Synap VS CoinsPaid

Excellent. First, Synap is helping my students to reinforce their knowledge of complex medical information. Traditionally, the most motivated university students have always formulated their own self-study test questions to improve their knowledge. However, although the bulk of students would be willing to use such question items, most of them would not have the time to formulate their own question items. By structuring a formal system for all students to use with Synap, it means that all students benefit, and that the question items are curated and vouchsafed by the module management team. This means that there is consistency and accuracy, as well as increased engagement. The Synap team have been extraordinarily helpful with every step of the process. They helped with item uploading, engagement data gathering, and even structuring a separate private environment reserved for my students (essential for issues with intellectual property and privacy). I know more about how my students, on average, use the excellent system. This is helping us to move forward with both educational best practise and educational research publications.

Pros: Synap has made a bespoke online testing programme for my university medical school students to reinforce their knowledge. The software was greatly appreciated by the students, who liked the fact that it was easy to use and also worked with a mobile app (although most of my students seemed to access it with a laptop -- which makes sense for formal studies). I found that the Synap interface was easy to use both for uploading and for correcting issues with poorly performing items.

Cons: I do not have anything negative to say about the Synap workspace. I should say that my students did not use the spaced reinforcement function because our plans did not include it.

From my first meeting with this team, I was blown away by their professionalism, their ability to accommodate any and all (and even strange) request, and their willingness to assist and to provide an amazing professional service in very stressful conditions. Examinations are never an easy time to work with students for the first time, but as a Third world country we had some extra curveballs that had nothing to do with the global coronavirus pandemic. During our examinations we had stage 4 loadshedding (this means that our national electricity provider cuts the electricity grids across the country for 3 hours at a time 4 times a day) The impact this had on a normal examination and the stress levels of our students were immense. But, this team got every single student through the exam with a professional attitude, support and kindness. (If I am honest, the way they dealt with my students sometimes put me to shame.. I am not nearly as level headed as these individuals) They even kept me calm. If I hear of the examination experiences that so many of the other universities had I am so lucky that I found this company. I am never going back to writing a paper-based exam and I will not use another examination provider. This company made the 2020 academic year, that brought unparalleled challenges in tertiary education, a success. I got glowing reviews from students (and not just the ones that passed). We all sing the praises of this programme and the kind people behind it.

Pros: We used the program for online examinations. It was incredibly easy to use. There are so many useful features, e.g the fact that students could access all the sources that they need on the platform, the life-chat function that provided immediate real-time and professional assistance, the recording of the examinations and the clear instructions, made this program ideal for our first online examinations.

Cons: The only thing would be (and this is just a suggestion, it was not a problem) If it is possible to highlight each correct answer for each student for MCQ questions. The rest was really easy and easily integrated in our current LMS systems.

It’s been a pleasure working with CoinsPaid for the past year. The platform is easy to use, customizable, and incredibly user-friendly. Additionally, the team has been nothing but helpful and we’re always able to reach someone whenever we have any questions.

Overall we can’t recommend CoinsPaid enough and we look forward to a continued partnership