Apple Classroom vs Casper Focus in Education

[boberito]

We're deploying more iPads this year at my school. I know we need to start using 1 of these 2 things. Our students do not have managed AppleIDs. Apple School Manager doesn't integrate with our SIS.

Apple Classroom and Casper Focus seem to have a lot of the same features.

It seems Classroom is being updated with new features and such. Is Casper Focus kind of where it'll be?

I've seen some posts on how easy it is to get around Classroom restrictions like turning off Bluetooth.

What do people use? What are feelings on the 2?

[MattAebly]

Hey Bob,

When it comes down to it, both products are great tools to have in the classroom to facilitate the learning process. Being able to direct students into apps definitely, saves time. Apple Classroom is starting to be the standard for a classroom facilitation product. The one thing many people are not aware of is that you do not have to use Apple School Manager in combination with Classroom. Are you going to be utilizing Apple's Shared iPads? If so, then we would need to create Managed Apple IDs to sign into the device and at that point, you might as well do the class creation in Apple School Manager. However, as long as the classes are created in Jamf Pro, no matter if it's through Apple School Manager, manual creation, or using Jamf's SIS Importer Plugin, you can use the Classroom app.

The main difference between the two is that Casper Focus puts down a configuration profile for locking students into apps while Classroom is based off Bluetooth and Network communication. Jamf Pro has a way to lock toggling settings for bluetooth, but unfortunately this does not apply to toggling Airplane Mode which will also turn off bluetooth.

It certainly wouldn't hurt to play around with both solutions, but there is a definite trend that Apple Classroom will become the go-to for classroom integration.

If you would like to continue the conversation into choosing the right product for your school, please reach out to your Jamf Buddy for more information.

[lehmanp00]

We started the school year using Apple Classroom paired with ASM. Most teachers dropped it for Google Classroom by the Holiday break.

Kids figured out very quickly that they can either turn off Bluetooth or put their iPad in Airplane mode to prevent the teachers from 'messing' with 'their' iPads. For most of our teachers, that killed the reason to use Apple Classroom for them. Another factor is that when you have Apple Classroom paired with ASM/JAMF they cannot make custom classes or add/remove other teachers/students to classes. They really, REALLY like to do that apparently.

[boberito]

Our deployment of iPads is 1-to-1 so no shared iPads.

It looks like I just have to play with both.

[blackholemac]

We made The switch to classroom at the beginning of the last year. both of them use the same table to populate classes. I had no desire to use school manager until there was full integration with PowerSchool. That officially came yesterday... thank you Apple for getting us that on the last day of school. For this entire year we've been populating the classes table in the JSS by using SIS impo for this entire year we've been populating the classes table in the JSS by using SIS Importer. Casper focus does have one capability though that Apple classroom does not... The ability to direct and lock kids to a website. That being said we're sticking with Apple classroom. Next year I'll be able to lock Bluetooth down to an on position and if I'm lucky will have full power school immigratio and if I'm lucky will have full powerschool integration going.