# Equity Maps - Premium — Classroom Discussion Mapping

> Classroom discussion mapping and analysis tool for educators and students. (iPhone/iPad app by David Nelson.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/equity-maps-premium/id1461134486 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [David Nelson](https://appshunter.io/developer/1027153377)
- Category: Education, Business
- Price: $9.99
- Rating: 4.73/5 from 52 App Store ratings · 7 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 12.1 · 57 MB
- Languages: English
- Released: 2019-04-30
- Data updated: 2026-08-22
- Monetization: paid
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/equity-maps-premium/id1461134486/reviews.md

## What is Equity Maps?

• Elevate the voices in the room -- help students to reflect & grow! 
• Provide Instant Feedback – Nurture Reflection – Ignite Collaboration – Promote Equity
• Created by teachers, for teachers, & their students. 

Ideal for Socratic seminars, Spider Web™ & Harkness® (*) discussions, Literature Circles, Dialogic lesson designs, or anytime students interact.

Effortlessly chart & record students’ interactions to graphically illustrate levels & types of participation. Spur deeper reflection with the discussion maps, instant analytics & animated playback at multiple speeds.

NEW IN PREMIUM! – Export sessions to other Premium users, send feedback & data through PDFs to individual students or post in your LMS, along with their talk time, Checknotes of types of contributions, the discussion map, & your feedback.

PREMIUM FEATURES:

• Up to 40 participants w/unlimited seating options
• Quick edit features to create, import, & group students w/ Identity Markers
• Playback the discussion maps in real-time or fast-forward
• Select & listen to any speaker & view notes linked to their participation
• Export sessions to other Premium users
• Export audio or analytics to post for students or send as PDFs via email or to CSV file to track over time
• Track student contributions w/ Checknotes - 17 templates or customize your own
• Add Checknotes & comments for students following the discussion
• Individual/Group analytics – Include/Exclude participants from the data to see how the dynamics change
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CONFERENCE WITH YOUR STUDENTS OR TEACHERS:

• Debrief w/students individually! Review contributions of any one student in the improved participant analytics: see each time the student spoke & playback what they said, or play from the person who spoke before/after, review notations for that student, participation data, or Checknotes… all on one screen! 

• Give better feedback! Take notes or write comments during or after the discussion that link directly to the student speaking and share with them immediately after.
	
• Identify Markers: customize the groups w/n your class that you’d like to measure, such as grade level, language level, race, seating area, or anything you’d like to see.

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REFLECTIVE DATA AT YOUR FINGERTIPS:

• Simply tap on the participants’ icons when they speak & Equity Maps will do the rest by visually charting the interactions & calculating levels of participation. 

• Track the nature of each participants' contributions with Checknotes, choose among the 17 templates or create your own, or take notes during or after the discussion that attach to the speaker for review after.

• The “Feedback Frames” provide key statistics for teachers, students or group members: time spoken, times spoken, gender equity, or customize anything you’d like to measure. 

TEACHERS:
• Enhance your Socratic Seminars, Literature Circles, Harkness®(*) discussions, or full classroom discussions
• Monitor & assess Common Core Speaking & Listening Standards, ATL, Dialogic lessons, or seminar criteria
• Promote student involvement & self-reflection
• Perfect for schools with VPP for 50% discount

FACILITATORS & GROUP LEADERS:
• Encourage deeper reflection of your group’s goals, norms & processes
• Give your boss an Equity Check & share how equitable your last meeting was
• Critical Friends Group® coaches & facilitators (CFG work) or in PLCs

ADMINISTRATORS & INSTRUCTIONAL COACHES:
• Provide teachers an “image” of their classroom instruction like they’ve never seen before!
• Revitalize reflective practices for teachers, while reducing anxiety of post-observation meetings
• Make your classroom observations more meaningful & reflective

------
Equity Maps® is a registered trademark at the USPTO / U.S. Pat. No 10,553,129

*Equity Maps has been developed completely independent of Phillips Exeter Academy & is not affiliated in any way with the academy. 

