Additio

Additio - Teacher grade book has a mobile application that supports the computer-based platform. For this review, we will focus on the mobile application’s features and functions.

Your schedule for Today – If there is nothing scheduled an inspirational quote is displayed. A nice touch to get you motivated! The user can easily toggle between Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow at the bottom of the screen. 

The Menu icon in the top left provides the following options:

Evaluation and Groups – Here the application lists your groups. Clicking on a group will display students and their profile icons/photos. Each student’s information can be seen when clicked on including personal details, identification number, a comments section and so much more. The group, room and subject are displayed at the top along with a number of tailored columns. These could include attendance, grades, comments, exam results, class attendance and more. Adding a column can be accomplished by choosing the ‘+’ icon where the user can add a column based on a number of scenarios such as numeric selector, icons, calculations, rubrics etc. The choices are simply vast!

Teachers can also generate reports for each student by using the ‘Actions’ tab once a student has been selected. These include reports for student information, marks, attendance and notes. Other ‘Actions’ include notes, contact with the student, contact with those who are held responsible for the student such as a parent, guardian or carer and removal of the student from the group. Students can also be added to the group by using the ‘+; icon at the bottom of the student list. The teacher can also use the menu displayed in the bottom right that provides links to Attendance records, Notes, Calendars for scheduled classes and assignments as well as linked resources.  Classes can be added using the ‘+’ icon and edited accordingly including class colour, student photos, scheduling and the importing of student lists using Excel.

Didactic Planning and Projects – This enables the teacher to plan and schedule a new project or unit of work. Further details can be added such as Curriculum goals, Content, Justification, Topics, skills, evaluations and much more. This is a very powerful tool and enables teachers to plan efficiently.

Scheduling and Follow-Up – This feature displays a calendar outline for weeks, sessions and units scheduled. Once again, a Video Tutorial is provided in the top right of the screen. 

Evaluation Tools – The feature provides the teacher with a number of ways to evaluate assignments and student work. This can be done in the format of a rubric, Quiz (web version only), Conditional Values, Skills and criteria. 

Calendar and Resources – Timetabling is by the far the most important information for a teacher. This feature displays a daily timetable of scheduled classes. The Calendar displays a list of upcoming events which can be added to by using the ‘+’ icon. The Notes section will enable the user to make reminders, meeting reports, tasks and daily or weekly events such as briefings, assemblies etc. The Resources section of this feature enables teachers to link recourse to assignments or units that can be accessed by their students. This can be in the form of a Recorded Video, audio, photo or contents of a folder. These resources can be shared with others via email or student selection from a class list.

Help – The Help and Support that the application provides are outstanding. With such a complex, multi-functional application this is truly welcomed. There is help for first-time users, managing groups, rubrics and so much more. There is also a search feature to speed up assistance for the user.

Settings – The application provides a number of Settings including User Profiles, Synchronisation, Language settings (8 provided), Student profiles, calendar settings, holiday management, subscription management and more. 

Synchronisation – Data, student pictures and resources can be synchronised. The app enables the user to synchronize the data with a tablet and smartphone via the web-based platform whenever an internet connection is available. There is also an app available specifically for Chromebooks.

Is the Additio - Teacher grade book app easy to use?

Additio - Teacher grade book is a versatile application with menu systems and features that are very easy to navigate. The application has a clean look to the interface and the graphics are excellent, at no point does the screen look cluttered. The fonts, graphics and scrolling screens make the application a pleasure to use. The mobile application is a perfect companion to the web-based dashboard and is ideal for those who would use the app on a mobile or tablet device, syncing between the platforms. As with all educational applications used for classroom management, the initial setup can be quite time-consuming but once the classes and students are added to the app then the features really come to life. We are very impressed with the number of options the application has to offer through all its features and the user tutorials were super helpful.

How will parents benefit?

Whilst this application is not specifically aimed at parents the app does allow feedback through the use of grade tracking, attendance and reports. This information is ideal for those parents who wish to monitor the progress of their children. The use of parental notifications provides a fast communication service between schools, teachers and parents. Additio also provides a voice for students to share unique moments with parents enabling everyone to people involved in their learning journey.

How will teachers benefit?

Additio provides a centralised school and classroom daily management system in a simple and practical way. The application can be used in its simplest of formats such as simple grading and attendance or the teacher can indulge the application's most in-depth features utilising reports, grading statistics, student profiling and parental communication. This application is a wonderful piece of software that any teachers would find incredibly useful on a day-to-day basis whether they are a Classroom Teacher, Head of a Department or Academic Leader.

What we love about the Additio - Teacher grade book app

This application delivers on many levels and we particularly enjoyed the following: 

• We love the inspirational quotes that are displayed on the home dashboard.
• The Personal Tutorials that are found in the top right of each section are very useful for first-time users.
• The ability to record an audio or video resource with the application is an excellent feature.
• The support and help provided by the developers for the application are truly outstanding.
• The price point plans are excellent value for money.
• The mobile application works seamlessly overall device and syncs very well with the web-based version.
• We like the fact that the app monitors student lateness/effort (tardiness) as well as attendance.

How much does the Additio - Teacher grade book app cost?

Additio have two plans - Additio Starter and Additio for Teachers. Additio Starter is a free plan with limited features. 

Additio for Teachers allows you to use all the individual functionalities in the web version, and three mobile devices (tablets or smartphones apps on Apple or Android devices), this has an annual cost.

Additio for Schools provides an academic management platform, a communication platform and global reports. It has accounts for teachers, administrators, students and families, this also has an annual cost.

Is Additio - Teacher grade book safe to use?

Yes, the application is safe to use. Accordingly to its website Additio have adopted internal policies and implemented the appropriate measures to meet the highest quality standards under Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and Council, dated 27 April 2016, (GDPR), relating to the protection of physical individuals concerning the processing and free movement of personal data and Organic law 3/2018, December 5, of personal data protection and the guarantee of digital rights (LOPDGDD).

What the Additio - Teacher grade book app could improve on

• Teachers may need to be aware that if students’ photos are used within profile pictures they may breach data protection. 
• The developers might also want to consider a section for Special Needs, Medical Needs etc in the student profiles.
• It goes without saying that the application has a vast amount of functions and options. However, simplicity is sometimes better. We did find that some of the options were just too detailed, confusing and irrelevant in places for a classroom teacher.
• The developers could provide a ‘Search’ feature within the calendar to help locate a particular class, assignment or scheduled event.
• The developers may need to adapt the application for the different educational systems around the world.

Overall Rating of the application

Additio - Teacher grade book is an excellent application which provides a flexible school platform providing a centralised school and classroom daily management system in a simple and practical way. There are a number of classroom management applications available and this is by far one of the best. What makes Additio stand out from its rivals is its customisation and endless functionality. The application Additio - Teacher grade book comes highly recommended by The Educational Appstore.