For teachers: make a quiz and share it with your class
In Learn It you can type in the week’s vocabulary or questions once and give the whole class the same quiz with a code. Nobody needs to create an account, neither you nor your students. Here are the steps, as the app works today, and a few ways to use it in your teaching.
What you need
- Learn It on your iPhone or iPad. The app is free and has no ads.
- Students with Learn It on an iPhone or iPad, or with a browser: without the app they practice the quiz at trylearnit.com, on any phone or computer.
- An internet connection when you create the code and when students get the quiz. After that the quiz is saved on the device and can be practiced offline.
1. Create the quiz
Tap Create new and choose Create your own. Give the quiz a title, such as “Spanish week 42, chapter 6.” Then fill in the cards: the word or question in the Word or question field, and the answer in the Translation or answer field. Every card needs both a question and an answer. Tap Save.
It doesn’t have to be vocabulary. Science terms, dates in history and times tables work the same way. Write the answers the way you want students to write them, because Spelling compares what the student types with your answer.
2. Create a sharing code
Open the quiz and tap Sharing code, below Start now. The app creates a code made of digits and shows it in large type. Copy code copies the code. Share code opens the share sheet with a ready-made message containing the quiz title, the code and a link.
If the quiz title is longer than 50 characters, the app first asks for a shorter title for sharing. Your own quiz keeps its title.
3. Students get the quiz
There are two ways:
- With the code: the student taps Create new, chooses Get with a code and enters the code. The app shows the quiz title and the number of questions, and the student taps Add to library. If the quiz doesn’t show up right away, the student taps Get quiz first.
- With the link: the link is trylearnit.com/c/ followed by the code. If the student has a current version of Learn It, the quiz opens in the app and is added the same way. Otherwise the quiz opens in the browser, where the student can practice right away. The code can also be entered at trylearnit.com/en/practice/.
Write the code on the board, or send the message in the channel your class already uses. The quiz is saved in the student’s library as their own copy.
Good to know
- Changes don’t follow along. Students get the quiz as it was when you created the code. If you fix a typo afterward, tap Sharing code again and share the new code.
- Anyone with the code can get the quiz. So don’t put student names or other personal details in it.
- You don’t see your students’ results. There are no accounts and no class lists. The quiz is a way to practice, not a test.
- Students can share the same way. A student who has already typed in the words can give their code to the rest of the class.
- ChatGPT can write the quiz. If you have access to ChatGPT, there is a guide of its own: Make a quiz with ChatGPT.
Ways to use it
Short quizzes that don’t count toward a grade are one of the best-supported ways to make knowledge stick. In a study in sixth-grade social studies classes in the United States, students took short quizzes on part of the material. On the exams, including those at the end of the semester, they did better on that material than on what they had not been quizzed on.
So share the week’s quiz when you hand out the homework, and ask students to practice a few minutes on several days instead of everything the evening before. Five minutes at the start of a lesson is enough for a round. Include a few words from earlier weeks in new quizzes, so they come back.
Learn It in brief
Learn It is a free iPhone and iPad app with no ads and no accounts. Students practice with Spelling, Multiple choice or Flashcards, and after each round they can practice just the ones they missed. It’s used by students from elementary and middle school through high school, for vocabulary but also for math, history and other subjects.
There are also 100+ ready-made quizzes that students can add themselves, such as Irregular verbs: simple past, EU capitals and Seven times table. Tips for students on how to practice are in How to study vocabulary.
Sources
- Roediger, H. L., Agarwal, P. K., McDaniel, M. A. & McDermott, K. B. (2011). Test-enhanced learning in the classroom: Long-term improvements from quizzing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 17(4).
- Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J. & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1).
- Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T. & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3).