

Show HN: ClassPager lets teachers send reminders and run live Q&A over SMS. - mahipal
https://www.classpager.com

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biggitybones
First - the site: I love the simplicity. The concept is clear immediately.

Second - the service itself: it's a great angle. Kids love SMS messages and
this embraces the use of technology/cell phones in a positive way. It creates
a more personal connection between teachers and kids without breaching
privacy. We had something similar, though far more basic, when we were working
on an LMS and that was a highlight we often overlooked but got the most
vibrant response.

Great work so far!

~~~
mahipal
Thanks! And I love that line about the "personal connection" without breaching
privacy -- I'll have to use that.

One of the things we've been exploring is ways to integrate over existing LMS
software, and it's been pretty disappointing to hear how no one has any sort
of plugin system or API for apps.

~~~
yequalsx
My experience with LMS providers is that they are 10 years behind the times. I
submitted a bug report to the one my college uses. The system would change
custom javascript code and I couldn't use embed tags. Now they have a
workaround for this.

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ednc
Nice Concept. We're just starting the school process (4yr old), and I'm amazed
to see all the use of tech in schools these days. When I was in school, we
were lucky to have an Apple ][ in the library!

*Question: On your business model, are you hedging that paid classes ($9.99 / month) will just stay under 1,000 texts (Based on twilio .01/per rate) in aggregate and thus leave a little profit for you, or is there more to it?

If there is not more to it, it seems like the 'unlimited' could be risky
(unless your unlimited is really like AT&T's 'unlimited' data plan :-) ).

A class of 25 students might encompass 35-40 devices (including parents). @ 40
devices 1 broadcast per school day is $8.20 cost to you. This does not include
for responses, multiple sends per day, etc..

I know you've thought through all this, and probably have great answers, I'm
just always interested to hear how others think about their price models.
Thanks for sharing.

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2mur
Nice site. Since I'm currently viewing this on IE7 (shoot me now), I can see
that you have an error in you conditional IE comment so I can see it at the
top of the page:

    
    
      <!--[if IE lt 9 ]> <![endif]--> 
    

should be:

    
    
      <!--[if lt IE 9]> css <![endif]-->

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mahipal
Thanks for catching that.

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reason
This is really neat. A few of my relatives are high school teachers that I'm
sure will love this. I'll forward it to tem.

Also, great name. I've seen others in this space with names that aren't quite
as clear as yours, which is important for the demographics you're targeting –
teachers and parents.

~~~
dylangs1030
I'll forward it too, I know several high school teachers. Are you targeting
secondary school teachers or college professors as well?

~~~
mahipal
Thanks! Yes, I've been talking with some college professors, and it looks like
the software would work well there too.

There may need to be some customization of the analytics to handle their
larger classes, which we're open to -- we've basically just been building
features based on the requests from our teachers.

Feel free to pass on my email -- m [at] classpager.com -- if the
teachers/professors have any questions.

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ThomPete
This is exactly how you sell this kind of services. No fancy web design, no
over complex messagin, no geek speak. Just straight to the point
communication. (I say this as a designer)

~~~
mahipal
Thanks Thomas! I love your designs (and <http://www.weekendhacker.net> too :)

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joshmlewis
I think this is really awesome and definitely headed in the right direction as
far as getting teachers more involved with technology, however from my
experience in several different schools, most have been really strict on cell
phone use during school and teacher/student communication outside of school.

It was quite a hassle really because teachers wanted to do more but were
restricted by school policy. I hope schools start to utilize technology in the
classroom.

~~~
mahipal
Yes, that's very true. It's going to take a while to convince schools to
change all these entrenched behaviors and policies.

But, as you're getting at, it's also obvious that technology should be -- and
will be -- an integral part of the classroom in the future. So we're hoping
that, by making it as easy as possible to get on board, and by making the tech
usable both inside and outside the classroom, we'll help teachers and
classrooms move towards this future.

~~~
joshmlewis
Yeah, I totally agree with the idea. I think it's amazing. And the way
teachers still do tests and things by hand in Word is pretty crazy too.
There's a huge market with schools.

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DavidTO1
Do you have any traction yet?

My friend does the same thing <http://www.tophatmonocle.com/>

~~~
__float
That service seems to compete more with <http://polleverywhere.com> than this.

I see a definite familiarity with <http://remind101.com/> though, with which I
have some moderate experience.

EDIT: On a closer look, both even use the same @CLASS subscription method.
That's honestly a little sketchy.

~~~
mahipal
Yes, there are many different angles.

To be clear, the technique of messaging in a special code to a number to
"subscribe" to a service has been around for many, many years before edtech
companies started using it recently. But it's a good approach.

And there's one _big_ difference: services like Remind101 offer broadcasting,
but they don't allow the students to reply.

We're out to open up and optimize the communication between teachers and
students. Over time, each side will get the tools that serve them best. That's
why the UX is web-based for teachers and SMS-based for students.

