“Easy to Use”

Funny how every app claims they’re “easy to use”. But how do you really know? Answer:

A stopwatch.

A great app helps you work more efficiently, while a clunky one takes a few extra seconds each step. What’s the big deal? Teachers do thousands of clicks per week, so thousands of extra seconds makes your work week an extra hour longer!

This video shows screen captures of each learning platform and how much time it takes teachers to do common tasks.




Task 1:  Grading Assignments

25 students turned in writing assignments. Insert 4 comments and enter a grade for each student.

Rank Clicks* Speed
#1   Jupiter 275
#2   Canvas 400
#3   Schoology 550
#4   Google Classroom 579



Task 2:  Create Quiz

Create a new quiz with 10 questions.

Rank Clicks* Speed
#1   Jupiter 16
#2   Canvas 23
#3   Schoology 32
#4   Google Classroom 48



Every Second Counts

Teachers do hundreds of clicks per day, so every extra second adds up:

Fast App 800 clicks/day
Slow App 1500 clicks/day

Difference

700 extra clicks/day

5 Days 3500 extra clicks/week
1 click = 1 second
3500 seconds = 58.3 minutes

Work Week

1 hour extra work



*Methodology

Here’s the fine print on how speed was measured:

We counted each step as a “click”:
count 1 click for double-click
count 2 clicks for menus
count 1 click to type a number
count 2 clicks to type brief text
Each click (step) estimated 1 second.
Time was not counted to read assignments or type test questions, since that depends entirely on you, not the app.
Speed graph = 1 / time
Only required steps were counted, not optional steps.
Any available shortcuts were used.
Although some apps had noticeable server lag times, that was not counted.
Trials were conducted on a laptop computer in Sept. 2020.
Task 1 required inserting 3 common corrections and 1 unique comment.
Task 2 required 6 multiple-choice questions then 4 short-answer questions, 1 point each.
Exclusive Features

While we are comparing, Jupiter has several features that are not included in these other learning platforms.
These are especially popular with math & science teachers and power-users:

Graphing & Drawing — Students can graph and draw answers directly in quizzes.
Math Grading — Automatically accept equal math expressions in quizzes; e.g. it knows “xn-3” and “-3+n(x)” are equal.
Chemistry — Keyboard for chemistry like  2H+ + CO32- → H2O + CO2↑  without needing to format super/subscript.
Text to Speech — Students can hear quizzes read aloud. Also for listening comprehension and learning languages.  Listen
Flexible Text Grading — Automatically grade write-in answers accepting misspellings or lists in any order.
Participation Grading — Automatically grade discussion participation based on custom formulas.
Drop Low Scores — Automatically drop low scores in a category, like the 2 lowest homework scores.
Custom Marks — Customize multiple special marks for missing, excused, etc.
Stickers — Attach giant animated emoji to graded work — something fun for kids.

Plus something that will make your IT staff happy:

Single Database — Jupiter developed all features in-house as a single app with a single database, so no integration required. Other companies acquired apps from other developers, which still requires integration, sometimes causing data synchronization errors between your SIS, learning platform, enrollment, payments, and analytics.
Pricing / Demo