ThinkWave Pricing, Features, Reviews & Comparison of Alternatives

Pros
Being able to show my students exactly what they need to do to pull them up to their desired grade is fantastic. Knowing instantly what a student's work has done for them and showing the student is a great motivator. Showing parents who complain about their student's grades is great too, there's no ambiguity, the numbers are there. The weighting and bonus grades allow some flexibility to reward students who make that extra effort.

Cons
The custom grade scale is an absolute nightmare. My board (and indeed education ministry) uses Levels, not letter grades. 1-, 1, 1+ etc. Because Thinkwave takes the average of the gap between the minimum grade needed to achieve a level and the minimum of the next one, to get a fair number takes a lot of math work, which hurts this English teacher's brain. Example. 3+ should be worth about 77.5. In order to get that, I have to make the minimum grade for it 76 and the max 80. When a student fails I don't want to necessarily just give a 0, sometimes 10 or 20% on the major assignment can make a huge difference. If I want to make a grade of 20, I need to create a grade called 20 with a minimum of twenty and then create a blank grade (___) with a grade of 20.000001. Doing this for 10, 20, 30, 40 and 45 is rather obnoxious and takes up a lot of room in the drop down menu. The same goes when you try and make a check grade. If a 0 is entered it actually gives the student a 25 because it's halfway between 0 and the next grade, a 50. Took me a while to figure out that you need to enter the grade as incomplete to get a 0. Missing discounts the grade from the averaging entirely but makes you aware it is missing, and excused does the same. Kinda strange. Be nice if there was some documentation to go with the custom grading so I didn't have to figure this all out via trial and error.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
What I Loved about thinkwave was being able to organize all your assignments, Being able to create more than just ONE class I taught and I am teaching 5 different subjects and I've had a blasted unlike other gradebooks I'm able to show my students exactly were they are at grade wise I am able to show them EXACTLY what had caused them to drop from a 98 to a 65 in just seconds so Think wave can be very helpful to not just students but families as well.

Cons
All in all although thinkwave is great I questioned why it doesn't have its own discipline system because I mean personal experience I don't have time to stop a mini lesson to go through desk drawers and folders just to fill out a discipline referral Form. When if thinkwave were to have it I can A still teach and B it's not as difficult All i have to do is full it out on the grade book it self one last thing I really wish thinkwave allowed teachers to submit grades.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Thinkwave also makes it very easy for us to lay out our 18-week course, which we separate into three six week course effortlessly.

Cons
Students have instant access to how they are doing in class. They have very professional customer service as well. Any questions we had were answered promptly; which was most appreciated.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Thinkwave has been an outstanding addition to our summer program. Never before has communication with students and teacher been more seamless and effortless the with Thinkwave. Thinkwave improved enhanced our educational system in some ways. Such as: Thinkwave made it easy for parents and students to have access to how their kids were doing Students were able to monitor their assignment and grades There is a much smoother level of communication Student information is held for years

Cons
If you are looking for software that will improve your teaching experience and make it more transparent for teachers, students and parents then this is a program worth using.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
streamlined dozens of records and task into one central location keeping track of grades and attendance has never been easier

Cons
Some students can hack their grades.....

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10