Monthly Update - March 2021
Whoops! I blinked and several months went by...
Our last monthly update was November 2020, published on Nov 1. A lot happened over the last four months, let's dive in!
Appreciation
This month's appreciation goes to Scott Hebert AKA Master Heebs, @MrHebertPE!
Scott helped us develop Trust No One, specifically providing tons of ideas, suggestions, and feedback while Josh was building the mode. We asked Scott for a little bit of help, and he gave us A LOT. π
Scott, thank you so much for helping make Trust No One such a special, engaging mode!
2020 Recap
Sure, we're two months into 2021. But, as the saying goes, better late than never!
Here are some of our 2020 highlights:
π π§πΌββοΈ Brought on Rebecca to help with customer support part-time and hired Pharlain, our first-ever FT customer support person.
π Thanks to your incredible support, we kept Gimkit small, independent, and ad-free; 4 FT employees, 1 PT employee; Josh & Jeff own 100% of the company.
π Launched Gimkit Groups, which made it inexpensive and easy for schools to purchase Gimkit Pro for tens of thousands of teachers.
π» Significant improvements to Assignments and Classes, making it easier to teach remotely, as well as general improvements and additions to Gimkit to support remote learning, including our Remote Learning Guide.
π π MAJOR progress in improving reliability and preventing downtime; Gimkit is more reliable and stable than ever, thanks to Josh and Fadi's hard work over 2020; These improvements, in part, allowed over 30 million educators and students to use Gimkit in 2020
β οΈ Moderated over 1,000 inappropriate or misleading Kits with our flagging system.
π With the help of thousands of teachers who used it in early release, we developed our second product, Ink.
ππ΅οΈββοΈ Released two new modes: Floor is Lava and Trust No One.
π Consistent smaller quality of life improvements for teachers and students, including updating game mechanics.
ππππ§ββοΈπ€ππ΅οΈββοΈ Introduced Forever Modes, which allows teachers to use any mode they like, any time.
2020 was a difficult year for everyone - educators, students, and parents included. It means a lot to us that we could, in some small way, have a positive impact on the difficult educational experience that was school in 2020. Thank you for all of your support, which makes it possible for us to work on Gimkit.
Jan & Feb 2021 Community and Product Update
Here are a few highlights from a product and community perspective, covering November, December, January, and February:
Trust No One
One of two new modes we released in 2020, Trust No One has been a really special mode for us.
While we have several beloved modes, this one is different in the way that it sparks class conversation and collaboration. It's based on Among Us, a game we love playing, and has brought classrooms, students, and teachers closer together in the midst of challenging remote learning, hybrid learning, and in-person learning environments.
The level of engagement teachers are sharing with us and how this mode has helped all students get involved, have been wonderful to see. Trust No One has been our most popular mode so far and we're so happy it's created so many conversations, connections, and fun memories!
Forever Modes
ο»ΏWe launched our first limited-time game mode almost year two years ago. Since then, and with every new mode release, we've heard how you all wished modes stayed around longer, or even forever!
In early December, we introduced Forever Modes to Gimkit Live.
We designed Forever Modes on how movie releases work, or how they used to work before the pandemic. New movies come to theaters, stay for a limited time, and leave. A little while later, they come back out on DVD.
That's how we now treat mode releases. They're available for a brief period of time at launch, gone for a bit, and then back forever!
As of right now, here are the Forever Modes that you can play with your students anytime:
Trust No One
Floor is Lava
Infinity Mode
Boss Battle
Humans vs. Zombies
Super Rich Mode
Hidden Mode
Drained Mode
So far, students and teachers seem to be enjoying their newfound freedom to play any Gimkit Live game mode whenever they want. It's been so much fun seeing classes play Humans vs. Zombies on a random Wednesday in January and ongoing rivalries with Boss Battle!
Improved Search
ο»ΏEarlier this month, Fadi finished a project that drastically improved Kit search in Gimkit Live. You can now filter and sort your searches. We also provide improved results more quickly. This project was on our to-do list for a while and it felt GREAT to cross it off!
Support <> Support
Because of the teacher, school, and district support we've received in the form of individual and group memberships, we've been able to improve our customer support steadily over the past several months.
For most of 2020, if you emailed Gimkit, Jeff responded, usually within 24-48 hours. As things picked up with the new school year in August, September, and October, those lead times got longer, Jeff put in more hours to keep up, and he wasn't always providing the best support.
It's exciting to say that we now get back to most emails in 24 hours or less. We're keeping our posted response time at 2 business days because things can always change and get busier. But it feels great to be able to respond to support messages faster and to provide a more consistent quality of support when we do.
I just wanted to take a moment to thank Pharlain and Rebecca for providing wonderful support to all of the educators, parents, and students who email us, and also thank you all for supporting us so that we can support you (that's a lot of support...)! π
Ink Update
Launching a new product has been scary, challenging, and time-consuming. But Gimkit Ink has been out for about four weeks, so far the response has been overwhelmingly positive!
When we started working on Ink, our focus was on helping students fall in love with writing. That's still our goal and we believe Ink helps educators accomplish just that.
However, while we were building and launching Ink, we were so focused on writing, that we almost missed its true power: publishing.
Ink gives students the ability to easily publish their thoughts in ways they're comfortable with. Because Ink allows students to fully control who sees their writing and whether their name is visible, it also gives them permission to express their thoughts and feelings honestly and authentically.
As we got closer to launching Ink and publishing became more clearly the center of Ink, we started re-prioritized our planned updates and improvements to Ink.
We just pushed an update that added Privacy Tags to Ink.
These tags give students and teachers an increased sense of control, visibility, and assurance.
Fadi is also working on the most widely-requested Ink improvement: Student Commenting. Since this one isn't out yet, we'll have more information on it in next month's update!
If you haven't tried Ink out yet, it's available from your Gimkit Hub when you log in. And the best part? Itβs also included in your Gimkit Pro membership!
Company update
Back in January, Josh wrote a blog post detailing how Gimkit is now a carbon-negative company.
This one is important to us because of how we feel about the state of climate change and the environment.
In addition to offsetting our carbon footprint retroactively and committing to keeping it offset, we also made a donation to Renewable World and will continue looking for ways to invest in and contribute to those working on sustainable energy products around the globe.
What's on Deck?
Ink - student commenting
New mode - something COMPLETELY differentβ¦