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The internet has become a valuable tool for collaboration, although most applications in this area are focused on businesses. Collaborize classroom takes some of those same principals and applies them in a learning environment. Collaborize Classroom lets users use less paper and create effective lesson plans supplemented by online learning. Users can download free lesson plans to get started and incorporate various multi media into each lesson, including Microsoft Office documents, pictures, videos and PDF documents. Students and teachers can hold online discussions, which helps students learn how to communicate online in a way that is positive and respectful. Teachers can see an overview of discussion participation reports, that include each student and how many response or new comments they added to the discussion. Various question types are also available, including multiple choice, yes or no and voting or suggestion style answers.

Collaborize Classroom was created by Democrasoft. Democrasoft is a software company that focuses on collaboration and voting platforms. Their primary offering is Collaborize, which was customized for educators through Collaborize Classroom. The Democrasoft team is currently based out of Santa Rosa, California and includes Marketing Director Mark Kithcart, Digital Media and Public Relations Manager Shana Ray and Marketing Manager Natalia Jaramillo.

Collaborize Classroom gives teachers many ways to enhance their lesson plans through online access. The application offers many of the same features as other similar applications. Users can easily put together lessons or host discussions among students to encourage more participation. Collaborize Classroom provides easy to read results, including discussion participation data that can help educators come up with better ways to improve learning on an individual student level.

Collaborize Classroom welcomes users with a clean design and easy to navigate layout. The primarily grey and white background is contrasted by dark gold text and design elements. The stylish Collaborize Classroom logo is highlighted by the silhouettes of cheering people and a graduation cap. The application allows users to navigate using large, neat tabs with sizable buttons that make it easy to find the right options.

Newcomers can become Collaborize Classroom users by filling out the short registration form presented right on the homepage. The form is positioned along the right hand side and requires a first and last name as well as an email address. After filling out the form, the user can click the gold “Create My Free Site!” button at the bottom. The next form asks for additional information including a phone number, school name, zip code, password and terms of use agreement. The next page asks the user to sign in to their new account to begin adding settings for classrooms and student access. The entire process takes a matter of minutes to get the user started.

Collaborize Classroom is available to educators for free. There are no set up or subscription fees. At this time, no premium paid membership is offered, either. This is definitely a good thing for educators who might be working with a tight budget. Collaborize Classroom offers many features, and at the best price possible. Whether or not this will change in the future remains to be seen. For now, the application shows no indication that it plans to change its free access any time soon.

Collaborize Classroom is an excellent tool for educators anywhere. The free access is a huge plus for those with little spare funds to put into a supplemental learning tool. The features are numerous and can help reduce the amount of time needed to grade student work each week.

• Reduce the amount of time needed to grade student work each week
• Scan discussion overviews to see which students are participating
• Ask questions with yes or no or multiple choice answer options
• Post survey style questions to get student input and keep the class thinking
• Provide easy access to vital resources through Collaborize Classroom

Collaborize Classroom video

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