SMART Learning Suite is an online tool built for teaching. The web-based platform helps teachers create and share lessons from nearly any device for use in class or remotely.
The idea is to offer a class not only through a smart screen but also through the devices of each student in the room, or in the case of hybrid learning, at home. Usefully this works with existing systems so lessons that are already created can be used within the SMART Learning Suite easily.
SMART Learning Suite integrates with both Google Drive and Microsoft Teams for easy access, plus it will offer insights so teachers can keep track of student or class progress easily. But with gamification and more, there's plenty to add to the appeal of this teaching platform.
Read on to find out everything you need to know about SMART Learning Suite for teachers and students.
What is SMART Learning Suite?
SMART Learning Suite is a web-based software that allows teachers to share lessons with the class via multiple screens. Since this works both locally and across the internet, it can be used for hybrid learning with students in the classroom and elsewhere.
Teachers can select lessons they've already made and import those or use pre-created resources to make new lessons. The ability to use collaborative workspaces and gamification makes this a very engaging platform.
SMART Learning Suite integrates with Google Drive and Microsoft Teams so the actual importing of lessons is as painless as possible. By creating content that's interactive and can be used on students' devices, it makes teaching digitally very accessible.
A useful dashboard allows teachers to access data analytics from the class. This feedback helps to teach at a pace for all and to determine the depth needed in each subject area.
How does SMART Learning Suite work?
SMART Learning Suite can be accessed online via a browser, so it works across laptops, smartphones, tablets, and Chromebooks. Once signed up and logged in, teachers have access to the SMART Notebook, SMART Lab, SMART Response 2, and SMART Amp.
SMART Notebook lets teachers interact with the lesson from anywhere in the room so they can create activities and also monitor or assess students as needed.
SMART Response 2 is the assessment part of the suite, which allows teachers to create questionnaires with true or false, multiple choice, and short answers, as well as post polls. Images can be added to a test to make it more engaging.
SMART Lab is the game-based part of the system that is superb for engaging learning. Pick a game style, select a theme, such as monsters above, and then customize it by adding your own content before getting it up and running.
SMART Amp is a virtual workspace in which everyone can come together so that students from different groups, classrooms, or those in hybrid learning, can all work together.
What are the best SMART Learning Suite features?
SMART Learning Suite's SMART Amp mentioned above allows teachers to create a collaborative space in which students can work This is particularly useful as it can be monitored by the teacher from anywhere. Progress, or lack of it, can be seen, and the teacher can instant message if needed. Since this is web-based, students can work on a project outside of class hours as and when they need.
The SMART Lab game section is superb thanks to how easy it is to make a game, taking just minutes to go from scratch to playing a game class-wide. This can be done on the interactive whiteboard or on individual devices as needed.
SMART Response 2 is a really useful quiz tool as all the results are available instantly to the teacher. This is live so it can be seen as the student answers, allowing teachers the opportunity to see how quick or slow students answer – ideal for spotting sticking points at which some may struggle. The results can be exported too, viewed as a pie chart or placed in a word cloud as needed.
How much does SMART Learning Suite cost?
SMART Learning Suite does offer a free trial of the full system so you can get started right away and give the platform a try. There is also a free version with slightly more limited access in which you get 50MB per lesson, collaborative workspaces, digital handouts, polling and discussion, teacher-paced and student-paced delivery, formative assessments, and more.
But should you want the full experience for long-term use, then you'll need to pay for a subscription. Prices start at $59 per user, per year. This gets you unlimited student access to the system.
The free version gives you nearly everything you get in the paid option so if this can work for you it's a good way to go.
SMART Learning Suite best tips and tricks
Handout your lessons
Using the Handout feature allows you to share a copy of the lesson for each student so they can refer to it later and interact without it affecting the copies of others.
Use Workspace for groups
Workspace allows you to share a lesson with sub-groups in the class in which they can add text, pictures, links, and draw – making it ideal for projects to present to the class when completed. This is a superb break-out work tool.
Share with parents
Get parents and guardians involved by sharing lessons. Just select the three dot menu from the top right of the your lessons and share the link, by either dropping it in an email or Google Classroom for easy access.
