FWD Media, Inc

Review: BrainPop which is owned by FWD Media, had a service that they as well as their Educational Partner Promethean Planet promoted. This service involved the use of software called ActivSDK, which facilitated Promethean's ActivExpressions and ActiVotes to communicate with BrainPop's online Quizzes. This feature allowed students to take online quizzes and when the quizzes were complete the teacher could use the data collected to evaluate student progress. Recently, BrainPop discontinued its support for this feature without notification to consumers. The consumers in this case are schools which purchase a yearlong subscription to BrainPop. Schools, like mine, [redacted] in [redacted], use this feature to engage students in meaningful and unique learning experiences. This particular feature was a selling point for teachers to use technology devices like ActivExpressions, but also an incentive to explore the vast library of material that BrainPop has made available to subscribers. My school’s subscription for BrainPop was renewed on 7/**/13, however, I do not know when BrainPop’s support for the Flash ActivSDK ended because we were not informed of its termination. While I understand that according to BrainPop’s Terms of Use they can make changes without prior notification I have not been able to get a clear answer on when these changes where made. BrainPop’s Terms of Use (http[redacted]); BrainPOP reserves the right to suspend, discontinue, delete, modify, or remove any content or functionality offered in our BrainPOP Websites from time to time, without prior notice, without reason or liability, and/or to offer certain content or functionality only in various versions or in selected times, based on BrainPOP’s sole discretion. I believe that this change was made prior to 7/**/13, in which case BrainPop I believe that the school was not adequately informed of changes to its service before purchasing a yearlong subscription.Desired Settlement: I would like for the ActivSDK support to continue. I would like for the service that my school paid for to continue. In the case that a service must be discontinued, I would like adequate notice to prepare for alternate instructional activities and or services. I would also like for consumers to be informed of what services can be expected before purchasing a yearlong subscription.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.