DocsTeach vs Scrivium

DocsTeach is a free interactive teaching website built around primary sources in the National Archives holdings. Its collection includes thousands of letters, photographs, speeches, posters, maps, and videos. Teachers can create activities by selecting a tool and sources, then customizing instructions. Activity formats include document analysis, discussion, compare and contrast, zoom and crop, sequencing, mapping, and interpreting data. Students can submit and save responses for a teacher to view in My Students’ Responses, or send responses by email. Teachers can share activities to Google Classroom, where students can turn in their work through its button. For lessons using other materials, teachers can upload JPG, PNG, GIF, or JPEG documents and images up to 8 MB per file. The redesigned site supports exploring and creating activities on computers and tablets, and students can turn in work through the DocsTeach App for iPad. A free account costs nothing and allows users to create, save, and share activities and primary sources, and access hundreds more educator activities. Creating an account requires a name, email address, and password.

Scrivium offers study guides and interactive lessons in history and literature, with guided paths through the material. Lessons pair brief readings with questions and activities; learners can read or listen at their own pace. The app listing describes daily lessons of 5 to 10 minutes, three-week guided journeys featuring historical figures, and practice sessions based on methods associated with those figures. A personal commonplace book holds saved lines, reflections, and practices. Study guides are free to read, and opening lessons from released courses are available without signing up. Users can unlock titles with credits purchased once or through a yearly Early Believer plan; unlocking provides lifetime access and updates. Credits generally expire 12 months after they are granted, and unused membership credits expire at the end of the billing period after cancellation. Scrivium is available on Android, iOS, and macOS. Individual account holders must be at least 13 unless a parent, guardian, or authorized school arrangement applies. Its terms say user inputs and outputs may be used to provide and improve the service, with an email opt-out for improvement use.