Pointerpro vs. Renaissance Accelerated Reader

I found the platform to be very suitable for assessment/survey products. Nevertheless, the offer is limited to some markets and may not work well for countries that have different languages, especially Asian countries. I have yet to test this out myself, but fingers crossed. I hope it works. It would be nice if the company could advise exactly which country the platform is working in.

Incentivized

I have found Renaissance Accelerated Reader to be well-suited for elementary readers. I don't have experience using it with high school students; however, I know that for our elementary readers, there are no shortages of tests available. Our students can read trade books, articles within the program, or even stories from our textbooks and take tests on them

• Intuitive branching logic mechanics. Survey Anyplace offers a nicely pipeline/process map format to visually see the branching logic for more robust question sets.
• Reliable results. Survey Anyplace offers important tracking data to evaluate and hold respondents accountable to completing the surveys.
• Users can save progress and come back. This allows busy respondents time to think about deeper questions, specifically when the surveys are being used in an interviewing approach.

Incentivized

• If used correctly, Accelerated Reader helps students grow with their reading comprehension and vocabulary skills. I advise teachers to have one on one conversations with students when setting goals (allow students to have input) so that the students are given more responsibility to achieve their own goals.
• Renaissance's online chat/customer service is outstanding. They can usually answer my questions and do so in an understandable manner. They seem to be willing to help and will follow through if necessary.
• There are many reports that Accelerated Reader administrators can use to help decipher the data created from their students taking Accelerated Reader quizzes.

Incentivized

• Creating something highly customized at the ReportR level means you will need to have some savvy with CSS if you want to do it yourself. But it also means you can create something truly incredible and they do not have the same limitations as other similar software.

• Creating Spanish reports similar to the ones accessed in English.
• Simplifying the way books students can find an AR quiz. It does not find books if students are missing a "question mark" or "exclamation mark".
• Deleting a quiz when a student enters the wrong book title and begins a quiz. It has been difficult to remove a quiz and the quiz appears even after the monitor password has been entered.

[Renaissance] Accelerated Reader is a great way to track student progress, motivate students to read, and measure their comprehension. Accelerated reader gives both teachers and students immediate feedback. There are countless options of books for students and can help increase student interest in books and improve students' reading ability.

Incentivized

We found it user friendly and fairly easy to set-up with our current personnel and without having to engage external consultants or to do any specific software development. It helped us implement a new marketing approach in very agile and quick way, which is much appreciated these days since you always have to act rapidly on the market not to loose any opportunities!

Incentivized

I give Renaissance Accelerated Reader a great 10 in usability rating. I give this rating because overall the program is very easy to use and for the most part easy to understand. I am currently in my first year working in the library and with the teachers using the Renaissance Accelerated Reader program so there is still much to learn, but it has been an overall great experience so far. All of the data is easy to read and there is so much information to look over in case anything is missed or not understood. I have so far been very happy with the Renaissance Accelerated Reader program and what it has done for the students.

I have not encountered any problems with availability

Quick loading, no issues.

Incentivized

I wish there was a better live chat feature. Seems like I have to wait 30-60 every time I need to talk to someone. Though once I am able to speak with someone via the chat in my account, they have been very helpful in answering my questions or pointing me in the right direction.

Incentivized

Renaissance Reader has a great support team, and generally, they are quick to respond when needed. The live chat tool is a life-saver when trying to get your problems solved in real-time. They also have a lot of online support articles that ensure that you can get your questions answered without necessarily having to use the live chat during the school day.

Extensive training on Ren Place is necessary. There are a myriad of reports that we need help understanding. I have joined Ren Royals and have learned a lot from that support piece.

Incentivized

We are currently looking into Jotform. Their prices are much more reasonable. They offer 10,000 submissions a month for $29. Why can't you guys offer something like that? I would fall in love with Survey Anyplace if the price was $29/month. I would tell everyone to purchase it. You would definitely get more clients if you lowered your prices.

Incentivized

STAR assessments work well with [Renaissance] Accelerated Reader. The STAR assessment can inform students what material they will be able to comprehend and help guide teachers when they are trying to help students find books to read. STAR assessments also help teachers focus on comprehension and vocabulary skills which then lends to help students understand what they are reading and utilize [Renaissance] Accelerated Reader.

Incentivized

Because students can take tests on varying book levels.

• As a publisher, the quizzes provide us with compelling type of "advertising" product to engage our clients' audiences.
• We use the quizzes to direct respondents to thought leadership content for lead gen. The "correct response" feature in the quizzes provide the most interesting sample of our clients' content.

Incentivized

• I have seen a positive impact using AR by allowing us to track independent reading time more effectively.
• We can analyze student data in ways that would be either too time-consuming or too difficult to track on our own.
• Student engagement has increased when students can use their ZPDs to help find books that are in a readable range for them.

Incentivized