Using Anki with Students – A Few Questions

[bsluciana90]

I’m a teacher exploring Anki as a tool to support my students, especially for language learning. I’m excited about the potential of using spaced repetition and custom audio, but I had a few questions before I dive in:

1. Access on Mobile Devices:
   I know AnkiDroid is free for Android and AnkiMobile is a paid app for iOS. For students who use iPhones but don’t purchase the app, would AnkiWeb offer a good enough experience — particularly for decks with audio?
2. Audio Compatibility:
   If I add audio using external TTS tools like ElevenLabs, will that work smoothly across AnkiDroid, AnkiMobile, and AnkiWeb?
3. Organizing Students:
   Is there a way to create groups or organize my students within Anki to share decks more easily or keep things structured? If not, what would you recommend for teachers working with multiple students or classes?
4. Adding Images to Cards:
   Can I upload images to the flashcards? And if so, are there any size or format limitations I should be aware of, especially for students using different devices?

[Hey_Mo]

1. It would be usable but slightly worse than AnkiDroid.
2. I’ve never had problems with audio across devices; it works on AnkiWeb too.
3. I suppose you can share the deck with all of them by using Google Drive or something like that.
4. Large images could take longer to upload on AnkiDroid, but they would have to be really large. Normal images shouldn’t be a problem, as far as I know, based on my limited experience.

I’m just a user, so I could be wrong.

[sorata]

@bsluciana90

For students who use iPhones but don’t purchase the app, would AnkiWeb offer a good enough experience — particularly for decks with audio?

If you’re simply reviewing the cards, then AnkiWeb is fine. But if you want change the settings (deck options) you’d need access to one of the official clients.

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@bsluciana90

If I add audio using external TTS tools like ElevenLabs, will that work smoothly across AnkiDroid, AnkiMobile, and AnkiWeb?

That should work. However, the native TTS support doesn’t extend to AnkiWeb.

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@bsluciana90

Is there a way to create groups or organize my students within Anki to share decks more easily or keep things structured? If not, what would you recommend for teachers working with multiple students or classes?

You can use a service like AnkiCollab to share your decks (or AnkiHub). Note that you’d need a PC to use them. Here are the links:

@sorata

• AnkiHub: Allows real-time flashcard collaboration.
• AnkiCollab: Free and open-source flashcard-collaboration platform.

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@bsluciana90

And if so, are there any size or format limitations I should be aware of, especially for students using different devices?

An individual media file cannot be more than 100MB (or some other impossibly large number if im not remembering correctly).

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One more thing you can check out is the leaderboard add-on. IIRC, it allows people to form groups and then compete amongst each other. Because add-ons are only available on PC not all of your students might have access to them.

Also, this thread might have some insights:

Anki in schools

Anki is limited to the individual, independent, self-disciplined learner. Opening Anki to school systems would expand Anki use a thousand-fold but requires a rewiring of the current Anki mindset. The primary user paradigm becomes the teacher/classroom. A few initial ideas to whet the imagination: Distributing a deck toi the entire class in a single operation Seeing overall class statistics in a single operation Gamification I’ve put together more on the topic. Would like to hear if there is …

[giragira]

1: Probably a good idea to test the deck on AnkiWeb yourself before distributing it. Almost all layouts should work fine, though.

2: Audio codec needs to be compatible with the respective device. For maximum compatibility, probably just go with MP3.

4: Also here make sure to use common image formats like JPG or PNG. Others like WebP have more potential for compatibility issues. With media in decks in general, make sure the results don’t get unreasonably big.

For example don’t use a file like https://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2025/04/solar_orbiter_s_widest_high-res_view_of_the_sun/26672643-1-eng-GB/Solar_Orbiter_s_widest_high-res_view_of_the_Sun.jpg without resizing. Also please only click that link if your computer can handle big images

[matta]

I have used it a few times with students (adults at university level, mostly).

I have a special class profile, so that I log on to that profile on my laptop and then project it to the class. We try to answer the card and I discuss aspects of the card, mnemonics to assist in its learning, issues about the denotation coverage in each language, etc.

The students should be creating their own decks and are expected to be studying those individually. At various points in the term, I’ll ask a student to export and submit their deck to me, and we look at it together in class. I teach them to build their own decks, rather than copying one that is already available, so that they both understand the process and that they have content relevant to them.