Go Conqr (formerly ExamTime) is a wonderful free web-app that allows teachers and students to easily create, save, share, and embed mind maps, quizzes, flashcards, and notes. Plus, the service also includes a study planner to help students stay organized and on top of their classes. It's a great all-in-one resource, so let's check it out!
As I mentioned at the opening, GoConqr is a free app, and it's a great resource from both the student and teacher perspective, especially since the service makes it so easy to share anything you create. Teachers can create practice quizzes to send out to students, students can create flashcards to share with each other, or they could collaboratively work on mind maps, there are any number of possibilities.
On top of that, GoConqr does an excellent job of helping you stay organized. If you're a teacher, you can create subjects or classes to organize your students. And you can connect with your students through the app to make it easier to share content. If you're a student you can create learning groups which allow you to connect, comment, and collaborate with others on anything you're making. It's all incredibly user-friendly and I believe even teachers who are not as comfortable with technology would have little trouble understanding the interface.
With all that being said, after you first log in, you'll be taken to your main dashboard where you'll have the opportunity to create new resources, or to browse other resources that teachers/students have chosen to make public.
Featured Resources from Other Members
To get started, just hit the big, red, "create" button at the top left, and you'll be asked if you want to make a mind map, a quiz, a set of flashcards, or a note. From here you can also create your subject areas (if you're a teacher) or find friends to connect with.
Start Creating!
Mind Maps
Let's take a look at the Mind Maps first (as if the title didn't give that away...) Now, there are a ton of options for making mind maps on the web, all with their distinct advantages and disadvantages. What I really like about GoConqr (aside from it being free and bundled with these other services we're about to discuss), is how incredibly simple it is to use. Just click to type, click the + to drag out new nodes, click the color to change the color, you get the idea, it's simple.
Start Mapping that Mind
On top of that, there are some unique features to GoConqr's mind mapping software that make it a really great option. First of all, it's incredibly easy to download your finished map (as a .png), share, track views, or embed on another site. Second, you can easily attach files, add notes, or upload images to your mind map as well (a feature which is surprisingly absent in many mind mapping tools).
Click the "note logo" to add a note
But the final feature, the one that I was really surprised by, is that you can view your mind map like a presentation as well (almost akin to a prezi presentation). By hitting the play button at the bottom, you'll be taken through your mind map step by step, which would be an incredibly useful tool for giving a presentation in class, rather than just having all your bubbles up on the screen at once. You can even adjust the playback speed! And, on top of all that, they just added new font and color options as well, to make your mind map even more customizable!
Play Your Mind Map for All to See
Quizzes
GoConqr also offers a quiz builder, which can be a great resource for both students and teachers. Students could create quizzes for each other, or for an assignment, teachers could send out practice quizzes, there's a lot of options here. When you're building a quiz you can choose three question types: multiple-choice, true/false, and checkboxes (for multiple response type questions). You can also upload images to be associated with questions if you'd like to!
Quiz Time!
Once you've finished your quiz, you can easily send it out to other people in your group/class, and have them take it! It's a great study tool.
Flashcards
Like the quizzes, flashcards are also incredibly easy to create. Just write what you want to have on both sides, and that's it! You're done! You can add images if you'd like to as well, which is a great feature, and you can organize your cards by different decks.
Creating Flashcards
And also like the quizzes, once you're finished creating your deck of cards, you can easily send them out to be shared with other friends or groups on the site.
Notes
GoConqr also offers a simple and useful note taker, that would be beneficial in a wide variety of classrooms. You can click anywhere on the screen to type, which is really nice since you don't have to just type in top to bottom order. You can also insert media (awesome feature) and images as well. Plus, you can save your notes and organize them by class or however you would like to. It's a very powerful tool, packed into a simple interface that even students at the elementary level would be able to get a hang of (as with the rest of these tools).
Add Your Notes
Planner / Calendar
Finally, GoConqr offers a built in calendar / planner to help students keep track of classes and assignments. And, like everything else, the calendar is incredibly simple to use, you organize it by subjects and add assignments as you find out about them:
So there you have it! GoConqr is an outstanding digital ecosystem that offers an enormous variety of possibility. Students can benefit not only through the creation of mind maps, quizzes, and so forth, but also through communicating and collaborating with other learners, both within and outside of their classroom. On top of all that, it's a free resource with an intuitive interface, that even students at the elementary level could handle. With all that being said, I definitely recommend giving an GoConqr a try and see for yourself how easy and beneficial it can be for the classroom.
And now, from the GoConqr team:
After thousands of requests from users, we are delighted to announce that GoConqr is now available as an iOS or Android app. View, discover and share great learning resources on the go!
Plus, in addition to reaching over 1 million users, they've recently updated their look and added the new dashboard and activity feed. You can read all about these updates in their recent blog post. Aside from that, it's still the same great learning resource and worth checking out!
And now, from the GoConqr team:
After thousands of requests from users, we are delighted to announce that GoConqr is now available as an iOS or Android app. View, discover and share great learning resources on the go!
Plus, in addition to reaching over 1 million users, they've recently updated their look and added the new dashboard and activity feed. You can read all about these updates in their recent blog post. Aside from that, it's still the same great learning resource and worth checking out!
The opinions expressed in this review are my own.
I was not compensated for writing this review.
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