Classroom Management Software?

[synaesthesia]

@Sunny87 they sound more like issues with your setup rather than Impero itself. Yeah it's not perfect but students flipping airplane mode on is... who's issue? Not Impero, Netsupports or any other 3rd party.... It's not a replacement for filtering and works particularly well alongside proper appliances. Nothing is a one-size-fits-all solution in educational IT.

[Fazza]

The function to block certain portable apps/software sounds great until the students change the name of the app/software (it blocks by name and not product ID or hash) then it runs again

 

I think this has to be a feature that Impero need to work on. This feature is OK but like you say all they've got to do is change the name of the file and they can then open it!

 

Blocking by Product ID or a Hash is a great idea - I hope someone from Impero is listening and taking note as this would be a great addition/selling point

[Sunny87]

I think this has to be a feature that Impero need to work on. This feature is OK but like you say all they've got to do is change the name of the file and they can then open it!

 

Blocking by Product ID or a Hash is a great idea - I hope someone from Impero is listening and taking note as this would be a great addition/selling point

 

 

Don't get me wrong guys I fully understand that yes airplane mode is an issue with all classroom management products.

 

I just think that if they updated it to block the software correctly from running I would love it, when I joined this network halfway through its setup I figured I would spend a while configuring impero and sonicwall, some of the management staff added sites to block in impero, once I put them in the sonic wall filter and removed the impero filter I was then getting the DATA_ERR, then it turned out that someone who setup the user accounts had not put the users into groups in AD, impero can't handle that obviously and blocks all traffic to the user that is logged in (Just an FYI for anyone who might have come across that issue, check the AD groups)

 

I do like that it has .msi deployment I've never used it but I might try it out soon.

 

Is Impero compatible with RM CC4.5 networks does anyone know or has tried?

[Norphy]

Doesn't CC4 come with a rebadged version of NetSupport? Along with that and the rest of CC's functionality, I'd have thought that Impero would be surplus to requirements?

[Sunny87]

Doesn't CC4 come with a rebadged version of NetSupport? Along with that and the rest of CC's functionality, I'd have thought that Impero would be surplus to requirements?

 

 

I was just wondering, purely because I quite like RM CC4.5 (Spent a lot of time building one for a primary school from scratch about a year ago and it was a lovely network) but I never got on with RM Tutor very much and I don't know many other classroom management tools to be honest, well good ones anyway.

[Norphy]

Not that I've tried it but I suppose that there'd be no technical reason why it wouldn't work, CC clients are just Windows after all. However, it'd still seem like a lot of money to pay for so much duplicated functionality.

 

It's a shame that Impero cancelled their monitoring only product.

[jonspurs]

I've tested RM Tutor (NetSupport), Impero and LanSchool.

 

RM Tutor was initally ok, but became flaky - student PCs would disappear from the console and odd things were happening. Plus it wasn't great with thin clients as it uses 'Location Chooser'. If a student was physically in the LRC, but selected a different room in Location Chooser, then the teacher wouldn't be able to monitor the student. I also don't know how well it works blocking Google Chrome.

 

Impero is good but overkill for what we needed. You'd have to set up 'lists' of rooms with PCs. And it was expensive.

 

LanSchool does what it says on the tin - it just works. Simply deploy the MSI + channel number switch to a group of PCs in a classroom and a teacher MSI to the teacher PC with same channel number. Job done. And blocks Chrome when needed. Plus you can get a discount if you're moving away from another competitor.

 

Jon

[Al_NetSupport]

I've tested RM Tutor (NetSupport), Impero and LanSchool.

 

RM Tutor was initally ok, but became flaky - student PCs would disappear from the console and odd things were happening. Plus it wasn't great with thin clients as it uses 'Location Chooser'. If a student was physically in the LRC, but selected a different room in Location Chooser, then the teacher wouldn't be able to monitor the student. I also don't know how well it works blocking Google Chrome.

 

Jon

 

Hi Jon, Hope you don't mind me responding to your post.

 

RM Tutor in most cases in the field is based on much older versions of NetSupport School. That doesn't change the fact and i apologise if you had anything less than a great experience, but i wanted to reassure you that later versions of NetSupport School are very different in terms of look, features and technology to some of our older versions. We are for example the only classroom solution with a dedicated Windows 8 / Windows 10 app which you can download and try for the app store.

 

I have attached a screenshot so you can see it is very different !

