www.naiku.net • Retail Price: $159/year
Naiku for Teachers is an assessment platform that allows teachers to create standards-aligned assessments and track student progress. Naiku allows teachers to create tests and quizzes, and tag each question with standards, either pre-loaded or teacher-created.
Quality and Effectiveness: Naiku for Teachers is appropriate for PreK-university teachers who wish to track student performance based on standards. Naiku offers a variety of question types, including true/false, multiple choice, constructed response, matching, passage w/sub-items, and essay. Naiku for Teachers offers some standards pre-loaded (CCSS, some AP standards, and some National Standards such as ISTE-NETS) and also allows teachers to create their own standards and learning objectives. Teachers are able to align each question to any number of standards. Naiku also offers teachers a curriculum mapping tool, which allows them to plan out their courses and standards for the year, as well as a resources tool, which can be used to teach, reteach, reinforce or enrich what is being taught.
Ease of Use: Navigating Naiku for Teachers is straightforward, and Naiku offers Pop-up help when the account is created, which can be turned back on at any time. The Pop-ups explain what each feature is, and how to use it. Naiku has an extensive collection of support materials. The written guides are up-to-date and easy to follow, though some of the videos are a bit outdated (ed. note: new video content has since been added).
Creative Use of Technology: The user interface of Naiku for Teachers is clean and simple, as is the testing environment for students. Results of each assessment can be viewed for individual students or for the whole class, allowing the teacher the ability to make data-driven decisions about curriculum. Naiku also makes it easy to add reading passages, images, and other attachments to questions, allowing for flexibility.
Suitability for Use in a School Environment: Naiku for Teachers can quickly and easily be integrated into the classroom, even those not in a 1:1 environment. Because teachers can print out not only the tests, but also the answer sheets, and then scan them for grading, Naiku makes tracking student performance a less arduous task. Teachers have the option of creating assessments from scratch, uploading PDF or word processing-based exams that already exist, or importing tests and questions from existing test banks in a variety of formats.
TOP FEATURES
• Flexibility: Because users can create standards from scratch, import data from existing exam software, or use exams in word processing or PDF format, Naiku for Teachers is a solution for everyone.
• Data Driven Instruction: The ability to track performance on standards at the individual or whole-class level and the use of item analysis and longitudinal performance allows teachers to make informed decisions about instruction.
• Time Saving: Scoring of items is automatic. Teachers are now able to spend more time on instruction and less time on paperwork.
OVERALL RATING: Naiku for Teachers makes it easy to track student performance based on standards and objectives and offers individualized instruction. Auto-grading of items coupled with powerful reports frees teachers up to spend more time in instruction and less time on paperwork.
