Smart Terms – Smart Revise

USE SMART TERMS FOR REVISION

Keywords explained

A comprehensive set of terminology with exam board definitions presented as flashcards.

Having command of the key terminology can make a real difference, not just in answering “state”, “define” and “describe” questions, but understanding the course content too.

Craig’n’Dave have pored over every specification document to create a set of terms that are specific for the course your students are studying. Forensically exploring mark schemes, popular textbooks, and computing dictionaries to create the best succinct definition for each term.

Note these are more succinct definitions than those provided in the Word/PowerPoint documents in the downloadable Craig’n’Dave resources because they are intended for exam revision.

USE SMART TERMS FOR ASSESSMENT

Recording confidence with each term

RAG rating each term facilitates analysis and custom decks.

Unlike classic flashcards, before moving to the next card a student must record a self-assessment of their confidence with the term using a simple RAG approach. They can easily update this assessment as their confidence grows.

Teachers can use this data presented in a set of useful reports to inform their teaching and show progress over time.

Challenge students to write a definition of a term in interactive mode

Engage students in active and not just passive revision.

Smart Terms has two modes: reflective and interactive. Reflective mode is a classic flashcard. In interactive mode students must write their own definition of a term on-screen before they can flip the card.

Teachers can review the definitions students have written in a handy report and change their recorded level of confidence if they don’t feel a student has accurately RAG rated themselves!

Rich Reports

Watch student confidence grow.

Using the suite of reports, teachers can use Smart Terms in many different ways. For example:

To assess prior knowledge of a topic before teaching.
To focus revision on least well understood terms.
To reflect on the success of a set of lessons.

USE SMART TERMS FOR INTERVENTION

Spot the weaker topics

Use data to inform your teaching.

Using Smart Terms it is easy to see which topics and terms students themselves feel they are less confident with. This facilitates timely interventions and focused revision at the end of the course.

It is also easy to spot those students who are behind their peers, enabling the teacher to provide additional help.

USE SMART TERMS FOR PERSONALISED LEARNING

Create custom decks of cards

Filter cards to include particular topics or only terms least well understood easily.

Using topic filters and deck building options, students can change the terms they want to study. Additional advice on many of the cards provides supplementary knowledge for students about each term too.

Using a personalised revision report it is easy for students to identify which aspects of the course they have not studied or revised yet.

10 awards to attain

Incentives and healthy competition in a class

To encourage students to engage with Smart Revise, students can achieve a set of awards simply by using Smart Terms.

WHAT THE EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH SAYS

Space, retrieve, interleave

Smart Revise is built on the foundation of educational research from Murre, Dunlosky and Weinstein et al.

Creating flashcards is a popular revision technique, but once made the use of them can become very passive. Simply reading and rereading cards is actually not as useful as it could be. By using interactive mode in Smart Terms, students are challenged to write and rewrite definitions instead. This is known as “retrieval practice” and has a much bigger impact on performance.

CASE STUDY

At Stroud High School, at the end of a topic students are asked to enter a definition for each term and RAG rate themselves against the correct answer. The teacher reviews the definitions that their students entered, and evaluates their self-assessment RAG rating, modifying it for those students who had over-estimated their understanding of a term.

The teacher also uses data reports to know which terms the class feel they least well understand. At the end of the course this data informs revision sessions focusing on areas of the specification different groups of learners want to revise.

Classic revision cards enable students to revise key terms, but they do little for the teacher who could use data to help their students further. Smart Terms provides a much better solution.