I am a long-time Anki user, mainly for language learning. I would like to create a small Anki community in Algeria to help students understand how to use Anki properly, as there is very little guidance available locally.
I have already prepared notes covering topics such as effective study principles, deck organization, addons, settings, and adapting Anki to different learning goals. However, before sharing this publicly, I would like advice from experienced users to make sure I am guiding people correctly.
I would appreciate your input on the following:
What core concepts are most important to teach Anki beginners?
What common mistakes should be avoided when explaining Anki?
Are there any official resources you recommend sharing first?
I’m not a pro myself, almost a beginner.
The main resource is https://docs.ankiweb.net/, but it’s a lot to read and not very clear. There are translations into other languages, but they become outdated, so it’s easier to use Google’s English translation.
If you want a shorter version, go to YouTube and watch videos. They’ve already filmed everything there, but they often look outdated and it would be good to re-film them every five years.
Beginners don’t understand the difference between a note and a card. What types of notes there are. What are the purposes of tags and flags.
But just starting out, you need to show those who’ve already opened the program how to go through the deck and which button to select when answering. Usually, the first videos can show you this.
But the program is so complex. I’ve long wanted to implement three difficulty levels in the menu in my other programs: beginner, active user, and professional. Well, I was thinking about maybe making an add-on for kids, so the complex view would be hidden and it would look simple, but basically, if you go to https://ankiuser.net/study, it’s like this… that is, almost nothing exists and doesn’t work :), so I have to do both the automatic voiceover and the input line for verification through the deck design.
Sorry I wasn’t helpful.
Thank you very much for the detailed response, I really appreciate you taking the time to explain this. I understand your point about the documentation being the main resource and about how complex Anki can be for beginners, especially concepts like notes vs cards, note types, tags, and basic reviewing.
I agree that for complete beginners, the priority is simply learning how to review a deck and choose the correct answer button, before going deeper into advanced features. I will keep this in mind and focus on a very simple introduction first, using existing resources where possible.
Thank you again for sharing your perspective.if you want to add infos i would really appreciate it.
I can only speak Russian about the video tutorial series (year: 2024), as I am a member of this author’s group.
You can also find examples from other languages if you’re interested. Even if the lessons are old, you can identify the sequence of the material, what the authors teach, what topics they cover, see people’s questions to the author, and understand the difficulties.
I made this free add-on that shows an elephant on all the main Anki screens, indicating the path the user should take, so it might be useful for beginners. Feel free to modify the code as you wish.
