Practice Clues Student Guide

A quick step-by-step introduction for students

Welcome to PracticeClues! This guide will show you how to use our adaptive learning software to master your course concepts.

What is PracticeClues?

PracticeClues is an adaptive learning tool that allows you to take quizzes based on the concepts and learning objectives from your course. Your instructor sets up these objectives, and, as new content is added to the course, PracticeClues automatically generates questions from that material. This helps you practice and improve your proficiency in each area of study.

Getting Started

To get started, navigate to your course in your Learning Management System (LMS). Let’s use Canvas for this example. You will find the link to LearningClues on the sidebar. Clicking on it will take you to the PracticeClues interface.

Creating a Practice Test

To start, click on "Create practice test."

You will have two options for creating a quiz:

  1. Decide for Me: Based on your past quiz history, PracticeClues will automatically determine which topics you need the most practice on and will recommend a quiz for you.
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  2. I'll Choose Topics for Myself: This option opens up a mapping of all the course concepts, allowing you to select the specific topics you want to be quizzed on.

If you choose to select your own topics, you will see a list of all concepts for the course. Next, for each topic, you can see your current proficiency level, giving you insight into what you might need to practice.

For this guide, we will select the "Atmospheric Layers" topics.

Customizing Your Quiz

After selecting your topics, you can customize your quiz:

  • Number of Questions: Choose how many questions you want.
  • Timer: Set a timer to challenge yourself.
  • Layout: Decide if you want to see all questions at once or one at a time.

Once you’re ready, click "Create Test."

Taking the Quiz

PracticeClues will generate a quiz for you based on your selected topics. As you go through the quiz, you can:

  • Select an answer for each question.
  • Use hints if you need a little help.
  • Mark questions to remind yourself to come back later for further review or completion.

Once you have completed the test, click "Submit."

Reviewing Your Results

After submitting, you will get immediate feedback on your responses. You can see:

  • Which questions you got right or wrong.
  • A detailed explanation for each question. If you got it wrong, the explanation will clarify why the correct answer is right. If you get it right, it will provide more context.

Reporting a Question

If you come across a question that you believe has an issue or might be incorrect, you can report it. Click the "Report question" button in the top-right corner of the question. You can choose from a list of common issues or provide your own feedback. This report will be sent to your instructor for review.

Understanding Your Proficiency

After reviewing your results, click "View summary." This will take you to your proficiency summary, which shows your updated proficiency levels for each course concept.

Important Notes on Proficiencies:

  • Cumulative: Your proficiencies are cumulative and updated throughout the semester every time you take a quiz. They are not just a reflection of a single quiz.
  • Dynamic: They are always changing, giving you a real-time snapshot of your strengths and weaknesses. This helps you identify which topics you need to focus on.

The Homepage Dashboard

After you finish, you will return to the homepage. Here you can see:

  • Proficiency Chart: A chart showing your proficiencies for all course concepts. You can sort them by low, medium, and high performance to easily identify areas for improvement.
  • Quiz History: A list of all the quizzes you have taken, showing the concepts covered, your score, and the date you took the quiz.

Suggested Quizzes

On the right side of the dashboard, you will find "Suggested review." This feature is based on your proficiencies and prioritizes the concepts where you have the lowest scores. It suggests a quick, 5-question quiz on a specific topic to help you improve your understanding. Clicking on one of these suggestions, like "Precipitation processes," will immediately start a quiz on that topic.

Other LearningClues Tools

  • StudyClues: You can jump directly to the StudyClues application using the top bar. StudyClues is our 24/7 chatbot that allows you to ask questions about course content.

Getting Help

Contact Support If you experience any technical issues or problems with the software, you can click the "Contact Support" button on the top bar. This will open an email addressed to our support team so that you can describe your issue and get help.

You’re now ready to start using PracticeClues!