No abstract

Digital flashcard users typically must choose between creating their own flashcard content or using freely-available flashcard sets. The latter is more convenient and saves time, but is it more effective for learning? We conducted six experiments, each involving the use of user-generated or pre-made flashcards to learn material drawn from educational text passages, followed by a 48-hr delayed criterial test. Different approaches to generating content and variations in the quality of pre-made content were also examined. Across experiments, user-generated flashcards improved memory relative to pre-made flashcards (an estimated advantage of d = 0.45, 95% C.I. [0.25, 0.66]), and in most cases, enhanced performance on application questions (an estimated advantage of d = 0.29, 95% C.I. [0.12, 0.45]). These results suggest that generating one’s own flashcards enables productive learning processes that enhance memory and comprehension. Accordingly, digital flashcard users may benefit from eschewing pre-made versions in favor of making their own.

Digital flashcard users typically must choose between creating their own flashcard content or using freely available flashcard sets. The latter is more convenient and saves time, but is it more effective for learning? We conducted six experiments, each involving the use of user-generated or premade flashcards to learn material drawn from educational text passages, followed by a 48-hr delayed criterial test. Different approaches to generating content and variations in the quality of premade content were also examined. Across experiments, user-generated flashcards improved memory relative to premade flashcards (an estimated advantage of d = 0.45, 95% CI [0.25, 0.66]), and in most cases, enhanced performance on application questions (an estimated advantage of d = 0.29, 95% CI [0.12, 0.45]). These results suggest that generating one's own flashcards enables productive learning processes that enhance memory and comprehension. Accordingly, digital flashcard users may benefit from eschewing premade versions in favor of making their own.

Over the past two decades, digital flashcards—that is, computer programmes, smartphone apps, and online services that mimic, and potentially improve upon, the capabilities of traditional paper flashcards—have grown in variety and popularity. Many digital flashcard platforms allow learners to make or use flashcards from a variety of sources and customise the way in which flashcards are used. Yet relatively little is known about why and how students actually use digital flashcards during self-regulated learning, and whether such uses are supported by research from the science of learning. To address these questions, we conducted a large survey of undergraduate students (n = 901) at a major U.S. university. The survey revealed insights into the popularity, acquisition, and usage of digital flashcards, beliefs about how digital flashcards are to be used during self-regulated learning, and differences in uses of paper versus digital flashcards, all of which have implications for the optimisation of student learning. Overall, our results suggest that college students commonly use digital flashcards in a manner that only partially reflects evidence-based learning principles, and as such, the pedagogical potential of digital flashcards remains to be fully realised.