AB Tutor

[djgreek]

Hi Everyone,

 

I am looking for cons for the use of abtutor within a school.

 

Any info would be appreciated

[RabbieBurns]

we have it in a couple of classes and it keeps dropping out, is pretty slow, etc.

 

Currently trialling Impero and it seems a lot better.

[djgreek]

we have it in a couple of classes and it keeps dropping out, is pretty slow, etc.

 

Currently trialling Impero and it seems a lot better.

 

 

Currently we have 800 laptops

how would a classroom teacher monitor a students laptop

is it computer name or ip address

[RTFM]

we have it in a couple of classes and it keeps dropping out, is pretty slow, etc.

 

Currently trialling Impero and it seems a lot better.

 

 

Whilst Impero is a lot better, it costs about 10 times more.......

 

There is a reason that AB Tutor is £120 a teacher license where as Impero wanted £13000 upfront (haggled down to £9000) and then £2500 a year after that (haggled down to £1100) for a site license. Compared to AB Tutor if you had 10 IT suites, it costs £1200 for 10 teacher licenses......or something around there.

 

AB Tutor just released v7 which I am going to trial but in fairness given the cost difference AB Tutor isnt THAT bad (it isnt perfect though by any stretch of the imagination).

 

The other thing to be said is Impero does have a lot more features than just being a classroom management tool which is where they try to justify their extra cost. How often you would use some of the extra features i'm not sure, that would be down to you.

 

We have AB Tutor and I trialled Impero for 30 days in a number of classrooms and yes, it is better, but given the cost difference i'd expect it to be.

 

No harm in trialling AB Tutor & Impero and then even NetSupport, NetOp etc if you wanted to

 

Currently we have 800 laptops

how would a classroom teacher monitor a students laptop

is it computer name or ip address

 

 

As for your question about computer name or IP, it goes on their AD computer name. We create groups based on rooms and then set the teacher PC for that room to specifically to connect to the group for their room (hope that makes sense) then disable the search function so staff can't look into other rooms. We then have a license installed on a server with access to all the rooms and a variety of other machines (mostly staff classroom machines) for general support issues we may be able to do remotely.

 

Hope that helps......?

[jonnykewell1]

Well we have ab tutor client on all machines so we can control but the actual teacher controller in about 12 rooms. Think it is brilliant in the class room,teachers love it kids don't haha. One problem we experience is if you do a mass uninstall of it or, upgrade it tends to screw around with netlogon service which has happened a few times and we have had to either system restore or if that can't be loaded reimage the machines. you can add policies to block access to websites which is useful and have loggers on machines to pick up key words from a text file that you specify. this then notifies us and the teachers.

[Meldrew]

In my experience software like this is a bad thing. Where remove viewing/lockdown software is used, teachers tend to think that's all they need to concentrate on and spend all the time watching screens and don't notice machines being vandalised/a small riot at the back of the classroom. I find our good IT teachers don't even want this software as they'll just look at the screens whilst walking around the room.

[RTFM]

In my experience software like this is a bad thing. Where remove viewing/lockdown software is used, teachers tend to think that's all they need to concentrate on and spend all the time watching screens and don't notice machines being vandalised/a small riot at the back of the classroom. I find our good IT teachers don't even want this software as they'll just look at the screens whilst walking around the room.

 

That is the other side of the argument. It is all well and good providing this classroom monitoring software but does that encourage good teaching practices?

[russdev]

Whilst Impero is a lot better, it costs about 10 times more.......

 

There is a reason that AB Tutor is £120 a teacher license where as Impero wanted £13000 upfront (haggled down to £9000) and then £2500 a year after that (haggled down to £1100) for a site license. Compared to AB Tutor if you had 10 IT suites, it costs £1200 for 10 teacher licenses......or something around there.

 

AB Tutor just released v7 which I am going to trial but in fairness given the cost difference AB Tutor isnt THAT bad (it isnt perfect though by any stretch of the imagination).

 

The other thing to be said is Impero does have a lot more features than just being a classroom management tool which is where they try to justify their extra cost. How often you would use some of the extra features i'm not sure, that would be down to you.

 

We have AB Tutor and I trialled Impero for 30 days in a number of classrooms and yes, it is better, but given the cost difference i'd expect it to be.

 

No harm in trialling AB Tutor & Impero and then even NetSupport, NetOp etc if you wanted to

 

 

 

 

As for your question about computer name or IP, it goes on their AD computer name. We create groups based on rooms and then set the teacher PC for that room to specifically to connect to the group for their room (hope that makes sense) then disable the search function so staff can't look into other rooms. We then have a license installed on a server with access to all the rooms and a variety of other machines (mostly staff classroom machines) for general support issues we may be able to do remotely.

 

Hope that helps......?

 

As pointed out Impero is more than just classroom management. In terms of TCO Impero is cheaper if think about start installing on a number of teacher PCs not just a single one. However more importantly with power save elements of Impero means ROI Impero will pay for itselfs self.

 

It also depends on how you look at the system you look at the holestic approach that Impero takes and what is a benefit to every user of Impero or you look at single teacher view of ICT system and pay more in the long run. Also depends what you want you comparing Impero with other software that has a limited use/view is like comparing a Ford and Mercedes

 

At end of day Impero view is you have choice you can get trial of both software compare us against each other and you can decide if want a ford or a Mercedes

 

Russell

[RTFM]

As pointed out Impero is more than just classroom management. In terms of TCO Impero is cheaper if think about start installing on a number of teacher PCs not just a single one. However more importantly with power save elements of Impero means ROI Impero will pay for itselfs self.

