HelioCampus Course Evaluations & Surveys vs Synap

HelioCampus Course Evaluations & Surveys helps U.S. colleges and universities create, schedule, deploy, and analyze evaluations and surveys for institutional feedback. Surveys can be organized at college, department, or institution level using customizable hierarchical templates and question libraries, including dynamic questions based on Course Learning Outcomes. Course evaluations include student, instructor, and general course types, scheduled at the beginning, midpoint, or end of a term. Automated notifications can go to students and instructors, and students can complete evaluations through their learning management system. Integrations support multiple LMS connections through LTI and native APIs, including Blackboard, Canvas, D2L Brightspace, and Moodle. Student course evaluations may be anonymous; instructor evaluations cannot. AI sentiment analysis supports bulk review, but HelioCampus must enable it and provision access through role-based access. Participants need a platform account and institutional single sign-on. The maker says it is FERPA compliant and lists ISO 27001:2013 and SOC 2 Type 2 certifications. Pricing is on request.

Synap is an online exam platform for authoring, delivering, proctoring, marking and analysing exams. It serves awarding bodies, universities, companies and training providers. Reusable question banks support more than 15 interactive question types, with tags for topic, skill and difficulty. Security options include lockdown, record-and-review, and live invigilation, with incidents timestamped. Objective questions can be marked instantly; written work can be routed to examiners using rubrics and moderation. Analytics include pass rates, item discrimination and KR-20 reliability. Integrations include a REST API, Zapier, webhooks, LTI 1.3 and Blackboard App Center, with LTI connections for Moodle, Canvas and Blackboard. Synap lists iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, web and extension access. Mobile apps require enabled access on Business or Enterprise plans. It states ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification, GDPR compliance, TLS 1.2+ in transit, AES-256 at rest and AWS hosting options in the EU and US. Plans start at £1,200 per year, with a 14-day trial after a demo.