[anon2020dot00]

My idea is that there is a market for community-curated spaced repetition decks. Many people want to learn the same things such as a foreign language or a programming language.

The difficult part is creating a deck and crafting the answers and questions. Because usually this is a time-consuming process. So if it was a community-effort then it would be a win-win.

This is probably not an original idea and if anyone knows already where to find such decks, that would be cool.

[allenu]

> This is probably not an original idea and if anyone knows already where to find such decks, that would be cool.

This is something I've wanted to do with my app (Fresh Cards). I ended up defining a simple text file format for the flashcards[1] to help make it easier to share and import cards. You could post flashcards as simple text that someone could drag and drop into the app to import. (Formats like Anki's .apkg file are great, but they don't make it easy to peruse the cards without importing into Anki.)

What's missing in all of this, though, is an actual community where you could search and browse the decks and collaborate to create new ones. Though, if you simply use text files, you could host a deck on github, for instance, and allow people to create pull requests to improve it. I think there's room for creating nicer user experiences to surface decks and encourage sharing, however. (Imagine, for instance, a social media-like feed where you could see new flashcards being created and you could search by tag for your target language.) Anyway, I think this area is ripe for exploration, but the user experience has to be done right to encourage collaboration and sharing of decks.

[1] https://www.freshcardsapp.com/help/tech/index.html#text

[darkteflon]

I hadn’t heard of Fresh Cards before, but this looks lovely.

I’ve used Anki over the years to great effect with second language learning and am fully bought into the paradigm, but I do find Anki quite clunky as a piece of software. Fresh Cards seems like it’s designed specifically in response to that.

Does this use a similar repetition algorithm to Anki? Are there any obvious limitations versus Anki? What sort of UX differences would a long-term Anki user need to get comfortable with?

Would also be keen to hear from anyone here that’s used this.

[allenu]

Thanks for the response. I read up on how Anki's algorithm works and tried to match it closely, although Fresh Cards doesn't have the exact same algorithm. I actually ended up adding a way for you to provide your own scheduling algorithm via javascript if that's your sort of thing. I also built a web page just so you can see the effects of recalling correctly and incorrectly, as well as reviewing too early or too late: https://www.freshcardsapp.com/srs/simulator/

I also included my attempt at converting Anki's algorithm to javascript so you can compare and contrast. I'm open to any feedback on improving the algo that I do use!

In terms of limitations, probably the biggest one is that Anki lets you create cards using a template system, which Fresh Cards doesn't have yet. In Anki you can create one note and then from that have multiple flashcards auto-generated using several templates. You can also do something similar with cloze deletions. One of my goals is to get to 100% Anki compatibility over the next few months, so I'll be adding a template system and similar cloze-deletion system.

In terms of UX, the app actually has multiple review styles. When I first built the app, a lot of users actually wanted to re-review cards, but the app would strictly schedule them, so you didn't have a way to do that. (Anki lets you "review ahead", but for the most part tries to keep you on the schedule.)

To satisfy both users who wanted to review whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted and users who wanted to stick to a spaced repetition system, I designed the UX to act as a "playlist". You just hit play and it'll start reviewing the cards in the order that you see. (You can sort and filter based on spaced repetition algorithm, or use several other modes.)

The app is pretty much designed to just pick up and go without a lot of instruction, so it should be easy to get used to.

[biophysboy]

I've been using spaced repetition software (Anki) to learn Japanese. Community decks are really powerful for the basics, but personal decks are unavoidable later on.

For language learning, there are flash card generators that make this a simple one-click process. I think these strike the right balance of simplicity & flexibility/personalization. Of course, a tool like this relies on a free database that you can map concepts onto. But I could see this sort of working with wikipedia or some documentation.

[pastram_i]

Is anki the solution you imagine? https://apps.ankiweb.net/ Or is there a use case that anki doesn’t solve?

[p-christ]

Anki public decks are usually too low quality to be useful unfortunately

[Qualadore]

They're a lot better than Save All's builtin decks, such as only including 1,000 of the most frequent words of a language, and only nouns, and not even including the word's gender.