 

My school is in a PFI agreement, we dont pay the electric bill so that doesnt really apply. I know for the vast majority of schools this may be a consideration though. To say Impero will pay for itself is a little bit of a bold statement as that completely depends on number of machines, how often they actually get left on, cost of electric etc but i'm sure the power management element of Impero is helpful in reducing spend on electric.

 

It also depends on how you look at the system you look at the holestic approach that Impero takes and what is a benefit to every user of Impero or you look at single teacher view of ICT system and pay more in the long run. Also depends what you want you comparing Impero with other software that has a limited use/view is like comparing a Ford and Mercedes

 

At end of day Impero view is you have choice you can get trial of both software compare us against each other and you can decide if want a ford or a Mercedes

 

Russell

 

The car analogy isnt a great one simply as they both do the same job, get you from A to B, one just costs double the other and for that it has a few extra little gizmo's. A car's main job though is to get you from A to B. Slightly off topic there.

 

Continuing your car analogy though and relating it directly back to the argument of Impero Vs other software. You are paying double for your Mercedes and you may get inbuilt sat nav, but you can buy sat nav for your Ford from Halfords cheaper than it costs to get it in your Mercedes. Linking that back to the software, Impero includes a password reset tool, I can get one of those from online (for free) which does the job, its just an extra bit of software......

 

I'm not saying Impero isnt nice as I have trialled it and it is, it's still expensive though regardless of the discount we managed to get from the original pricing and a lot of the 'bells and whistles' of Impero (the power managment, password reset etc) can be found elsewhere if you are prepared to have different software for different jobs.

 

[russdev]

My school is in a PFI agreement, we dont pay the electric bill so that doesnt really apply. I know for the vast majority of schools this may be a consideration though. To say Impero will pay for itself is a little bit of a bold statement as that completely depends on number of machines, how often they actually get left on, cost of electric etc but i'm sure the power management element of Impero is helpful in reducing spend on electric.

 

I can only talk from Impero side but we have found that power management side ROI has paid for Impero on customers sites of course it depends on a customer setup as to how long that ROI but being all professionals I assumed that was obvious.. My main point is TCO is something you have to think about.

 

 

The car analogy isnt a great one simply as they both do the same job, get you from A to B, one just costs double the other and for that it has a few extra little gizmo's. A car's main job though is to get you from A to B. Slightly off topic there.

 

Continuing your car analogy though and relating it directly back to the argument of Impero Vs other software. You are paying double for your Mercedes and you may get inbuilt sat nav, but you can buy sat nav for your Ford from Halfords cheaper than it costs to get it in your Mercedes. Linking that back to the software, Impero includes a password reset tool, I can get one of those from online (for free) which does the job, its just an extra bit of software......

 

I'm not saying Impero isnt nice as I have trialled it and it is, it's still expensive though regardless of the discount we managed to get from the original pricing and a lot of the 'bells and whistles' of Impero (the power managment, password reset etc) can be found elsewhere if you are prepared to have different software for different jobs.

 

 

To be honest car analogy is perfect yes could be Ford but then I buy Halfords Sat NAV oh but then the steering lock oh but get that free with Mercedes. Then want a upgrade to my radio as the 1980's tape deck would look out of place in a new car but r Mercedes offer a new Radio and CD player. You get the idea.. To take it back to software yes could get a password reset tool but how does that integrate with rest of the system can I give access to certain staff and not others ok lets say I can. That another set of rights to manage another system etc.

 

As said depends on your view of network and if have a holistic approach etc. As I have said try both or choose what is best for your site (which you did so fine but as pointed out your view is based on your site which is PFI is very different to a lot of schools). Think this discussion best left here as this something different that OP asked which was for cons of AB Tutor something which while I could give out would be inappropriate for me as I work for Impero.

[zag]

We've just ordered ABTutor 7 due to its price. It was £200 per license which is £1,200 for 6 admins and unlimited clients.

 

All the other solutions we quoted for were at least 3 times the price and quite ridiculous in my opinion.

 

So is anyone else using ABtutor Version 7 yet? What are your opinions?

[Pottsey]

Not looked at ABTutor 7 yet but the only con I came across for ABTutor 6 is you cannot have different lists. I cannot have a view all list and a view ban list open at teh same time. Well you can but you need 1 PC or virtualized PC and 1 server for each list, no idea if version 7 fixes that. Still I really like ABTutor and plan to take a look at version 7. Edited September 4, 2012 by Pottsey

[Cfuhri]

Our school installed AbTutor 7 recently. We have had endless trouble with the installations failing and then not being able to install it again due to the installer not fully removing all the files from the registry etc. Once we were finally able to install the programme, the roaming licences work one day and not the next. I cannot really say if the programme was worth the fee or not, since we have not been able to use it properly yet. Abtutor 6 was slow and we had endless trouble with it freezing etc. Their support is non-existent to dismal. I had a lot of hope riding on Abtutor 7 working better, but I have been sorely disappointed. I've asked for our licences to be cancelled and will hopefully be claiming the fee back and permanently uninstalling AbTutor completely.

[zag]

I actually got round to testing it today.

 

So far so good, very easy to setup and auto discovery working well.

 

The licensing server worked perfectly and so did every MSI installer. I really have had no problems so far.

 

The interface is good as well, needing very little CPU.

 

I'll do a full review when I've had some more time to play with it but so far, so good.