Quizlet, the popular app that lets students create interactive study sets and prepare for tests in any subject, is unveiling a redesign today, including a new website, logo and redesigned mobile apps soon to come.
The new Quizlet was created with an eye on international expansion. The San Francisco edtech startup now offers translated and localized versions of its study tools in German, Spanish, Chinese (both simplified and traditional) and Japanese, American and UK English.
Quizlet CEO Matt Glotzbach notes that the localized product should be especially useful for teachers who want to incorporate Quizlet study tools and study materials, as well as Quizlet Live into their classrooms.
Quizlet Live is a relatively new product from Quizlet that runs question-and-answer matching games for small teams to play against each other, offline, in the same room.
Localization of the Quizlet user experience included more than translating the labels on buttons and website copy, Glotzbach said. For example, different countries see students treating their teachers with a different level of formality, and not all teachers grade on an A to F system.
An A in the UK means a student has scored about 70% or higher in a course or on an exam. That’s not quite as high as an A in the U.S. And in Germany, students are graded on a 1 to 5, instead of A to F basis, for example.
The company will continue to translate Quizlet for use in new markets, and has Korean among the languages on its near-term road map, the CEO said.
The redesign includes a few new feature additions to Quizlet Live, including the ability for a teacher to add audio content into the game’s questions and answers.
According to a company statement, Quizlet now boasts 20 million monthly active “learners,” or users who study and don’t just create study materials for others. It also reports that over the past year, users including education professionals, created 60 million study sets on Quizlet.
Founded in 2005, Quizlet resisted taking on any venture capital until late 2015, when its CTO and founder Andrew Sutherland decided the company needed capital to expand globally.
The company raised $12 million in Series A funding from Union Square Ventures, Costanoa Venture Capital, and Owl Ventures at that point and soon brought Glotzbach on to lead Quizlet in a new growth phase.
