The Hook
Quizlet allows instructors to create or borrow flashcards, tests, and study games that can improve learning engagement and allow students to access materials at school, at home, or anywhere on their mobile devices. Quizlet learning opportunities are easily embedded into web pages, learning management system (LMS) courses, or social media offerings such as Facebook. Learning events included with each study set are flashcards, the Space Race and the Scatter games, a digital test or quiz, a spelling tutorial, and the learn activity. To view a variety of Quizlet study sets, surf to Ms. Lana’s Literacy Flashcards page.
A Recent Experience
Teachers at my college are using an LMS to assist their blended learning instruction. Some instructors are adding rich learning events through multimedia and interactive learning objects. These include YouTube videos, interactive quizzes, demonstration animations, responsive glossaries, image carousels, and other Web 2.0 offerings. I have been coaching instructors to adopt Quizlet as a means of efficiently adding custom learning objects into their blended learning courses to add more interactivity into their classes.
Quizlet is a well-established tool in the education market. In addition to incorporating Quizlet into blended learning courses, I have run a few workshops for our staff on the basics of using Quizlet to create engaging learning events. These learning events or learning objects can be used in a stand-alone format or embedded within an LMS.
A part of my job is to locate, test, and recommend learning tools. Out of all of the resources I have used over the past four terms, I highly recommend Quizlet as a resource based on cost, support, usability for both students and teachers, technical functionality, study set customization, printing, and effort to output efficiency ratio.
Cost
The core features of Quizlet, including accessing a large collection of Quizlet Study Sets, are free. Extended features require a subscription, but getting started to discover if this is a worthwhile tool and using the basic features is budget friendly. To secure full functionality as a Quizlet Teacher, the cost is only $25 a year.
Support
Quizlet has a clear set of help links on their website (https://quizlet.com/help). A quick trip to YouTube also provides a wealth of quick tutorials on various aspects or overviews of Quizlet.
Usability
Students normally intuitively use this resource. As instructors, some guidance is required. It is nothing that a 40-minute hands-on session cannot remedy. If you email me at johnharoldallan @ gmail.com, I will send you the presentation and worksheet to run this workshop.
Fun Factor
Whether Quizlet is used as an introduction, the core, or a review activity, it provides a variation from the standard lecture or dictation vocabulary lessons with which many of us are familiar. The inclusion of multimedia such as audio, video, or images potentially increases the student engagement.
Technical Functionality
Quizlet activities can be used as standalone events or easily embedded into blogs, social media resources, class web pages, or any LMS.
Auto-define Definitions
Automatically defined definitions are a means of speeding up the development time for a study set. When instructors input a keyword, they have the option of selecting the auto-define feature. It displays previously entered definitions of the keyword. Instructors can accept one of these definitions or make a slight alteration to produce their own definition.
Study Set Customization
After the study sets are generated, instructors can customize the activities using editing features attached to each activity type. As well, images can be included to improve each definition. If instructors do not appreciate the pronunciation of the keywords or definitions, they can use the record feature to ensure that their students will understand the audio aspect of the study set.
Printing
The keywords and definitions can be printed for traditional class use in five different formats including an index card, table, and glossary. Instructors who wish to offer a customized, traditional vocabulary experience can print out the cards or worksheets for pair work, homework, or deskwork activities.
Efficiency Ratio
The bang for the buck with Quizlet is simply exceptional. An instructor inputs a list of words, each with a corresponding definition, and six activities are automatically created. This also includes optional audio to enhance the learning experience.
Have you tried Quizlet or another format? Share your experience.
Resources referenced:
Quizlet http://www.quizlet.com
Quizlet Help https://quizlet.com/help
Ms. Lana’s Literacy Flashcards http://literacyesl.blogspot.com/p/word-lists.html
John Allan @mrpottz
Hi—I'm John Allan. I am an educator who works in the technology enhanced language learning field. I create online learning opportunities and mentor instructors on the Avenue project. I have experience teaching ESL and EFL in Canada and the Middle East. I hold an MSC in Computer Assisted Language learning, a M.Ed. in Distance Education, TESL B. Ed., a B.Ed. (OCT), and a variety of TESL relevant certifications from TESL Canada, TESL Ontario and the Ontario Ministry of Education. For more articles, learning objects, projects and blog links see https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnharoldallan
Thanks, John. Quizlet is a fantastic resource!
Jake:
You are welcome. I am just the messenger as the Quizlet team did all of the real work. They have put together a nice resource that works well on devices and on workstations. These kinds of tools help instructional developers like myself easily create and embed engaging learning events with ease.
cheers,
John
John, I keep forgetting Quizlet exists. Maybe if I put a link to it in my sidebar, I’ll remember to use it next time I’m posting a variety of review tools on a particular topic for my class. I’ll come back here to let you know how it goes when I do so. Thanks for posting about this resource!
Kelly, you are m ost welcome. It is such a nice resource. I am developing a course for multiple sections. We are usig it as just one part of the activities for each vocabulary list.
cheers,
John
Sorry, I did not spell check that last post.
red faced,
J
Hi, John,
Okay, I’ve started (again) to use it and like it a lot. Is there a way to print out the flashcards? Also, I find that there’s a wee bug it in. The first of my flashcards has a couple of little arrows in the bottom right corner where you can flip to the other side, but the rest of the slides in that set lack that feature. Any idea why?
We used them today in literacy, but only as a class. If each student needs an account in the lab, we won’t be able to do that.
Kelly:
It is good to see that you are trying out Quizlet. In my experience the students do not have to have an account to participate with Quizlet. If you can provide them with keywords, they can easily locate your list and work from there as individuals on their own devices or workstations.
As for printing, you do not even have to be logged in to print cards or other variations of Quizlet wordsets. Try the following:
1) Locate your Studyset
2) In the Tools section (top right side of the screen), click Print
3) On the right side of the screen in Step 1, click “3 X5 Index card”
4) In Step 2, click the “Open PDF” button
5) Follow the steps in Step 3 to print the cards on your printer
As for the page turn icon on the flashcard activity, this is normal. It is assumed that the students will understand that they must click on the card to see the backside of the card after the first interaction.
I hope this helps. It looks lie you are the right path.
cheers,
John
Awesome! Thanks for all the answers. Sorry that I missed the printing part of your original post. Sometimes I read too quickly. I’m going to try this again next week. Students seemed to enjoy it. K