Socrative vs. Top Hat
Socrative
Socrative is a student response system that lets educators run individual or collaborative polls and quizzes. Instructors can track student understanding and get live results in the Socrative app.
Top Hat
Top Hat’s active learning platform gives you the flexibility to engage students online, in person or both. Our all-in-one teaching solution lets you:
- Boost engagement with polls, quizzes and live discussions
- Create media-rich, interactive homework using pre-built questions
- Run secure in-class or remote tests
- Get instant feedback on student performance
Socrative alternative? Here’s how we compare:
More question types
More question types
13 question types such as click-on-target and word cloud—plus discipline specific questions—motivate students in and out of class
Immersive homework assignments
Immersive homework assignments
Build personalized assignments—plus provide feedback throughout a submitted document
Secure tests and exams
Secure tests and exams
Verify test-taker identities and access individual proctor reports that flag suspicious behavior
Build your community outside of class
Build your community outside of class
Top Hat Community lets you create custom channels for students to discuss or video chat with one another
Host large classes
Host large classes
Teach classes of up to 1,000 students in Top Hat Pro and up to 300 in Top Hat Basic
An insight-rich gradebook
An insight-rich gradebook
The Top Hat Gradebook aggregates every student interaction: attendance, participation, assignments and test scores
Dedicated support
Dedicated support
Rely on best-in-class instructional design and product tutorials, tailored to the needs of any learning environment
Time-Saving, Secure Assessments That Engage Students
Spend more time on your students and less time creating and grading tests. Top Hat lets you draw from pre-built question banks and offers auto-grading capabilities. Remote proctored tests help maintain academic integrity by highlighting behaviors indicative of cheating. Individual proctor reports flag irregular behavior, saving you time during the review process.
Weekly Student Insights Are Delivered to Your Inbox
A consolidated gradebook captures real-time quiz scores, homework, attendance and participation. Top Hat’s Weekly Course Report identifies at-risk students and highlights what concepts are proving difficult. It’s sent right to your inbox, so you can use student data to help get struggling learners back on track.
Top Hat Is More Than a Quizzing Platform
With Top Hat, you can take attendance, present slides, host discussions, assign interactive readings and much more—all from one place. The Top Hat Community app also allows students to engage in group discussions or study sessions outside of class. Create a discussion thread in Community that represents your course or a specific activity or project. Students can then video chat or ask quick questions in groups or one-on-one with you.
See what these professors have to say about Top Hat as an alternative to Socrative
“I use Top Hat during class to get a quick snapshot of in-class understanding of new topics being covered, so that I can provide immediate feedback and reinforce concepts. I love the ease of use, the customer service, the real-time feedback, and the ability to engage students in my large classes.”
Joel Stake
Lecturer, Biological Sciences, Louisiana Tech University
“Top Hat really does it all. For me, the primary selling point for Top Hat is that it provides a foundation for me to build content. I can build my own questions exactly how I want them and can design a customized course from the ground up.”
“I use Top Hat primarily for discussions and questions to review material that I had just covered. I have also noticed more participation in class; my students love being able to use their smartphones.”
Rick Lindner
Associate Professor, Communications, Georgia State University
Frequently asked questions
Top Hat is more than an assessment platform. As a robust ed tech solution, Top Hat allows you to host live discussions, view student insights in a comprehensive gradebook, and create and administer personalized homework assignments—making learning active.
Top Hat also offers an array of interactive question types such as numeric answer and fill in the blank. The app doubles as a formative assessment tool, where student learning is constantly assessed through informal activities like ‘exit ticket’ or short answer questions. Quizzes that feature certain question types, such as multiple choice, can be auto-graded. You can also keep grades and correct answers private in order to adjust grade weights based on how your class performed. Remote proctored tests offer a safer test-taking solution, ensuring test-taker identities are verified at the start of the assessment and any suspicious behavior is flagged.
Top Hat is always free for educators. Students can create a free account in Top Hat Basic, minimizing educational barriers. Top Hat Pro is available for $30 per student, per semester. Comparatively, each student pays $48 for Top Hat Pro for a one-year subscription. Add on interactive textbooks are available for an average of $35 per book. Unlimited remote proctored exams are available for $10 per course. Learn more here.
Top Hat allows for a flexible testing process to meet the needs of your course. Top Hat’s testing features randomize the question order for students—reducing the likelihood of cheating in a physical classroom environment. Students are also unable to exit the testing window while writing a test. You can access a proctor report during a test to view live results and student behavior. A more robust alternative is Top Hat’s remote proctored tests with Proctorio. Students verify their identities before beginning a test by holding up their student ID to the camera. Monitor student activity in real time and get a simplified proctor report that flags irregular behavior.
Easily export your grades in Top Hat to your LMS. Students are able to view their attendance, participation and quiz scores in one central place. You can sync your gradebook directly with your LMS or export data into an Excel spreadsheet.
Top Hat is accessible via web browser, meaning no installation is required. Top Hat is supported on Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Microsoft Edge. Educators may access Top Hat using an iPad running iOS 11 (or later) and using a Safari 11 (or later) browser. Students can access the Top Hat mobile app on iOS (version 6.0.0 or later) or Android (version 6.0.3 or later).