Basically good but really irritating crashing
The basic marking and task setting functionality is good. It works well with Apple Pencil 2 and is definitely slicker than using on a Microsoft tablet. However, the app crashes every time I try to leave a sticker comment, which as an essay subject, is quite a useful function. I can make quick annotations with the pencil but for more substantive inline commentary, the sticky note comments are far better. The app also occasionally crashes for no apparent reason but this is far less frequent.
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Buggy
Has so much potential but full of bugs, some of which have not be resolved for 6 years. Every updated is guaranteed to bring new bugs that take until the next release to fix. Updates are also very slow, so the wait is often long.
This app crashes
This was an immensely useful app for keeping a mark book and marking submitted work but now the app crashes whenever you try and insert a comment on pupil work. The response from Firefly is that fixing the bug it isn’t a priority. Given how much money our school spends on this system I would hope that it might become a priority in the future.
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Dreadful app. Badly designed.
When marking pupils’ work, the app frequently crashes and you lose what you have done.
When marking, the “Save and move onto next pupil” button is located at the bottom right of the screen - exactly where your hand rests as you write. Consequently, you often end up touching it by accident and moving on before you want to. Who on earth designed that? Probably the person that thought having one pen colour for marking was all you need. If a pupil submits work on blue paper or poorly lit, you blue pen will be invisible and you can’t change it.
If a pupil submits a powerpoint file, Firefly converts it into a pdf before you can mark it. The problem is that the Firefly converter has a very limited colour palette and so it often converts the text and the background to the same colour.
So, the app is only useful for marking on screen, which it does badly, and as a link to the website. Overall, rubbish.
When marking, the “Save and move onto next pupil” button is located at the bottom right of the screen - exactly where your hand rests as you write. Consequently, you often end up touching it by accident and moving on before you want to. Who on earth designed that? Probably the person that thought having one pen colour for marking was all you need. If a pupil submits work on blue paper or poorly lit, you blue pen will be invisible and you can’t change it.
If a pupil submits a powerpoint file, Firefly converts it into a pdf before you can mark it. The problem is that the Firefly converter has a very limited colour palette and so it often converts the text and the background to the same colour.
So, the app is only useful for marking on screen, which it does badly, and as a link to the website. Overall, rubbish.
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Crash - but there is a solution!
Great when it works. Not working at the moment very often at all.
After writing this review, I have now worked out a solution. I’ve switched off background refresh ( in settings on the iPad).
This has stopped the app crashing, happy days - this is one of the better marking apps.
Old iPad (6 years), ios14.4.2.
After writing this review, I have now worked out a solution. I’ve switched off background refresh ( in settings on the iPad).
This has stopped the app crashing, happy days - this is one of the better marking apps.
Old iPad (6 years), ios14.4.2.
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Poor but no alternative
Virtually required in the world of remote learning, but when I try and mark students work I can mark one page, and then it shuts itself down. It’s tedious and annoying.
Pretty pointless using this on a phone
I would only try to use the app rather than the desktop version if I suddenly remembered someone I needed to add or mark but it’s pretty pointless trying to do that anyway as the app crashes every time I try to use it.
POOR
Not helpful for remote learning. When it isn’t crashing, it won’t let you copy tasks, copy pages, upload content quickly.
Why are we still here just to suffer
I hate this torture
Poor in every way
Just crashes all the time and refuses to load work
Potential
Audio feedback really useful, editing capability poor but still better than desktop. Crashes frequently, the children’s work used to load immediately now takes ages and constantly need to reload before it can be opened. What did you change.
Great when it doesn’t crash
This app has been great during lock down. The ability to mark work on the iPad and leave quality oral feedback has been well received by my students.
The frustration comes, as many others have said and it has also happened to everybody in my department, is that the app crashes during marking. It happens about once a week. After the crash you can no longer load pupils work. The only solution is to delete the app and reinstall it. Then you’ve got to log back on and it takes about 5 minutes to reload all the work and messages.
It seems to be getting more frequent. Happy if I can go for a day without it crashing.
The frustration comes, as many others have said and it has also happened to everybody in my department, is that the app crashes during marking. It happens about once a week. After the crash you can no longer load pupils work. The only solution is to delete the app and reinstall it. Then you’ve got to log back on and it takes about 5 minutes to reload all the work and messages.
