Hi Team,
I think this platform is great and has wonderful potential, based on my one-on-one sessions and the energy of your team.
I do have some feedback on the user friendliness of the app and website. For teachers, this app has to fit into an already very full job, so every extra step matters.
With user friendliness, less is more, and I think Transparent Classroom can do more to reflect that. It would be most helpful to have related features in one place, so a task can be completed and its history viewed together. For example, I’m building a daily health check form that is completed upon each child’s arrival, and it would make the most sense for it to live in attendance. If customizable forms could be assigned to a specific area, teachers could take attendance, complete the health check, and see each child’s record in one spot, the spot that makes the most sense for their systems. This would also simplify things for admins. Instead of deciding up front which form section to create, we could build a form in one place and choose along the way who it’s for, such as teachers only, and where it lives in our portal. Options would appear at the moment each decision comes up, instead of all at once at the start. Right now, if the wrong option is picked early on, the form has to be redone, because it isn’t clear in advance what each choice will do.
The photo upload inside a child’s profile is another case. It’s a great idea, but it loses much of its value when it doesn’t automatically tag the child whose profile we opened. Completing one task currently means moving through several different features, which makes the platform feel less transparent than its name suggests.
I’d also love to see the app and the website designed for the way each one is used. The app is typically viewed on a phone or tablet, often while moving around a classroom, and the website on a computer, so they benefit from layouts built for those different settings. For example, the app could use large, tap-friendly tiles or widgets for the most common tasks, like an app home screen, instead of the sidebar menu used on traditional websites. That would make it easier and more accessible to use, especially for teachers who are less comfortable with technology. Right now the app is also missing many of the features teachers rely on each day. For instance, we can’t take attendance in the app at all, so teachers have to switch to the website to finish a basic daily task. Having the core daily tasks available in the app would let teachers stay with the children and complete their work in the moment.
The customization options are also valuable, but at a certain point they ask teachers to take on a new job instead of simplifying the ones they already have. My hope is to rely on a tool built around what teachers actually need, one that meets them where they are and takes work off their plate instead of adding to it.
I expect my own comfort with the platform to grow with time. My concern is for the teachers on my staff who are new to using a computer, for whom every extra step or unclear choice is a much bigger hurdle.
During office hours, it was shared that every message here is read, which gives me confidence and hope that our school is investing in a platform that cares. I hope this feedback is valuable to you. Thank you for your time and energy toward making something great!
Sarah Bailey