Flashcards Site

During my ever continuing search for the best online foreign language learning tools I stumbled across a site called “www.studyblue.com”. This site is one of the cooler sites that I have found for the use in any classroom, but it can be especially useful in foreign language learning.

There are several features, but the tool that I use the most often is the flashcard app. One can set up flashcards on whatever topic one chooses and then share them with their students or fellow classmates. One can also add audio and pictures to the flashcards. Once the flashcards are set up there are several ways to study these cards.

The cards can be studied as traditional flashcards in a variety of ways. One can show the term first and then the definition or vice versa. One can study all of the cards at once or just a few. They can be shuffled, in order, hardest to easiest, least studied, or (if they have been studied previously) only the ones that were incorrectly guessed in the first round. While studying the cards as flashcards the user is prompted to give thumbs up for a correct answer and thumbs down for an incorrect answer. This information is then tabulated and put into an easy to read graph of progress. Study Blue will give a percentage of correct answers for each time through the cards. Then it will combine this with the other study rounds and give an overall analysis of progress towards perfection. As I said before, this can be used in foreign language classes, but it can also be used with any course that would require leaning terms.

The second way that flashcards can be studied on Study Blue is as a quiz. The quiz will automatically be generated with a variety of input styles. The user can choose multiple choice, true/false, or fill in the blank questions. The user can choose one or more of these different quiz styles. When the quiz is finished the user clicks “Grade my quiz” and the answers will be checked. The user will then get a breakdown of the quiz. They can then see which questions they got wrong and what the correct answer should have been. Then the user will be given the same type of graph showing their progress.

The cards can also be studied as a review sheet. This option will put the words into an easy to read list of vocabulary. There is also an option to print the flashcards as an Excel sheet. This makes it easy for the user to print out the flashcards and use them as paper flashcards. This takes out all the effort of making your own flashcards.

Aside from the flashcards users can also upload notes and other documents. These documents can then be shared with students or classmates. While I do not personally use this feature, because I have these materials available on my website, I could definitely see how this would be a handy way for students and teachers to share materials with each other.

In order to use Study Blue one must first set up a username and password. Once that is set up they can find the classes in which they are enrolled through the search feature. They can then access any of the flashcards or other materials that the teacher or the students of those classes have uploaded.

Users can access their flashcards anywhere with Study Blue as well. There is an iPhone, iTunes and Android app for Study Blue. It does use some data in order to access the flashcards, but these apps can also be used offline. Users can access the last 50 cards that were studied on their devices.

In all, Study Blue is a great resource for any classroom, but for the foreign languages it is an even better tool. With the audio and visual options enabled on the flashcards the students can hear and see the vocabulary being learned. With more modes of input the students will have better ways of retaining the information and learning will increase. I hope you have found this information helpful. If you have any questions, please ask in the comments below and I will do my best to answer them.

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[Update]

I’ve added a tutorial on YouTube on how to use this site. Here it is.