It seems to be getting more frequent. Happy if I can go for a day without it crashing.
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Potential
The app actually is quicker to mark and give feedback on compared to my laptop. However, it is way to unreliable. It crashes once every 10-15 minutes, which could be in the middle of writing feedback which then hasn’t saved.
Fire Fly has made the home learning much more straightforward for my students, and it’s functionality is much better than other VLEs. However, the app lets it down considering most students will be accessing the content through their phones and tablets.
Fire Fly has made the home learning much more straightforward for my students, and it’s functionality is much better than other VLEs. However, the app lets it down considering most students will be accessing the content through their phones and tablets.
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Not very good
The app is slow, it crashes frequently, I usually redownload it every week or so. It seems to work OK for a few hours after and then the problems start again - I am half way through marking and suddenly the app shuts down, the work I have marked has not saved. When I type a comment, there is usually a few seconds lag. When I try to open a student’s work it can take anything from 20 seconds to never. When transferring a piece of work from email to the app it sometimes loses the entire task (although the task is still on the website). Too many problems to be worth using. It would have potential if it did what it was supposed to.
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Just crashes all the time
Crashes on nearly every piece of work I am trying to mark. Utter rubbish and totally frustrating until this is sorted. My colleagues are experiencing the same problems. Done everything that Firefly has suggested - delete and reinstall (numerous times); make sure IOS is up-to-date. All to no avail. Please rectify as a matter of urgency.
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If only it worked
I am using Firefly tinder and mark work for distance learning, it has been great for this. Unfortunately I have to rate the App as unusable, it crashes/shuts down so regularly without saving work that it is impossible to use for annotating and marking work, one of its main functions.
0 stars
I absolutely love Firefly as a teaching tool and with social distancing, it has meant that the students can still easily access work. That being said, I would never willingly use this app (and am stuck doing so because of social distancing). When marking pupils work, Firefly will often shut down without saving a copy of the pdf I was annotating. The tasks bar does not let me select my classes—it has included extra classes that I was made a co-teacher for a singular task, that I have since removed myself from. Otherwise, I have no link to these classes. They are not displayed on the website, but the app insists that I have ownership of these classes and therefore refuses to open my actual classes’ tasks. Despite the apparent update, the app does not allow me to attach a file (pdf or jpeg) from my iPad as feedback to pupils (which I can do in the web version). The app also does not let me modify tasks and instead directs me to the web version. Our IT have been in contact with Firefly regarding these issues and the response is to uninstall and reinstall the program, which takes a fair bit of time. Uninstalling and reinstalling does make it function well for a little, but we’re 6 school weeks into lock down and I’ve had to uninstall and reinstall more times than that.
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Keeps crashing
Great design and user friendly, but it keeps crashing after only a few minutes of use.
No
No
When it works, it’s great
I started using this at the beginning of the year, and found it to be great. However, updates have introduced two bugs, both of which will be deal breakers if they aren’t fixed.
1. You can no longer set tasks through the app - there is no “next” button from page two of the process.
2: Marking onscreen on my iPad Pro is no longer full screen, but a small window in the middle.
The concept and execution is generally impressive, though - a real boon to marking, management and planning.
Edit: first problem has been fixed, and quickly! Received an email about the second as well - a change to IPadOS has forced the change, and they’re working on a solution
1. You can no longer set tasks through the app - there is no “next” button from page two of the process.
2: Marking onscreen on my iPad Pro is no longer full screen, but a small window in the middle.
The concept and execution is generally impressive, though - a real boon to marking, management and planning.
Edit: first problem has been fixed, and quickly! Received an email about the second as well - a change to IPadOS has forced the change, and they’re working on a solution
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Response from developer
Thank you for your feedback and we are so sorry you are having problems. We have fixed the first issue you pointed out and if you check the app is up to date, you should be able to set tasks without a problem. We have also identified your second problem which occurred as a result of the iOS 13 update and have made a fix that will go into the next release. We are sorry for the inconvenience these bugs have caused and appreciate your feedback to help us identify them. Please continue to leave us feedback or send us a message from the Settings, Send Feedback section of the app or email us at support@fireflylearning.com.
