Quizlet, an educational platform designed for study help, updated their interface to severely limit features available to non-paying users earlier this year. As the 2022-2023 school year comes into full swing, students at Olentangy Liberty High School are beginning to notice the harmful impacts of the software changes. 

The newest version of Quizlet requires users to pay up to $48 a year to access Quizlet Plus. Frustrated students argue that paying for premium is essentially paying to make their own content, as Quizlet is primarily composed of users’ personal study sets. 

“Their marketing strategy is stupid,” Riley Herr, a Sophomore at Olentangy Liberty High School says. “They are literally profiting off of our own work.”

The platform has been used by a majority of students at OLHS. With sixty million monthly learners, Quizlet is an extremely popular aide for study help. A large population of students at Liberty High School will continue to use the platform.

“This update stinks because Quizlet has been really effective for students in the past,” Nikhil Ravilla, a Sophomore at Liberty High School says. “Quizlet played a huge role in my academic success last year. Many students will struggle without all the available resources and features.”

The update restricts non-paying users to only 5 rounds of Learn, which is arguably the most useful feature. Learn is a resource that combines flashcards, multiple choice questions, and writing questions to create a personalized study plan. Additionally, non-premium users can only take one test, and there is no longer the Write feature available.

“In my opinion, Learn was the best feature,” Cate Kelly, a Junior at Liberty says. “It is really frustrating to see all of these educational platforms limiting users to make a profit.”

Fortunately, some Olentangy School teachers have bought Quizlet Plus, either personally or out of the department funds. 

“My French teacher has access to Quizlet Plus for our class,” Shri Easwara, a Sophomore at Liberty, says.  “It makes a big difference.” 

However, students still don’t have direct access to these features. To be able to use Quizlet Plus, the set has to be in the class created by your teacher who has access to Quizlet Plus, meaning that paid features cannot be used on personal sets. 

Many students have been utilizing other platforms to study. The most popular alternatives include StudyStack, Anki, and Knowt, all of which can be easily accessed with no payment required. With Knowt, students can import sets from Quizlet into the website. Knowt is still in development, but has the potential to become the even better version of Quizlet.

“I actually prefer Knowt over Quizlet,” Natalie Contini, a Sophomore at Liberty says. “Maybe, if enough people switch from Quizlet to Knowt, they will realize their mistake and make the features free again.”

The marketing strategy is unrealistic as their audience is composed of mostly students who can’t afford the costly fees for all the features. In my opinion, Quizlets poor decision to change their accessibility will negatively affect their platform and I hope to see a more accessible version in the future.