Web-based Flashcard-like learning tool:

• A tool for students to use in memorizing material which would be suitable for traditional flashcards.
• Suitable for any content, any class, but the initial development is for a class on Etymology and a Latin class
  
• The path of a given single "flashcard"
  
• Initial Information Entry: student enters a matched information pair: the "front" and "back" of a traditional flashcard
  
• For example, "put-, putat-" is a Latin root that matches the meaning "think" (as in "com-put-er), and so "put, putat-" is the front of the card and "think" is the back.
  
• That information pair starts out at level 1
  
• Quiz session 1:
  
• student is asked "What information matches 'put-, putat-' " (this is an odd-numbered level: hence the question goes "front-to-back" (i.e. presents the contents of the front of the card and asks what is on the back)
  
• If the student gets it right, then that information pair advances to the next level (level 2)
  
• If the student gets it wrong, then that information pair stays at the same level
• student is quizzed on all other level 1 pairs
• right answers advance each information pair
• wrong answers keep each information pair at the same level
• Student is asked all level 2 pairs and some level 3, 4, 5, ... pairs in this session as well (see below for which ones).
• right answers advance a level, wrong answers do not
  
• after all pairs for that session have been quizzed, the student is once again quizzed on all the pairs the student got wrong repeatedly until the student gets them each right.
• getting it right at this point does NOT advance the pair to the next level: it is simply to try to drill it into the student's head so that next time the student has a better chance of remembering it.
  
• Quiz session 2:
  
• student is asked "What information matches 'think' "
  
• Notice that because this is an even-numbered level, the question is asked "back-to-front": this principle is applied thruout: at odd # levels, the quiz goes "front-to-back" and at even # levels, the quiz goes the other way
• For all material I envision using, it makes sense to go both back to front and front to back
• If the student gets it right, then that information pair advances to the next level (level 3)
  
• If the student gets it wrong, then that information pair stays at the same level
• student is quizzed on all other level 2 pairs, all level 1 pairs, and some level 2,3,4, etc. pairs.
  
• right answers advance each information pair
• wrong answers keep each information pair at the same level
• after all pairs for this session have been quizzed, the student is once again quizzed on all the pairs the student got wrong in this session repeatedly until the student gets them each right.
• getting it right at this point does NOT advance the pair to the next level.
• Quiz session 3:
  
• student is asked "What information matches 'put, putat-' " (notice that because this is an odd-numbered level, the question is asked "front-to-back")
  
• If the student gets it right, then that information pair advances to the next level (level 4)
  
• If the student gets it wrong, then that information pair stays at the same level
• student is quizzed on all level 1 and 2 pairs,  and some level 2,3,4, etc. pairs in this session as well.
  
• right answers advance each information pair
• wrong answers keep each information pair at the same level
• after all pairs for this session have been quizzed, the student is once again quizzed on all the pairs the student got wrong repeatedly until the student gets them each right.
• getting it right at this point does NOT advance the pair to the next level.
• Quiz session 4: you get the idea.
• After an information pair has gotten to "level 8" (or some other level: the student should be able to adjust this unless the instructor has set a certain level) and a correct answer is given at that level, the information pair is no longer asked of the student, but it is kept in the database and accessible as part of that student's personal information trove.
• Timing of quizzing each information-pair:
• a word at level 1 gets quizzed every session
• a word at level 2 gets quizzed every session
• a word at level 3
  
• gets quizzed 2 sessions after it was last quizzed IF the initial answer was correct in the last session
  
• gets quizzed the next session after it was last quizzed IF the initial answer was incorrect in the last session
• a word at level 4
  
• gets quizzed 2 sessions after it was last quizzed IF the initial answer was correct in the last session
• gets quizzed the next session after it was last quizzed IF the initial answer was incorrect in the last session
• a word at level 5
  
• gets quizzed 3 sessions after it was last quizzed IF the initial answer was correct in the last session
• gets quizzed the next session after it was last quizzed IF the initial answer was incorrect in the last session
• a word at level 6
  
