All About Flashcards

Goodbye, index cards! Bookshelf® has native study tools to assist students in their comprehension of course materials. The Flashcard feature allows students to create flashcards within Bookshelf® Online as they study. Instructors can use flashcards to prepare for a lecture or presentation, lead a group study session with students, and as a study guide assignment for students.

Before you can create flashcards, you will need to make a deck. There are two ways to create a deck: from the left navigation menu or from within the reader.

Create a New Deck From the Left Navigation Pane

From within a textbook, click the Flashcards icon, then click the plus sign in the top right.

In the field provided, give your deck a name, then click Save.

Create a New Deck Through the Reader and Add Cards

You can create flashcards from the highlighted text in a book—even highlights created by Bookshelf users you follow.

As you highlight text, the menu below will appear. Click Create Flashcard, then New Deck, give the deck a name, and click Save.

To add cards, click on the Add Cards link on the name card, or click the plus icon in the top-right corner. Note: You have to add flashcards one at a time.

The first field on the card will populate the front of the card. The second field will populate the back of the card. Navigate to content that you want to add to the front of the card. You can type the content in or copy it elsewhere and paste it into the field. Note: There is a character limit of 255 per text field. Repeat those steps to populate the back of the card.

To switch the order of the content on the card, you can click on the switch icon in the center.

To make changes to your flashcard, hover over the card with your mouse and click on the pencil in the top left.

Quiz Yourself

When your deck is complete and you’re ready to study, you can quiz yourself using Play Flashcards.

To begin, click the Play Flashcards icon.

Your screen will transform into a game-like experience where you can test your knowledge. After you click the Play Flashcards icon, follow these steps:

1. Each card will appear in the middle of the screen. Click on it to reveal the back.
2. Rate your confidence level before moving on to the next card. Click on the arrow to the right to proceed to the next card. When you go back to the options menu, you can select which confidence level you'd like to focus on. When done with the review, click on the X in the right corner to close the menu. Note: Notice that color coding has been assigned to each card to align with the confidence level chosen. Green means “I know it” while red means “I don’t know it.”
3. Use the forward or backward arrows as necessary to move around within your deck, or click the Replay or Shuffle buttons in the top-left corner.
4. Monitor your progress with the tracker in the top-right corner.