Use Spaced Repetition to Help Remember New Knowledge #edcmooc

You have finally found yourself a great teacher. Every time you meet with him / her, you learn new vocabulary, new expressions, new grammar, and you end your session more confident with the language than you have ever been. You have a problem, however: the downtime. How do you keep all of that new knowledge fresh in mind between sessions? How do you not only remember the vocabulary you are taught, you remember it so well that you can use it in the following session? When someone comes to me with these questions, I recommend Anki.

What is Anki?

Anki is flashcard software which uses the principle of spaced repetition to minimize the amount of time needed to learn something new. The software is free for your desktop, and you can download the app onto your Android or iOS device for a small fee. There is also a web-based version.

What is “spaced repetition” all about?

Let’s say you are using the Anki flash cards to learn new vocabulary. After you have downloaded or created a deck of cards, Anki will show you a limited amount of cards every day. Once you have learned one of these cards, Anki will add that card to the “back of the deck”, and only show it to you again just before you are about to forget it. (This will be based on your rating of how difficult the flash card when you last saw it.) This means that you will see a new word a lot in the beginning, and see it only seldom once you really know it – perhaps only once every 90 days. This kind of system does two things for you: it saves you time because you don’t review cards you already know, and because you see every word before you forget it, ensures that all of your vocabulary is fresh in your mind ready for use.

Should I download cards or create my own?

Anki allows you to download any deck of cards someone else has made public, but I recommend making your own cards, because simply the act of creating a card enhances the chance you will remember it. You can add images to your cards or audio files containing the word’s pronunciation. I add example sentences to my cards, but you can add fields for anything you want, and decide on what side of the card you want those fields.

Try it out

You don’t need much time to “do your Anki cards.” Even with a deck of a thousand cards, the time you spend reviewing your words can be only minutes a day, depending on how many new cards are in the deck. And because the Anki app can be downloaded onto your mobile device, you can do your Anki cards wherever you are.

“MOOC” Apporach Not Only for MOOCS #edcmooc

Explain what you know to your study group.

In this video listed on How to Study EDCMOOC, students of the course are given great advice on how to succeed taking a MOOC.  In my opinion, using this advice would help one succeed in every learning environment, not just in a MOOC setting.

Per the video, after you have learned your way around the MOOC, you should create a blog in which you record your “takeaways” and what you learned that day.  In addition, you should begin networking by commenting on other’s blogs and answering questions that are posted in the forum to the group,   After you have developed your “learning” network by determining who you want in your network and by nurturing that relationship, you are advised to then come up with an outside, personal project, where you can apply what you have learned.

In my opinion, this is great advice for every learning setting!

Something that is really important to the learning process is being able to express what you learned in your own words.  The process of “translating” your understanding into words,  making meaningful sentences out of those words, and organizing your new thoughts in a way that other people can understand gives you a much better understanding of the learned material.   The advantage of writing it all down and posting it on the Web is that you will be diligent in making sure that it makes sense.  After all, other people will be reading it.  This, in turn, forces you to really have a good grasp on the information.  You don’t, however, have to necessarily write what you learned down.  Sometimes while studying I will take a walk around the block every 30 minutes summarizing to myself what I have just learned.  If you do this, you will find that it leads to the formation of new connections between the new material and prior knowledge you may have had .  In the end, the point is to just create some sort of output with the input that you have received, whatever that output may look like.

Creating social learning networks is also a great idea for any learning situation.  The opportunity to teach (or to try to teach) the material to members in your group is a wonderful opportunity to test to see if you have that material down pat.  Of course, talking with people about the subject matter will also expose you to new ideas that you wouldn’t have come up with on your own.  The social dynamic also tends to make learning more fun and will motivate you to stick with it.

It is one thing to be able to see the connection between what you are learning and its real life applications.  (I failed three or four times trying to learn to code because I couldn’t make the connection.) It’s another thing to find a personal project to work on where you can apply what you are learning.  Having a personal project you are excited about gives you a reason to keep plugging away once the initial excitement starts to wear off.   The project could ultimately serve as an artifact you can show future employers and always look back on with satisfaction.

I strongly suggest doing all three of the activities — document what you have learned, form a network, and apply what you have learned in a project –  mentioned in the video, not only when you learning within a MOOC, but learning in any environment.