Grants:IdeaLab/Flashcard and Cloze support in wiki markup

Idealab

Flashcard and Cloze support in wiki markup

Create standard formatting in Wikipedia for users to create flashcards and clozes for use in third party software.

idea creator• Frankbryce

this project needs...

researcher

designer

volunteer

created on20:16, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

Project idea

What is the problem you're trying to solve?

Learning takes a long time, and reading an Encyclopedia isn't the fastest way to learn new things. Wikipedia:Spaced repetition is a format that aids faster learning. Wikipedia, the sum(mary) of notable human knowledge, should have embedded into it a markup format that is conducive for anyone to more quickly learn the knowledge on Wikipedia for themselves.

This should not make Wikipedia harder to read or edit for users that don't use or want this functionality.

What is your solution?

In Wikipedia:Village pump (idea lab)/Archive 31 a user had the idea to create flashcards for each article. I think this is doable but not in the way the original user thought.

The right way to do this would be to have an (optional) invisible flashcard list at the end of each Wikipedia section. This enables uninterested readers to ignore them (though a subtle icon could indicate flashcards for interested readers to discover them). To start, there could be 3 formatting options.

• question:answer
• question::correct answer:wrong answer 1:wrong answer 2:...
• statement without answer

Embedded into any question/answer/statement, users could specify Wikipedia:clozes, perhaps with something like =equals signs= that bookmark the cloze.

To use the flashcards, there is a long Wikipedia:List of flashcard software. I don't have a principled answer on the best way to support uploading the flashcards into those software. If folks have a better idea on the right formatting choice (see above) to make using a third party tool easier, please suggest alternatives. Wikipedia has many options for download, so users would have the power to download only the articles they are interested in.

An alternative could be new Wikipedia functionality via a browser extension or via the mobile app. Spaced repetition history per user could be saved on device, rather than on Wikipedia, to scale better.

To make flashcard text invisible, one option to start could be to wrap these in a Wikipedia:WP:COMMENT block, with a keyword at the start.

< !--FLASHCARDS

• The symbol to specify a Wikipedia:cloze in FLASHCARDS blocks is a(n) =equals sign=.
• How are flashcards for a Wikipedia section kept invisible?:by putting them in a Wikipedia:WP:COMMENT block.
• Which answer in a multiple choice question is the correct answer in a FLASHCARDS block?::the first one:the last one:you can pick your own with special formatting

-- >

Project goals

The project should enable all Wikipedians to contribute to a knew kind of knowledge making: Spaced Repetition learning. This should enable all people to learn more quickly, and about more topics.

Get Involved

About the idea creator

I'm a Site Reliability Engineer at Google, with an interest in Wikipedia. I have started editing, though haven't yet reached 100 edits. I plan to continue to grow my skills and knowledge to make more ambitious edits. I am also interested in building a Spaced Repetition habit. This is a great way to learn new things quickly. However, creating and maintaining flashcards is quite the overhead. Couldn't we all share the startup and maintenance cost?

Expand your idea

Would a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation help make your idea happen? You can expand this idea into a grant proposal.

Expand into a Rapid Grant

Expand into a Project Grant

No funding needed?

Does your idea not require funding, but you're not sure about what to do next? Not sure how to start a proposal on your local project that needs consensus? Contact Chris Schilling on-wiki at I JethroBT (WMF) (talk · contribs) or via e-mail at cschillingwikimedia.org for help!