Sibme Reviews

Works well with struggling teachers

Pros:

This software works well when trying to develop struggling teachers. It allows you to give them feedback from actual lessons with the chance for them to see themselves. True growth can occur when used correctly.

Cons:

Its a little hard to configure in the beginning but smooth after you play with it for a while...

Sibme

Pros:

Sibme allows me to provide a space to collaborate with teachers through discussions, shared resources, and video reflection.

Cons:

There are many features that can be utilized through Sibme that make coaching effective and collaborative. Sometimes the links to Google documents when uploaded don't allow you to use it as a live document.

Strong Mission and Responsive Staff, but Glitchy Product

Comments: It's a promising platform that has helped us unlock sharing potential in our organization. However, it feels on shaky technological ground for the ways our team uses it. As the administration liaison, I spend too much time putting out small fires and trying to understand what is a Sibme issue versus something a team member is doing wrong.

Pros:

The core features are usually solid and intuitive to new users - adding team members, uploading and commenting on videos. As an education leadership coaching organization with over 50 coaches, we have used Sibme to help our coaches re-watch and improve upon their own practices by letting development conversations be grounded in real examples of their work. Plus, other non-coaching staff now have an easy window into coaching without pestering coaches! In our COVID virtual coaching environment, grounding org learning in video sharing was invaluable. It saves everyone time and the collaboration features to enhance this org learning (commenting, sharing, tagging pre-set categories) are easy to use.

Cons:

Though the core service is solid, I encounter tech glitches and question marks at a frustratingly high rate. It's small things - user permission mismatch across pages, confusing naming conventions (the account wide "Admin-User-Viewer" and Huddle-level "Admin-Member-Viewer" have very similar names but different meanings, which is confusing), audio issues for uploads, and several areas of confusion or disconnect in the new Zoom-Sibme "Conference" integration. This latter piece would have been excellent to use in the COVID virtual coaching environment, but was troublesome enough that our team never meaningfully used the integration. More robust and coherent help guides on the Zoom-Sibme integration (with video!) would be a good start. Our customer service manager is very responsive and solutions-oriented and I'm grateful for her! But technical solutions seem slow and often incomplete.

Moving the Needle on Evidence-Based Design

Comments: I discover something new that I can do with sent me all the time. I would use it in every part of my work ff I could. It feels personal, safe, accessible, and productive.

Pros:

I like the fact that send me offers privacy for formative learning. I like that in a great school setting with evidence. I like that it pairs common technological components like video with reflection.

Cons:

As a comprehensive system in a space, that is a bit of a paradigm shift in education (evidence-based coaching), folks often find it a bit overwhelming. To say that it’s the technology or the paradigm shift that’s overwhelming is hard to say.

Video mentoring

Comments: Excellent

Pros:

Being able to connect the TCEs and my comments at the actual time during the classroom video visit, allows my interns and student teachers to comprehend exactly what was seen. This allows valuable discussions and a great resource for beginning teachers.

Cons:

My students have had difficulty with uploading videos onto the Sibme platform.

Amazing and Helpful Program!

Comments: My overall experience was great. It was positive and I would do it again.

Pros:

First, Sibme was instrumental in keeping me on track to complete my micro-credentials. Having a set meeting time each week allowed me to be accountable and finish the work. Also, the mentor I worked with was very good. She was knowledgeable and helpful and someone who I would now consider a friend. The templates broke down each part of the MCs so they were easy to do.

Cons:

The only thing I didn't like was the schedule locking. After you choose a day/time, you're locked into that. However, my mentor was very flexible and would allow me to change the day/time if I needed.

great !

Comments: Great

Pros:

I love the customer service. Everyone is available. I love the way the communication allows me to get th e information right to the teacher.

Cons:

The features are super user friendly. I wished it had more options with suggestions. I would like to see more drop down tabs.

Easy and efficient

Comments: Overall, this was a wonderful experience and I hope to work with my coach in the future.

Pros:

The features are user friendly and getting paired with a knowledgeable coach makes the process all the more easier.

Cons:

The video uploading was a little difficult--maybe a couple of extra steps that are not necessary.

