What are some Key Features of Study Island?

Study Island has quickly become one of the most popular educational test preparation programs in the United States. In the high stakes testing era, these types of programs are invaluable to help prepare students for state testing and eventually the Common Core State Standards. The many features of Study Island has helped make this supplemental program a must have for school districts across the country.

• Add Users – It is a very quick and easy process to add users from the administrator dashboard. It takes less than a minute to add a new user. The only problem you may have is that a common name such as John Smith may require a username such as JohnSmith76 or jsmith212.


• Adjustable Student Difficulty – This is an invaluable tool for special needs students. You can adjust the passing parameters to earn blue ribbons for individual students. You can also restrict students to easier or harder material. In addition you can enable text-to-speech capabilities and limit the number of answer choices students see for an individual user.


• Aligned to State Standards/Common Core - Perhaps the thing that makes Study Island the most valuable is that they gear content to each state’s specific standards meaning that the questions available for Study Island in Wyoming is different from the questions available in Illinois. They have also added questions specific to the Common Core State Standards.


• Bench-marking – Study Island bench-marking allows teachers to see where a student is in relation to state standards. They have four versions of each test which allows students to be assessed several times throughout the year. This allows teachers and administrators diagnostic information to help guide instruction in the classroom.


• Class Manager – This is the place where teachers can build classes, add students, give assignments, and check student progress all with a few clicks.


• Classroom Response System Compatible – Many classrooms now have classroom response systems that they can use on their smart boards. Study Island is compatible with those systems which allow teachers to use it a group review over topics that they just finished or solely as test prep.


• Corresponding Lessons – Each topic comes with a corresponding lesson. While the lessons aren’t detailed, they are solid reviews that students can look at before and during a topic.


• Create Writing Assignments – This feature allows you to create a writing assignment with a prompt. Students will type in their response to the prompt and get feedback from the teacher.


• Custom Material Creation – This allows teachers to create their own assessments and lessons within the framework of Study Island. For example if a science teacher wanted to build a vocabulary test specific to a unit over electricity, they could put it on Study Island and assign it to students.


• Customizable Settings – Many of the settings on Study Island are customizable and easily turned on or off including games, student messaging, flash cards, visible timer, highlighters, etc.


• Easy to Use Reports – Study Island provides a variety of reports on student progress in each topic by individual or class. There are even reports that compare student progress to school and state averages. Some key reports include the class grade-book report, assignment report, blue ribbon report, RTI report, and individual student report.


• Enhancements – Study Island consistently issues a bundle of new features 3-4 times a year that they call enhancements. These enhancements continually add to the value of the Study Island Program.


• Game Mode – Game mode allows students to actively answer questions while participating in games. This feature only allows students to play the game on questions which they answer correctly thus motivating students to do their best. In game mode students also get to compare their scores against other students in their school as well as students across their state and country. Some of the more popular games include mini-golf adventure, fishing challenge, sling shot, bowling, & penalty kick. In all there are 37 games ranging from a beginner level to a challenging level.


• Interactive Flash Cards – Many of the topics throughout the Study Island program include flash cards that students can use to review key information about that topic. These flash cards can be printed for use or students can simply use the interactive version.


• Khan Academy Videos – Many middle school and high school math lessons are embedded with Khan Academy videos. These videos give students a brief, step-by-step lesson of specific math concepts and examples.


• Live View – Allows teachers to monitor student progress in real time.


• Mobile Version – Study Island also has a mobile version for learning on the go available for smart phones and/or tablets. They even have a few games available for the mobile version.


• No Guessing – Students who try to go through a set of questions without trying will be met with this annoying little feature. A box will pop up on the screen telling them not to guess and that they have been frozen for 10 seconds.


• Parent Notifications – Allows parents to be notified via email of their child’s progress on Study Island.


• Pretest/Post Test – Every topic comes with a pretest and a post test that teachers can use to see each students growth from the initiation of the program until they have completed each individual lesson.


• Printable Worksheets – Every topic has the option for teachers to give them to students as printable worksheets. This option is good for teachers who have limited access to a computer lab, for additional practice at home, or simply for a change of pace in their classroom.


• Remedial Building Block Topics – Another of the key features of Study Island. If a 7th grade student struggles with a topic such as linear equations, then the program subsequently locks that topic and bumps them down to a remedial topic. It will continue to bump them down until it finds the student’s mastery level. It will then open up the level above that until eventually they are able to master the original topic of linear equations. This feature allows genuine remediation and growth for students as it builds on a student’s individual skills and knowledge.


• Ribbon Motivation System – Students love to collect blue ribbons for mastering topics and often turn it into a competition with their classmates.


• Student Messaging – This feature allows students to message each other and/or their teachers when logged into Study Island. Schools have the option of turning student messaging completely off and/or limiting access to communication between a student and a teacher.


• Study Island Forums – A community where users including teachers, parents, and students can collaborate with each other on ideas for best practices with Study Island.


• Teacher Resources – Many topics come with a comprehensive teacher resource/professional development packet that includes a description of the lesson, videos associated with the lesson, lessons plans and power point presentations, and additional resources that can be used by the teacher.


• Virtual Lab Activities – Several topics in middle school and high school science have virtual lab activities embedded in them. These activities allow students to actively practice and learn science content through interactive animation, examples, and virtual experiments.