Rarely with these SRS services do you see actual high-quality decks that outdo public Anki decks, which is a shame because it would be a great way to add value.

[detuneattune]

Instead of there being competing spaced repetition programs and services, I'd much rather companies just go down the route of making well-curated, frequently updating Anki decks and putting them behind a paywall instead.

Refold, a company focused on language learning, does exactly this [0], and having tried their JP1K deck for Japanese for a while, I can say without any hesitation that it was shocking just how high quality everything was.

It had the full works: Japanese audio, kanji, furigana, multiple definitions, a custom background, etc. And I wouldn't be surprised if there were even more changes since the last time I tried it.

I recall there being something similar to this for medical programs, but overall I'd say that this approach sadly isn't something that a lot of people are focusing on.

[0] https://refold.la/decks

[AlchemistCamp]

Fluent Forever started with this approach: https://fluent-forever.com/shop

[pastram_i]

I don’t disagree, but from their reply the request is community based. And any community based product is just a good as… well, their community.

So how would a different community tool provide better content? What tactics could be used to increase quality?

[p-christ]

(1) We are going to incentivise high quality decks by allowing people to sell access to their decks

(2) The main problem we see with Anki public decks is that the user themselves decides whether they got the question "right" or not when reviewing the cards. This lack of a "teacher" means that it is very very difficult to learn using someone else's cards.

You basically end up kind of getting something wrong but then saying it was right anyway. Do that a few times and your trust & investment in the process goes and you'll eventually you lose motivation to carry on with the deck.

Save All decks are different. WE decide whether you got it right or not, not you. This makes it much easier for you to learn using someone else's decks

[atahanacar]

I don't understand how your 2nd point is a problem. If you already say you're right even though you are not, you won't lose any motivation to carry on because you have no motivation already.

If you don't want to learn (or memorize), no technique or tool will allow you to learn. Make a tool that solves this "problem", and the user will simply find other ways for running away, like not using the tool.

[allenu]

See my other comment, but I wonder if someone could coordinate an open source deck using github. It would have to use a text-based flashcard deck format, and as with other open source, would require some coordination to curate the deck.

That said, I can see some negatives as I have read that for learning, it's generally better to construct your own flashcards.

[schainks]

They are hit or miss, depending what you're trying to do.

[segh]

https://quantum.country/ teaches quantum computing as essays with embedded flashcards, as a new "mnemonic medium". I wonder if there is a market for context plus flashcards. What if books came with their own spaced repetition decks?

[cfu28]

At least coming from the medical school perspective - there is a huge culture of using shared Anki decks built off of popular board review books and courses so you can read a chapter/finish a section in some course and immediately jump to Anki to do the corresponding flashcards.

It's gotten so popular that now theres a shared 30,000k card deck called AnKing that a lot of students use. The deck itself is free, but the curators of the deck recently launched a new paid service to automatically update the deck as new cards from the community are added: https://www.reddit.com/r/medicalschoolanki/comments/rb62m6/a...

[p-christ]

I completely agree. We’ve started building that on Save All and will be going more in that direction in future.

The Anki public decks are usually too low quality to be useful unfortunately

[cfu28]

I guess it depends on the community. AnKing's deck is the gold standard in medical education community despite being public.

[belkarx]

Another idea: decent, effective decks of cards exist for other platforms like Quizlet - just figure out how to convert them (there are apparently some extensions that do this as of now)

[CubsFan1060]

Is this what you are looking for? https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/

[p-christ]

I find the Anki shared decks are basically not high quality enough. Do you ever use them? Which ones do you use?

[chatterhead]

Anki is great; the problem really is the inability for people to use it on their phone (without paying) and properly build and maintain decks.

Would very much like a version control system for Anki decks so updating cards can be done by the community and transparently. This would allow people to validate and properly maintain decks that change with time (like programming languages / regulatory requirements / operating standards etc).

[visarga]

You might get more value from cards you write yourself. You should do that when you encounter the information.

[an_aparallel]

the point of spaced repetition - like Anki is to be involved with the creation process of the deck. Simply downloading it ready is not as effective.