Unique Learning System vs. Zoom Workplace

Unique Learning System is extremely good at covering math and reading, language arts components and providing differentiated materials and lessons for all types of learners. However, at times there is a lack of the same sort of lessons for very basic concepts of social studies and science that are not being covered in the overall thematic units. For example when teaching a unit on Science and Science experiments a lesson on the basic rules for a laboratory or units of measurement used in science specific activities such as units of temperature or metric and standard lessons would be beneficial during those units.

Integration with other products and the AI summaries have been huge wins for Zoom Workplace in our organization. They have been life changing for our team. Also, being able to make and receive calls from our cell phones rather than have to give out personal cell phone numbers has been wildly successful with our attorneys.

Incentivized

• differentiated reading levels with picture support
• constantly updated articles and materials
• ease of login for students with disabilities
• broad variety of topics
• easily accessible games for students of all cognitive levels

Incentivized

• I love how easy it is to set the focus on the presenter. It is annoying when people don't spotlight themselves as a presenter, so you get to see the whole gallery of attendees in smaller, two-inch windows.
• I like the capability of having break-out rooms. Even though I don't use them very often, it is nice to have them available if the right situation presents itself for smaller group chats.
• The recording quality is better than I have experienced with other products (Microsoft Teams, WebEx, etc.), and the fact that it is already an MP4, so I don't have to convert it for publishing on our intranet is huge to me.

Incentivized

• I would like the print options to be easier to use. I wish I could create a file of the pages I want to print instead of downloading the entire PDF across multiple levels and picking and choosing. My students do not all have digital access due to a variety of reasons and print is a better option for many.
• I would like Unique Learning System to offer shared licensing. We have classrooms of 6 students where there may be 1 teacher, 5 paraprofessionals, 1 BCBA, 1 SLP, 1 OT, etc. It is a group effort to prepare learning materials for the students and deliver the instruction. I would prefer the licensing to be by student instead of by teacher, it takes a village.
• I dislike how complicated materials have become with courses, the library, the units, etc. I wish there was a way it could all be organized a little better. I would also love small graphics to be paired with the materials so I don't need to open everything to find what I am looking for. Such as in the Transition Portfolio section.

Incentivized

• Love notes - allow insertion of table or grid
• Allow admin to turn off DND
• Allow a way to group individual people chats - not channels just individual peeps into groups for ease of finding - like how you can group shared calendars into sections in Outlook

Incentivized

We're sticking with Zoom for the foreseeable future--given its compelling feature set, ease of use, and advanced technology, there's just no other competition to be excited about. Plus it's a Gartner-recognized industry leader, so it's a rather easy choice.

I think the features are fairly easy to use, but not always easy to find. I can see how a new user may become overwhelmed. Once you get used to it, it’s fine. I think there could also be more professional development sessions to help with this.

Incentivized

Zoom is made for the non tech office. It has features that can be made to do what you need to run things on a day to day basis. Immediately we we able to get meetings going with remote employees. The ability to be able to add smartphone connected people was a big plus. Zoom met our needs at the time.

There have been less than a handful of outages during our two years with Zoom, and whenever there was one, an email informing us of the outage went out immediately, and they had the issue resolved shortly thereafter.

Zoom has among the best performance of any video conference platform, as I've mentioned several times. Besides that, their Chat platform works great, and their back end always runs smooth. It's unfortunate that reporting can now only be done by one month at a time, but nonetheless, it only takes a second to run any kind of Zoom report, whether it's an attendee report, Poll results, a user report, a list of meetings from the past month, etc.

The individuals helping have always been great. The response to requests for changes in functionality or reporting less so.

Incentivized

Because I got a response right away, and was assigned one specific individual to work with me from the beginning to the resolution. I had an actual email address and direct contact with this person without having to start over and over every time I contacted Zoom - this singular individual remained attentive and was well informed on the subject matter and quite able to resolve my needs.

Incentivized

If you receive any pushback from higher ups, point to any of the various positive reviews like this one. Or show Zoom's excellent Gartner report, or articles describing Zoom's partnership with Sequoia capital. It's not difficult to show how Zoom is a trustworthy industry leader with best-in-class technology.

I have previously used other visual support software. Some required a subscription through a CD, and it wasn’t very seamless. I like that. The visuals are also used in the lessons, which helps the students generalize those skills and supports their communication efforts. with this consistency, students are able to learn grade level vocabulary, as well as practice every day language in order to achieve and make progress

Incentivized

Zoom Workplace is typically on the more expensive end against other options, but it's the industry leader for a reason. It has the most brand credibility by far, but that doesn't mean it's perfect. There are limitations when it comes to technical performance, customization and video/audio quality. I prefer Slack myself for communication apps, but Zoom Workplace is a good alternative.

Incentivized

The billing and price model is really fair for so many functions that they offer, our remote work requires each of the features that Zoom offers, so accepting payment for a tool like this is the least we can do. I like that billing arrives on time and that they offer opportunities and payment times.

Because the Basic licenses are completely free, and because it's very easy to configure and install Zoom, and because anyone can join Zoom from a link without needing an account, scaling is a Breeze. There are absolutely no roadblocks. My company keeps adding more Zoom Pro license every week since it's so in demand. We were able to convert users from several different platforms onto Zoom with no trouble at all.

Zoom is perfect for our business. We use it to video chat with prospective clients. The name recognition alone gives us credibility and it is very easy to screen share and send content out.

• There has been nearly 100% improvement in data collection for teachers who began implementing Benchmark assessments and Unit Checkpoints. Many teachers don't have the time or capacity to create their own data tracking tools - if it's not provided, it falls through the cracks.
• When content is applicable, Unique Learning System saves on planning time immensely. It is a grab and go resource, but also customizable based on student needs.
• I like how the checkpoints are modeled in a similar fashion to our Florida Alternate Assessment. This helps students practice how to test take throughout the year.

Incentivized

• Zoom, in essence, is how we deliver what we sell. Services delivered over Zoom account for 80% of our annual revenue.
• Zoom saves me approximately 3 hours every week thanks to integrations with other software I use.
• Zoom webinars have fueled my list growth.

Incentivized