Tips for creating and editing your flashcards in Brainscape

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Getting started
2. Creation basics
3. Organization structure of classes
4. Formatting best practices
5. Advanced editing tips
6. More resources

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Getting started

It can be overwhelming to know where to begin, but the good news is that Brainscape has incorporated a set of popup tips into the user experience as you start for the first time.  But, if you forget or need help as you are creating content, there are many tooltips embedded in the editor to help you along the way, or you can always click that awesome “Help” button on the bottom of your screen to visit the Help Center.

Flashcards can be created from scratch or can be copied from our public marketplace and then can be edited for your own use.  To create a new Class, you need to click the “+”, give it a name and you are on your way.  To learn all about finding existing classes, read this article.  If you find a topic you are interested in studying, click “Add to Library”, and then you can go to your options and “Duplicate Class” to make it your own.

Creation Basics

Your role

Anytime you create a class, you are the Admin of that class, meaning that you can edit the class, invite others to study in that class, and also make that class private.  It doesn’t matter if you are a student or instructor or if you use the free or Pro version of Brainscape - you are the Admin of that class.  If you are inviting learners and want to review their study stats, you would be the only one who can see that information.

You can invite collaborators to help create content, or share with your students and integrate Brainscape into your curriculum.  Permissions can be updated for those helping to create content as well.

Creating Flashcards

It’s easy to create flashcards, and our on-screen tooltips and navigation will help you along the way.  The typical order of operations for creating flashcards follows this easy path: 1) create a class, 2) create a deck/decks, 3) add flashcards.

Web vs Mobile

You can create flashcards in either our web or mobile app, including adding images or audio on both platforms with a Pro subscription. Note that our web platform typically lends itself to more complex formatting controls, however, we are always adding features to both platforms.

We’ve also recently made some major improvements to our mobile platform, which makes adding audio and images much easier by seamlessly integrating your phone’s native audio recording and image adding systems. This is especially helpful when you have large volumes of audio files to add to your flashcards.

Public vs Private

By default, all flashcard classes are public, meaning that they are discoverable by anyone using our platform.  If you wish to make your class private, you can do so with a Pro membership.  

Private classes can be studied by anyone you have specifically shared the course with, assuming they also have Pro access.  If you are creating this course to share with an audience or a class of learners, you may want to talk to us about a license which is a secure and affordable way to grant all users Pro access.

A quick editing orientation

If you’ve forgotten the getting started tutorial you received the first time you logged in, or you just want a refresher, we have you covered.

To begin editing a Deck, click the flashcards icon next to the deck name (for those classes you own or you have editing access) and you will be taken to our editor.  There you can decide to create simple or advanced flashcards.  You can perform advanced functions by clicking on the card list to the left.

Organization of Flashcards

Flashcards are organized in the library by classes, and at this time can have an unlimited amount of decks and flashcards.  We currently allow a total of 250 classes in a library.  If you bump into the limit notification, please email [e-mail] so they can provide creative advice and solutions.  Further organization of courses is currently on the roadmap, but feel free to reach out to our support team or Discord to vote for features you’d like to see in Brainscape.

Formatting Best Practices

Depending on what you are studying, why you are studying it, and your general study approach, flashcards will look and feel a bit different for everyone.  Brainscape has come up with some core guidelines as a starting point.

You can choose to use our simple editor or advanced editor, depending on the type of flashcards you are creating and your ultimate goal.

• Simple editor:  allows you to create Q & A cards for words/phrases quickly and when you aren’t interested in using any advanced editing tools
• Advanced editor: provides a nicely formatted template you can use to add prompts, main text, clarifiers, and footnotes for more complex flashcards

You can add images and audio to either flashcard option.

Advanced Editing

Depending on what you are studying, more advanced editing options may be necessary for your flashcards.  

If you choose the “advanced” path for editing, a pre-formatted flashcard (with a set of fillable fields) allows a quicker path to you being able to study your material since all cards will be consistent. We have created a template style that is ready for you to populate your text in any of the following fields:

We’ve created this guide to support you as you determine how best to use our advanced formatting options, and here's a quick video overview.

Additionally, here is a sampling of some more advanced options:

1. Adding images,
2. Adding audio,
3. Bulk actions:  Copying / pasting flashcards, Deleting and Create Reverse Cards,
4. Importing a CSV file to make flashcards and exporting flashcards,
5. Sorting A-Z and Z-A allows you to sort the cards in alpha order by question (click on the card list in the web app)
6. Reverse the order of the cards in your deck & Randomize Cards or shuffle the cards in your deck (access by clicking on the Card list in the web app)

More resources

Still have questions and can't find the answer?  Be sure to email our Tech Support Team ([e-mail]). 

If you'd love to vote for a new Brainscape feature, see what others are requesting, or get a sneak peek at features in our pipeline, please check out Brainscape User Feature Requests Forum!  Please choose to Sign in with Brainscape (if you are commenting/requesting a new feature) so any feedback is tied to your account.  Or you can even access the tool from our web/mobile menus which won't require you to login separately. 

(Hint:  to save time, search first to see if your desired feature is already in the list so you can just vote/comment.)

And for more FREE study advice don't forget to check out the Brainscape Academy.

Some other resources for questions or support include:

1. Brainscape’s YouTube Channel
2. Brainscape’s Academy
3. Brainscape’s Social Media Channels