Top Hat Reviews & Product Details

As a student, I found it helpful that you could return at a later time and access course materials like PowerPoints, Review questions and videos. All the information was in one one location. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Like any software there were glitches and we had to resort back to the old fashion PowerPoint. And then it took 10 minutes for rhe videos to load online. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It’s pretty much always up. We’ve only had one downtime, scheduled or unscheduled. Mostly self-supporting, but if not, tech Support is accessible. Web accessibility seems like a priority and developers are responsive. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Always changing/developing/updating, which is good, but not very helpful to me as a member of the support team for our institution. Makes it difficult to keep up with training/self-help materials and tracking known issues/bugs. For Top Hat itself to keep up, too, since their published documentation is sometimes behind. Also, TH hasn’t been great about publishing organized and standardized release notes, though they started out with no notes published at all, so they’ve made progress. It’s like the original staff/management didn’t realize that clients would want that information available to them; but they’re catching on. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The mobile phone option makes it easy to stay engaged while using your laptop for lecture and other parts of the class, especially in a remote setting. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I think there could be some improvements on allowable graphics. Sometimes it was hard to read a chart that you needed to answer a quick question on. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like a lot of features of Tophat! The slideshow sharing, and the ability for students to join the course with an access code makes it very easy for them to access the course. All the slideshows can be saved in Assigned material. Grading is very easy through Tophat, and I really like the geo-location feature in marking the attendance. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There is a lot of lag sometimes while trying to access the time constrained attendance marker. I have also had issues with its layout for the web version - that's not very user friendly. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The layout of Top Hat is very straightforward, and really works well in large lecture settings in order to further engage the class and check in with everyone so that they're all on the same page. It's also very simple, which is perfect for making sure students can answer questions quickly within a lecture. In addition, it's a very effective tool for checking attendance when the class or room is too large to fully monitor. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I feel like the mobile site / app integration could be more smooth, and it was frustrating having to log in through the institutional log-in every time rather than being able to log in and stay logged in to the Top Hat site (although that might've been more due to my institution's policies than Top Hat itself) Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

High ease of use for both student and teachers. App integration to classroom activities was seamless. Even the most old-fashioned (technology-aversive) professor in our department is using it. If the student cannot get to the app for some reason, there's also an option to text their response to a 24/7 mobile bot [this is a much under-appreciated feature]. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The only thing I dislike is the overall reliance this app has on a phone. What if a student does not have a mobile device? Arguably, that's uncommon these days. Nevertheless, this reliance excludes some young/pre-college kids as well as low-income students. Another case was shown firsthand when we had a student come tell us his phone's battery died in class. Thus, he couldn't sign in on TopHat for the day and, with the burden of proof on us, we excused him. Naturally, this leads a slippery-slope for any students seeking dishonest excusals in the future. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I LOVE the fact that you can customize and more affordable and interactive textbook for the classes you are taking. We all know that textbook prices aren't cheap and can definitely add up so it's really awesome that Top Hat offers the ability to actually afford a textbook that you can CUSTOMIZE to your needs,. Also from what I've heard from one of my professors is that it is easy to create Homework assignments through Top Hat as well. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I dislike that fact that I don't use it as often because I am no longer a teachers aid at my school, I did not use it often but when I did utilize Top Hat it didn't give me much to dislike. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Great user interface with impressive professor-student interaction. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It might be on the pricier side especially when a student needs it only for a semester as not all classes seem to use tophat. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

This software allowed me to connect with other students and allowed for immediate knowledge check. It was real time and easy to use. The app is accessible through mulitiple devices and worked great as an app on my Android phone and through my web browser on my tablet. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Kindle didn't have the app in their app store so I had to access it through my browser but it worked fine that way. It was just frustrating not to access an app. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Top Hat is a wonderful tool to use in the classroom and for presentations. The Professor/Presenter can present slides live, ask questions both short answer and multiple choice. Top Hot takes attendance accurately and keeps people engaged throughout. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Top Hat can glitch during a presentation, although rare, it can be an issue. Overall, Top Hat is a much better alternative to iClicker. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The remote access to it via smartphone. You can use it to claim attendance away from lecture as well as any other bonus points. You can ditch lecture and just use that as a way of saying you were in class. The professor wont know and you can just sleep after using it. The best reason is because of the versatility. I can use it with my smartphone and internet, meaning I can use it anywhere I want. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The inability to know when a question in being presented. You have to have a friend tell you about the question first or know when the question will be online. IF you dont you can easy miss the question and not answer it on time. I also dislike how professors can track where someone is using it from. If i am using it from home, the professor can track my IP address and not give me credit. If Top Hat can eliminate that function that it will make this software highly popular amongst college students. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

As an instructional designer, I love how Top Hat can bring interactivity to modes that might easily be passive, like lectures. As a tech support professional, I can appreciate how hands-on Top Hat is with their customer support. I like that Top Hat provides a hardware option for students rather than relying solely on smartphones. We have a diverse student population that does not always have the newest technology so the hardware is a reliable feature. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There is not a whole lot to dislike about Top Hat. I guess the hardware options could be better/cheaper. I have not encountered any truly negative aspects to the tool. Support is easy, we get very few help desk tickets for Top Hat support. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Students only need an access code and can later view slides/questions for class discussion. Also serves self-directed learning well, as instructors may create interactive readings with video links and self-asessment questions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It would ideal to be able to distinguish between small group/team and individual responses to in-class questions. This is not a criticism, but I recommend that this be implemented more widely in higher education. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I liked being able to answer questions in my college courses from the tap of my phone and was able to go back through the questions to review before tests. It was also nice being able to check- in for attendance through this application. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There is nothing in particular that I disliked, besides the occasional glitches that the application would have. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We use top hat as an interactive system during class time for Q&A at USC. It is very useful because it speeds up question collection time and the interface is easy to navigate as well. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There is nothing I dislike, the platform has helped our coursework a lot Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

TopHat is a good program for collecting instant feedback from students in a large classroom setting Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Other technology can be used to achieve the same results as Top Hat, including iClickers and software that the university already utilizes, in order to lessen costs for students. Top Hat can be difficult to navigate when large amounts of content are added to a class, so this is not the best platform for providing material for at-home studying and quizzes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

TopHat is fairly easy to use, and it provides real-time assessment capabilities in the classroom. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It can be glitchy sometimes, and students sometimes struggle with the sign-up process. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

This interactive tool allows rapid feedback and promotes improved classroom activities. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I think that the classroom code is a bit of a nuisance. There has to be a better way for stratifying groups. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Whether you are running courses or taking them it offers an easy to use application. Profs tend to spend a lot of time in admin based tasks and Top Hat can help mitigate this and allow educators to focus on teaching and getting good grades for students. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The admin interface although good, could so with more tool tips. I find it helps a lot with homework and assignments. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.