• gets quizzed 2 sessions after it was last quizzed IF the initial answer was correct in the last session
• gets quizzed the next session after it was last quizzed IF the initial answer was incorrect in the last session
• a word at level 7
  
• gets quizzed 4 sessions after it was last quizzed IF the initial answer was correct in the last session
• gets quizzed the next session after it was last quizzed IF the initial answer was incorrect in the last session
• a word at level 8
  
• gets quizzed 2 sessions after it was last quizzed IF the initial answer was correct in the last session
• gets quizzed the next session after it was last quizzed IF the initial answer was correct in the last session
• in other words, words at even#'d levels get quizzed at increasing intervals after the last quizzing, but words at odd# levels get quizzed 2 sessions after an initial right answer advanced them to that level, except at level 1, obviously.
  
• Students are offered the option to "demote" an information pair to a lower level if they are having problems remembering it.
• the program does not tell students they are wrong, but rather says something like "That does not match what I have in my database: was that a right or wrong answer?: thus students who mistype or put in essentially the same information do not need to worry about it. They simply tell the computer that they were right.
• A student's information trove is searchable and can be displayed either with the front side matter alphabetically ordered in a column and with the front side matter listed next to it or with the back side matter alphabetically ordered in a column with the front side matter next to it.
• Professors can send students flashcards
• Some flashcards should have "ancillary information," which is essentially a "third" side to the flashcard: the computer should ask for that information when the flashcard is at an even# level: if the answer is incorrect, that flashcard should remain at that level, and the student should be drilled on the third side until the student gets it right before the session ends.
  
• Students should have the option to "split" flashcards that have three sides into two flashcards with two sides apiece: Flashcard 1 becomes old Front and old Back; Flashcard 2 becomes old Back and old Third Side. Old Flashcard is no longer quizzed.
• There are a few potential problems with this program:
• A student may suffer a memory collapse of some sort: the student may neglect doing sessions for so long that coming back to it the student finds that few or none of the student's answers are right. for example, after summer break or winter break, a student may want to start up again but find that it makes best sense to start with only words at level 1.
• In that case, there needs to be a way to salvage the situation.
  
• The student should be able to "clear the decks" without losing the flashcards that have been entered completely
  
• So perhaps there needs to be a level 0 for flashcards that are either waiting to go into the system and be quizzed or are left over from "clearing the decks":
  
• Students should also be able to entirely delete flashcards if they want to, or modify them if they discover errors.
  
• Students will inevitably have to interrupt sessions
• The question is: when the student returns to the program, should the program resume where it left off or should it start a new session?
  
• Let student decide.
  
• Sessions may get to be too long: too many words in the queue for each session or there may get to be a logjam somewhere in the levels: Flashcards piling up at level 4 for some reason, for instance. 
• The easiest way to control for this is to set a maximum allowable number of flashcards to be quizzed in any one session
• At times, because of flashcards advancing/not advancing from previous sessions, no new flashcards will be allowed for a session or more until the number of flashcards in the next session dips below the maximum.
  
• The program needs some way to present information about how many words are at each level, how many words are being presented per session, etc. and some way for students to adjust things such as number of words per session, number of levels before the program stops quizzing and the flashcard goes to the trove, length of delay between quizzings at any level.
  
• Some flashcards may simply not advance
• If a flashcard fails to advance after X quizzings, it should be demoted down a level (unless it is already at level 1, obviously). I am guessing that X should be set at 3 as a default, but that perhaps this should be adjustable.
  
• Professorial access:
• Ideally, the program would simply send to a student's professor a periodic report of activity which would give the following information:
• Error rate of student
• broken down by levels
  
• Number of sessions within the period and number of flashcards per session
• total number of questions posed to student
  
• number of new flashcards entered in the period
• number of flashcards which reached the terminal level and went to the trove in the period
• how many items in the trove
  
• and other things...
• the Professor should be able to send students packets of flashcards to use (and students ought to be able to send them to each other...)
• the professor should be able to preset some settings in such a way that students cannot change them: this is a little fuzzy in my head, but it seems it might make sense, for instance, to set the maximum number of flashcards quizzed per session, etc.