Source: cram.com

Every student has his or her preferences when it comes to learning. Some get excited about math while others prefer history or astronomy.

The formula for teaching many of these subjects can be pretty straightforward. Review a chapter or lesson in class, take questions, do some sample problems and send students on their way with homework to solidify their knowledge of that day’s lesson. This is a formula that works well when students enjoy the material.

But what can be done when they don’t? How do you motivate individual students without sacrificing the rest of the class? In my experience as the designer of an education technology software, the key is taking a learning tool and expanding it into something that can be used for fun.

When designing out educational product we decided to focus on flashcards because they have been used since the early 19th century and have remained viable through massive changes that have happened over the last 200 years (the invention of the computer, cellular phones, wide spread internet adoption, tablets, etc). Today opportunities for students are better than ever because we can put an almost unlimited number of flashcards in a pocket or backpack by putting them on phones and tablets.

cram.com

When we created our software, Cram.com, our intention was to load it up with features. We thought that turning the flashcards into a practice test, providing options in a lot of languages, allowing you to sort your cards, were all things that students and teachers would want.

What we discovered instead is that kids simply like games (surprise!) and that’s made the biggest difference towards people enjoying our product not just using it. We quickly attached two games to our product. The games not only help make learning fun but the competition aspect behind them helps push learning-adverse students to better themselves and raise their test scores along side their game scores.

With the competition aspect, points are assigned on a continuous spectrum, so every kid will get a different score. Some of our teachers have used that facet to award extra credit or the opportunity for the student with the highest score to skip a test. Even the kids who don’t get the opportunity to skip the test will have competed enough for the top prize that they are much more likely ace the test anyway.

Getting good user feedback has always been among our number one priorities. Through that feedback we’ve been thrilled to learn that when it comes to the internet and mobile apps, a lot of difference can be made in the classroom with a creative teacher willing to embrace a new technology. More importantly, these teachers all understand that learning can and should still be fun.

We’re also excited that Dr. Cook has been showing off our product to our third grade teachers and we thank him for letting us write a guest post on his wonderful blog.
Todd Clemens, Co-Founder Cram.com