Product Review of HippoCampus

HippoCampus.org was designed as part of a worldwide effort to improve access to quality education for everyone. It contains presentations and lectures that can serve as supplemental instruction. Teachers project HippoCampus content during classroom learning and assign it for computer labs and homework. Students use the site in the evenings for study and exam prep as an open resource for personalized learning.
Website: http://www.hippocampus.org/
What Users Love About the App
“HippoCampus offers tutorials and videos from multiple sources such as Khan Academy and PhEt. If a student is struggling with a concept that has been taught in class, perhaps he could use HippoCampus to search for various videos or tutorials to help him better understand a subject matter.”
“HippoCampus could also be for whole-group instruction. Find a video or tutorial on HippoCampus and then show it to the class as a way to preview the content that students will learn. “
“It appears that you can easily create an account with HippoCampus to help organize your videos into a playlist. Then, you can share your lists with other users. This is a great way to organize helpful videos. “
“It offers a wide variety of topics which I like because I have in the past taught several different subjects and it’s nice to have one source that I can pull for all my subjects.”
“It has several different formats including audio and visual. That helps me with my special education students that I get from time to time as well as all helping to reach all of the students.”
What Users Dislike About the App
“Teacher may have to set up various “classes” to provide less options for struggling students; because may be a bit overwhelming with so many choices. “
“I would say that this site is geared towards middle to high school teachers/students based on the topics and information it gives. The site can be a little overwhelming at first.”
“My elementary students would likely have some difficulty navigating the site. The majority of videos that I watched provided solid explanation, but little if any actual practice for students”
“Some videos required users to download them. This extra step could be less inviting for some students. Finally, I found some of the videos to be outdated and dry. These videos quickly lost my interest, as they would students’ interests.”