Assigned Decks

Create a Canvas assignment tied to a flashcard deck. Students complete the deck once for full credit. Grade posts automatically when the mastery threshold is reached.

Practice Decks

Make decks available for student self-study with no grade. Students can return as many times as they like. Spaced repetition tracks their progress across sessions.

AI Card Generation

Paste lecture notes, a textbook excerpt, or a topic description. Claude generates a ready-to-review deck instantly. Requires an Anthropic API key (free at console.anthropic.com).

Bulk Import

Drop multiple CSV files at once — each becomes its own deck. Accepts Quizlet exports, Cram exports, and the Holon CSV template. Column names are auto-detected.

Analytics

See pass rates, avg scores, completion rates, and per-student breakdowns for assigned decks. Track engagement and mastery progress for practice decks.

Dashboard

Landing view showing stats (total decks, cards, assignments, avg mastery) and your 6 most recent decks. Click any deck card to open it in the editor.

Create Deck

Three-step wizard: Deck Info → Deck Type → Add Cards. Each step unlocks after the previous is completed.

Bulk Import

Multi-file CSV import. Also contains the Export All Decks and Import from Course buttons.

Assigned

All decks with active Canvas assignments. Edit, view activity, or delete assignments.

Practice

All practice decks visible to students. Edit or delete. Import from Course button for copying decks from another course.

Analytics

Summary cards for every deck. Click a card to drill into per-student data.

Product Manual

This document.

AI Key

Enter your Anthropic API key to enable AI card generation.

Deck Title

Required. The title appears on the deck card and in the Canvas assignment (if assigned). Keep it descriptive — students see this.

Category

Optional. Groups decks visually. Does not affect Canvas.

Study Modes

Choose which modes students can use: Flashcards (flip cards), Learn (multiple choice), Match (drag-and-drop matching). All three are on by default.

Assigned

Creates a Canvas assignment. Set the assignment title, points, due date, and extra credit flag. Grade posts automatically when the student reaches the mastery threshold.

Practice

Available for student self-study. No Canvas assignment, no grade. Appears in the student’s Practice Decks tab.

AI Generate

Paste notes or a topic. Set card count (5–30) and focus (balanced, definitions, clinical, key terms). Click Generate Cards and review before saving.

Upload Template

Download the CSV template, fill it out in Excel or Google Sheets, then upload. Also accepts Quizlet and Cram exports — column names are auto-detected.

Manual Entry

Type cards one by one. Add optional images per side. Best for small, precise decks.

Multiple CSVs at once

Navigate to Bulk Import. Drop multiple CSV files into the drop zone or click to browse. Each file becomes one deck. The file name (minus date suffixes) becomes the deck title.

Quizlet & Cram exports

Export from Quizlet or Cram as CSV. Drop the file into Bulk Import or the single-file Upload Template panel in Create Deck. Column headers Term and Definition are automatically mapped to Front and Back.

After import

Imported decks land in Practice automatically and are immediately visible to students. You are redirected to the Practice view after a successful import.

Copy decks between courses

Click Import from Course in the Assigned or Practice header. Select the source course from the dropdown (lists all your Canvas courses where Holon Flashcards is installed). All decks from that course are copied into the current course.

Single deck export

In the editor, click Export in the toolbar. Downloads a CSV with Front, Back, Hint, Category columns.

Export all decks

In Bulk Import, click Export All Decks. Downloads a ZIP file with one CSV per deck — a complete course backup.

Search & Filter

Use the search box to find cards by front or back text. Use the category dropdown to filter by category.

Editing cards

Click any field to edit inline. Changes are held in memory until you click Save.

Adding cards

Click + Add Card to append a blank card at the bottom of the list.

Deleting cards

Click the red × button on any card row. The delete is immediate in the editor but not saved until you click Save.

Card images

Click the 🖼 icon to open the image editor for that card. Upload a front image, a back image, or both. Images are stored in Canvas Files.

Previewing a card

Click any card row to preview it. The preview shows exactly what students see — image (if any) above the text.

Flipping

Click the preview card to flip between Front and Back with a smooth animation.

Navigation

Use the ‹ › arrows to move through all cards in sequence.

Deck Info

Shows total cards, categories, and cards with images at a glance.

Title, Due Date, Points

Edit the Canvas assignment details. Changes are saved when you click Save.

Extra Credit

When checked, the Canvas assignment is created with 0 points possible — any points earned are purely additive to the student’s grade.

Show Hints

When on, students see a hint link on each card during study.

Shuffle Cards

When on, students receive cards in a randomized order each session. Instructors always see the original order.

Cards per session

Set a number to limit how many cards students receive per session. Holon randomly selects that many cards from the full deck each time. Leave blank or set to 0 for all cards.

Creating an assignment from scratch

Go to Create Deck → Step 2 → select Assigned. Fill in assignment details. The Canvas assignment is created when you save the deck.

Converting a practice deck to assigned

Open the deck in the editor. Click + Create Assignment in the header. Fill in the assignment details in the popup. The deck is now assigned and will appear in the Assigned view.

Grade passback

When a student completes the deck (reaches the mastery threshold), Holon posts their score to the Canvas gradebook automatically. No instructor action required.

Mastery threshold

By default, students must answer 80% of cards correctly to earn full credit. This is configurable per assignment.

