Effective, Scalable, and Low Cost: The Use of Teacher‐Made Digital Flashcards Improves Student Learning

ABSTRACT Spaced retrieval practice can improve learning but is often underutilized. We hypothesized that providing students with digital flashcards via a spaced repetition app could improve academic performance by increasing use of spaced retrieval practice. In a controlled nationwide quasi‐experiment, involving 799 first‐year nursing students across 19 Norwegian campuses, we randomly assigned 10 campuses to an intervention. Although only one‐third of the intervention group utilized the flashcards, evidence for self‐selection bias was limited. Card users significantly outperformed non‐users on the final exam (d = 0.42, p < 0.001), were nearly three times more likely to pass (OR = 2.84 [1.35, 6.01]), and over twice as likely to achieve the highest grade (OR = 2.31 [1.35, 3.98]). Flashcard use remained a significant predictor of exam performance after controlling for age, prior academic performance, study time, and study material covered. This suggests that teacher‐made digital flashcards can be a cost‐effective intervention to improve learning outcomes.