Tooling

Homework & Assignment Platforms

Google Classroom, Showbie, Seesaw, Edmodo — submission and feedback workflow.

Most schools handle assignments inside their LMS — Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams Assignments are the K-12 defaults. This page covers assignment-specific tools that don't pretend to be a full LMS, plus the dedicated K-12 portfolio products. For grading itself see Grading & Feedback; for plagiarism see Plagiarism & AI Detection.

LMS-bundled (the default)

  • ★ ★ Google Classroom Assignments — free; integrated with Drive / Docs / Slides; rubric + originality reports. The K-12 default.
  • ★ ★ Microsoft Teams Assignments — free with Teams for Education; integrated with OneDrive / OneNote / Word.
  • Canvas SpeedGrader — paid; powerful inline annotation; the higher-ed default.
  • Schoology, Brightspace, Blackboard Ultra — bundled assignment + gradebook.

Standalone K-12 assignment / portfolio

  • Seesaw — paid + free for individual teachers; K-5 portfolio + family communication; voice + drawing + video submissions.
  • Showbie — paid + free; iPad-flavoured assignment app; PDF annotation strong.
  • ClassDojo — free + paid premium; behaviour + family communication; less assignment-focused.
  • Bloomz — paid + free; classroom communication.
  • Remind — paid + free; texting-shaped class messaging.
  • Class Charts — paid; UK / international.

Sunset

  • Edmodo — sunset Sept 2022; if a school doc references it, flag it.
  • Stoodle — sunset.
  • Quizlet Live — folded into Quizlet itself.

Code-assignment specific

  • GitHub Classroom — free; the default for CS / engineering classes; auto-creates per-student repositories from a template; auto-grading via GitHub Actions.
  • GitLab for Education — free; similar; less classroom-specific tooling.
  • CodePost — paid; code-grading workflow.
  • Repl.it Teams for Education — paid; assignment + auto-grade.
  • JupyterHub + nbgrader — see grading.

Feedback / annotation tools

  • Kami — paid + free; PDF annotation Chrome extension; popular in K-12.
  • Hypothes.is — free; collaborative web annotation; see research.
  • Adobe Acrobat / Foxit — paid; PDF annotation.
  • GoodNotes / Notability — paid; iPad annotation.
  • Loom — paid + free; video feedback to a student submission.

Workflow patterns

  • Submit → annotate inline → return — Google Classroom / Canvas SpeedGrader / Kami.
  • Portfolio (term-long collection) — Seesaw / Showbie / FreshGrade (sunset 2022).
  • Self-paced playlist — Khan Academy / Coding practice.
  • Auto-graded code — GitHub Classroom or CodeRunner.

Pick this if…

  • K-12 default, Google school: Google Classroom.
  • K-12 default, Microsoft school: Teams Assignments.
  • Higher-ed default: Canvas SpeedGrader.
  • K-5 portfolio: Seesaw.
  • iPad-heavy class: Showbie.
  • CS / engineering code submissions: GitHub Classroom.
  • PDF inline annotation: Kami (Chrome) or Acrobat (desktop).

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