- STORE REVIEWS
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2020-04-12
5/5
One-Stop-Shop LMS
"I teach a hands-on lecture/lab hybrid introductory biology course, which is a pre-med requirement. When our school closed its doors for the semester, I was worried about the quality of education my students would be receiving as a result of our rapid transition to distance learning. We were all forced to scramble and many of us, with no experience teaching distance learning courses had only a few days time to cobble together new curriculums.
I desperately experimented with various Learning Management systems and synchronous platforms (GoogleClassroom, Blackboard and Blackboard Collab. Ultra, Webex) to see which combination could best support/most closely mimic the interactive learning environment in our lab setting and give our students an appropriate and comparable learning experience to what they would get in-person. Specifically, I was looking for *one* platform that could support my constructivist teaching methods asynchronously and synchronously, as many of my students have unstable or limited internet access. This was a seemingly impossible feat, given the inquiry-based, hands-on nature of experimental learning.
Thinkific delivered on all fronts and then some: it is a customizable one-stop-shop LMS that allows for both asynchronous and synchronous (w/ some external workarounds) delivery of course material in the precise sequence I want students to be engaging with the material. It allows me to organize material into "chapters" w/ "lessons" and present content sequentially, with a logical flow, that simulates how students would be thinking about and engaging w/ material during normal real-time class conditions. The beautiful thing about Thinkific is that it allows my students to do so at their own pace (ie, it can "drip") and lets me track their progression. I have been embedding links to my live-classes and reminders to attend at the beginning and end of every chapter, and am able to ask questions asynchronously, by embedding surveys within lessons.
Most importantly, Thinkific's platform promotes a lot of interactivity/engagement with material, as well as excitement about material. I get notifications when and how students are engaging with the material or each other on it (via discussion posts, which I can manage). Thinkific is very organized, highly customizable and can present all course content on mobile. Their mobile platform is UNBELIEVABLE: it is user-friendly and my students who don't have internet at home are able to remote access material readily via their mobile devices.
Thinkific has made distance learning fun for my students, and high-quality remote teaching possible. It granted us all the flexibility we needed during this COVID crisis. I don't feel as though the quality of education is significantly compromised as I felt using even combinations of other platforms. The feedback I have gotten from my students has been overwhelmingly positive, and they remind me constantly of how great the presentation of material is on their Thinkific course. Unfortunately, I am still forced to used another platform for testing: as I do not have a Pro account.
In short, Thinkific has been a godsend."
