Month: October 2016

Review:Newcastle University mobile app

Students usually find it difficult to keep track of the things they have to do for school and to follow a schedule. So, think how difficult it is for university students that may to live away from their parents, to make their first steps to the higher education. Luckily, the students of Newcastle University have their own homonymous mobile application created from the university for the students (and the teachers), not only to help them with their adaptation in the student life by letting them “access to timely, context-specific information and services you require, all in one place, on any device”.

How it works

It is very easy. All you have to do, is to download the app from the app store or the play store depending on your phone software system. Open the application and log in with your university account. After you have entered those, you will be able to see the lectures you have that day, and your printing account. You are free to explore the menu bar, by clicking on the top left corner to make it show up. The menu has the home page, your timetable, an option that shows you the available PC, The campus map, the library, the Directory Useful apps and a feedback option.

 

Advantages

One of the most important features of the application is that it shows information about the student’s timetable and exams dates, while it shows each day the lectures he has to attend, the lecturers, the time and the place that they will be conducted and gives you the opportunity to browse the map of the campus to find where you are and where you want to go.

Secondly, the application lets the users check their library and their printing account. The library account concerns the books a user has lent from the library and those he has on hold. Alongside, he can also see the studying spaces, like the collaborative spaces, computers and silent spaces in each library with a status of how noisy or quiet they are. Where, the printing account is about the credit they have, that can be used on printing.

Except from the Computers in the libraries there are also computer clusters located on other buildings in the campus, and in order to know where there are available computers the app comes quite handy.

Additionally, students can subscribe to news feeds about student services, sports, and other events.

Last but not least, the application is easily personalized to the needs of the user, making it also very convenient to navigate through it.

Disadvantages

Unfortunately, the application is not always updated very quickly, which means that the user has to double check the information of the app with other sources like his email.

Another deficiency is that the application requires internet network in order to function, otherwise you don’t have access to its features.

References

University App

Available from: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/itservice/mobile/universityapp/

Review:StudyBlue

Many times during their studies pupils are trapped below a pile of books, anxious from the fact that we have to learn and memorize things and that’s where StudyBlue comes to help them “Conquer their Studies”. StudyBlue is a learning platform with studying tools that help more than 13 million people to study their subject.

Since we are born in the Information age, this platform serves our needs for modernization of learning by providing Learning tools. On the site or on the mobile application users can find flashcards on the subject they are interested in, or make their own.

How it works

“Make cards”

In order to make a new deck of flash card, click on the top left of the screen the “make cards” option. You will be redirected to a new page where you get to right the term and definition of the cards you want. The page gives you the opportunity to add special symbols and mathematic symbols in your textbox. On the left you can see the terms, and by clicking them you add them to a deck. Study blue lets you also import cards from an excel file, by clicking the import option and then all you have to do is to choose your file. At the end, hit the “done” option on the top left corner and a small window will pop up, that lets you name your deck, specify its location and choose if you want it public, anonymously public, private or protected, after that click save to save your deck.

 

“Take a quiz”

If you want to take a quiz, on your main page there is a green button and below it, it reads “TAKE QUIZ”. After you click on it, after that a little window will pop up in front of you where you get to choose how many questions you want and If you want them in order, randomly, from the hardest to the easiest or the least studied. You also get to choose if you want the questions to ask you the term or the definition. After you have made your choices you continue by clicking the start studying button and you will be taken to another page, which is the quiz page where there are also options about the form of the quiz, the available options are: multiple choice, true or false or type the answer and the number of questions you want. Then, you hit the “create this quiz” button to begin the quiz. When you have finish the test, there is a “Grade my quiz” option on the left side of the screen, which shows you the results of your quiz.

Advantages

 It’s Free! There are two versions of the platform, one free and the other one is priced. Both function the same with the difference that the free has advertisements.

 Simple and well designed so that users can easily navigate through it.

As it is known, each person has a different way to remember and learn things and that’s why the platform lets you add text but also gives you the opportunity to include images for the visual learners and audio for auditory learners.

Both, the application and the site enable users to explore and share more than 350.000 flashcards made by other users in order to learn. Allowing not only student to share their content with their colleagues but also the teachers with their students.

A pretty good feature of Studyblue is that the digital natives can adjust it according to their needs. There are 3 study modes: Flip Cards, Take Quiz, Review Sheet. In Each one of these, users have the chance to change the number of the cards or their order (easy to hard, random, in order). They can also choose the way they are going to submit the answers (true/false, multiple choice or type the full answer). That gives the students the opportunity to test their knowledge in different ways, so that they can learn and feel more secure about their cognition.

Studyblue keeps track of user’s progress in order to help them to reach their studying goals.

Disadvantages

Due to its nature there is no confirmation that the information in the available flashcards is correct, which means it can have misleading content.

  In the sign up users have to give their personal information like an account picture, their name, which become public, leading to privacy issues, since users can be under aged students.

References