Sibme Feedback

Comments: Great!

Pros:

Allows for group interaction to gage student teacher performance. Likewise, students benefit from feedback including recommendations and commendations.

Cons:

Probably more flexibility in the video feedback box.

Cool product, but difficult to use

Pros:

You can have multiple places to share -one with your manager -one with your team -one with your network etc It's convenient to have a shared platform across the board.

Cons:

It's not very intuitive. You have to upload more than once. For many folks, it was difficult to use, so I was often explaining it. This con greatly outweighed the Pros for me because our staff couldn't use it effectively. If it was more user-friendly, I would love it!

Excellent tool for Enhancing the Coaching Relationship

Comments: The Sibme team has been an incredible partner in the work. They are always responsive and solve problems and deliver support in rapid fashion. The toolset has much to offer and we believe it will truly enhance our coaching partnerships.

Pros:

Sibme is a well-conceived asynchronous coaching tool that enhances the coaching relationship with leaders and teachers. It extends the reach of the coaching relationship and creates opportunities for personalizing the professional learning experience through video-enhanced professional learning. Most notably, the mobile app is fully functional and incorporates all the web-based features. This was a real differentiator. The Sibme team is always innovating.

Cons:

It warrants a culture shift in the way we coach. This requires a learning journey that both our coaching team and the leaders and teachers we coach have to be willing to take. We think there's real value in making the leap to blended coaching, but it does place an added burden on all stakeholders.

Efficiency

Comments: Sibme has been a wonderful much needed software. The support team was especially helpful in the set up. The team was extremely patient in the set up stages.
It’s been a fantastic experience.

Pros:

I needed a software they allowed for quick, simple scheduling. It’s neat to look at, uncomplicated enough for children to sign in and use. Also great for adults who are not computer savvy.

Cons:

I love the software. No negatives so far.

Must Have!

Comments: Overall, I am pleased with the product. If support is needed then the Sibme team is there.

Pros:

I love that the software has all of the "bells and whistles" that support my role as a coach to pre-k educators. The program is reasonably priced and the customer service team is dynamic! I look forward to becoming more familiar with the software and onboarding my teaching teams.

Cons:

The system is a bit complex and it would be great if there were information icons above some of the features to guide or provide information about the feature. The zoom integration feature has been a challenge to adjust to and is a bit complicated to use. The software may be a bit challenging for those who are not as tech savvy so time will need to be taken during setup and onboarding of teachers and teams. More tutorial videos on YouTube with concrete exampled of how to set up the system would be helpful.

Thank you

Comments: I have been very happy with its ease of use!

Pros:

This program is versatile with the ever-changing needs at our school.

Cons:

Working to ease employee’s comfort level in being recorded. This is not a problem at all anymore.

Review of Sibme

Comments: We are trying to evaluate different teaching strategies as teachers and a chance for us to receive coaching as 1st/2nd year teachers. Our mentor doesn't have to show up in person and can watch the videos and I think this is great because it lowers everyones affective filters.

Pros:

I like being able to upload attachments into their selected categories. Also, having the google drive function has been a game changer as I can connect my work account and upload files that way and saves so much time!

Cons:

I think it can be less wordy and make the links to new pages for noticeable. For example when clicking onto your huddle it just shows a tile of your name and who is in it but not a noticeable click on function.

Collaborative Space for Teacher Teams

Comments: I have been very pleased with our overall experience. Sibme is extremely responsive to our needs as an organization and we appreciate the just in time resources and support.

Pros:

Sibme makes collaboration easy and puts everything needed as an instructional coach in one place. The platform (both on the desktop and app version) streamlines the reflective process needed to build the instructor - coach relationship.

Cons:

Some users have reported it takes longer to upload on certain devices, but this can be dependent on internet speed. Uploading videos in shorter chunks helps alleviate this issue.

Easy Classroom Observations

Comments: Aside from having to hear my own voice, I think it's a really great tool for teachers to hear feedback and develop better skills!

