Students learning assessment using Anki - Research Study Proposal - Help is appreciated

[Wisam]

Hi,

I am in the process of writing a grant proposal regarding using Anki for dental education. We are planning to do pre-anki and post-anki comparative analysis to see if students learning has improved with Anki.

I have seen a statistical option in Anki. Maybe we can use that in our study. Any idea on how to get that information from the desktop version, iPhone and Android version easily? Do you know some good scientific publications regarding use of Anki in education?

Maybe we can get time information to see how much time the students spent while learning using Anki. We plan to present this at ADEA (American Dental Education Association) meeting and publish a paper in the JDE (Journal of Dental Education).

Any input regarding that?  Help is most welcomed!

Wisam

[Jose Quesada]

Hi Wisam,

I have a few papers on the use of flashcards in medical education (not
anki necessarily).
I'm very interested in any experiments that you may perform.
Feel free to contact me off-list and I can send you want I have as
attachments. We can also talk on the phone or skype.

Best,
-Jose

[Nicolas Raoul]

Hi Wisam,

Great research idea!

A lot of information can be found in Anki decks' history.
If you want to see more than what Anki and AnkiDroid's statistics
screen show, explore .anki files with SQLiteBrowser.

Apparently this area will not change with Anki 2.0

Is there any other data that would be useful to collect?
Of course, it would be an opt-in option, or even a separate APK.

SRS research would be very needed indeed, I am sure a lot of things in
this area have not been discovered yet.

Nicolas Raoul

Hi Wisam,

Best,
-Jose

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[Wisam]

Hi Jose, thanks for your offer to help. I submitted the proposal yesterday and I am waiting to hear back from the University Center for Research in Learning and Teaching. Hopefully, once we finish the project there will be two clinical decks with a lot of cases that we will share through Shared Decks. I will buzz you tonight and chat.

Nicolas, do you know how to get the information for iOS and Android? I think I can the students to email me back the .anki file from their phone / laptop then I can use the software you suggested SQLiteBrowser to navigate through each .anki file.

In the past, we always wanted to get data about students learning time but that was very hard to track but since Anki stores the information inside the deck, I think we can use it.

Since this functionality will remain the same in Anki 2.0, this means I don't have to worry about users updating the software when it comes out.  

BTW, what do you mean by "Of course, it would be an opt-in option, or even a separate APK."

Thanks! 

Best,

Wisam

[Nicolas Raoul]

> Nicolas, do you know how to get the information for iOS and Android?

In AnkiDroid you can click the "Statistics" button to see the stats.

But I guess you will want to do more data processing in Matlab or
Calc, so you would better open the deck with SQLite browser, see what
is interesting for you, and export it (possibly via SQL query).

> BTW, what do you mean by "Of course, it would be an opt-in option, or even a
> separate APK."

I meant: If we implement a tracking feature, it will be disabled by
default, because we must not track people without their consent.

Nicolas Raoul

[Wisam]

I'm resurrecting this topic as I'm done with the students final exam today!

I will need to ask them to email me their database file so we can analyze the data from their study using AnkiDroid.  I think in Anki 2 it is now called collection.anki2. Please correct me if I'm mistaken. 

I posted on Anki Users to see how to get it from Ankimobile. For AnkiDroid users, what would be the easiest way to do that? Shall I ask them to use ES File Explorer to do that? The basic things are the better as my students are not tech savvy.

Thanks!

[Stuart Yeaton]

Hello Wisam,

 Sorry to go slightly off topic - but you mentioned that you were considering having these two clinical decks listed in the Shared Decks? Have they been made available yet? As a final year dental student i would be keen to see just how you have presented your cards/notes, as good dental decks are very difficult to find for inspiration.

