Top Hat - Better Learning Reviews

The iPad app is not supported, and will not be updated

econprof99

If you are a professor wanting to use this for presenting slides in class, be aware then virtually none of the features they tell you exist are available reliably on the IPad app. The rep finally admitted they weren’t designed to work with the new OS, and they have no plans to ever make it compatible. The only way you can annotate slides reliably is using a mouse, which they for some reason think is functional. The content they claim is so great is riddled with errors and has serious gaps that render it useless. Another sad tale of a tech company that thought scaling quickly was more important than doing something well.

What is going on?

jay999899998

The app keeps crashing my iPad or it fails to load content. This app is costing me points in my class.

Scam artists

Bernie5432

Whenever I have a professor that uses this app, I switch out of that class. Taking attendance by sign-in still works. No, let’s make students pay out of pocket for an app instead. Even better, let’s throw quiz questions in there, and have them not know if they’re even submitted. The cost to use this app is just not smart, when you can do everything this app does easily without cost.

Buggy

EvenThisNicknameIsTaken314

Always fails to load the questions when I need to actually answer them

Ruined Education

LeHulque

This app has ruined quizzes for our class. Almost universally hated. The professor is teaching his first class ever and does not know how to use the app well but unfortunately we possess such little power as students to change anything. Furthermore, my tests and quizzes used to be free. Now I had to pay $30 for a semester. Not a fan of this at all.

Kinda Creepy

DST_007

The app works great in class and is super efficient at taking attendance and giving quizzes, but the fact that it has to track your location at all times in order to record your attendance seems highly unnecessary and kind of creepy.

Inconsistent- atrocious customer service

gandertaker

The app is poorly designed and makes content impractical to access at best. You can’t download slide shows off the app. Content availability is inconsistent across the different portals (browser vs phone vs tablet). The browser isn’t made to be compatible with safari, completely ignoring the fact that Apple makes up much of the computer market. Customer service is slow and rude. I filed for help over a week and a half ago. The first email response took over two days; the next was quicker, but offered no assistance and completely ignored the information I had given them earlier, instead treating me like I just didn’t understand how to use the app. The third response showed up SEVEN DAYS after I replied to the impotent email “support” in the second email. IF YOU WANT TO BE IN ACADEMIA, BE RELIABLE. Homework due dates are typically less than 10 days out. Don’t sell a service you don’t have the ability to adequately provide.

App closed an open question

IAAdamsApple

Professor opens a question for me to answer and then app claimed it as close even though it showed the timer running. Even after I restarted the app it froze. It’s nice i have to pay for an app that doesn’t even work and causes me to lose points in class.

Sketchy

i_smell_bs

The app itself and its mediocre design and execution is not what bothers me. At the end of the day we all download this app because some professor thought a $30-dollar-per-semester was somehow going to improve our learning. What really bothers me is not knowing why am I forced to always say share my location with this app. Marking attendance with location makes sense, right? Except that the app does no allow you to be marked as present if the app location setting is on “while using the app”. If that wasn’t enough, I got a notification telling me how many times a week this app was using my location; guess what? The little map showed me that it was using it even when I was not in class (and therefore not even using the app). I am already paying for this service and I would like to know what exactly are they doing with my location. Also, toggling the location setting is not a solution; FIX YOUR APP!

Invasion of privacy

kcimythgim

There is no reason this app should require location services to always be on. Either allow secure location to function without always having location services enabled, or do not offer the feature at all.

Top Hat - Better Learning Reviews – Page 6