See progress through content by learner | |
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| Mastery/personalized, self-paced paths | |
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| Import SCORM | |
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| Import Common Cartridge | |
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| Import ePub | |
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| Import Moodle | |
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| Enable LTI applications | |
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| Tag to expectations, standards, outcomes (ESOCs) | |
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| Curriculum collaboration with teachers across district | |
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| Learning Object Repositories (LORs) | |
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| Bulk import into LORs | |
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| LOR object meta data, tagging, assigning to ESOCs | |
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| LOR management | |
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| LOR sharing between schools, districts | |
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| Math equation editor | |
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| Music notation support | |
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| Easily view changes made to course content | |
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Instructure Canvas |
D2L Brightspace |
PowerSchool Schoology |
Moodle | Google Classroom |
Microsoft Teams |
Seesaw | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attendance | |
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| Record attendance in classes | |
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| Late slip management, planned absence mgmt | |
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| Customize to district's attendance workflow & terms | |
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| Export attendance | |
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| Sync attendance to SIS | |
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| Display attendance in system if taken in SIS | |
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| Teacher can take attendance on mobile | |
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| Integration with official district notification systems | |
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| Attendance in groups | |
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Instructure Canvas |
D2L Brightspace |
PowerSchool Schoology |
Moodle | Google Classroom |
Microsoft Teams |
Seesaw | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment | |
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| Comprehensive K-12 optimized gradebook | |
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| Support for advanced K-12 grading schemes | |
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| Assessment weighting | |
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| Gradebook history change tracking | |
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| Rubric support, incl. re-use | |
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| Create new assessment in multiple courses at once | |
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| Electronic submissions via file uploads | |
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| Built-in online testing | |
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| Wide variety of online test question types | |
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| Randomize order of multiple choice questions | |
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| Draw questions from a question bank | |
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| Auto grading of online tests, gradebook insertion | |
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| Record audio or video as answer submissions | |
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| Originality checking w/popular services (e.g. TurnItIn) | |
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| Assess by expectations, standards, outcomes (ESOCs) | |
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| Measure interim class progress against ESOCs | |
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| Leave video or audio commentary when grading | |
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| Formative assessment support | |
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| Override calculated grades, professional judgment | |
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| Built in subjective performance indicators | |
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| Import into gradebook | |
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| Capture learning evidence, incl. audio & video | |
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| Dedicated app for collection of classroom evidence | |
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Instructure Canvas |
D2L Brightspace |
PowerSchool Schoology |
Moodle | Google Classroom |
Microsoft Teams |
Seesaw | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reporting | |
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| Tag learning evidence by ESOCs | |
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| Report on rolled up ESOCs | |
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| Tag, categorize & annotate evidence | |
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| Data wall-like drag & drop evidence for analysis | |
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| Share select evidence with students & their parents | |
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| Portfolios | |
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| Student reflections on work in portfolio | |
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| Categorize portfolio entries by folder or tag | |
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| Student-determined visibility of items in ePortfolio | |
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| Export from portfolio in non-proprietary format | |
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| Badges, certifications | |
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| Export from gradebook | |
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| Sync grades with SIS automatically | |
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| Publish official progress reports & report cards | |
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| Formal report card workflow with principals, admins | |
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| Report card worksheets populated by gradebook | |
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| Report card comment banks | |
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| Enforce unique report card comments | |
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| Report card printing on district/school template | |
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| Print report cards from application | |
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| Export report card data for printing elsewhere | |
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| Current and previous report cards securely online | |
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Instructure Canvas |
D2L Brightspace |
PowerSchool Schoology |
Moodle | Google Classroom |
Microsoft Teams |
Seesaw | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group collaboration | |
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| Class-level groups | |
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| School-level groups | |
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| District-wide groups | |
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| Region-wide groups | |
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| Auto-assign users to groups from SIS info | |
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| Mandatory staff moderator(s) | |
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| Multi-level group privileges and permissions | |
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| District-wide study groups spanning schools | |
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| Monitor groups for actioning at risk students | |
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| Special features for teacher PLCs/PD | |
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| Private groups by invitation only | |
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| Files libraries in groups | |
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| Wiki-like knowledge bases in groups | |
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| Group events appear on user calendars | |
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Instructure Canvas |
D2L Brightspace |
PowerSchool Schoology |
Moodle | Google Classroom |
Microsoft Teams |
Seesaw | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timetable & calendar | |
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| Show student & faculty's daily timetables | |
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| Share student timetable with parents | |
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| Show realtime student attendance in timetable | |
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| Indicate where student should be at current time | |
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| Support for esoteric K-12 day & period schedules | |
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| Consolidated calendar of all course events | |
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| Filter calendar by event types and/or courses | |
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| Printable calendar view | |
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| Include sports team & school club calendars | |
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| Export calendar events to other calendars | |
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| Create recurring calendar events | |
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Instructure Canvas |
D2L Brightspace |
PowerSchool Schoology |
Moodle | Google Classroom |
Microsoft Teams |
Seesaw | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parent engagement | |
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| Native support for parents by design | |
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| Parents provisioned without pairing codes | |
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| Teacher and parent 1:1 emailing in platform | |
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| Teachers can easily email some or all parents | |