Critical Friends Group® is a registered trademark of the National School Reform Faculty (NSRF®)

## Key features

- Visualize student interaction
- Instant feedback and reflection
- Ignite collaboration
- Promote equity
- Detailed analytics
- Exportable session data
- Customizable contribution tracking

## Recent user reviews (7 of 7)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/equity-maps-premium/id1461134486/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Versatile and Friendly

*2026-08-05, version 7.0*

I purchased the premium app years ago to track participation in our professional collaboration team to see if we could improve our sharing ideas and feedback better. It helped all of us see where we could speak up or step back differently to respect everyone’s thinking. After that, I brought Equity Maps into my high school classroom. Pre- COVID, we were really seeing significant growth in student voice. It took a while to build that back up, and this app helped. 
My role has shifted to an instructional coach. I still use this app to support my colleagues. 
In the app, there is the option to track Spider Web Discussions, which are a model described in Alexis Wiggins’s book, The Best Class You Never Taught. The pairing of this app and that strategy created a huge shift in how my colleagues and I have true class discussions that lead to deeper engagement and learning.

### 5/5 — Love the new export functions!

*2024-03-25*

Having the ability to send feedback directly to each student, along with the stats and discussion map, is awesome. Thanks for adding the ability to add comments and Checknotes after the class is over as well.  

Students can now use the app in their Lit Circles and export the entire map to me to listen to after.  I can have 4 smaller groups discussing at once and provide feedback to each group after.  Very cool!

### 5/5 — Invaluable

*2022-10-12, version 4.3*

If you use Harkness or Socratic style discussions, this app is a must have. This app easily tracks conversations, but there’s more to it than that. It records audio of conversations and you can match that in the app to the person who spoke. It has check marks that allows you to record qualities of contributions or type of contributions to the conversations such as “critical thinking” or “disruptive comment” east time a student speaks. There’s so much more. This data can be used in reflection to provide feedback to students and teachers alike. I can do some things this app does on paper, but this app does it better. The developer quickly replies to emails and requests as well.

### 4/5 — Awesome - Add Co-Teacher / Google Classroom Function?

*2022-04-12, version 4.2*

This app is awesome! I only feel limited by the collaboration element. I have a co-teacher and use a school provided iPad that is shared, so being able to log in and share a platform with a coteacher would be very helpful. The csv files can be helpful in sharing data, but sharing directly on the app would be more user friendly. Additionally, google classroom integration and importing student info would save SO much time!

### 5/5 — Keeps Getting Better

*2021-05-03, version 3.3*

This is the BEST discussion tracking/reflection app out there. I first used this app with a group of honors Language Arts 7th graders to log participation in Socratic Seminars. Students were engaged from the beginning, and were eager to see participation times and times spoken in the Feedback Frames section.

The ability to record and playback discussions is terrific, and the new features, like the non-binary person icon and class import from .txt are great.

### 5/5 — Update - This is a quality app that does what it says it will do.

*2020-10-13, version 3.2*

Updated review - The developer contacted me after my initial review. We discussed the problems I ran into.  He offered short term fixes (they worked) and said he'd get his team to build more long term solutions into a revision.  The app has been updated. Looks like the problems I experienced are gone.        

The app itself has helped improve the discssions in my Zoom classes.  I charted several discussion sessions and shared the results with my class. My goal is to get more people contributing in class.  I played back the network graphic that shows who talks to whom (and supporting data about how long each person talks), and I noticed an immediate change in the class behavior.  More people spoke; fewer people dominated discussions.

There is a bit of a cognitive load developing the muscle memory allowing you to attend to the discussion and map it.  But the learning curve was not steep.

There is a lot one can do with this app; I’ve barely struck the surface of its capabilities. It might help to have someone assisting with the app while you are running the class.  But in these distance learning plague days, that may not be possible.

Excellent app.  Attentive customer service. Something that actually  makes my classes better.

[Initial review] I like the idea of the app. I think it will get better.  I use it with my 2020 iPad Pro to track conversations in seminars.  It works fine for an hour or two.  I found it has a tendency to crash when the seminar extends beyond a few hours and/or there are a lot of interactions among the seminar participants. I’ll stick with it for awhile. But i won’t yet rely on it.

