What Is Quizlet?
Structured around sets of terms and definitions, it’s a platform for rote.
When it involves education, Quizlet takes a special path than other online learning platforms and learning management systems. Unlike other online education portals, which believe video tutorials, Quizlet employs user-generated sets of terms and descriptions.
While those sets lack the glamor of videos, it’s systematically added features to its repertoire for rote . With access to literally many sets, students can practice a best of almost any topic, from intermediate Spanish to early American history. It’s especially popular among language learners.
Quizlet Offers Six Ways to Study
Quizlet offers six study modes. Users can choose from simple flashcards (Cards), or use the fill-in-the-blanks mode (Learn) to practice spelling.
As suggested earlier, Quizlet may be a stickler for spelling: Students must enter terms exactly. Speller mode takes advantage of this fact during a great way . In Speller mode, students need to type what they hear.
This mode not only leverages the platform’s excellent speech-to-text capabilities but also allows the scholar to settle on the narration speed, which is right for language acquisition. Unfortunately, the platform cannot analyze pronunciation, à la Duolingo.
It also includes a pair of games. In Scatter, users drag corresponding items onto each other . Gravity asks the users to define before terms disappear. In both instances, it tracks time so students can compete against each other .
Language learners get some wonderful tools you will not find in many other flashcard apps. for instance , you’ll set special characters to seem on screen in order that you do not need to learn all the keyboard shortcuts for diacritical marks or characters not found on the keyboard you often use.
Additionally, when a user creates a set of language vocabulary, it programs it into Quizlet to be used for one side of the flashcard. This programming allows the app to recite words aloud for the learner to hear it..
What is there for Teachers?
Quizlet is an excellent a complement to K-12 classrooms. The platform’s Teacher account (for which subscriptions cost $25 per year) allows educators to curate study sets and monitor how students interact with those sets.
The configuration is straight forward: Students register for accounts using Google or Facebook, and educators create classes to which they create or curate sets. Students can be invited to online classes using a join link.
Students use the platform in many ways.
Students mostly access it on iOS and Android devices, or on lab computers, and at least one prefers to print study cards. Teachers accept that work in myriad forms because it allows them to see how her students study.
As important, the platform enables teachers to see how a student struggles. Sometimes a student avoids a study mode. Other times they simply are not doing the work. it helps Torres identify problems before the student falls behind.
Assessments and beyond
Quizlet may not designed for formal assessment, but it does include a Test mode, through which users may select various question types, including written, matching, multiple-choice, and true/false. Teachers might use this mode for pop quizzes.
User’s data is valuable because it is non-assessment data. Students interact with materials differently when they do not feel they are being evaluated. In an era of profligate standardized testing, it can help surface the processes through which students learn.
Educators can help at-risk students before they fail a high-stakes test. While its emphasis on rote learning is the product of a prescriptive structure, it is an excellent service that deserves a place in online learning. It is inviting students to use, it is easy for educators to configure, and easy on the pocket for administrators to implement.
Quizlet’s new GCSE Resource Centre! These FREE resources are based on exam board specifications and created by vetted experts. Discover ready-made flashcards, quizzes and games by subject .
K-12 and Beyond
Founder and CTO Andrew Sutherland estimate that about half of Quizlet’s 40 million monthly users are K-12 students. Furthermore, he says that about one-quarter of all US high school students use it every day.
Searching for keywords like “chemistry” or “history” fetches dozens of user-generated sets of pages. Meanwhile, the other half of Quizlet’s user base comprises professionals, universities, and teachers.
For example, Salesforce uses it for onboarding, Whole Foods uses it to train cashiers, and students in nursing programs use it to memorize medical terminology.
GCSE RESOURCE CENTRE
Introducing Quizlet’s new GCSE Resource Centre! These FREE resources are based on exam board specifications and created by vetted experts. Discover ready-made flashcards, quizzes and games by subject below.
Quizlet Referral Program
Quizlet allows users to earn complimentary weeks of Quizlet Plus (“Bonus Weeks”) by referring friends to become new users of Quizlet.
Earn Bonus Weeks
Users can earn a Bonus Week if a referred friend clicks on their referral link and creates a valid Quizlet account.
The maximum number of Bonus Weeks that can be earned per Referring User is ten (10). Additional Bonus Weeks may not be earned by creating multiple Quizlet accounts.
Multiple Referrals
Only one Referring User is eligible to receive a Bonus Week for a Referred Account. If a user receives multiple referral links, the Referring User will be determined by the referral link actually used to create the Referred Account.
The Program may not be combined with other Quizlet referral programs or incentives.
PROS
- Simple to use and configure.
- Create study sets or choose from millions of user-generated sets.
- Six distinct study modes.
- Generous language localizations and excellent text-to-speech technology.
- Affordable.
- Free accounts available.
- iOS and Android apps available.
CONS
- Only suited for quizzing on certain types of information.
- Answers must exactly match inputs.
- Limited interoperability.
- Some spelling errors.
Conclusion on Quizlet
Though limited in scope, the superb Quizlet provides an easy , user-centric online tool for rote .
Quizlet focuses squarely on simple use and memorization. For free, students can look for and make sets, and learn using six study methods, starting from Test mode to Galaxy gameplay.
While creative educators might imagine subversive ways to use the platform to foster critical thinking, Quizlet engages little of Bloom’s taxonomy. That is, the platform serves memorization. It achieves that end with one important caveat:
Answers must match inputs. for instance , during a set of Melville vocabulary words (of which there are a surprising number), the term “verdant” was misspelled.
Still, the matter remains because the overwhelming majority of its content is user-created. Some educators worry about content vetting. The overwhelming majority of errors we have seen in Quizlet, however, are surface issues like misspellings.
Looking specifically at content which may attract inaccuracies—politics, global climate change , reproductive rights—most content was factually accurate. Parents and educators have also voiced concerns about inappropriate content.
Quizlet provides a tool to report content that’s inappropriate, not factual, used for cheating, or violates the property , so there are some measures in situ to stay its quality intact.
Additionally, the app automatically filters the content using quality scores drawn from user behavior. In other words, good sets of fabric that are employed by many of us will surface before poor sets that folks view once and expire ever using that again.