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Overview of The New GROUPS Section
Overview of The New GROUPS Section

High-level intro to the GROUPS section

David Handel, MD avatar
Written by David Handel, MD
Updated over a week ago

The GROUPS section is the social hub of iDoRecall (iDR). This is where students, friends, and colleagues can come together to create a study group and tackle a subject or topic of interest. GROUPS is also where a teacher can create a group as a class for their students.

We have totally rebuilt the GROUPS section of iDoRecall and now offer a public groups directory.

To celebrate, we've hired subject-matter expert educators to create comprehensive sets of recalls (flashcards) as companion content for the fantastic, free high school and college OpenStax textbooks. These flashcard sets are 100% free. You can even use them for free in one of our free accounts. These recalls are linked to the relevant portions of the OpenStax textbook. When you practice memory retrieval, if you struggle with the answer, you can click a button on the back of the recall, and the relevant portion of the text will open so that you can refresh your memory in the context where you learned it.

The new groups section has numerous other improvements. You can create a public group and publish it in our directory. It's a wonderful way to collaborate and learn with others. There are many fantastic courses on YouTube. You could create a companion set of recalls linked to the relevant time codes of any YouTube video using our webclipper browser extension.

Watch this in-depth video about the new groups section.

Here is the transcript for the video.

Hi, I'm David Handel MD CEO of iDoRecall. We just released a massive update of the group section of the app. Before I dive into the details, I need to alert you that groups are temporarily unavailable. When using, iDoRecall on a mobile device, you must use, iDoRecall on your computer to access the group section with the new version of groups.

We now offer the possibility to create and join public groups. Historically, we didn't have a directory or a way for you to discover and join a group could only join a group if a friend or teacher gave you a share link, but that has all changed. We now have a public group's directory. As part of this feature, we have created a series of public groups dedicated to the individual textbooks from the fantastic OpenStax collection.

If you're unfamiliar with OpenStax, they have grown in 10 short years to become the number four largest publisher of college textbooks. They are a not-for-profit funded by the likes of the Bill and Melinda gates foundation. They have published approximately 50 peer-reviewed titles, currently used this textbooks in several thousands of high school and college courses.

These textbooks are Creative Commons licensed and available for free by going to openstax.org/subjects. Each of our OpenStax textbook groups contains a comprehensive set of recalls linked to the books relevant passages .As always, that means if you struggle to remember the answer during memory retrieval practice, you can click the source button on the back of the back of the recall and the book's PDF or webpage will open at the exact relevant location. There, you can refresh your memory in the context where you learned it. To see the new public group's directory. Go to the GROUPS section of the app. In your computer's browser. If the directory isn't immediately displayed click at the top of the group's sidebar. At the top of the directory, you'll see the various OpenStax groups.

These are our featured public groups. Beneath a list will develop over time as shown in this mock-up. This list are the groups created by our community of users who decided to make some of their groups public. Anyone can join when you create a group and make it public.

Let's look at one of the OpenStax groups, and after that, I'll show you the steps for creating your own group. Let's click into the Chemistry 2e group. You can see that it has 779 linked recalls. These recalls were created by Dr. Sapna Jain, associate professor of chemistry at Alabama State University. After you scan the description, let's click and join the group.

Scrolling down beneath the description, you can click to copy this link. Share it with anyone you want to invite to join this group. You can also click to clone the group. More about this in a few minutes.

We're currently on the about page of this group. Let's jump into the discussion page. You'll see that there is a Facebook group devoted to college chemistry.

You can click here, and if you have a Facebook account, you'll be able to join the group where Dr. Jain and fellow students provide support and answer questions. Each OpenStax group has a Facebook discussion group.

Now let's jump to the RECALLS section of the group.

As always, you can click to open a recall and inspect it. You can even click to view the source link. This is where you can refresh your memory in the relevant passage of the book. You'll most often click this link on the back of a recall during practice I'll close the source click here. If you want to clone this recall into your account.

Since most likely you'll be cloning many recalls from this group, we offer an easier way than the one-at-a-time approach.

You can click to select and then clone one or more recalls into your account.

If you click "Clone all", you'll clone all of the recalls into your account, but we'll only clone the recalls that you haven't previously cloned so that we don't add duplicates to your recalls list.

You'll see this dialogue. When you clone more than 50 recalls at a time. We'll place the first 50 straightaway into your recalls list and they'll be immediately scheduled for their first practice tomorrow by the, iDoRecall spaced repetition algorithm. The balance of the recalls beyond the first 50 will be stowed in a place that we call "Cloned, never practiced". We do this to protect you from being overwhelmed with hundreds of new recalls scheduled into your daily practice tomorrow.

