The program's overall ease of use is a huge time-saver (always a plus for busy teachers) and I can't say enough about the helpful Simbi team. Having used many other reading platforms prior to this one, I can conclusively say that Simbi is a top-runner in its designs and features that it offers, and the platform I will continue to use for as long as possible.

This year I am teaching online full-time to learners in grades four to six. Simbi has been an online educator's dream come true by allowing flexibility in tailoring relevant and meaningful reading instruction to a diverse range of needs. The books and recordings help promote globalization and an inclusive reading culture. When assigning students a book to narrate, they are able to access their assignments at home and record themselves reading, thereby allowing me the unique opportunity to listen in when it fits between our online classes. The "Tell Me" feature is valuable in allowing me to create and pose questions for students specific to the text they've read, which has really helped with building and assessing students' reading comprehension skills. In addition to these features, Simbi also provides data on students' accuracy and reading rate, making it very easy to identify areas for celebration and targets for setting new reading goals. The icing on the cake is that I can leave feedback for students quickly and easily by recording audio after any page they've read or the "Tell Me" activity, so the feedback is constructive and meaningful. Thank you for developing this reading platform!

I've only encountered a few hiccups since exploring Simbi this year. Occasionally, the emailed link to a new assignment was not directing students (or me, when emailed an assignment completion notification) to the assignment when clicked. However, the Simbi tech team has worked to correct this error and it rarely happens anymore. Additionally, the student dropdown list won't always load after clicking on an assignment. I have to sometimes locate the assignment recording for a student by finding the student first, then accessing their activity feed. In that sense, the ease of use could be bumped up a little (but these minor inconveniences definitely do not outweigh the pros of using Simbi). One feature that would be nice to see in Simbi is the ability to click on a word in the running record and have the audio recording jump to that word. Taking that one step further, it would be nice to have the option to change the colour-coding/scoring of a word read by clicking on it and selecting an option. For example, if Simbi marked a word as being read incorrectly, but I listen to it and hear that it is actually correct, I'd like to be able to click that word and change it to show as correct (which would also then be adjusted in the overall accuracy rating).

How easy it is for the students to navigate through the website. I also love how it does the assessment and I can listen to the students reading.

The amount of glitches the system has and how it does not always record their voices even when they have pressed record.

I think this application has a lot of potential. Unfortunately we haven't been able to make use of all that it has to offer because of the processing speed and glitches. I hope we can sort it out to that students have a positive experience with the interface. They love the content and the idea of narrating but haven't truely been able to use those features yet.

I love the variety of books, including Canadian and Indigenous authors. The platform is simple and fairly easy to navigate. It also seems quite easy to set tasks for students and to observe their progress.

The platform is painfully slow. I'm not sure if its a school issue or a website issue. There is no iPad app, and the website has been glitchy and difficult to click around on when using it on an iPad. We use this app during Daily 5, where students only have 25 minutes for the station. Logging on to laptops is too time consuming so we need to use iPads. The kids have found the filter options the most finicky. The options show up very small and are hard to press.

Overall, I love simbi.io as a good choice with a lot of variety of levelled readers that are engaging and a good fit for my students. They love reading simbi books and ask to use the classroom ipads often. My issues with it are more on the "timing" side - I wish that the books read were displayed in "real time" so students could be motivated immediately by seeing the number of class read book total increase right away. Also - the leaderboard seems to be "off" too reflecting that some students have read more than others, but this number isn't accurate?

I like the selection of books and the levelled readers, l like the narration feature and read to self, I like that others can hear finished recordings so that students all over the world can benefit from hearing different readers

The updating of the "amount of total books" is off. When a student reads a book (for example) it isn't reflected immediately in the group total. Makes is less motivating when we're (as a group) trying to reach 100 books read (for example) and a child reads a book in class, then it's not reflected in the tally right away when we look up the total on the online platform. I find some elements to be confusing to understand, and I would like another tutorial.

Overall I love simbi and hope to use it again with future classes.

The students are really engaged and eager to use the program. They enjoy being able to earn stars and pick new characters, and love listening to one another's narration. The students learned how to use it independently very quickly. I also love the tell me option for assignments, getting to ask comprehension questions then listen to their answers later on is fantastic!

It would be awesome to have QR login option, where the students can scan the code and be logged in. For some typing out their username and password can be tricky to do independently. A few students have had problems with the glitches on the journey page, they get all black or only get one book option to read.

I have enjoyed using Simbi with my students. It gives them another option for reading in the classroom.

I really enjoyed the way the software was presented to students. I enjoyed that they got to go on their journey of reading. My students love the recording their reading option. I also love how you can change their names and passwords if necessary.

I have yet to figure it out, so I might be missing something, but once you have generated a list of students, I can't seem to find a user-friendly way to print the name spreadsheet a second time. It will generate the list for you the first time and you have the option to print, but if you missed someone and need to add them, you cannot seem to go and print a new name login sheet list again.

I like the selection of books non-fiction and fiction. I also love the different series. I like that I can have students narrate so that I can track fluency and reading at the same time.

Students report having problems narrating. Also having problems narrating and then the software stops them in the middle of reading. Sometimes their are glitches and the student gets a message that they have read the book or book completed when they didn't read it or only read a few pages. This can be super frustrating and as you know we want to make reading easy without glitches as it can be hard to get students to read at all.

The product is relatively easy to use. Students are able to login and read books and record themselves reading which they enjoy!

It seems to have glitches when it comes to using it on their ipads versus a laptop. It would be amazing if there was an app instead. Their logins are very long and complicated, although I think there is a way for me to edit them that would be time consuming for a whole class. The other thing is I am unable to print the usernames and logins again after the first time submitting them which is problematic given my students have now lost a lot of theirs.

Simbi is a fantastic reading platform that was easy for children to use at home. The read along feature is just what my emergent readers need. I really love the narration feature that allows me to listen to my students as they read aloud. I also love that parents could use Simbi at home for free.

I wish that there was an app for Simbi so that we could have used it more at school as well. We have limited access to devices so my students take turns using them. Having to use a web browser to log in and enter passwords was too much for my K/1 class.

I love the option of narrating books and also listening to others from other countries narrate. The Simbi journey and characters are fun! The Read for Good mission is inspiring.

Simbi continuously works to improve features and usability for teachers and students.

The reading passage options The Gear connection

Student log in options Having to record each page separately when narrating

our teachers like it - still in the beginning phase with one school on board using it this past school year - other schools seem to be interested now

user friendly - recording student narration - choice of books - individualization of student needs (questions)

nothing, we are happy with the software only complaint is glitches when all students are on it at the same time

My students and I enjoy using Simbi as part of our reading program. It is easy for me to assign work and it is easy for the students to access their assignments and track their progress.

Easy to use and easy for students to use at school and at home.

The "Reading Record" was not very accurate.

Love it! Students enjoy the book selection and the features

The features to read aloud, listen or record reading

A little confusing re: some features and how to use them

I really enjoyed the Recording option for the kids to read out loud

Glitches many times my kids complained about glitches

It has been good, but the program glitches a lot

I have enjoyed the program and I like it all so much. However, I wish it was an app, I wish there were less glitches. Some students have to record voices over and over. Otherwise really good!

The program has glitches many times when students work

I am pretty happy with it so far.

I like how students can record their narrations for others to use in their reading. The books are levelled which is helpful. Students were motivated to get new avatars on their reading timeline.

I wish there were even more books on Simbi.