Memberships Vs. Points: What's The Difference?
Except for Boom Passport accounts, a Boom membership does not include access to purchased decks, because decks are sold separately. This can sometimes throw people at first, because it's all just Boom Cards, right? Not quite.
It may be helpful to think of Boom as having two separate offerings: (1) memberships — these support progress reporting and Boom Cards deck creation, and (2) a marketplace for the exchange of learning materials (using points or cash).
Points:
Points are used in our marketplace and are one way you can access ready-made Boom Card decks. Occasionally, people ask us why Boom Learning memberships don't include every deck for free. The Boom Cards decks you see in the Store are created by teacher entrepreneurs. We are delighted when teachers offer items for free, but we cannot ask them to give up their supplemental incomes entirely. We leave pricing completely up to them. If you want a subscription that includes decks, please contact us about having your school purchase Boom Passport for you. Points are particularly helpful if you need to buy a lot of small things, like images or fonts.
You can find more information on points in the FAQ: Points - What are they and why do you use them, and you can find and purchase points packages in the Store.
Memberships:
The membership you choose shapes your teaching experience on Boom Learning. Different membership levels offer varying features and levels of support for teachers.
All membership levels include the FastPlay option (limits vary by tier), which gives students immediate feedback on every answer as they play through a deck. Every level can also purchase decks. The purchased decks added to your Library never expire, so those decks are yours for so long as you have an account.
Premium accounts include the ability to see and store student progress (in the Reports tab). Student reports allow teachers to track accuracy, errors, and speed by individual students or for a whole classroom. This makes decisions about reteaching or differentiating easier to make today instead of after the big test. Premium accounts can do more of the things that make Boom exciting. More and longer FastPlay options, more Presentation features, and more deck creation options.
If you're thinking about buying an account for more than one teacher or a whole school, learn more about Boom Passport.
If you want to sell decks you make, you might want to look into our Publisher membership.