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An open source web-based flashcard studying system

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Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#31

Post by oofsa »

hwgilbert16 wrote: post #22
frithsun wrote: post #19

I'd like to create one with basic and obvious gamification integrated into the design. Every aspect of my child's life is intensively, scientifically designed to be addictive and hyperstimulating except learning. Then we're back to digital flash cards that somehow manage to suck even worse than analog hand written flash cards. Not beating up on your early demo. Solid foundation. But please try to imagine a child usin…

Simple HTML5 games are on the docket for future releases. Nothing advanced - but still something stimulating other than pure flashcards. This is a point where I’m not as well-versed. Would love to hear any recommendations for study games that you might find useful. As a side note, this is more targeted at an older audience, i.e. ~16+.

One problem I've seen is that most addictive things, including games, either offer a diversity and discovery of content (as seen in watching YouTube videos or playing incremental games (Cookie Clicker, Candy Box!, etc.)), or foster competition and demonstration of skills (as seen in games like chess or FPS). However, memorization is by nature a repetitive and solitary task.

Duolingo operates in this space, and their gamification model, I believe, is to motivate users to study by allowing them to display their streaks and levels to others. (competition)

Anki also has a streak-based gamification, and it's somewhat successful, as seen here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Anki/search/?q=streak&restrict_sr=1.

However, these gamifications are not as fun as real games. It won't make your heart thump like FPS games do.

I believe there is room to incorporate features from incremental games (like Cookie Clicker) into flashcard apps, although it is not as simple as it sounds. Habitica [1] is another example of integrating incremental features into a task management system, but it lacked a diversity of content when I tried it last year. Incremental games are not merely about numbers increasing; they also involve the discovery of various elements (like grandmas, farms, factories, mines, shipments, alchemy, portal, ... in Cookie Clicker).

[1]: https://habitica.com/static/home

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#32

Post by hwgilbert16 »

kazinator wrote: post #28

You're missing installation steps for how to use this on a phone without access to the Internet. I can use AnkiDroid with the device in airplane mode. For some users, it is absolutely critical that the spaced repetition program runs on a mobile device, because that lets them use any spare moments they have in any situation anywhere for the purpose of studying. It's a web app, but the installation talks about Docker c…

Correct, it’s a web app. It’s run on a server that you will need connection back to - it’s not an Android or iOS app. Again, this is still very early in development. It’s likely that we will look into offline functionality in the future.

In the future, we may potentially look into adding companion apps that can sync back to the server, but that is a far ways off from now.

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#34

Post by mieses »

Could a teacher use Scholarsome to share flashcards with a group and track activity? It looks like some sharing features are already in place. Teachers use quizlet to assign both classwork and homework. Anki is designed for individual use and the sharing plugins are too complex and too limited for most teachers.

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#35

Post by somsak2 »

oofsa wrote: post #20
blasterjeff151 wrote: post #5

It's a good start! Keep working on it - Anki has aspects that are very, very dated (IMHO) and an open source competitor would be good for everybody.

Have you tried the latest version of Anki? Its design has become modern. From a technical perspective, a software written in Rust, Python, Svelte, and TypeScript should not be considered "very dated". The only issue I see is that I still haven't figured out what "card" and "note" mean, even though I've been using it for more than a year.

the note is the db model. the card is the view on top of that, which includes html and css. many cards can be created from one note, just like a db model can have many ways of being shown

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#36

Post by somsak2 »

alex-chew wrote: post #12
blasterjeff151 wrote: post #5

It's a good start! Keep working on it - Anki has aspects that are very, very dated (IMHO) and an open source competitor would be good for everybody.

I'm curious which aspects of Anki you find to be "very, very dated"? I haven't used Anki for very long, nor have I looked into any advanced-looking features, so perhaps I haven't run into those aspects you were referring to.

sure

why does the app give me a total number of cards to do? why not always present the card I'm most likely to forget and leave me to decide when to stop?

why is it so hard to understand the concept of a note vs a card?

why aren't there more ways to have cards be updated over time, to subscribe to updates?

why does the app cost $25 on iOS?

why can't I execute JavaScript within fields if my html/css is rendered in a browser anyway?

just off the top of my head. many more to list. i love Anki but let's not act like it doesn't have serious downsides

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#38

Post by Tomte »

alex-chew wrote: post #12
blasterjeff151 wrote: post #5

It's a good start! Keep working on it - Anki has aspects that are very, very dated (IMHO) and an open source competitor would be good for everybody.

I'm curious which aspects of Anki you find to be "very, very dated"? I haven't used Anki for very long, nor have I looked into any advanced-looking features, so perhaps I haven't run into those aspects you were referring to.

Has the "ease hell" issue been solved, maybe with the new scheduler? Or do you still need to stay away from two of the answer option (easy, hard) and only use the other two (good, again)?

Honest question, I haven't kept up with Anki, but just saw that a new scheduler (v3) seems to be default now.

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#39

Post by lelanthran »

Firstly, I wish you all the luck; this is a genuinely useful category of software and there simply aren't enough alternatives out there.

That being said, the big hurdle with SRS software is ... lack of content.

I wrote one too but gave up on it because creating the content takes too long.

What I'd like to see someone create is an open and free wikipedia-type-everyone-can-contribute-content project specifically for flashcards.

When I sign up to any SRS I want to be able to point the software to (for example) www.srs-commons.org/topics/programming/languages/kotlin, or maybe www.srs-commons.org/topics/history/south-africa/the-boer-war, or www.srs-commons.org/curriculums/us/grade-10/trigonometry.

Students seem particularly motivated to create a commons of cheating material, maybe they could be similarly motivated to add to a commons of study material.

Re: An open source web-based flashcard studying system

#40

Post by lelanthran »

o1y32 wrote: post #11
throwawaystress wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that’s an unnecessarily harsh criticism. The OP spent a lot of time coding this up, it’s still in progress, and they should feel proud of it! Anki isn’t for everybody, and maybe this person made a UI that speaks to some people better than others. I count myself among the camp of people who like SRS but dislike Anki.

"Anki isn't for everybody" But I didn't see a single sentence about how this is different from Anki and why? Why do you want to reinvent the wheel when Anki is good enough?

> But I didn't see a single sentence about how this is different from Anki and why? Why do you want to reinvent the wheel when Anki is good enough?

Well, sometimes "good enough" isn't really the point. People have different tastes and different motivations.

Why did people use Windows before v3.0 when Mac at the time was objectively better? Why did people bother using OS X when Windows at the time was objectively better? Right now, why are people using Mac OS when UI and UX on Windows is objectively better?

Why use Linux circa 1995 when FreeBSD was objectively better? Why use netBSD now when everything else is objectively better?

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