GoGuardian Reviews

Pros

It is always running, both at home and at school. It automatically sends alerts about any potentially harmful internet use. It allows teachers to help kids stay focused in class. It provides another way for teachers to show parents what their child is doing during class time.

Cons

I wish individual students could be put into different "scenes" at the same time, but that is just me wishing for an additional feature.

Pros

I love that I am able to view everything my students are doing. I love that I have the control and ability to close out any tabs which should not be open at a given time. Being able to send an announcement to all of my students at once is great when my class blocks end. I also LOVE the new features GoGuardian has created: audio calls and presentation mode. The reports at the end of each class are also amazing. You can see a timeline with what each student was doing at a given time and for how long. All of these features are a must during a normal school year, not to mention a remote one!

Cons

There are been some issues with the system status as of lately. With remote teaching right now this has essentially left me flying blind- especially when I cannot see my student's computers or see who is online.

Pros

It does well filtering what you put in if it is worded correctly

Cons

I know everything is a learning curve but this is a tad more difficult. Thank goodness support is very helpful!

Pros

Ease of use - once set up, the information we get about student usage history, the ease of locking down custom filter policies, Smart alerts are a nice feature for tracking and being alerted to students more risky behaviors.

Cons

Sometimes sites would be categorized under a different category than one would expect. There is no "super-admin" access to GoGuardian teacher to oversee teacher classroom setups.

Pros

Goguardian is a great resource to keep tabs on students without having to hover over a computer screen or their shoulder. You can set scenes to keep students academically honest and keep the integrity of the lesson while knowing that your student is paying attention to the task at hand.

Cons

There are some glitches, however, their customer support personnel reply within the hour of a request.

Pros

GoGuardian's teacher end content managment is easy to set up and use. Class rostering is amazing simple with Google Classroom sync. I love the new video chat feature on GoGuardian Suite

Cons

N/A. I am totally satisfied with this product.

Pros

GoGuardian makes it easy to assess in-class work. As a teacher I can filter what websites students have access to during my class period which ensures the work they submit is genuine.

Cons

The screens are not always updated frequently enough to get a "quick view" of what an entire class is doing. But, this is ameliorated when individual pages are opened.

Pros

I love everything about GoGuardian. I am able to aggressively monitor student academic growth through GoGuardian. I am also able to manage the websites that students use on a daily basis.

Cons

I do not have any feedback for growth! GoGuardian is an amazing program. You will not regret it!

Pros

GoGuardian is incredibly easy to use as a teacher and it makes monitoring very simple. I can look and check in a couple of seconds what each of my students is doing, if they are on task and, if needed, close their tabs.

Cons

I don't think I would change anything. I love all the features!

Pros

I like that it provides me another way to discreetly interact with my students. I also like how it saves the student activity if it is needed at a later time.

Cons

The scheduling is very linear. We follow many different schedules through the year and it would be nice to have more options for scheduling (which I believe may be in the works as I type!)

Pros

I love being able to see what all my students are working on/doing both in my class and at home. This made virtual learning so much easier this past school year! I love being able to message my students to check in when I know they may not feel like asking a question. It eliminates some pressure. Also, It is great to be able to take screenshots right in the program to document when students do great or are off task. The new annotation and student group features are fantastic additions as well!

I also love being able to schedule classes and automatically start a "scene" that blocks anything I do not want students on during our class session. It helps to prevent students from being off task on their device when you can't observe every screen.

Cons

The only cons I have are:
1. There is a minor delay on what the students are doing and what I see.
2. I cannot see where their mouse if if they are trying to point to something and ask if that is what I am referring to.
3. If they have the chat window open, I cannot see their work page at the same time.
4. It would be nice to be able to turn scenes off for individual students, as a sort of incentive, without totally excluding them from the session and being unable to see anything they are on.

Pros

Over the years of use, many new features/upgrades have been release, at no additional cost to us. The support is great!

Cons

The price was pretty steep, until we negotiated lower pricing through our vendor. There are still some granular Admin permissions that are not yet available. But, I have been part of multiple brief one-on-one discussions or panels with GoGuardian reps, regarding adding these features and more.

Pros

Instructional videos are easy to follow.
Features are mostly intuitive.
Multiple groups/classes can be monitored at once, allowing for greater flexibility.
Scenes auto-populate tabs, reducing lost time as students figure out where to go.

Cons

Glitches are difficult to troubleshot, but seem to resolve on their own eventually.
Does not prevent students from opening installed apps and getting off-task.

Pros

It works well for day to day usage and gradually improves usability throughout the years. The alerts system is fairly decent at seeing issues and reporting them to the administration in the district. Customer service is very helpful and friendly.

Cons

Several components of the software do not work or otherwise have low functionality. The product was poorly transitioned over from an old interface to a the new, more user friendly one. This causes users to have to jump between old and new to manage the software which is a bit of an inconvenience.

Pros

GoGuardian was the first of it's kind to offer a "Chromebook only" cloud-based filter solution so that we could filter students on (only) Chromebooks at school and while they're home. They keep adding features that school and tech admins need and they're always updating their product to make it more user friendly and provide better performance.

Cons

Reporting - would love to have more customized reporting capabilities.

Pros

I love being able to see all of my student computers on one screen. I have really found this software to be helpful in keeping students on track in class.

Cons

I have had some difficulties with the "scenes" feature. If I set the scene to only allow students to access a specific website(s), often, the students will still hit a wall when they have to sign in to that website. I then have to go to each individual computer to allow them access to it.

Pros

GoGuardian does exactly what it says it will do. It guards our chromebooks superbly and was not hard to get set up. It has many customizable settings that you can tweek to get the notifications you want. The reports are easy to read. Their support is great.

Cons

Sometimes it can be confusing trying to get everything set right. Once I locked everyone out of accessing the internet and had trouble figuring out what I did so I could change it bac.

Pros

I love this software because it hold my students accountable. They know I can see everything they are doing and that I will close out their tabs. Also makes it easy for me to help them since I can see their scrren.

Cons

I do not feel like there is much, if anything, that needs to be improved for use in my classroom. I find it user friendly.

Pros

Ease if use!! It is so easy to set up as a teacher and monitor your classes.

Cons

It took a bit to get it set up as an administrator but once we figured it out all has run smoothly! Their customer service was extremely patient and helpful.

Pros

The Complimentary products in the GoGuardian Suite makes managing schools and grade levels simple while detailed and comprehensive.

Cons

The theft recovery option will yield very few results.

Pros

This is the best software I have used in years. It is the number one tool to use with students in the classroom or remote. I can send them impossibly long urls with two clicks: no more running around to help them type it correctly. I can close their tabs, send a chat, and see what they see on their screens.

Cons

I cannot think of one thing I do not like about this tool. It has put control of technology in the hands of the teacher.

Pros

- Easy to use and manage
- Offers various ways to manage and view user history and data
- Smart Alerts help with the small details on things that we may not catch on

Cons

- Sometimes slow to adding new features, but when they're added it does it right the first time.

Pros

Able to monitor numerous students at a time. Love the alerts as well

Cons

Theres really not much to not like. Occasionally it will block a site we need our students on but it is a quick fix

Pros

I use it in my classroom, and it is exactly as promised.

Cons

Occasionally, I have to click around a lot to find something, but it isn't a big deal.

Pros

Go guardian is very easy to set up and use. Teachers can monitor students in real time. It truly improves on-task time and accountability.

Cons

It would be nice to have a phone app for the admin dashboard