[Wisam]

Hi Stuart,

Yes, we're planning to do that eventually as we're busy with finishing the study (survey, decks collection / analysis, writing the paper). I discussed that with my colleague who is the oral pathologist at the school and we both think those will be great study resources to dental students and dental hygiene students. We would like to revise and polish those decks before posting them online on the Shared Deck. I'm willing though to share my decks (oral radiology) so you can have a look and see how we did them. I used two templates for the cards: national boards style and default Anki front and back. I'm not sure if my colleague is inclined to offer his deck at this time. However, I'd kindly ask you not to put them publicly available till we finish the proofing. Email me: rawi [at] umich dot edu for follow up and I'll be glad to help you further.

Good luck with your exams!

[Tim]

Hi Stuart,

The "best" way in both cases is to ask them to sync with Anki Desktop, then export an apkg file from there making sure to include scheduling information.

If this is undesirable, they can send the anki2 file directly using ES File Explorer, but they must make sure AnkiDroid is closed first as per the instructions for copying the collection to the PC.

Please post the results of the study here when you are comfortable to share them!

Tim

[Wisam]

Hi Tim,

I like the idea of exporting from Anki Desktop as apkg. I see this as an easier approach. I will post my progress here.

Thanks for your help

Wisam

[Wisam]

Hi Joao,

I collected some articles on spaced repetition in learning. Try to use scholar.google.com and search there for articles related to Anki / Spaced Repetition. You should get plenty on the subject, most notably in the field of language learning and acquisition.

I'm attaching some articles I got using Zotero. So you can import the items in Zotero citation management.

I will share some of the data and progress I make here. So stay tuned.

Cheers!

Wisam

On Wednesday, May 1, 2013 11:05:21 AM UTC-4, João Casal wrote:

Hi Wisam,

We are a workgroup (João Casal, Nuno Afonso and Cristina Sousa) of an MSc in Teaching of Informatics at University of Minho (Portugal).

We considered your idea of research excellent… at the point of rising on us the willing of doing something similar in the context of our curricular practicum. However, we will try to measure the advantages of the use of Ankidroid as a learning tool on a basic programming course (linking to the mobile learning area).

So… we are posting to:

-          Ask if you or Jose Quesada could provide us the papers mentioned on the first posts about the benefits of the use of flashcards in education;

-          Evaluate the interest of the Ankidroid community on some learning analytics (that will result of our research);

Sorry if something went off-topic.

Cheers.

[Nicolas Raoul]

Hi Wisam,

Here are the most simple instructions I can think of:
1. Install Open Manager
2. Reboot your phone
3. Open your email app
4. Compose a new email to wi...@example.org
5. Open the dialog that allows to add an attachment
6. Select Open Manager
7. Select the file /sdcard/AnkiDroid/collection.anki2
8. Send

Actually, I think you can even skip the reboot step. It is dangerous
in normal circumstances, but if you only want statistics, I think that
they will be recoverable even if the deck gets corrupted (please
anyone correct me if I am wrong). That might save your students from a
time-wasting reboot, at the potential expense of some of your time.

Cheers!
Nicolas Raoul

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[Tim]

Hi Joao,

Interesting idea. I suspect using Anki as a learning aid for a course in basic programming could be slightly difficult, since there is less memorizing and more "doing" involved in the learning process. 

What kind of content do you imagine preparing on the flashcards?

Tim

[João Casal]

Hi Tim,

Good point of view; I agree with it.

However, our interest of using Ankidroid to aid learning goes beyond of the knowledge. J The students we are working with are highly unmotivated to the programming course and we are trying to improve their motivation through the use of technologies. One example of project in this line of thought that we implemented with success, is the use of creative video making (and everything that surrounds it) about the possible information systems that could be viewed at their school. In the video they had to identify entities and attributes on parts of the school (like the canteen or the reprography) and create hierarchical, network and relational models with that information.

Coming back to Ankidroid… Despite agreeing with your point of view, I believe that could exist parts at programming that could appeal to memory... like SQL commands syntax. Our first idea is to build a deck to Ankidroid and encourage students to use it to study for a possible written test. We could implement this only at classroom or give the students the chance of studying at home. If we do the test at the classroom the scenario could be: 1. Evaluate student knowledge before Ankidroid; 2. Let them use Ankidroid; 3. Evaluate student knowledge after Ankidroid. If we let them study outside, we will have to analyse the databases to evaluate the use versus the learning results.

