Thursday, June 6, 2019

Wizer Me vs Google Classroom

Towards the end of the year, I started using Wizer Me to make digital worksheets for students. I work in a district that is 1:1 and had been previously been using Google Classroom and Google Docs to assign similar types of assignments. I think next year I will use a mix of both, as they each have their strengths and weaknesses. Here's what I've found out so far :)



Wizer Me vs Google Docs

Wizer Me: Pros
  • Gives instant feedback to students for most question types
  • Has a variety of question types (matching, sorting, tables, multiple choice, etc)
  • Allows me to add videos into the worksheet
  • Easy to see how well students did - I can see a list of names and their scores on the worksheet, then go into individual worksheets and see a specific student's work if necessary.
  • There are questions that allow for more variation than just right/wrong - they have short answer questions and drawing questions! The drawing questions especially can be fun :) (Keep in mind, for these questions, students do not receive points until you manually go in and score it.)
  • You can leave feedback on each individual activity.
  • Looks great! They are visually very appealing.
  • There's a Wizer Me community, so you can easily share your worksheets with other teachers AND find ones that others are using!
Google Classroom: Pros
  • I can easily see who did/did not turn in the assignment
  • I get notifications via email when students turn in assignments late
  • Students can view their work, missing work, and deadlines easily and in one place
  • You can view student work even if they don't turn it in
  • I'm already using Google Classroom and the students are as well for all of their other classes - it's familiar, it's expected. Adding outside things (like Wizer Me) makes it harder for both me and students to keep track of.















Wizer Me: Cons
  • Although it looks pretty, it's not always easy to find the worksheets I want. Lots of scrolling, lots of clicking. From my limited experience, the student side is even worse, with just a list of all their assigned worksheets with no real way to organize them.
  • Connecting to your Google Classroom requires a paid account (along with other features).
  • Some of the question items are difficult to figure out how to incorporate. Tables, for example - I tried to find examples of this in their online tutorials but never could figure out how it was supposed to be used. Since then, I've tried it out and played around with it and found a way to make it work for me. To see an example, click here - the first exercise uses a table.
  • I have to manually go in and check for student responses... no big deal if students complete their work on time, but checking for late submissions can be tedious.
  • If you don't have a paid account, your worksheets are automatically made public to everyone once you assign them to teachers. Keep track of your copyrights!
Google Classroom: Cons
  • I have to load each student's assignment individually to see how they did. It's either that or assume they did the work because they turned it in.
  • No automatic feedback - to give students answer keys, I leave notes in the comments... But I find students don't go back to actually look at the comments.
  • Very limiting in the types of questions/activities. It has to be something students can type answers to, and often requires me formatting it in a way that makes it a.) easy for students to type their answers (i.e. lots of tables where on a traditional worksheet I could put a __________) and b.) obvious when students have put in an answer (so again, using tables or already setting the font to be bold, italics, a different color, etc.)
  • If I notice a typo/mistake in a file but have already posted the file to the class, too late - even if I fix the file, students will automatically have the old version unless I take the file down and attach it again. 
  • If you assign a PDF, prepare for the struggle of "It won't let me edit it" and "How do I attach a Kami file" etc.







Please do not look at this table and assume because the Wizer Me side is longer that I automatically like/dislike it more! As I said, both have their uses - it's just that since Wizer Me is newer to me and might be less familiar to readers, I have longer explanations. 

If you're on Wizer Me or are thinking about it, feel free to take a look through my worksheets. Not everything I've made is there (they will be... but it's hard to post things to your profile if haven't assigned it to students yet), but it can give you an idea of how I'm using it and what worksheets look like when they're completed.

If you use Wizer Me, how have you incorporated it into your classroom? What do your students think of it. If you haven't, do you think it's something you would consider doing?

- Frau Leonard

6 comments:

  1. Hi, I'm new to Wizer and I am wondering why when I assign a worksheet through Google Classroom, it shows up as UNGRADED. Google Classroom won't let me change it to a graded assignment or will it automatically import a grade when I grade it in Wizer Me? Thanks in advance!

