LeitBox

LeitBox – Leitner Flashcards for Moodle

Named after Sebastian Leitner – the Austrian scientist who invented the flashcard box learning system in 1972. LeitBox brings his method natively into Moodle.

LeitBox is a native Moodle activity plugin that turns passive course content into flashcard decks learners can practise on their own. Built on the proven Leitner box method, it runs directly inside Moodle – no extra login, no external tools, no data leaving the institution's own server.

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Screenshots

Dashboard: six learning boxes (New to Expert) with overall progress at a glance	Flashcard front: the question first, with an optional hint
Flashcard back: rate yourself Got it, Again, or Hard – a wrong answer never resets all progress	Bulk import: paste a ready-made AI prompt, then import a whole deck at once
Card management: every card in one table, with edit, delete and export

A live, browsable homepage with the same screenshots is also available at peterpleimfeldner-design.github.io/moodle-mod_leitbox.

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Features

Six-Box Learning System

Cards are organised into 6 boxes (New → Beginner → Learner → Advanced → Experienced → Expert). Three answer options give learners full control:

Answer	Effect
Got it	Card advances one box
Again	Card stays in its current box – no penalty
Hard	Card falls back one box, but never all the way to the start (a new card moves to Beginner)

A single mistake never erases all progress. Learners choose when and how often to practise – LeitBox does not schedule reminders or due dates.

Fast Card Creation, AI-Ready

Built-in prompt templates let teachers generate entire card decks from any existing material in minutes. Six didactic categories are available from a dropdown:

• Standard Q&A (factual knowledge)
• True or False (with explanation)
• Vocabulary & Terms (translations, definitions)
• Fill in the Blank (cloze-style)
• Jeopardy (answer first, guess the question)
• Transfer & Real-World Application (highest didactic level)

The output can be pasted directly into the bulk import field – no file upload, no encoding errors, no CSV headaches.

Moodle-Native Completion Tracking

Three granular, combinable completion conditions:

• User answered X unique cards correctly at least once
• User promoted X cards to Expert level (box 5)
• User promoted all cards to Expert level

Full integration with Moodle's Activity Completion system.

GDPR / Privacy by Design

Full Moodle Privacy API integration. All learner data stays on the institution's own server and can be exported or deleted via standard Moodle Data Privacy tools.

Moodle-Native & Admin-Friendly

• Full Backup & Restore API support
• Integrates with Moodle's standard Course Reset tool, so reusing a course for a new term cleanly clears the previous cohort's learning progress
• Styles are limited to LeitBox pages, no external services
• Uses only Moodle's built-in role, permission and session management
• A dedicated capability, mod/leitbox:managecards, controls who may add, edit, import, export and delete cards (editing teachers and managers by default)

Calm by Design

No ranking, no leaderboards, no game points, no images on cards – LeitBox is built for focus and speed rather than competition.

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Requirements

• Moodle: 4.1 to 5.1 (automatically tested on 4.1, 4.4, 4.5, 5.0 and 5.1)
• PHP: 8.1 to 8.3
• Database: MySQL, MariaDB, or PostgreSQL
• No additional PHP extensions or server dependencies required

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Installation

1. Download the latest release ZIP: mod_leitbox_vX.Y.Z.zip
2. In Moodle: Site administration → Plugins → Install plugins
3. Upload the ZIP and follow the on-screen instructions

Manual installation: Extract the ZIP into your Moodle /mod/leitbox/ directory, then visit /admin/index.php to trigger the database upgrade.

Important: The ZIP root must contain exactly one directory named leitbox. Do not rename or restructure it.

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Building the learner view (for developers)

The learner view is a Vue 3 application. Its source is shipped in frontend/; the built bundle that Moodle loads is dist/assets/index.js. After changing anything in frontend/, rebuild it with Node.js 18 or later:

cd frontend
npm ci
npm run build

The build writes dist/assets/index.js (a single self-contained script, including its CSS). The bundle calls the plugin's web services through Moodle's core/ajax module and reads all texts from the plugin's language files.

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Tech Stack

Component	Technology
Backend	PHP 8.x, Moodle Core API
Frontend	Vue.js 3, Tailwind CSS, Vite
Database	Moodle XMLDB (MySQL / MariaDB / PostgreSQL)
Security	CSRF/XSS protection via Moodle Core Services
Maturity	MATURITY_STABLE
License	GNU GPL v3

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Versioning

This plugin follows Semantic Versioning:

• MAJOR – Architectural rewrites or dropping Moodle LTS support
• MINOR – New features or database schema changes
• PATCH – Bug fixes, translation corrections, CSS tweaks

All changes are documented in CHANGELOG.md.

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Privacy & GDPR

LeitBox supports Moodle's native Privacy API. All learner interaction data is strictly linked to their Moodle user ID and can be fully exported or purged via Site administration → Privacy and policies → Data requests.

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Backup & Restore

Full support for Moodle's native Backup and Restore API. Course backups include all flashcard decks and, optionally, individual student progress data.

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Support & Contact

• Bug reports & feature requests: GitHub Issues
• Email: [email protected]

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License

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

See LICENSE for full details.