Pros:

I really like how Simbe can be used on all devices to record and play classroom observations. It's helpful when my administrator records the class, and leaves specific feedback with tags and domains. I can replay on my own time, pause as needed and absorb the feedback better than a traditional face to face meeting and observation.

Cons:

Sometimes it's difficult to locate videos. If someone shares a video of me, I have to search in my huddles where it went. It would be cool to have a dashboard that shows like a timeline of videos submitted.

Simbe review from Texas Southern University

Comments: Excellent! The students love the video for self-reflection.

Pros:

We have been very pleased with the product . Additionally, [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] rock! They are extremely helpful when working with our students and University Supervisors. We will continue to use SIMBE after five years of using the product.

Cons:

None that I am aware of after using the product for five years.

Great Platform

Comments: Don’t send me the gift card.

Pros:

It is very convenient as I can coach teachers living in a different US state. It is easy to use and reliable.

Cons:

Please stop updating and screwing around with trying to make it easier. The updates slow me down since I am older and more technologically challenged. I don’t use all your new gadgets. I also would really LOVE if you could make the font color MORE black. I have suggested this before and it is still a light grey color.

Seeing Is Truly Believing

Pros:

Sibme has been an invaluable tool for intentional coaching and support! The platform has limited the physical and emotional barriers that sometimes come with conducting classroom observations. Using the video provides users an opportunity to slow the observation down and the time stamped commentary builds a bridge for two way communication and reflection. This technological software has humanized the observation process for the betterment of both our students and teachers.

Cons:

N/A Maybe a next level suggestion could be to have a timeline graphic feature for individual huddles that illustrates the activity within the huddle. It would also be nice to track growth with action steps when using checklists.

Taking Observation and Feedback to the Next Level

Comments: My experience with Sibme has been excellent. All members of the organization are professional and customer focused.

Pros:

Sibme has helped take our system for observation and feedback to the next level. This tool allows administrators and teachers to see instruction and take actionable next steps to improve outcomes for all students.

Cons:

It is difficult to upload observation rubrics from our statewide system (TKES).

Great Tool for Teacher Coaching and Building Reflective Practice

Comments: Our overall experience with Sibme has bee very positive. Using video observation has helped foster reflective practice in our teaching staff and helped coaches and administrators to collaborate and calibrate even when we can't all be in the same place at the same time.

Pros:

Sibme is an easy to use platform that helps teachers and administrators work together to reflect on lessons and improve practice. I love that teachers and admin are able to upload videos and that you can create collaboration groups and a video library of best practices aligned to whatever teacher effectiveness framework you use.

Cons:

The usage reports on the admin end can be a little misleading as there is no catch for videos that are uploaded multiple times, so sometimes at first glance it may look like usage is high when in fact it was one video counted 2 or 3 times. That being said, it is pretty easy to go in and run a report to see where there are repeats.

Review by TB

Comments: Pretty good. Easy to use.

Pros:

It is easy to put all things in one place.

Cons:

Until recently we could not screen capture and this made it very difficult to put items in that we needed to coach and view. Also, the tab to write tasks on does not order them correctly. Each time you go in you have to reorder them. That is a time waster.

Amazing Customer Support

Pros:

Sibme has made it easy to record, review, reflect, tag, and collaborate on videos of classroom instruction. The app makes uploading, sharing, and getting feedback on videos quick and easy while being FERPA compliant. The customer support and service has been amazing with questions being addressed within minutes. Additionally, the support team takes suggestions and ideas from customers to the development team for improvements to their product.

Cons:

Sibme has an option to connect other resources into huddles and goals - but the process is not super user-friendly for connecting resources held within Google apps. They have made some changes to increase ease of use, so hoping more changes in this area are coming.

SIBME to the Rescue

Comments: This software allowed our student teachers to view themselves and offered opportunities for collaboration and reflection.

Pros:

When supervisors were restricted from visiting schools due to COVID concerns we needed software that we could use for remote supervision. We had very little time for training and to shift from face to face supervision to remote. SIBME's 101 training was easy to use, the customer service support is amazing, and overall the product does exactly what we needed.

Cons:

I wish we had started using this sooner.