 

 

You mentioned Google Chrome, browser blocking on a Windows PC with Chrome changed many years ago, and i suspect that means you had a really old version of RM Tutor ( 3 / 4 ?). I can assure you our blocking is done at a much lower level now and is not browser dependent. Going one step further with Chrome technology, NetSupport School now also offers both a Teacher and Student app for ChromeOS and while it has less features than the windows variant, it is widely deployed and a robust solution. The ChromeOS teacher console looks like this and again can be downloaded to try for free.

 

Chrome - or Android -

 

I'd be more than happy to send you a free licence of our latest versions, as both an apology and goodwill gesture.

 

Al.

Edited April 5, 2016 by Al_NetSupport

[Mic_Impero]

I think this has to be a feature that Impero need to work on. This feature is OK but like you say all they've got to do is change the name of the file and they can then open it!

 

Blocking by Product ID or a Hash is a great idea - I hope someone from Impero is listening and taking note as this would be a great addition/selling point

 

Good evening all,

I'm still fairly new at Impero as support manager and so still getting to grips with all of the functionality, but this seems like a fair request on first glance and a good suggestion. I'll raise it with the product manager tomorrow and take this in as an idea for the product moving forward. Thanks for the suggestion.

Mic Sanderson

[jonspurs]

Hi Jon, Hope you don't mind me responding to your post.

 

RM Tutor in most cases in the field is based on much older versions of NetSupport School. That doesn't change the fact and i apologise if you had anything less than a great experience, but i wanted to reassure you that later versions of NetSupport School are very different in terms of look, features and technology to some of our older versions. We are for example the only classroom solution with a dedicated Windows 8 / Windows 10 app which you can download and try for the app store.

 

I have attached a screenshot so you can see it is very different !

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]36005[/ATTACH]

 

You mentioned Google Chrome, browser blocking on a Windows PC with Chrome changed many years ago, and i suspect that means you had a really old version of RM Tutor ( 3 / 4 ?). I can assure you our blocking is done at a much lower level now and is not browser dependent. Going one step further with Chrome technology, NetSupport School now also offers both a Teacher and Student app for ChromeOS and while it has less features than the windows variant, it is widely deployed and a robust solution. The ChromeOS teacher console looks like this and again can be downloaded to try for free.

 

Chrome - [ATTACH=CONFIG]36006[/ATTACH] or Android - [ATTACH=CONFIG]36007[/ATTACH]

 

I'd be more than happy to send you a free licence of our latest versions, as both an apology and goodwill gesture.

 

Al.

 

Hi Al,

Thanks for your reply.

We were using RM Tutor 5 and weren't sure about going to 6 because of previous issues. Don't get me wrong, it was great when it first worked, but later was flaky. It's a shame that RM use older versions of NetSupport. It was around last year sometime since I looked at the 3 different classroom management solutions.

Thank you for explaining how your new version is much improved and offering a free licence - looks really cool.

As we've now got LanSchool, we're not looking to move away. But I'll bear in mind your latest version of NetSupport instead of RM Tutor.

Cheers,

Jon

[Al_NetSupport]

Hi Al,

Thanks for your reply.

We were using RM Tutor 5 and weren't sure about going to 6 because of previous issues. Don't get me wrong, it was great when it first worked, but later was flaky. It's a shame that RM use older versions of NetSupport. It was around last year sometime since I looked at the 3 different classroom management solutions.

Thank you for explaining how your new version is much improved and offering a free licence - looks really cool.

As we've now got LanSchool, we're not looking to move away. But I'll bear in mind your latest version of NetSupport instead of RM Tutor.

Cheers,

Jon

 

Thanks for your response Jon, and taking the time to expand, that's really appreciated.

 

Just so you are aware, RM Tutor 5 was released at the end of 2011, so plenty has changed in our software over the last 5 years. Anyway my offer stands at any point in the future so if you decide to review your options down the line, i'd be happy to assist. Same with any of our other solutions

 

Thanks again

Al.

[Fazza]

Impero is good but overkill for what we needed. You'd have to set up 'lists' of rooms with PCs. And it was expensive.

 

You dont have to have the full Impero suite you can pretty much choose what you want and dont want to purchase - we use SCCM for deploying/updating software so do not purchase the Patch Management option with Impero thus saving us money.

 

The lists of rooms takes around 3 seconds per room for us to set up - it all depends on your naming convention for computers suites. We use a room number followed by a PC number, i.e. A9-01 so in Impero when we set up a room/list we use a wildcard like this: A9-* and that automatically adds all of the computers in that room

 

A lot of our Teachers use Impero for screencasting and sending out and collecting work - i.e. they send out a document to all the students in the room they are in, get them to fill it in and then save it and then use Impero to grab the document and put it on their laptops which eases the strain on our email server as it doesnt get clogged up with loads of files if they use this feature.