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| Teachers don't need to know parent email addresses | |
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| Parents don't need to know teacher email address | |
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| Teachers can view as a parent | |
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| Teachers don't manage parent access to records | |
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| Parent self-serve registration | |
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| Parent import from CSVs | |
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| Manage parent authentication via LDAP | |
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| Manage parent authentication via AD/Azure AD | |
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| Sync parent accounts with SIS | |
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| Parents don't need email address for accounts | |
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| Parent sees children's academic progress | |
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| Show overdue assignments to parents | |
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| Parent visibility into classes if allowed by teacher | |
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| Parent can comment with voice/video in portfolio | |
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| Content translated to language of parents' device | |
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| Participation in groups as allowed by staff | |
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| All children visible from single parent account | |
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| Permission forms | |
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| Parents can report planned absences | |
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| Parent digest emails and/or instant notifications | |
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Instructure Canvas |
D2L Brightspace |
PowerSchool Schoology |
Moodle | Google Classroom |
Microsoft Teams |
Seesaw | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Registrations & workflows | |
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| School registrations (e.g. kindergarten, IB) | |
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| Parent-teacher interview booking | |
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| Electronic field trip approvals | |
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| Credit recovery | |
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| Community service hour tracking | |
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| Substitute teacher & duty management | |
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| Open-ended workflow capability | |
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Instructure Canvas |
D2L Brightspace |
PowerSchool Schoology |
Moodle | Google Classroom |
Microsoft Teams |
Seesaw | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| News distribution | |
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| Class-level announcements | |
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| School-level news |  |
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| District-level news | |
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| Region-level news | |
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| User news determined by orgs & role | |
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| Staff or students can suggest items | |
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| Administrators with privs can approve | |
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| News items can be viewable before login | |
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Instructure Canvas |
D2L Brightspace |
PowerSchool Schoology |
Moodle | Google Classroom |
Microsoft Teams |
Seesaw | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Analytics | |
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| System usage reports | |
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| Learner analytics, i.e. grades, attendance, behavior | |
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| Teacher realtime visuaizations of their students' data | |
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| Principal realtime analytics of their school | |
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| Principal full view of student when a parent calls | |
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| Data visualization integrated, i.e. same product | |
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| Incorporate all historical academic information | |
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| Accept non-LMS data, e.g. standardized test scores | |
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| Regional staff realtime analytics of their region | |
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| See room, resource, teacher utilization | |
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| Learning Record Store (LRS) | |
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Instructure Canvas |
D2L Brightspace |
PowerSchool Schoology |
Moodle | Google Classroom |
Microsoft Teams |
Seesaw | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Universal integration | |
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| Large number of SIS integrations | |
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| Direct SIS integrations | |
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| AD, Azure AD, LDAP user authentication | |
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| Support for flexible user IDs, incl. non-email addresses | |
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| Single Sign On capability (incl. O365, Google, Clever) | |
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| Robust set of fields pulled/pushed to SIS | |
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| Integration with HR systems for staff rostering | |
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| Integration with payment processing | |
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Instructure Canvas |
D2L Brightspace |
PowerSchool Schoology |
Moodle | Google Classroom |
Microsoft Teams |
Seesaw | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data consolidation | |
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| Connect to n heterogenous SISes | |
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| Normalize data from multiple sources | |
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Instructure Canvas |
D2L Brightspace |
PowerSchool Schoology |
Moodle | Google Classroom |
Microsoft Teams |
Seesaw | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other architectural | |
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| Mobile app capabilities & user popularity | |
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| All functionality on platform-independent browser | |
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| Accessibility support (Section 508, WCAG, JAWS) | |
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| Customize with regional terms, hide features | |
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| Customize to regional personal information policies | |
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| International language support | |
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| Configurable roles-based permissions across product | |
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| Ability to launch other non-integrated applications | |
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| Impersonate any specific user & see system as them | |
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| Guaranteed data residency in customer locale | |
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| Themable | |
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| White label-able | |
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| Own API | |
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| Sandbox available | |
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| Data privacy policies (Common Sense® evaluation) | |
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| Logging of all system activity enabling forensics | |
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| Year-end rollover and archiving | |
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| Restore selected information from archive | |
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Instructure Canvas |
D2L Brightspace |
PowerSchool Schoology |
Moodle | Google Classroom |
Microsoft Teams |
Seesaw | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extended product elements | |
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| Ease of use, positive user experience | |
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| Quick to learn | |
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| Vendor willing & able to partner with customers | |
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| Onboarding services | |
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| Migration services | |
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| Training services | |
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| Training materials | |
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| Customization services | |
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| Support from vendor (e.g. 24/7, forums, email) | |
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| Help files, videos and online user community | |
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| Security controls protecting private info | |
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| ISO 27001 certification of data practices | |
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| Known, trusted brand | |
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Comparison analysis last refreshed December 17-23rd, 2021. Sources included then-current publicly available vendor websites, product documentation, support knowledge bases, vendors’ user community discussion boards and customer-generated videos and documentation illustrating products’ capabilities and preferences for use in their schools or districts. Customer commentary was also reviewed on public enterprise software review sites such as G2, Capterra, Software Advice, SourceForge and Gartner Peer Insights.
While many criteria might suggest only a binary yes or no, subjective ratings of 0-4 were used throughout this analysis to convey nuances such as, but not limited to, a capability not being available across all user platforms, dependency on a third party product, requiring end-teacher set up, or having been added only recently via acquisition.
Contact Edsby for an even more detailed version of the above analysis