### 3/5 — Hard to see text

*2020-03-02, version 2.6*

I really like this app, but some of the text is hard to read due to the color of the text/background. The black letters on the dark grey background are borderline impossible.

## Frequently asked questions about Equity Maps

### What is Equity Maps used for?

Equity Maps is used to chart and record student interactions during classroom discussions, visually illustrating participation levels and types. It helps teachers and students reflect on and improve their engagement.

### How does Equity Maps promote equity?

By visually mapping who speaks and how often, Equity Maps helps identify participation imbalances. Teachers can then use this data to encourage more equitable distribution of speaking time among students.

### What are the premium features of Equity Maps?

Premium features include exporting sessions to other users, sending feedback and data via PDFs to students or LMS, tracking talk time, contribution types, discussion maps, and personalized feedback.

### Can I track individual student contributions with Equity Maps?

Yes, Equity Maps allows you to track individual student contributions using customizable 'Checknotes' and provides individual analytics, including talk time and specific notations linked to their participation.

### What devices does Equity Maps support?

Equity Maps is currently supported on iPads, allowing for interactive use in a classroom setting.

### How often is Equity Maps updated?

The app was last updated on October 13, 2025, indicating active development and support from the developer.

### What is the pricing for Equity Maps?

Equity Maps is a paid application priced at $9.99. There are no in-app purchases or subscriptions mentioned.

### What is the age rating for Equity Maps?

Equity Maps has an age rating of 4+, making it suitable for use in educational settings with young learners through to higher education.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 7.0 — 2025-10-13

Awesome new functions for providing student feedback!
Send PDFs of feedback and seminar data to students or place them in your LMS
Share the audio, or each student's audio, directly with them!
Expanded seating and more natural maps and webs! 
More features, same low price!

### 6.1 — 2024-04-21

Check out these new features!
• Export/ Share sessions and data with another Premium Equity Maps user
• Email individualized feedback, maps, and participation reports directly to your students or upload to your LMS
• Add Checknotes and comments for students after the class
• New colors and patterns for the icons
• Made easier:  adding emails, quick editing of info, sorting sessions, sorting feedback frames, and much more!
• We've added the ability to use AirPods during playback
• Removed a few bugs that caused occasional crashes. 
• Removed some bugs.

### 6.0 — 2024-03-04

Check out these new features!
• Export sessions and data with another Premium Equity Maps user
• Email individualized feedback, maps, and participation reports directly to your students or upload to your LMS
• Add Checknotes and comments for students after the class
• New colors and patterns for the icons
• Made easier:  adding emails, quick edit of info, sort sessions, sort feedback frames, and much more!

### 5.5 — 2023-10-13

• Fixed bug with some icons sticking in the upper left corner of the layout - sorry for the troubles!
• Export Audio & Class Analytics - Post in your LMS or email directly to your students along with their talk time, Checknotes of types of contributions, the discussion map, & your personal feedback.
• Export Participant Analytics (beta) to post in your Learning Management System LMS) or email directly to your students
• Add comments & notations for students after the discussion & send instantly along with the talk time & Checknotes – more effective feedback with less hassle!
• Quick edit of participants & quick entry of Identity Markers
• Average talk time & average times spoken now visible in the feedback frames
• Edit participant information after the meetings: icons, gender, identity markers, emails, & participant info.
3,222

### 5.4 — 2023-10-10

• Export Audio & Class Analytics - Post in your LMS or email directly to your students along with their talk time, Checknotes of types of contributions, the discussion map, & your personal feedback.
• Fixed some minor bugs for a smoother ride! 
• Export Participant Analytics (beta) to post in your Learning Management System LMS) or email directly to your students
• Add comments & notations for students after the discussion & send instantly along with the talk time & Checknotes – more effective feedback with less hassle!
• Quick edit of participants & quick entry of Identity Markers
• Average talk time & average times spoken now visible in the feedback frames
• Edit participant information after the meetings: icons, gender, identity markers, emails, & participant info.

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## More apps by David Nelson

- [Equity Maps – Standard](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/equity-maps-standard/id1027153378)

All apps by David Nelson: https://appshunter.io/developer/1027153377

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-22.*
