Top Hat - Better Learning 4+

I am lucky when I have professors who know how to properly use this app in a way that facilitates learning and retention of material. When the professor doesn’t know how to utilize the app, and uses it in a distracting way or cannot use the interface, that takes time out of the class and frustrates me and other learners. This app is pretty solid for students as it provides a good learning platform to assess learned facts as well as a source of review questions. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be a professor and write hundreds of questions per semester for this app, though. Thankfully, I’m not a professor!

I would always use the website on my Mac in class so I could split the screen and take notes. it would never load, I would always be three-four slides behind, and my quiz questions would hardly ever load in time for me to answer them. I figured I’d just start using the app, but I have the same issues on the app that I have on my Mac. the connection is always “poor”, and my professor can’t ever use it either - and will insist that the students are taking up the bandwidth and are causing the app to crash and lag (?? don’t know where he got that from), costing us our attendance points. and I know I’m not the only one, whether it be in my class or across everyone who has bought the app, that has these issues daily. if I have to pay this much for an app that simply takes *attendance* and gives mini class quizzes, I expect it to work 100% of the time, flawlessly. the rest of my university uses a free attendance app and I have never had an issue with it - ever. drop your prices, and fix your interface. this app is a whole mess, a money scam, and absolutely ridiculous. if they have to charge for the app to keep it running and whatnot, why not $.99, $2.99, $4.99?? where did the $27 and $50 come from? the people buying it are college students with little income who are forced to by their professors. incredibly pathetic for something that never works.

I love TopHat for my lectures and I think it’s a wonderful way to absorb new material. It has a really clean and user-friendly interface. However, it is virtually unusable on the mobile app. Maybe it’s just the iPhone, but I’ve used TopHat on several different iPhone models and it is extremely frustrating. The videos will time out and end unexpectedly, the app frequently crashes, attempting to do my homework questions on the mobile app is completely out of the question (as it will continuously freeze or divert you to the top of the page without notice).

Overall, a great app to use on a non-mobile device, but I don’t recommend relying on this app if a mobile device is all you have access too. And since today many of us students are always on the go and like to absorb new material in a variety of ways, I have to say this app is just not it. Nothing more frustrating than paying exorbitant prices for tuition and then you can’t even have the content delivered effectively! I wish my school would abandon TopHat and use something more functional all around!