Experiences with and feedback about SharpSchool?
Hi, all. Does anyone out there have experience with a Web content-management system from SharpSchool (http://www.sharpschool.com)? We have been evaluating CMS solutions since the end of summer and SharpSchool has emerged as a strong contender due to extremely competitive pricing and what appears to be a strong feature set.
I would love to hear from anyone who has had actual experience with this company and their product(s). (I'd also be curious to know how SharpSchool compares to SchoolCenter if you've had experience with both.)
We are considering using SharpSchool to replace our current district and school Websites (17 in all) and for student-safe email. Our basic goals are to raise Web content throughout the district to a uniform standard, make content more accessible for information seekers, and to democratize the ability of faculty and staff to create and maintain Web content.
For years now, Web development within the district has been done using FrontPage and Dreamweaver, which is far more tool than the average teacher or staff member needs, wants, or should have to contend with. Yes, we have considered free and open-source solutions, but it has been determined that we do not currently possess the in-house manpower and expertise to successfully implement and maintain them.
Thank you in advance for your input!
Regards,
Brad
I would love to hear from anyone who has had actual experience with this company and their product(s). (I'd also be curious to know how SharpSchool compares to SchoolCenter if you've had experience with both.)
We are considering using SharpSchool to replace our current district and school Websites (17 in all) and for student-safe email. Our basic goals are to raise Web content throughout the district to a uniform standard, make content more accessible for information seekers, and to democratize the ability of faculty and staff to create and maintain Web content.
For years now, Web development within the district has been done using FrontPage and Dreamweaver, which is far more tool than the average teacher or staff member needs, wants, or should have to contend with. Yes, we have considered free and open-source solutions, but it has been determined that we do not currently possess the in-house manpower and expertise to successfully implement and maintain them.
Thank you in advance for your input!
Regards,
Brad
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Cathy Nelson on
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Brad, Horry County Schools (Myrtle Beach, SC) is using the system, tho it's too early to assess my feelings. Change is always difficult no matter what the context. But there is one feature I like. If i run into a problem i can CHAT with support for help, and they have been NICE and have not treated me like an idiot. I have had brain teasers for them that they had to resolve on their own and gotten back to me, and I've had issues they helped me correct right away. So the support (so far) has been rock solid. My school is dabbling in the use of blogs and webpages so far, but we JUST got released to issue our students their email accounts so we could logistically explore more. I am anxious to see what others have to say. My school is at cm.horrycountyschools.net
It's still too early to say yay or nay. Of course Sharpschools have pointed us to only examples of successful implementations. Would I expect anything different?
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Permalink Reply by Michelle Nebel on
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What are your current feelings about SharpSchool?
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Permalink Reply by Brad Kamradt on
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I'd be curious to know how things are going for you with SharpSchooll as well. As for my district, we finally went through a formal RFP process in December and selected a product called Schoolwires, which we are currently implementing. SharpSchool, for what it's worth, had the second-strongest response to the RFP and were very willing and eager to address some functionality issues and quirks that emerged during hands-on testing. Overall, I still like them quite a bit -- in theory -- even though they ended up not being our solution of choice.
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Permalink Reply by Deb on
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Hi Brad,
Sorry for not answering sooner. We ended up with SharpSchool and as you said "in theory" it looked great and the price (especially with erate funding) was also very competitive. At the moment, it is not so great. It lags terribly, it is often non-functional, and they have buttons that just don't work. When asked, they act surprised like I'm the first person who ever questioned if this button works and their answer is "well, not exactly - it's a work in progress." What a stupid answer. My teachers are ready to hang me. They promise that they are updating and things will be better by Thanksgiving. I hope so because right now, I'm pretty disgusted with them. How is your school making out with SchoolWires?
Deb
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Permalink Reply by Diane Carlson on
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We have moved from eChalk to Sharpschool and are in discussions with Sharpschool about lag times and items not working as advertised. They actually said no one else was having those problems. I told them that was just not true, that I had read comments on a forum from someone in another district who was having what sounded like exactly the same issues. They, of course, wanted to know what district. May I quote you to them?
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Yes, you may quote me. They have promised to fix our lagging issues by Thanksgiving so I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I find it discouraging that they would tell you that no one else is having this problem. Doesn't sound very ethical.
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Hi Cathy,
I noticed that SharpSchool using Horry County Schools as their model. I'm wondering if your district is still pleased with them or if you've noticed a change in functionality over the past few months.
Deb
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Deb I've left the district, but my friends seem to be still pleased with it. They are loving the eclassroom part of it. Not sure they are using it to its fullest potential though.
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Thanks Cathy. I'm wondering if your old district also purchased the email component for students.
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Permalink Reply by Walter Fox on
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Brad, I cannot state this more strongly. do not select SharpSchool! The product looks fine during the RFP process and is much cheaper than any other product. But, you get what you pay for! We have experienced slow loading of pages, stalling, timing out, losing data during input, etc. Customer service is terrible. They first blamed our firewall. Then our filter. They don't know and can't figure out the problem. They're just guessing and blaming us.
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I definitely want to second Walter's response. SharpSchool is some of the worst software I have ever used. Our school district (Richland One in Columbia, SC) switched from e-Chalk to SharpSchool for SY '09-'10 and as a result, teacher compliance with use of and updating class webpages has fallen dramatically. E-chalk was fast and functional and teachers teachers used it effectively. SharpSchool is extremely slow, and frequently "hangs". It is also extremely awkward to add content. It takes many more keystrokes than most programs to add a simple link to one's class page. I found myself getting more and more behind on updating my calendar and class webpage because I couldn't stand to use SharpSchool. It's cheaper all right, but it's not worth it.
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