G2

Verified User in Education Management

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

10/25/2026

"Flexible Forms That Keep Learner and Instructor Records in Sync"

4/5

What do you like best about Formly?

I love Formly because it lets me build all kinds of intake, registration and feedback forms that tie straight into our learner and instructor records, which takes so much friction out of our continuing education operations. We had a really messy situation with a freelance instructor we work with out of Raleigh earlier this semester that showed me just how unreliable our old form setup was. Back then, I ran separate Google Forms for new instructor onboarding, student course sign-ups and end-of-course feedback, and every submission dumped into its own disconnected spreadsheet. That Raleigh instructor submitted their updated W-9 and availability form for our fall business writing cohort, and I only saw the notification in my personal inbox. I never copied that information over to our shared instructor roster. Our scheduling team went ahead and assigned them a Tuesday evening section, not knowing they’d already noted they could only teach on Thursdays. The instructor reached out upset, we had to rearrange the whole class schedule, notify every enrolled learner, and even field a handful of complaints from students who couldn’t make the new day. That chaos made me hunt for a form tool where submissions feed directly into one shared place, so nobody works from outdated information.

What I value most is how easy it is to add custom fields and conditional logic that match our education workflows. I set up fields for course session codes, enrollment phase, instructor contract expiration, learner feedback tags, prerequisite completion status and tuition payment plan selection. I can build one form that changes questions automatically depending on who’s filling it out. If it’s an instructor applying to teach, it asks for background check dates and rate terms; if it’s a learner registering, it asks for prior course history and accessibility accommodations. After that Raleigh scheduling mistake, I rebuilt all our onboarding and registration forms inside Formly. Whenever an instructor submits updated availability or a learner marks they need closed captioning, that data lands right in the record, and advising, scheduling and finance staff can all see it instantly. No more copying form answers manually into separate spreadsheets and forgetting to pass key details along.

The CSV import and export features are a huge help at the start of every semester. We get updated student rosters and instructor contracts from our admin team, and I can bulk import records into Formly to pre-fill forms for returning learners and instructors. A few weeks ago, I loaded up hundreds of returning student profiles ahead of our autumn tech skills courses, and each pre-built registration form already pulled in their name, email and completed prerequisites. That saved me hours of repetitive work, and it cut down on typos that used to happen when students retyped their own information every single term. The submission timeline also keeps everything organized. Every form entry, edit and follow-up note is attached to the person’s record. If one of our academic advisors covers my desk while I’m out, they can open the form history and quickly see what accommodations a student requested or what contract updates an instructor sent in, without calling or messaging me nonstop.

I also rely on the built-in email alerts to catch high-priority submissions fast. I set separate notifications for accessibility accommodation requests, instructor contract updates and students reporting course issues. Not long ago, a learner sent in a form saying they were struggling with the live class platform and needed extra support. The alert popped up right away, I looped in our instructional tech team, and we hopped on a quick check-in before the next class session. They were able to get sorted out and didn’t drop the course. We’re a mid-sized continuing education academy, and we don’t have a giant, expensive enterprise LMS just for form intake. Formly works perfectly for us because it’s flexible enough to adapt to our unique registration, instructor onboarding and student feedback needs. It hasn’t gotten rid of every manual check, but it eliminates those careless data gaps that can mess up class schedules, leave learner support requests unseen and strain our relationships with our freelance teaching partners. It’s the first thing I pull up each morning to review new form submissions and flag anything that needs immediate attention from our advising or scheduling team. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Formly?

Honestly, Formly has served us well for student registration and instructor intake forms, but there are several frustrating limitations that regularly add extra work to my plate, and I had a really tense situation with that freelance instructor from Raleigh last month that drove this point home. I was bulk updating instructor availability and contract status using a CSV upload ahead of our spring semester schedule lock. I lined up all my column headers, double‑checked every custom field for teaching days, rate tiers and contract expiry, and uploaded the file. Most records updated cleanly, but a few rows were overwritten with blank values. That Raleigh instructor’s available time slots got wiped completely. Our scheduling team didn’t catch the error and assigned them two Monday evening sessions, which they’d explicitly told us months ago they could never cover. The instructor was frustrated, said we weren’t respecting their boundaries, and nearly turned down all our spring courses. We had to scramble to rework the timetable, email every enrolled learner to adjust their class day, and spend a lot of time apologizing to make it right. Now I always save a full backup file and test with just two or three entries first before touching the full instructor roster, which adds a good chunk of prep time every semester.

The reporting side is pretty underdeveloped for our education operations needs. My manager asked me to pull a consolidated report showing all form submissions grouped by course code, enrollment phase, accommodation requests, and instructor contract renewal status. Formly’s filter system can’t stack all those conditions together in one single view. I had to export registration forms, instructor onboarding submissions and feedback responses as three separate files, then cross‑reference student IDs and instructor names manually in a spreadsheet. It ate up most of my afternoon, and it’s easy to mix up session codes or feedback tags when I’m juggling hundreds of entries. I wish we could save custom report templates tailored for our semester planning cycle, instead of rebuilding the whole thing from scratch every time we need to share operational data with the leadership team. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Formly solving and how is that benefiting you?

Formly fixed that gap by letting me build forms that fit our continuing education workflow, instead of forcing us to adapt to basic generic forms. I set up conditional logic and custom fields for course codes, enrollment stage, accessibility accommodation flags, feedback tags, instructor pay rates and contract end dates. We have separate intake paths for new students, returning learners, and freelance instructors. After that Raleigh scheduling mess, I moved all our intake and feedback workflows over to Formly. Now whenever an instructor updates their availability, or a student submits an accommodation request, that entry attaches to their profile right away. Our advising, scheduling, and finance teams can all view that same record. No more making plans based on notes that only one person has seen.

I really rely on the automated alerts tied to each form type. I set up separate triggers for urgent accommodation requests, instructor contract renewals, and student course concern submissions. A few weeks back, a student submitted a form saying they needed closed captioning for their evening coding class. The alert hit me right away, I forwarded the request to our instructional tech team, and they got everything configured before the next session. The student didn’t have to repeat their request multiple times to different staff members, and they stayed enrolled in the program. That would’ve gotten buried in our old setup.

Bulk CSV imports are a huge time saver at the start of each semester. I take our pre-approved student roster and instructor list from our admin database, map all the custom fields, and import them into Formly. Returning students open their registration form with most of their information pre-filled, which cuts down on typos and speeds up sign-ups. The submission history keeps every form response, edit and follow-up note attached to the person’s record. If one of our advisors has to cover my work while I’m in a faculty meeting, they can pull up the full history and understand what’s been requested, without chasing me down for context.

We’re a mid-sized lifelong learning academy, and we don’t have the budget to roll out a massive all-in-one enterprise LMS just for form intake. Formly works for us because it’s flexible enough to handle our unique education operations. It hasn’t eliminated all manual checks entirely, but it stops those avoidable communication gaps that mess up class schedules, frustrate instructors, and leave learners’ support needs ignored. It keeps our intake consistent, our records shared, and makes every semester’s registration and onboarding process far less chaotic for our whole team. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.