Evaluation of the Quizlet Software
Program
Submitted to Mr. Jason Scott
Instructional Leader - Principal
ABC Virtual School
Submitted By Thomas F DeSimone
Graduate Student
Boise State University
August 1, 2014
1|Page
Summary
The purpose of this report is to provide a detailed evaluation of the use of the Quizlet
program being used in the Geometry course at ABC Virtual School. Quizlet is an online
software program that was developed by the teachers at the ABC Virtual School to
satisfy the Common Core State Standards literacy component for the Geometry Course.
The purpose of the evaluation is not to determine if the standards are being met but to
determine if Quizlet is being properly utilized and if Quizlet is helping the students. The
teachers and administration wanted a program that would not only satisfy the standards
but would be interesting and fun for the students to use.
The objectives of the evaluation to find if:
•
•
•
Quizlet is helping students learn the material and how it is helping them.
The program being properly utilized. Are the teachers promoting the program
and are the students using it.
Any improvements are needed to the program.
A google forms survey (Appendix A) was sent out to all 30 of the teachers. A separate
google forms survey (Appendix B) was sent out to 600 students. They had one week to
complete the surveys. These surveys contained multiple choice question along with
open ended questions that allowed the teachers and students to insert their own
comments. The data was analyzed once all of the surveys were returned. The
response rate for the teacher survey was 56.7 percent (17 of 30). The response rate for
student survey was 18.2 percent (109 of 600).
The results were very interesting. Only 11 percent (12 of 109) of the students surveyed
use Quizlet for Geometry but 61.5 percent (67 of 109) are using Quizlet. Most of these
students are using Quizlet in their other classes. Of the students who use Quizlet, 56
percent said that Quizlet helps them get better grades. Fifty-one percent of the students
said that the Flashcards option helps them learn the most. Quizlet is helping students
learn the material in other classes so it should help students in Geometry too. Seventyseven percent of the students said that they would recommend Quizlet to other
students.
Students like Quizlet because it is helping them in their other classes but they are not
using it in Geometry. This is due to the fact that only six of the 17 Geometry teachers
who answered the survey actually recommend Quizlet to their students. Seven of the
11 teachers who are not recommending Quizlet said they never heard of it. Teachers
are not promoting Quizlet but 79 percent (15 of 17) of the teachers are willing to
promote Quizlet. Two teachers said that they do not think Quizlet will help their
students. Forty-two percent of the teachers said that teachers could promote Quizlet by
recommending it to their students. Thirty-three percent said they would recommend
2|Page
Quizlet during the welcome call. Twenty-five percent would like to see a large banner on
the announcement page. Neither students nor teachers recommended any
improvements.
Description of program evaluated
Quizlet is used as a resource by students and teachers to help students understand the
vocabulary terms in Geometry. The State Common Core Standards require the
teaching of literacy in all areas of learning. This program was established not just to
meet the required standards but to assist the students in learning and succeeding in
their Geometry course. ABC Virtual School has made a commitment that the student is
the center of every decision made. Students are not required to use Quizlet but are
encouraged to use the program if they are finding the terms in Geometry difficult to
understand.
Program Objectives
The reason why Quizlet was introduced into the ABC Virtual School Geometry course
was to satisfy the literacy standards set by the Common Core State Standards. All
areas of learning must teach literacy and vocabulary. Students will better understand
what they are learning if they can read and understand the terms in the text and used in
the class by the instructor. Many of the terms in Geometry are not common knowledge
to students.
•
•
•
To meet the State Common Core Standards for literacy for the Geometry course
To assist students in learning the necessary vocabulary terms used in the
Geometry course.
To provide students with additional resources in learning Geometry that are
dynamic, flexible, and engaging.
Program Components
Quizlet is an online software program that was created by Study Everywhere Quizlet
LLC based out of San Francisco, CA. Quizlet LLC’s mission is to build tools that are
free, powerful and inspire learning. The program was modified by the Geometry
teachers and administration of ABC Virtual School.
The Quizlet program contains seven components for each lesson: the vocabulary terms,
flashcards, learn, speller, test, scatter, and space race. The main component for each
lesson are the vocabulary terms that were added to the program by the teachers. The
3|Page
terms include a definition, picture and audio that speaks the term and the definition.
The terms are used in all of the other components.
The Flashcards component uses online flashcards with the term on one side and the
definition and picture on the other. Flashcards are used to help students study and
learn the terms. The Learn component is a way to for students to test their knowledge
of the terms. The definition and picture appears and the students types in the
appropriate term. The Speller component is used to help the student learn to spell the
words. Speller uses audio to say the word and the student must type the word with the
correct spelling. The Test component provides a quiz on the terms. The quiz could be
multiple choice, matching, true/false, or fill in the blank. Learn, Speller, and Test all
provide students with a score at the completion of the exercise.