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    1. There's some automatic connectivity there between Wizer Me and Google Classroom where it will automatically set up assignments like that and it does seem to import grades after students hit submit. If you make any changes to the point value in the Google Classroom assignment, then the grades get all wacky... (My Wizer Me's might grade for 24 or more points, but the assignment only goes in the gradebook as 5 points. Changing that value in the Google Classroom to match your gradebook will result in you getting scores of 1.52/5 and other nonsense.)

      What I've recently been doing to avoid this nonsense:
      1.) I use Wizer Me to assign the activity to students.
      2.) I copy the link it generates in Google Classroom and then delete that Google Classroom post.
      3.) I create a new post, include the link to the Wizer Me activity, and can enter grades however I want to that Google Classroom post.

      I will say that this does remove the automatic notifications I would otherwise get for late work when students complete the assignment after the deadline. I just ask that students post a comment or email me if they do it late so I know to check.

      (Also apologies for the delayed response - I get a lot of spam comments and had notifications turned off.)

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  2. Dear Frau Leonard

    Thank you for posting this review. I have started working with Wizer and despite all its advantages, I am finding it a bit orthopaedic - as you said, a lock of clicking and moving between pages. My students seeem to like it, though, so I would like to give it a second chance.

    I was reading your review and came across this paragraph you wrote above: `Easy to see how well students did - I can see a list of names and their scores on the worksheet, then go into individual worksheets and see a specific student's work if necessary.´. I don´t seem to be able to go into their individual worksheets. How do you manage to do so? (In case you wonder, I am not into the paid subscription. Also I have been providing my student with a link for them to access they page so they have not been assigned into a clasroom - I wonder if that make a difference).

    Many thanks

    Lia (EFL teacher)

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    Replies
    1. Lia,

      Thanks for the comment :)

      I do have a paid subscription but I don't think that should change your ability to access individual student scores. I did NOT use a paid subscription last school year (at the time I first wrote this review), so unless they've changed things since then, it's all sitting there in digital form.

      Click on the worksheet you're using with students and have assigned to them. Up top there should be an "Answers" tab (my tabs read: Dashboard | Create & Edit | Review | Assign to learners | Answers).
      Once you click on "Answers" you will be able to access all versions of the assignment you've given to students (so long as you haven't archived them). If nothing comes up initially, below those tabs you just looked through you should see something that says "Choose Assignment" and then a drop down menu. If you click next to that, you should see all of the versions of that worksheet you've assigned (for me, I get one per Google Classroom I've posted it to and a default random code like HS3L4S for the one I"m currently looking at).
      That SHOULD load a list of responses. On the left hand side you'll see all students who have started the activity ("working..." indicates they've opened the file but not submitted it yet - it could be in any state of completion). Students who have completed it will have a score listed and a circle. The circle can be a variety of colors depending on some other settings, but for right now that score is really the important part.
      If you don't have these things or can't find them, let me know and I'd be happy to do a Google Meet with you or send you some screenshots to demonstrate :)

      (My students tend to enjoy them too despite my own personal annoyances with elements of them - they get the fun parts like drawing and word searches and the instant gratification of a score... I get the slow load times, the strange errors, and the constant clicking and searching.)

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  3. Many thanks, Ashley. It worked! I went to the worksheet I had assigned and clicked on Answers at the top. Then I also discovered that by clicking on the three small dots on the right corner, it also enabled me to see their scores. Many many thanks!
    I have to work out now how to use the cloze option. At the moment I am filling the gaps using a multiple choice system, but would like to find out if this is best.

    As you said the student enjoy Wizer more than we do. The colourful format is quite attractive!

    Many thanks again!

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    Replies
    1. Yaay! I'm glad it's working for you :)

      For Cloze Activities I tend to use the "Blanks" activity option. You can put sentences or texts, pick out words that you want students to fill in, and then either give them a word bank (drop down style OR a list but they have to type in the words) or not. You can see it in action here for the chorus of a music video: https://app.wizer.me/preview/6DC0BG

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