EngageSlide vs Top Hat

EngageSlide is an interactive presentation tool for running live polls, quizzes, Q&A, word clouds, and other audience activities. People join a presentation through a QR code or link, without installing an app or creating an account. Presenters can see responses as they arrive, including charts and word clouds, and can use a smartphone to control slides, view private speaker notes, and manage Q&A. Listed integrations include PowerPoint, Google Slides, Microsoft Teams, and Miro; the Teams integration brings polls, word clouds, and quizzes into meetings. Its AI can draft outlines, slide content, polls, quizzes, and word-cloud questions, then summarize audience responses. EngageSlide says prompts and slide context may be sent to OpenAI; private audience responses and personal information are not used to train models. Insights can be exported to PDF or Excel. It runs on web, Android, iOS, and Windows, with a browser extension. The free plan allows 10 live participants. Basic is $4.79/mo (annual), while Pro is $8.99/mo (annual).

Top Hat is a higher education student engagement and courseware platform for interactive learning in and beyond class. During lectures, educators can use polls, discussions, quizzes and instant feedback. For coursework, it supports interactive homework and readings, customizable digital textbooks and instructor-created materials. Instructors can create, schedule or upload tests and assignments, and use AI tools to generate questions from course content. Ace helps educators prepare classes and create interactive prompts; students can use it for personalized study and practice based on course materials. Top Hat turns attendance, participation, reading and assessment data into insights about student progress. It lists integrations with Canvas, Blackboard, D2L Brightspace, Moodle and Sakai; LTI 1.3 integrations for Canvas and D2L Brightspace can provide roster sync, grade sync, deep links and single sign-on. Students can use a browser or iOS and Android apps. Student access plans are $35, paid once for four months, $58, paid once for 12 months, or $96, paid once for 48 months. Eligible paid courses usually offer a five-day free trial.