StudyMate

Overview 

What Is It?

StudyMate by Respondus enables you to create Flash-based learning activities and games without needing to know Flash programming or even HTML. These activities can then be uploaded to Blackboard or any web server.  Graphics, mathematical and scientific symbols, and external web links can be inserted into the activity items.  Questions and answer choices can be randomized so that the activity is different each time it is used.  Existing content can be imported in a variety of formats (including MS Word, rich text, and IMS QTI).  Publisher test banks can be downloaded from the Respondus Test Bank Network for use in StudyMate.

A free 30-day trial version is available. A single-user academic use license is, at the time of this writing, $79.  Respondus also offers options for campus-wide licensing.

Who Uses It?

Faculty and instructors who want to build web-based learning activities for use in Blackboard or other course web sites will find this tool useful. CIT provides access to this tool in the CIT Lab. 

How Does It Work?

StudyMate runs on your Windows desktop or laptop computer.  The first step is to create a bank of "items" from which various activities can be built.  There are three types of items:

• No answer: "factoids" or other text
• One answer: questions with short single answers or terms and definitions
• Multiple choice: questions with a single correct answer and a list of distractor answers

Once a bank of items is constructed, you can have StudyMate build activities based on the items.  Each item type (no answer, one answer, multiple choice) permits the creation of a certain set of activity types.  For example, "one answer" item types permit the creation of the following activity types: FlashCards, Pick-a-Letter, Matching, Fill-in-the-Blank, and Glossary.  You can include all the available items in an activity or a random selection.

The final step is to have StudyMate create the Flash learning object.  You select the types of activities to include and then tell StudyMate to export the selected activities as a learning object.  The output is a HTML page and a Flash SWF file that can be uploaded to a web server.

To use the exported learning object in Blackboard, put the HTML file and the Flash SWF file in a zip file (using, for example, WinZip).  Upload the zip file to Blackboard, unpack it, and set the HTML page as the entry point.

Uses as an Instructional Technology

StudyMate enables faculty and instructors to: 

• Add interactive review exercises to a course Web space
• Provide support for memorization tasks by create, text and image flashcards
• Create iPod-formatted review materials for portable access
• Provide immersive language learning activities by changing the exercise interface to display in one of five Western European languages

Additional Information

To use StudyMate to create activities, you need:

• PC with Windows 98, NT 4, ME, 2000, XP operating system
• 32 MB RAM minimum
• 10 MB free hard disk space minimum
• 800x600 resolution monitor minimum

To use the activities after they have been created, you need a Web browser with Flash Player 7.0 or higher

Things to Consider

• To create activities and games, you must be using a Windows computer.  Once created, the Flash activities can be used on any platform with a browser and suitable Flash Player plug-in.
• Although StudyMate includes the ability to upload activities directly to Blackboard, the direct upload capability cannot be used at Duke since the Duke installation of Blackboard uses a custom authentication module.  To use StudyMate-generated activities in Blackboard, you must export them in HTML + Flash learning object format, package them in a zip file, and then manually upload them to Blackboard.

Center for Instructional Technology, Duke University Libraries | Box 90198 | Durham, NC, 27708
phone: 919.660.5806 | fax: 919.668.2578 | email: cit@duke.edu | RSS Feeds