Westnews Magazine - January 15, 2009
January 15, 2009

Students, teachers create own study materials with new computer program
By Diane Plattner

Area students and teachers have the ability to create their own study materials with the help of a new computer program.

Students and teachers from at least one St. Louis County-area school are creating their own review materials with the help of StudyX, a new computer software program that can generate practice tests and flash cards to aid in studying.

“It is designed to ease the boredom of studying,” said StudyX Creator Jeff Minnis, president of Jeff Computers LLC. “I developed StudyX because I needed a program to help me study and I could not find any other software like it.”

That was why officials at John F. Kennedy (JFK) High School in Manchester decided to install StudyX this school year on laptop computers at the school, which has approximately 390 students with a one-to-one laptop program.

“We are always looking for study resources,” said Mary Lynn, JFK's technology coordinator. “We want students to become more responsible for their own learning.” Lynn said StudyX, which is being used in and out of the classroom, fits nicely with their school improvement and helps build vocabulary. She said early reports from JFK teachers are that students are “totally engaged” when using StudyX, which students are using to develop review materials for themselves and classmates.
“In my class, students build study materials for a test,” Lynn said. “They can use flash cards, multiple choice, true/false and short answer. We can then post that to a Web page for their access to use for test review.” Lynn said the learning objective is similar to that of worksheets. However, StudyX is a more powerful tool that allows user interaction and sharing.

“This is unique because the students can create,” Lynn said. “It adds another level to interactive learning. It is one thing if I can create an online quiz/game, but this allows students to create. That is a lot of what this generation is about, creating and modifying.”

Some students have given the program rave reviews. "It helps me memorize vocabulary words," JFK sophomore Margaret Grasser said. "My teacher used it to create a study guide for our test,” JFK senior Dan Rapp said. “I think it helped."

In addition to JFK, Minnis said StudyX is helping students at Webster University where officials said students are learning painlessly because StudyX games are more interesting to them than routine study activities. Plans also are in place for StudyX to be used during the current school year at Sacred Heart School in Valley Park, Twin Oaks Presbyterian School in Twin Oaks and Rohan-Woods School in Warson Woods, Minnis said.