Top Hat Review

Top Hat is an end-to-end educational software that helps educators and institutions simplify and improve the learning experience, inside and outside the classroom. This platform is made up of integrated tools that allow to create classroom engagement leveraging student devices, creating courses, textbooks and providing online learning materials. Administer assignments, quizzes and tests, instantly measure performance and track their students’ progress – the platform is built with powerful and easy-to-use tools that simplify course preparation and help organize educational resources such as textbooks. There are also tools to automate classroom management processes such as attendance control and test scoring.

TOP HAT – TUTORIAL

The tutorial shows educators how easy it is to organize interactive class meetings and high quality learning experiences online and blended courses:

TOP HAT – FEATURES

• Bring active learning to life in virtual lessons: stream your lessons live to stay in touch with students when you teach online. Flexible streaming options give you the ability to present slides or share your screen. You can also easily host a co-instructor or guest lecturer, or give students the opportunity to present to the entire class
• Get organized before the presentation: check that the audio and video are working before starting the class meeting and get a preview of the background, lighting and how you appear on the screen. Use this time to decide the settings for your virtual class session, check that your students are present and make sure your TAs are registered and set up as moderators
• Capture and share your live lessons: record class meetings complete with student participation so that they do not lose the “in-class” experience. Create original video lessons for asynchronous student learning
• Enhance the self-learning experience: lessons can be recorded even without the presence of students, so that they can view replays in their free time. All recordings of the lessons are made immediately available in the appropriate area of ​​the software
• Connect with and understand students: deliver engaging class presentations incorporated with interactive polls and quizzes. Create a feedback loop and find out where students are successful and struggling
• Engage each student with frequent assessments: create classroom activities that engage students at regular intervals throughout the lesson. Choose from 14 different question types, most of which can be automatically assessed. Get real-time feedback so you can tailor class content for struggling students
• Promote community in your classroom: keep students engaged in class meetings with the live chat feature integrated directly into the virtual lesson experience. Enable students to discuss topics and concepts with their peers, professors, and teaching assistants, and offer discussion questions that can be evaluated
• Empower students to collaborate and participate: hosted in the same browser window as your video stream, live chat allows students to connect with you and their peers during online lessons. Easily moderate chat threads by answering specific questions and muting participants when needed. Additionally, assign discussion questions that encourage critical thinking and provide insight into what students are learning outside of the classroom
• Bring course materials to life: access thousands of high-quality textbooks from countless academic disciplines. Say goodbye to your regular paper textbook or static PDF and adopt engaging, multimedia-rich interactive learning materials. Assessment questions, activities, lecture slides, and more are included with each textbook, and the content is easy to customize to suit your course needs
• Evaluate students’ progress with personalized assignments with automatic assessment: easily customize and assign tasks that reinforce student learning, reducing the time spent on course administration thanks to self-assessment features
• Take safe online tests and exams: ensure the academic integrity of any remote assessment: make sure that the right students are taking your test by verifying their identity before each test or exam. Monitor the activity and get an easy-to-understand supervisor’s report indicating irregular behavior. Keep accessibility first by offering flexible start and end times to specific students
• Support student success with data-driven insights: receive formative assessment data regularly that keeps you focused on student success. Measure understanding and engagement with learning insights so you can reach struggling students or adapt your teaching to fill in the gaps.