Google Classroom vs. Renaissance Accelerated Reader

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Google Classroom
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
N/A
$0
per license/per month
Renaissance Accelerated Reader
Score 9.9 out of 10
N/A
Renaissance Accelerated Reader® is designed to save educators time by empowering them with Learnalytics® to make differentiating independent and close reading practice effortless – all while maintaining the flexibility necessary to fit within existing classroom routines. Students are engaged in reading self-selected authentic books and articles. Short comprehension quizzes and built-in close reading practice activities, combined with automatic and educator feedback, keep students…N/A
Pricing
Google ClassroomRenaissance Accelerated Reader
Editions & Modules
Education Fundamentals
$0
per license/per month
Google Workspace for Education Standard
$3
per student/per year
Teaching and Learning Upgrade
$4
per license/per month
Google Workspace for Education Plus
$5
per student/per year
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Google ClassroomRenaissance Accelerated Reader
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsEducation Fundamentals Version - 30-day free trial for qualifying institutions.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Google ClassroomRenaissance Accelerated Reader
Features
Google ClassroomRenaissance Accelerated Reader
Learning Management
Comparison of Learning Management features of Product A and Product B
Google Classroom
7.8
Ratings
5% below category average
Renaissance Accelerated Reader
-
Ratings
Course authoring8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Course catalog or library8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Player/Portal9.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning content5.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile friendly5.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Progress tracking & certifications8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Assignments8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance management8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning administration7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning reporting & analytics9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Social learning7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Gamification6.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign On (SSO) Enabled Learning9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Google ClassroomRenaissance Accelerated Reader
Small Businesses
iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn
Score 9.6 out of 10
iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn
Score 9.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Schoology Learning
Schoology Learning
Score 9.7 out of 10
iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn
Score 9.6 out of 10
Enterprises
Schoology Learning
Schoology Learning
Score 9.7 out of 10
Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment
Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment
Score 6.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Google ClassroomRenaissance Accelerated Reader
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(0 ratings)
9.9
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.1
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
1.9
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
2.0
(0 ratings)
5.5
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
6.4
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
4.5
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Google ClassroomRenaissance Accelerated Reader
Likelihood to Recommend
- During the pandemic, the college needs a fast and easy solution to conduct Google Classroom. The integration with Google Accounts and Google Meet allows the university to run and access the Classroom on a large scale. - The teacher wants to conduct some exams in third-party software like Moodle. But we have not found any plugin for this famous open-source learning platform. The exam system in Google Classroom is so poor that it doesn't even fully screen the test when students are writing their exams.
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I have found Renaissance Accelerated Reader to be well-suited for elementary readers. I don't have experience using it with high school students; however, I know that for our elementary readers, there are no shortages of tests available. Our students can read trade books, articles within the program, or even stories from our textbooks and take tests on them
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Pros
  • Student-teacher communication - I love using Classroom for this because my students can always go back and check what was on Classroom by looking through the stream. This way they don't have to go dig through emails to find what they're looking for.
  • Posting to multiple classes - I can post the same announcement or assignment to multiple classes at once without having to repeat the process or send separate emails.
  • Streamlining grading - when students turn work in on Classroom, it all goes to one place and then when I'm grading I can open their documents directly from Classroom or my Drive folder. This way, I'm not looking through emails and Google Doc shared files for their assignment.
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  • If used correctly, Accelerated Reader helps students grow with their reading comprehension and vocabulary skills. I advise teachers to have one on one conversations with students when setting goals (allow students to have input) so that the students are given more responsibility to achieve their own goals.
  • Renaissance's online chat/customer service is outstanding. They can usually answer my questions and do so in an understandable manner. They seem to be willing to help and will follow through if necessary.
  • There are many reports that Accelerated Reader administrators can use to help decipher the data created from their students taking Accelerated Reader quizzes.
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Cons
  • Although usually in the discussion with other LMS apps such as Schoology and Canvas, Google Classroom doesn't possess as in-depth of a platform. There is no ability to set individual learning paths, pace student work with completion settings, or embed other apps directly into teacher-created assignments.
