Top Hat Reviews

- Very easy to sign up using the code for a particular class/workshop/lecture

- Basic allows for free use with vast features to allow for student participation

- Top hat allows participants to track the quality of their work, and how it gets better or worse with every class- making students more responsible

- Nothing for now really, the website as well as mobile app work seamlessly well.

- The only thing I would say is that at times, refreshing is slow and so it takes time for the screen to catch up with live information

- It lets me provide my students with quiz questions between classes to test their knowledge of class content. Helps me get an insight into their performances, weak spots and areas of improvements

- Also allows me to track participation for allocating participation points at the end of the term

This software allowed me to connect with other students and allowed for immediate knowledge check. It was real time and easy to use. The app is accessible through mulitiple devices and worked great as an app on my Android phone and through my web browser on my tablet.

Kindle didn't have the app in their app store so I had to access it through my browser but it worked fine that way. It was just frustrating not to access an app.

This allows for great training and classroom management and allows for questions to be asked within a large group without disrupting class ot having to try to physically gain the attention of the instructor.

I liked being able to answer questions in my college courses from the tap of my phone and was able to go back through the questions to review before tests. It was also nice being able to check- in for attendance through this application.

There is nothing in particular that I disliked, besides the occasional glitches that the application would have.

Use it !

It is very helpful with classroom settings and I feel that it could be integrated in businesses as well to ask questions and get opinions.

I LOVE the fact that you can customize and more affordable and interactive textbook for the classes you are taking. We all know that textbook prices aren't cheap and can definitely add up so it's really awesome that Top Hat offers the ability to actually afford a textbook that you can CUSTOMIZE to your needs,. Also from what I've heard from one of my professors is that it is easy to create Homework assignments through Top Hat as well.

I dislike that fact that I don't use it as often because I am no longer a teachers aid at my school, I did not use it often but when I did utilize Top Hat it didn't give me much to dislike.

I say go for it ! Try something new especially if you are lost in your career choice as a teacher or need some guidance as a student.

If you are looking to teach in any method, grade, or maybe want some practice as to how it works from a background standpoint then Top Hat is awesome. I feel like it'll benefit tons of new teachers who are just getting a grip on their teaching style as well as students who are trying to save money or need resources on how to excel in school.

Students only need an access code and can later view slides/questions for class discussion. Also serves self-directed learning well, as instructors may create interactive readings with video links and self-asessment questions.

It would ideal to be able to distinguish between small group/team and individual responses to in-class questions. This is not a criticism, but I recommend that this be implemented more widely in higher education.

Highly recommended for pre- and in-class activities/assignments.

Satusfies need for active learning modules. Self-directed learning, interactive learning, quizzing.

Great user interface with impressive professor-student interaction.

It might be on the pricier side especially when a student needs it only for a semester as not all classes seem to use tophat.

Great for students. One of the best learning apps for classes. It's great to answer questions that the professor has asked that are visible to all. There are tons of great features that make classroom activity so efficient and convenient like taking attendance, question polls etc. You can also review lecture materials that the professor can upload. It might be on the pricier side especially when a student needs it only for a semester as not all classes seem to use tophat.

It's great to answer questions that the professor has asked that are visible to all. There are tons of great features that make classroom activity so efficient and convenient like taking attendance, question polls etc. You can also review lecture materials that the professor can upload.

I love how as a new user, it's so easy to navigate. I downloaded it, and have been using it for over 2 years to gain student understanding of topics and test their knowledge through quizzes. Its also one of my favorite platforms for peer reviews, as it then integrates with Canvas and helps me grade students accordingly.

I think the only thing of concern for me rather than dislike is that it's slightly costly, especially in comparison to competition like clicker.

Making virtual classes more engaging and interactive that helps enhance overall class learning.

As a student, I found it helpful that you could return at a later time and access course materials like PowerPoints, Review questions and videos. All the information was in one one location.

Like any software there were glitches and we had to resort back to the old fashion PowerPoint. And then it took 10 minutes for rhe videos to load online.

Top Hat was easy to use and affordable compared to having to purchase a textbook that would just sit on a shelf.

Top Hat is easy to use, very user friendly. It has a convenient dashboard and is accessible as phone apps.

It’s pretty much always up. We’ve only had one downtime, scheduled or unscheduled. Mostly self-supporting, but if not, tech Support is accessible. Web accessibility seems like a priority and developers are responsive.

Always changing/developing/updating, which is good, but not very helpful to me as a member of the support team for our institution. Makes it difficult to keep up with training/self-help materials and tracking known issues/bugs. For Top Hat itself to keep up, too, since their published documentation is sometimes behind. Also, TH hasn’t been great about publishing organized and standardized release notes, though they started out with no notes published at all, so they’ve made progress. It’s like the original staff/management didn’t realize that clients would want that information available to them; but they’re catching on.

Top Hat is the institution’s centrally supported audience response system, so it’s mainly intended to be a tool to enhance student engagement, which increases students’ academic performance, and both of these metrics are factors in student retention (necessary to keep me in a job). Top Hat also offers an attendance tool, which was sorely needed, as we just had a swipe card system before and it’s only available in a few of the larger lecture halls on campus (no longer the primary vehicle of instruction, so we weren’t able to serve the majority of constituent classes/faculty). Another industry issue is the cost of instructional materials (especially textbooks), which is again related to retention. Top Hat is building a digital content library and has worked very closely with some of our faculty to develop and publish digital course materials that meet the instructional standards and fit the curriculum while offering a lower cost solution to students. This has been a big issue at our institution for several years now and the programs willing to invest the time and subject matter expertise in developing new materials/etexts are definitely benefiting from the collaboration with Top Hat.

The mobile phone option makes it easy to stay engaged while using your laptop for lecture and other parts of the class, especially in a remote setting.

I think there could be some improvements on allowable graphics. Sometimes it was hard to read a chart that you needed to answer a quick question on.

Top Hat was a great tool that I used while attending the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Business. I took a remote class and this helped to keep the class engaged and keep the lecture flowing. There is a mobile version as well as a desktop version.

Staying more engaged with class lectures, which can be more challenging in a remote setting.