Deleting an assignment

Click the delete button on the deck card in the Assigned view. This removes both the Holon assignment and the Canvas assignment. The underlying deck moves to Practice.

Making a deck available for practice

Select Practice in Step 2 of Create Deck, or convert an existing deck via the editor.

Student view

Students see all practice decks in their Practice Decks tab. Each card shows their mastery progress bar, cards mastered/learning/new, and due cards for spaced repetition review.

Flashcards

Classic flip cards. Students see the front, think of the answer, then click to reveal the back. Mark Correct or Incorrect. Progress bar tracks completion. Keyboard shortcuts: Space to flip, ← → to navigate.

Learn

Multiple-choice mode. Four answer choices per card, one correct. Immediate feedback. Good for self-testing before an exam.

Match

Drag-and-drop matching game. Match all front/back pairs as fast as possible. Timed — good for engagement and review.

How it works

After flipping a card, students rate their recall: Got it, Unsure, or Missed. Holon uses the SM-2 algorithm to calculate the next review date for each card.

Due cards

When a student returns to a practice deck, cards that are due for review appear first. The deck card shows a 📅 Study X Due Cards button when reviews are waiting.

Mastery

A card is considered mastered after 3+ successful reviews with a healthy ease factor. Mastered cards appear in the green ✓ mastered count on the deck card.

Progress tracking

Each practice deck card shows a progress bar and pill badges: mastered / learning / new / due today.

Summary cards

Each assigned deck shows Passed / In Progress / Not Started counts and a pass rate bar. Click a card to drill into per-student data.

Student table

Shows each student’s name, status (Passed/In Progress), best score, attempt count, and last active date.

Not started

The table footer shows how many enrolled students have not yet started. Canvas enrollment is pulled live.

Engagement metrics

Students studying / Not started / Engagement % / Total sessions / Avg cards mastered — per deck.

Mastery tracking

Student table shows each student’s mastery progress bar, cards mastered vs. total, session count, and last active date.

Adding an image

In the editor, click the 🖼 icon on any card row. Click the upload zone for Front or Back. Select an image file (JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP).

Storage

Images are stored in Canvas Files under a hidden holon-flashcards/ folder. If no Canvas token is configured, images fall back to base64 data URLs.

Removing an image

Open the image editor and click Remove Image for the relevant side.

Import from Course

In the Assigned or Practice header, click Import from Course. Select a source course from the dropdown. All decks from that course are copied into the current course as independent copies.

Export & reimport

Export any deck as CSV from the editor toolbar. Reimport via Bulk Import into any course. A complete course backup is available via Export All Decks in Bulk Import.

Setup

Go to AI Key in the sidebar. Enter your Anthropic API key (starts with sk-ant-). Get a free key at console.anthropic.com. The key is stored securely per course.

Generating cards

In Create Deck → Step 3, select AI Generate. Paste your content, set the card count (5–30), choose a focus, and click Generate Cards. Review the deck before saving.

Focus modes

• Balanced — mix of definitions and application questions
• Definitions only — term → definition pairs
• Clinical application — scenario-based questions
• Key terms & classifications — taxonomy and categorization

Also available for PDF/DOCX

Upload a PDF or Word document in the Upload panel. Claude extracts the text and generates cards from the document content automatically.

KPI tiles

Decks — total decks in this course. Total Cards — cards across all decks. Assigned — active Canvas assignments. Avg Mastery — class-wide mastery average across practice decks.

Recent Decks

Shows your 6 most recently updated decks. Click any deck card to open it in the editor. Cards show the deck’s status (Assigned or Practice), card count, and category.

Why isn’t my grade posting to Canvas?

Check that your Canvas API token is set (AI Key page) and hasn’t expired. Tokens expire when regenerated in Canvas Settings → Approved Integrations. A new token fixes this immediately.

Where do bulk imported decks go?

Imported decks land in Practice automatically and are immediately visible to students. You are redirected to the Practice view after import.

Can students use Holon Flashcards on mobile?

Yes. The tool is fully responsive and works in the Canvas mobile app via the LTI browser view.

What happens when I copy a Canvas course?

The LTI placement copies over automatically. To bring your decks into the new course, open Holon Flashcards there and click Import from Course.

Can I import from Quizlet or Cram?

Yes. Export from either platform as CSV. Drop the file into Bulk Import or the Upload panel in Create Deck. Column headers are detected automatically — no reformatting needed.

What is spaced repetition?

An evidence-based study technique that shows you cards based on how well you know them. Cards you struggle with appear more often; cards you’ve mastered are shown less frequently. Over time, you spend less time reviewing what you already know.

How does the Cards per session setting work?

Set a number (e.g. 20) and students receive a random 20 cards from the full deck each session. Every session is a different random subset, so large question banks stay fresh.

Can I have multiple assignments from the same deck?

No. Each deck can have one active Canvas assignment at a time. To create a new assignment, delete the existing one first (the deck moves back to Practice) then reassign.

Why does AI generation require my own API key?

Holon does not include a shared AI key. Using your own key gives you full control over usage and costs, and keeps your students’ content private.

How do I reset the theme or ADA size?

Use the A / A+ / A++ buttons in the topbar to adjust text size. Theme colors are set via the palette icon in the topbar.