FYP16016

Information lookup

A simple experiment was conducted with current students from School of Chinese Medicine, HKU, target users of the application. Participants were instructed to lookup a designated TCM terminology from different sources, time elapsed and screen tap counts are measured until they provided the correct definition of the phrase. The following figure illustrates the experiment result (in red, small dots) where a large number of screen taps and long durations are generally required.

To provide effective learning, the application attempt to reduce the effort in information lookup to under 5 screen taps and 10 seconds (illustrated in green, larger dot) as the objective.

With the implementation of Lookup API provided by the new released iOS 10, users can lookup TCM terminology directly from any third-party application, and retrieve the definition and explanation instantly without launching the application. Every lookup by the user will be recorded, and reminded for revision to ensure the memory retention.

Information retention

Dotted line in the following figure shows the forgetting curve which hypothesises the decline of memory retention in time. If an acquired information is not subsequent practised, the memory retention of the information may drop under 60% in less than 10 days and under 10% in around 60 days.

To provide effective learning, the application aims to assist users to retain over 80% of the acquired information after 60 days, as illustrated by solid line.

The performance of each practice and revision will be recorded in the database to determine the memory retention. The application will implement the Leitner System to design a set of contents for next revision or practice. The following figure illustrates the implementation of Leitner System with cards as an analogy of information, and cards will be sent to next box if the user correctly answered, or to the first box if failed. Each succeeding box represents a better memory retention, while the first group represents the worst.

The application reminds user for revision by implementing the spaced repetition to determine the review schedule. The above figure illustrates the projected forgetting curve with spaced repetition, maintaining over 80% of memory if regularly revised. The application implements iOS notifications API for sending revision reminders to users.