 

[ITGURU]

None - although we (Techs) use VNC to monitor classrooms - any students not working, send a screenshot to the teacher for them to deal with.

Gives them more time to teach the students than controlling there access / monitoring.

[JonThompson]

We use AB Tutor. Have used it for years. Very good and cheap as you only pay for Tutor PCs (management console install) and not clients.

[Fazza]

we (Techs) use VNC to monitor classrooms - any students not working, send a screenshot to the teacher for them to deal with.

Gives them more time to teach the students than controlling there access / monitoring.

 

We dont have time for that so we use Impero that automatically screenshots and emails them out for the teachers to deal with if they so wish just got the Counter-Radicalisation keyword list so that will not be setup to email out to the nominated person to deal with

[timbo343]

We dont have time for that so we use Impero that automatically screenshots and emails them out for the teachers to deal with if they so wish just got the Counter-Radicalisation keyword list so that will not be setup to email out to the nominated person to deal with

 

Im still waiting for acknowledgement of the email i sent on Tuesday regarding the radicalisation keywords (@Mic_Impero, @Dan_Impero)

Edited April 7, 2016 by timbo343

[Fazza]

Im still waiting for acknowledgement of the email i sent on Tuesday regarding the radicalisation keywords (@Mic_Impero, @Dan_Impero)

 

I got a reply the same day with a link to download the file and a youtube video showing how to import the .xml file!

[clockend25]

Got a response within a day or so of my request. They seem to have implemented new helpdesk software.

[jonspurs]

You dont have to have the full Impero suite you can pretty much choose what you want and dont want to purchase - we use SCCM for deploying/updating software so do not purchase the Patch Management option with Impero thus saving us money.

 

We asked for only classroom management module but they said we'd need to buy the whole suite. Maybe things have changed since then...or changed back...

[GVaughan]

Im still waiting for acknowledgement of the email i sent on Tuesday regarding the radicalisation keywords (@Mic_Impero, @Dan_Impero)

 

Hello Timbo343

 

I have forwarded this to Mic who will look into this now for you.

 

Kind regards,

Gez

[Mic_Impero]

Im still waiting for acknowledgement of the email i sent on Tuesday regarding the radicalisation keywords (@Mic_Impero, @Dan_Impero)

 

Apologies for this. As you can imagine we've had a high amount of requests, but we've tackled it by getting some coverage from our US team (who are UK based but work nights) to clear any unanswered radicalisation requests, and they've been cleared every night. We've obviously managed to miss you some how; thank you for raising this as I can find your request and ensure we haven't missed any others.

 

Please could you PM me your details and I will check it out for you straight away?

 

Thanks to Gez also for highlighting your post.

 

Mic Sanderson

Support Manager

Impero Software

[Mic_Impero]

Got a response within a day or so of my request. They seem to have implemented new helpdesk software.

 

Hi,

We've not implemented any new software, we've implemented a new manager. I've already changed the structure of the team and am looking forward to dramatically increasing the size of the team over the next two weeks (recruitment complete, new starters onboarding). More info coming in our April customer news letter.

 

Thanks

Mic Sanderson

Support Manager

Impero Software

[clockend25]

Fair enough. Just got some email notifications when opening the ticket that I'd never received before.

[Mic_Impero]

Fair enough. Just got some email notifications when opening the ticket that I'd never received before.

 

Ah yes, that we've changed. We've added some extra data to some other notifications too related to specific case details in order that if you have multiple cases logged you can tell them apart easier.

 

- - - Updated - - -

@timbo343 it transpires we do know who you are, so no need to PM me. I will be in touch shortly.

 

Mic

[mrbios]

Going back to the topic in the OP, i'm an Impero customer, have been for some years now, but I feel we're no longer getting our monies worth based on the yearly support and maintenance costs we're being asked for. Thanks to this thread i've decided to evaluate NetSupport DNA + School, and having had a play around with it, spending nearly 2 hours in a webex, and another hour chatting to their tech support about different things, i've found only ONE feature that NetSupport doesn't do that Impero can, and even that is a very minor feature that no one in the school but me uses. There's also a few features NetSupport DNA+School does better (power management for one).

 

It's more complicated to setup, but it's going to save a hell of a lot of money for us each year, so right now I'm strongly considering making the switch.

 

Question for edugeekers: Anyone else here made that switch? Please PM me any feedback.