There are two game components: Scatter and Space Race. Scatter is a game where all
of the definitions and pictures are placed together on rectangular card on the screen
and the terms are placed on separate rectangular card. The player must match the
term cards with the appropriate definition/picture card. Time is kept as a score for each
game. Space Race is a game where the definitions scroll across the screen and the
player must destroy the scrolling definitions by typing in the appropriate term. Each user
has three lives and a score is kept according to the number of terms answered
correctly. There is a high score table with the three fasted times with user names listed
for each game.
Evaluation Method
Participants
The participants in the evaluation are the Geometry teachers and the Geometry
students of the ABC Virtual School. There are 30 full time teachers working and
approximately 4500 Geometry students attending ABC Virtual School. All of the full time
teachers were sent the Teacher’s Survey (Appendix A). 600 students were sent the
Student’s Survey (Appendix B). The students were randomly chosen from five of the
teachers’ classes. All of the surveys were dispersed by the Geometry Instructional
Leader so that the students would remain anonymous.
Procedures
During the evaluation process all course activity continued as normal. Two separate
surveys, one for teachers and the other for students were sent out to the participants by
the Geometry Instructional Leader. All of the surveys were conducted anonymously.
The teachers and students were told that the survey was being conducted by a teacher
4|Page
for a graduate school course. All survey results were sent to two google form
spreadsheets. All of the data was analyzed by Thomas DeSimone.
Data Sources
The data for the evaluation was obtained from separate teacher (Appendix A) and
student (Appendix B) surveys using google documents. These surveys were designed
around the objectives of the evaluation. The data was compiled into two spreadsheets.
Thirty teacher surveys were sent out with a response rate of 56.7 percent (17 of 30).
There were 600 student server sent out with a response rate of 18.2 percent (109 of
600).
Results
Teachers were asked; how often are you recommending Quizlet to your students? Only
35 percent of the teachers are recommending Quizlet so teachers are not promoting the
program. Of the 11 teachers who never recommended Quizlet six of them said they
never heard of it. The teachers were part of creating the data for Quizlet so those six
teachers must be new to ABC virtual, because all of the Geometry teachers were
required to participate.
Every Day
0
0%
1 - 3 times per week
0
0%
1 - 3 times per month
6
35%
11
65%
Never
5|Page
Teachers were asked; how do you think we can get more students to use Quizlet? Only
12 of the 17 teachers who participated answered this question. Three of the teachers
said that they will not recommend Quizlet.
Teacher recommendations for specific lessons
5
42
%
Place a big banner on the announcement page.
3
25
%
Teachers should recommend watching the video resource page during the
welcome call
4
33
%
Students were asked; have you ever used Quizlet for your Geometry class? While only
12 students were using Quizlet for Geometry there was a total of 67 students using
Quizlet in other ABC Virtual School Courses. Students are using Quizlet in English,
History, and Science courses.
Yes
12
11%
No
97
89%
6|Page
Students were asked why they did not use Quizlet. Fifty-Two percent said they never
heard of it but then some of these students same students said they used it in other
classes. They probably did not know that there was a Quizlet for Geometry and that is
why they answered in this way.
I never heard of Quizlet
51
52%
I tried it but did not like it
8
8%
39
40%
I have heard of it, but never tried it.
Students were asked; if you never used Quizlet, are you willing to try it? Eighty-nine
percent of the students are willing to try Quizlet in Geometry. Sixty of these students
are already using Quizlet in other classes.
Student were asked; do you get better grades on the assignments where you use
Quizlet for help? Fifty-six percent of the students say that Quizlet is helping them get
better grades. So Quizlet is helping students to succeed.
Yes
40
56%
No
31
44%
7|Page
Students were asked; what Quizlet option helps you learn the most? This data includes
students who are using Quizlet for other ABC Virtual School courses. Flashcards is by
far the most popular option used by the students. Only 13 percent of the students
preferred the games Speller and Space Race.
34
51%
7
10%
11
16%
Scatter
6
9%
Speller
3
4%
Space Race
6
9%
Flashcards
Test
Learn
Students were asked; would you recommend Quizlet to other students? Students are
only going to recommend a product to other students if they are finding some value in it.
Yes
56
77%
No
17
23%
Discussion
The purpose of this study is to evaluate if the Quizlet program is helping students learn
and understand the terms they need to know in Geometry. The data collected from the
8|Page
teachers determined that the teachers are not promoting the Quizlet program for
Geometry. The data collected from the students confirmed that the teachers are not
promoting Quizlet because only 11 percent of the students surveyed are using Quizlet.