Still, all of this has the main objective of motivating the students to the contents using mobile learning.

Suggestions about how to use Ankidroid with these students are welcomed.

[Jamie]

Hi João,

 
You might be interested in this blog post by Derek Sivers: http://sivers.org/srs

In it he describes how he used Anki to learn JavaScript, his decks are even in there for download. 

Note that Derek thinks you can only use SRS as part of a broader learning strategy which he describes here: http://sivers.org/learn-js

Also have a look at this related post that Derek links to: http://www.jackkinsella.ie/2011/12/05/janki-method.html

Both pieces have some great ideas on how to use SRS and Anki (or AnkiDroid of course!) for programming language learning.

I hope you will also post the results of your experiments here, this is an interesting topic!

Cheers,

Jamie

[João Casal]

Thank you Jamie, we will analyse those links.

Of course we will post the results here, hoping to generate an interesting exchange of ideas surrounding Ankidroid performances and its educational potential (motivational and of learning).

However, our first step will be the usability tests spoken on the other topic, because the participants are the same and the specificity of those tests compel to do them first.

Cheers

[Wisam]

Hi Nicolas,

Thank you for the instructions. I'll work on a document with screen shots to outline the process of Android export and how to do it on Anki on PC / Mac.

I'm attaching a draft of the Anki feedback document that we plan to send to the students using Google Docs (Form) in the dental and dental hygiene class. 

Any feedback and comments are welcomed. Feel free to use the document in your research project as well.

Thank you all for your help.

Wisam

[Wisam]

[Nuno Afonso]

Hi friends

 

Next follows the promised reports of learning analytics Ankidroid, with the results of our experiments: http://pt.scribd.com/doc/150347914/Learning-Analytics-ankiDroid

These study were made for measure how ankidroid can help students to improve their knowledge (at this case of study on SQL commands), as well as their perceptions about the mobile learning (m-learning) advantages.

In this report we explained how deck was created for this purpose.

Thanks Jamie and Wisam for your contribution with usefully references.  

Opinions, comments and critiques are very welcomed.

 

Cheers.

Cristina Sousa, João Casal and Nuno Afonso

 

Quinta-feira, 12 de Janeiro de 2012 20:32:05 UTC, Wisam escreveu:

[Nicolas Raoul]

Hello Cristina&João&Nuno

Interesting!

Was there another group of students who studied SQL without AnkiDroid?
It would be interesting to compare their progression.

If I understood correctly, the final test had the exact same questions
as the flashcards?
Why not use a different set of questions?
That would allow to differentiate more clearly between memorization
and understanding.

Nice to read the study!
Also, I did not know that sound is that important, we should think
about it more.

Cheers!
Nicolas Raoul

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[João Casal]

Hi Nicolas,

Unfortunately, it would be difficult to get participants to study SQL without anything different (only study to learn) because, has said on the characterization of the class, they are not very motivated to learn programming (by now they need some extrinsic motivation). However, even if this were not the case we did not remembered to do that kind of comparison… we were more focused in prove the added value of mobile learning, but that would be interesting to this end too. It’s a good point for future work. J

Our main purpose was to measure the learning progression of the students without any other concern or factor. That’s why we used the same questions at the first test (diagnostic), AnkiDroid deck and at the test that measured the learning results. I agree that the use of other questions at the final test would be interesting, to understand “the understanding” of the students (at least at the third group of questions because in the others we were testing memorization processes). However the method implemented provided us data for a clear analysis.

I believe that this kind of research could make a wonderful MSc dissertation on educational technology area… we just begun to lift the veil but it’s a very long one as some of you guys know better than us (excelent articles provided). Who knows if this kick-off doesn’t motivate someone? J

Cheers,

Quinta-feira, 12 de Janeiro de 2012 20:32:05 UTC, Wisam escreveu:

[bger...@gmail.com]

Hey Jose,

Do you still have the info on this? I am looking to do the same thing as well.