Learning Apps and Tools | News
Study Island 4 Adds Assessment Builder, iOS Support
Study Island's AP Literature and Composition demo. (Click here to try Study Island demos.) |
Archipelago Learning has released Study Island 4, a major update to the company's online instruction, assessment, and reporting tool. In addition to a new assessment engine and online writing tools, the new version adds new collaboration features, gaming, and support for Apple iOS devices.
Study Island is a Web-based suite of educational tools, including instructional resources, practice tools, a testing engine, and data analysis, with content aligned to state standards, as well as Common Core State Standards. It covers English, math, science, and social studies.
The new version, released this week, includes a new custom assessment engine for building diagnostic, formative, and summative tests. The engine is designed to allow teachers to build assessments quickly and schedule them for individual students or groups. Tests are graded automatically, with the results added to the integrated gradebook.
Version 4 also adds support for writing assignments that let teachers accept papers electronically, with support for highlighting, online grading, and commenting, along with support for creating an electronic portfolio (e-portfolio) of a student's work throughout the term. The writing module is designed to work within all of Study Island's subject areas.
Some of the other new features in the version 4 release include:
- Support for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch;
- New teacher forums for collaboration with peers;
- Videos demonstrating best practices in teaching;
- A redesigned teacher page for managing preferences;
- Support for classroom clickers;
- State-aligned lesson plans for English and math;
- Instructional videos for state-specific lesson plans;
- Live view of activities being performed by students;
- Improvements to games;
- New practice tools, including "soft" clickers with virtual student response systems for using traditional computers as classroom polling systems;;
- New messaging tools for communicating with students and parents;
- Response to intervention (RTI) reports;
- Accessibility features (large typefaces, text to speech, and other features);
- Response to intervention reporting; and
- Automatic remediation tools for building prerequisite skills.
Study Island is in use by more than 22,800 schools in the United States, according to Archipelago.
Study Island 4 is available now for both institutional and individual users. For institutions, pricing varies widely by student body population, subjects, and other factors. A complete pricing guide can be found online. (Begin here. Click a state, then click the "Pricing & Brochure" link on the right.) For parents and students, pricing for individual users varies by subject and is typically about $59 per user, $29 for some non-core and GED subjects, $149 for SAT and ACT prep courses.
Further information can be found here. Online demos can be found here.