The Primer Platform can seem a bit intimidating. Allow me to give you a tour of this platform, ensuring that you can make effective use of Primer.
Let's begin our tour, shall we?
Primer Mode
When you open Primer for the first time, the platform opens up in Primer Mode. In this mode, we have a bit of a conversation. At times, I will ask you for input which you can provide by clicking a button or typing into a text area.
Each text input has a minimum character limit, which you have to honor to proceed.
Apart from that, there are also quizzes to keep you engaged in the conversation.
There are two menus. The black menu contains course cards such as useful glossary terms, equations, and codes. As you progress in the course, more and more cards keep on adding.
Black Menu also contains notes and questions.
Whenever you feel stuck, try to phrase your question and keep moving forward. Later on, when you review your course work, you can choose to seek the answer from various internet websites or our very own community forums.
Review Mode
All your course cards, notes, and questions are automatically converted to flashcards which you can access in the review mode.
Generate Flashcards
As you progress in the course, the flashcards keep on increasing. You can see your current topic flashcards using the top-left corner button.
You can choose to review topic cards, chapter cards, or course cards using the green menu.
All your notes are automatically cloze-completed, which means a part of the phrase from the note is hidden in the front of the flashcard.You can also choose which portion of the text to hide by enclosing them inside square brackets.
Export Anki Packages
You can download all your flashcards in the form of anki package anytime you want by checking the Course Review Flashcards in the green menu.
Learning Assessment
At the time of each topic completion, you are provided an option of checking the learning assessment.
Learning assessment provides different learning objectives that the learner needs to assess if you were able to understand the topic. It helps track which portion of the course was clear to you and which part you had difficulties with.
You can access the learning assessment anytime, using the button in the bottom-left corner.
The portal also contains various keyboard shortcuts to navigate the Primer Platform.
The button just above the learning assessment is the undo button. You can use it to undo your conversation during Primer Mode or reset flashcards in the Review Mode.
Retrace Mode
There are a couple of events that are likely for most learners.
- Learners will not be able to complete the course
- Learners will not be able to understand the course completely
However, do not worry. Primer is designed to be review-friendly. Once you complete a topic, your responses are frozen. You can no longer edit your conversation. The next time you revisit the topic, you enter the Retrace Mode.
In this mode, you can retrace the path you took to build the ideas about a topic. Since your inputs form a small but significant chunk, it is easier for you to review the topic. We like to think of your stored inputs as memory breadcrumbs. Think of them as something which you can use to retrace your entire path.
You will also find it easier to recall information with our inline completions. Inline completions are specific cloze-completed texts inside the course texts, which we think are essential for you to remember.
Using inline completions and your memory breadcrumbs, you should be able to resume the course, even after neglecting for an extended period.
Personalized Book
There two broad goals in Primer:
- First, to generate your personalized notebook
- Second, to make your notebook fully personalized
In Primer, the courses move sequentially. You cannot skip any topic meaning you won't be able to access the following topics without completing all the previous topics.
Once you complete the course, you will be able to generate your notebook.