Currently the program is not being properly utilized. Over 70 percent of the teachers
want to see Quizlet promoted either by the teachers or by an announcement in the
course. Eighty-nine percent of the students are willing to try Quizlet and Fifty-six
percent of the students say that Quizlet is helping to improve their grades. Fifty-one
percent of the students said that the flashcard option was the most helpful.
When reviewing the data provided by the students I found that only 12 students had
used Quizlet for Geometry but a total of 67 students had used Quizlet for Geometry or
other courses. This evaluation was used to help determine if some of the lessons are
missing any needed vocabulary terms, pictures, or any other information that could
assist students in learning Geometry. Neither the students nor the teachers found any
issues with the program. This may be due to the fact that only 11 percent of the
students have used Quizlet for Geometry.
Overall the evaluation determined that Quizlet is not being used by the students in
Geometry but they are using it for other classes. Teachers are not promoting Quizlet
which is why students don’t know that the program exists. Quizlet has only been in use
for about three months so the amount of students using the program should increase as
teachers said they would promote the program and 77% of the students would
recommend the program.
Project Cost
Personnel
Thomas DeSimone 15 days at $500/day
$7500
Supplies
Copying/Printing
$50
Postage
$20
Total cost
$7570
9|Page
Appendix A Teacher Survey
This is an anonymous survey Mr. DeSimone is doing for a graduate school class. Mr. DeSimone
is evaluating how teachers and students are using Quizlet to help with Geometry literacy. Thank
you for responding.
1. How often are you recommending Quizlet to your students?
a.
b.
c.
d.
Every Day
1 - 3 times per week
1 - 3 times per month
Never
2. If you said you never recommend Quizlet to your students why not?
a.
b.
c.
d.
You do not have time to recommend Quizlet to your students
You do not think Quizlet will help your students
You don't know about Quizlet?
You just don't remember to recommend Quizlet.
3. If you said never, do you think you will ever recommend Quizlet to your students?
a. Definitely Yes
b. Maybe
c. Definitely No
4. For which lessons or lesson are your students using Quizlet?
5. Why are you recommending Quizlet to your students?
a.
b.
c.
d.
Quizlet helps improve their vocabulary in Geometry
The quiz questions help the student better understand the concepts
Your students like Quizlet.
Other teachers have recommended Quizlet
6. Your students tell you;
a. Quizlet helps them so they use it for many of the lessons
b. Quizlet is fun. They like the quizzes
c. Quizlet is fun. They like the games.
10 | P a g e
d. They don't like Quizlet. It is not helping them.
7. How do you think we can get more students to use Quizlet?
a. Teacher recommendations for specific lessons
b. Place a big banner on the announcement page.
c. Teachers should recommend watching the video resource page during the
welcome call
8. Do you use Quizlet?
a. Yes.
b. No.
9. On what device do you use Quizlet?
a. Computer
b. Tablet
c. Phone
10. Since the purpose of Quizlet is to help students understand the vocabulary terms have you
found any lessons that are missing terms? If so please list the lesson below with the
terms you would like to see added.
11. Do you think that a Quizlet lesson should be added to each module to help the students
learn the vocabulary?
a. Yes
b. No
12. Do you have any other comments to add?
11 | P a g e
Appendix B Student Survey
This is an anonymous survey Mr. DeSimone is doing for a graduate school class. Mr. DeSimone
is evaluating how teachers and students are using Quizlet to help with Geometry Literacy.
Quizlet is a program that we would like the students to use help them learn the vocabulary terms
in Geometry. There are fun are games and quizzes for students to play to help them learn. Thank
you for responding.
1. Have you ever used Quizlet for your Geometry class?
a. Yes
b. No
2. If no, why not?
a. I never heard of Quizlet
b. I tried it but did not like it
c. I have heard of it, but never tried it.
3. If you never used Quizlet, are you willing to try it?
a. Yes
b. No
4. What type of device do you use when using Quizlet?
a. Computer
b. Tablet
c. Phone
5. What lesson or lessons have you used on Quizlet?
6. Since the purpose of Quizlet is to help you understand the vocabulary terms. Have you
found any lessons that are missing terms? If so please list the lesson below with the
terms you would like to see added.
7. Do you find the pictures for the terms helpful? If not which lessons would your like to
see more appropriate pictures?
12 | P a g e
8. When Quizlet option do like the most?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Flashcards
Test
Learn
Scatter
Speller
Space Race
9. Do you use Quizlet to help with your Geometry vocabulary?
a. Yes
b. No
10. When Quizlet option helps you learn the most?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
Flashcards
Test
Learn
Scatter
Speller
Space Race
The vocabulary words
None of the above
11. Do you get better grades on the assignments where you use Quizlet for help?
a. Yes
b. No
12. Would you recommend Quizlet to other students?
a. Yes
b. No
13. Do you have any other comments to add?
13 | P a g e