~~~
vyrotek
For what it's worth... I sent your site to my sister who teaches highschool
biology and she replied:

 _I've been using remind101.com. Looks like the same thing except with mine I
can have as many classes as I want for free. I can't do the questioning thing,
but the kids aren't allowed to have their phones out so I can't use it
anyways._

~~~
mahipal
Hmm, thanks. We'll have to work on the front page copy.

Do her students never reply to the text messages she sends out? That's the
core of the value-add -- whether inside or outside of class, students can
reply to ClassPager and we show it to the teacher on the web site.

If she _doesn't_ want students to be able to reply at all (i.e. she wants it
to be totally 1-way communication) then I'm actually inclined to agree --
Remind101 is definitely the best and most cost-effective choice there.

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mattcrest
My wife is a middle school teacher and created a system similar to this using
a Gmail account. She creates groups for each class, then emails to their SMS
address (phonenumber@att.net or similar).

This looks so much nicer than jacking around with all the various carrier
email addresses manually.

I'll have her pass this along to her district. Best of luck!

~~~
mahipal
Thanks!

If she or other teachers have any questions, they're welcome to email me: m
[at] classpager.com.

~~~
mattcrest
Sounds good. She sent a beta inquiry about getting her school on board with
it.

I think the school/district-wide system is going to be your best bet. As I'm
sure you're aware, teachers don't exactly bring home the bank. So personally
dropping $10/mo for something like this isn't likely going to happen for most
teachers (most provide quite a bit of in-classroom supplies out of pocket as
well).

Something to consider in promoting to schools/districts: lack of parent
involvement is one of the biggest reasons kids aren't doing well in school. By
keeping parents informed on a regular basis about what their kids should be
doing, there's a better chance homework will get done, studying for tests will
happen, and those damn standardized test scores will improve. Well, that's the
hope at least.

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timjahn
I like the clear, easy to understand site. Sounds like a useful product.

Are you marketing this to teachers or the schools?

~~~
mahipal
We've been piloting with teachers, so we're starting by marketing to teachers
directly. The goal is to have a product that's both useful at the free level
and affordable at the premium level, given teachers' budgets.

We've started talking to schools, too, but I think it will be some time before
we really target the marketing there.

~~~
timjahn
I'd be interested to hear your success with teachers directly. My wife's a
high school teacher, so I know that teachers pay out of pocket for almost
everything.

Depends on how passionate the teacher is often.

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ccorcoran
Really awesome application! I passed it along to a couple of my
teacher/professor friends.

Hopefully this can replace a lot of those awful RF-based polling systems that
come packaged a lot of college level textbooks. Physics II in college was
really painful because of our 'clickers'.

~~~
mahipal
Thanks! Yeah, we hate those clickers too.

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2arrs2ells
Great UI, and I love the signup interface. Just emailed it out to a bunch of
my teacher friends.

~~~
mahipal
Thanks! We spent a fair amount of time polishing little UI details.

I really appreciate you forwarding it to your teacher friends. If they have
any questions at all, or just need a walkthrough, they're welcome to email me:
m [at] classpager.com.

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sumukh1
Teachers are looking for stuff like this so the key to success is spreading
the word. There certainly are competitors in your space (ClassParrot etc)

Just curious. Why did you choose to use Twilo as your SMS provider?

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dylangs1030
Here's what I think:

1\. Great idea, especially considering the attention span of a student can be
somewhat diluted with so much modern technology - incorporating that same
technology is a great hook.

2\. Color scheme is good, and so is simplicity, but while erring on the side
of simplicity is better than erring on the side of a very busy screen, it's
still erring. While your concept is clear and concise on the home page, I
personally feel as though there is too much white space (again, this is not a
color scheme issue, but an issue of not enough going on).

3\. What is the stated problem that you are trying to solve with this
technology? In other words, what is the hook you can use to relate to your
audience and persuade them to use the product?

~~~
mahipal
Good feedback -- thanks.

For #2, do you have any suggestions of other things that would work well on
the home page?

And for #3, I went into detail on use cases/specific problems that we solve
here: <https://www.classpager.com/more> \-- Are you suggesting some of that be
moved to the front page, or are you saying that the hook there is still
unclear/not compelling?

~~~
dylangs1030
Actually, you could solve #2 and #3 very easily by moving some of that
material onto the homepage. Personally, I'd go with a simple, clean cut demo
video. "Meet Martha...Martha is a high school teacher. But..." etc. and then
later on in the video describe everything you put into pictures in more
detail. Keep the graphic and diagrams though, in case users like those more
than the video. And between those two, you'd get rid of a lot of white space
hanging around. As for explaining it, the hook is very compelling and clear if
you put one or both of those onto the homepage. Because the homepage as it
stands now gives a basic idea of what the tech _can_ do, but no examples of
_why_ what it does is useful. Having a teacher say, "Remember class is in room
142 today!" via text broadcast is more compelling for teachers than the
comparatively less descriptive graphic you have on the homepage right now.

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briandear
This would be a great feature to integrate with ClassCloud, which is a cloud
based classroom management system. I hope the class pager guys release an API!
Would make my life easier.