To get to the excess recalls, go to the recall section in your account and click "Cloned, never practiced" on the tags sidebar. If you select one of these recalls and then practice it, it will subsequently be scheduled by the spaced repetition algorithm.

We highly recommend that you sort this list of cloned never practice recalls by date added oldest first, because the older recalls are from the earlier portions of the book and more likely to be the ones that you'll want to next practice.

Some of the OpenStax groups have an additional tag on each recall identifying which chapter it's from. If that tag isn't present, the best strategy is to select recalls from the oldest creation date, when you're ready to add a new batch of recalls to your daily practice.

By the way, if you have multiple groups, you're cloning from, you can filter the cloned, never practice list by adding the tag for the group of interest.

Back in the group section, the library list for this group is empty, but when you create your own group, you can share files and videos with the, . If you like.

Now that we've covered how to clone from a group, let's discuss how to share recalls with a group.

There are multiple ways to share recalls with a group, but the easiest is from right here inside the group. We're here in the recalls list inside this group. If you are an owner or a moderator of a group, you'll see the SHARE YOUR RECALLS button here on the right. You'll also see this button, if you're an ordinary member of the group, but only in groups where the group settings permit members to share recalls. If that's not the case, the button won't be present.

When you click the button, you can then search and sort your list and even hide the recalls that you've already shared. After you make your selection, you can share.

If you're the owner or moderator of the group, the shared recalls will be published immediately to the group's recalls list. If you're a member, your share request will be pending until it is approved by the owner or moderator. The owner and moderators will see the pending submissions in the recalls list and can approve or deny.

The steps for sharing library files and videos are completely the same, when you're in the library list of the group.

You can also share recalls and library items from your recalls and library lists in your account.

Here is my recalls list in my account and I have selected some recalls and click the bulk action share button.

Returning back to the group section of the app, if you go back to the about page, you'll see that you have the option, as I mentioned earlier, to clone this group. This feature is particularly valuable for educators.

When you clone a group, you get a complete copy of the group's recalls and library content, but none of the member data. Teachers may want to create a clone, publish it as a private. And then invite their students in the class to join.

Let's examine this form you'll fill out when you clone a group. It's identical to the form that you'll fill out when you're creating a new group from scratch, except that in this case, some of the fields have been prepopulated with data from the group we're cloning.

All groups must have a unique name in our database. As you edit the name of the group, you may see a warning. If your preferred group name is already in use.

You can click here to upload a custom image of the group. I don't think I'll replace the image we already have here.

This rich text field enables you to write or edit as much description text about the group as you'd like.

You can enter your name or whatever you want to be known as in the group. The default for your name and photo or avatar is taken from your profile. You must go to your profile. If you wish to change or remove your photo.

If you want to add some description about yourself, you can do that here.

You have the option of listing a discussion channel for the group, from this set of choices. All you need to do is enter the URL for that specific discussion group here. The link to go there will be displayed in the discussion tab over here.

You can share up to six of your social media accounts here and we'll add them to your profile in the group.

Finally you have six easy decisions to make via check boxes.

First you'll decide if group members are permitted to submit recalls and library items.

If you give permission, all submissions will sit in your view of the group's recalls and library list, waiting for you to approve or deny them before they will be published for all group members to see.

If you wish, you can require your approval before members can join the group. Applicants will sit in your members' tab over here, waiting for you to approve or deny their entry.

The fourth checkbox is only relevant for teachers with an Educator subscription. It alerts students that when they're joining the group, their teacher will be able to see their performance metrics with the group's content.

Check here. If you want your group to be added to the public directory, where anyone can join.

If you want your group to be clonable, you have to check here.

After you save and publish your group, you'll be able to subsequently edit all of these settings by clicking the setting section here.

If you want to create your own group from scratch click here, and a form will open identical to the cloning form we just saw, except all of the fields are blank.

As always, if someone gives you a share link for a group, enter it in here and click the arrow or enter key.

I hope you're all as excited about the new group section as we are. It opens up the possibility for you to create a group based on any publicly available learning materials.

For example, there are many fantastic courses on YouTube now that our web clipper browser extension enables you to create recalls linked to the time codes on YouTube videos, you could create a public group with a comprehensive set of recalls linked to all of the relevant portions of the videos in that course.

If you're interested in such an undertaking, please reach out to me to discuss the possibility of having your group elevated to the featured public's group section or promoted in one of my newsletters.

Thanks. And I hope you enjoy the new groups.

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