  • The assignment creation options are limited. Teachers can only choose from creating an assignment (usually a link with directions), a material (usually a doc/slide/website, etc), a question, and a quiz.
  • With gamification taking on a new lens in education, there really isn't any way to use gamification elements with Google Classroom. There isn't any way to create Individual learning paths, or use badges and micro-credentials within Classroom. Outside programs would have to be used.
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  • Creating Spanish reports similar to the ones accessed in English.
  • Simplifying the way books students can find an AR quiz. It does not find books if students are missing a "question mark" or "exclamation mark".
  • Deleting a quiz when a student enters the wrong book title and begins a quiz. It has been difficult to remove a quiz and the quiz appears even after the monitor password has been entered.
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Likelihood to Renew
Testing is particularly important in online learning, and Google Classroom falls far short of other learning management systems in this regard. Security is also a concern: while account control is reasonable for the account used with Google Classroom, the person controlling a particular account is often able to, for example, forward or download proprietary materials.
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[Renaissance] Accelerated Reader is a great way to track student progress, motivate students to read, and measure their comprehension. Accelerated reader gives both teachers and students immediate feedback. There are countless options of books for students and can help increase student interest in books and improve students' reading ability.
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Usability
This is only a product I would recommend to a humanities teacher. Math and science teachers cannot use this product the same way that I can as an English teacher. It is great for word process and for reading, but unable to handle the demands of math and science. Therefore, I would highly recommend this product to English or Social Studies teachers, but NOT math or science teachers
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I give Renaissance Accelerated Reader a great 10 in usability rating. I give this rating because overall the program is very easy to use and for the most part easy to understand. I am currently in my first year working in the library and with the teachers using the Renaissance Accelerated Reader program so there is still much to learn, but it has been an overall great experience so far. All of the data is easy to read and there is so much information to look over in case anything is missed or not understood. I have so far been very happy with the Renaissance Accelerated Reader program and what it has done for the students.
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Reliability and Availability
We have had very little trouble in accessing Google Classroom. Our issues, if any, have risen from our server and not the Google servers.
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I have not encountered any problems with availability
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Performance
No answers on this topic
Quick loading, no issues.
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Support Rating
Since this platform is provided by Google, the technical support is better than any others, and we are not required to bother about the space constraints for adding the contents. If we have a good uninterrupted internet facility we can access Google Classroom without any delay or lag. They have app support in both Android and iPhone.
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Renaissance Reader has a great support team, and generally, they are quick to respond when needed. The live chat tool is a life-saver when trying to get your problems solved in real-time. They also have a lot of online support articles that ensure that you can get your questions answered without necessarily having to use the live chat during the school day.
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Implementation Rating
It was relatively easy to implement due to the simplicity of the platform. Even our more technology challenged teachers found it easy to get started with Google Classroom.
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Extensive training on Ren Place is necessary. There are a myriad of reports that we need help understanding. I have joined Ren Royals and have learned a lot from that support piece.
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Alternatives Considered
Skyward and Google Classroom are completely different programs that are used for completely different things. The only comparable areas are communication with students. Skyward does so through the class rosters and message center and Google Classroom does so through the classrooms for each student and their teacher, but each is unique in their own way.
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STAR assessments work well with [Renaissance] Accelerated Reader. The STAR assessment can inform students what material they will be able to comprehend and help guide teachers when they are trying to help students find books to read. STAR assessments also help teachers focus on comprehension and vocabulary skills which then lends to help students understand what they are reading and utilize [Renaissance] Accelerated Reader.
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Scalability
It is very easy to push out this program across our buildings. Teachers are able to use it without much trouble.
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Because students can take tests on varying book levels.
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Return on Investment
  • Students are able to continue learning in a remote environment
  • Parents have a single, consistent organization structure to make it easy to track assignments and progress for multiple children
  • Much better solution than the quickly assembled Zoom-and-gloom of the previous spring when school abruptly went remote with no planning
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  • I have seen a positive impact using AR by allowing us to track independent reading time more effectively.
  • We can analyze student data in ways that would be either too time-consuming or too difficult to track on our own.
  • Student engagement has increased when students can use their ZPDs to help find books that are in a readable range for them.
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ScreenShots