About
Arcadia Unified School District serves 9,600 K-12 students in the San Gabriel Valley of California. In 2014, the district started a three-year 1:1 Chromebook rollout and discovered Marq through its own students.
Features they love
Google integration
“The most powerful thing about Marq is that it’s a natural extension to Google Docs.”
Low barrier to entry
Marq's intuitive interface requires minimal training.
Collaborative
Easily access, share and, contribute within a classroom setting.
Increased storage
Storage on free accounts couldn’t keep up with the district’s needs. Upgrading to EDU Premium meant less storage headaches.
Challenge
Due to a recent switch to Google Apps for Education, Arcadia students had to find alternatives to the desktop software the district had long supported. “We realized not having Microsoft Publisher on the Chromebooks was going to be an issue,” said Greg Gazanian, Arcadia’s assistant director of technology. Tasked to create newsletters, posters and other visual documents without desktop software, students turned to the web to find a solution.
Solution
Within a week of deploying Chromebooks, Arcadia’s own students discovered Marq — an intuitive, cloud-based design software. “When we looked at Marq we thought, look, it does what Publisher does and it’s in the cloud,” Bramley said. “It solved our problem immediately.” The district eventually upgraded to an EDU Premium account, unlocking increased storage capacity as well as Google Classroom integration, additional teacher templates and full administrative control.
Results
Easy deployment
As an IT director for a large school district, Bramley said the initial deployment of Marq was one of his favorite parts. “It was so easy to install it to our management console in the domain and make it part of Google Drive so it pops up as an option for teachers.”
Decreased support needs
"Having a cloud based solution has saved us dozens of hours in support time since we started using it," said Greg Gazanian, assistant director of technology.
Satisfied students & staff
Students discovered Marq on their own and maxed out storage space creating professional projects straight from their browsers. During Arcadia USD’s second annual Innovation Summit — a one-day professional development event focused on technology — two Arcadia teachers presented on Marq and the ways it unleashed creativity among their students.