MD2 Anki Card Project - Qualitative Assessment of Anki as a Tool for Medical Education - Key Findings

Aug 29, 2026

Upload by Sarah

Qualitative assessment of the MD2 Anki Card Project examines how Anki’s spaced repetition and active recall, delivered via user-created flashcards, supported first-year medical students in cardiology and pulmonology learning. Decks were organized by problem-based learning sessions, followed by Likert-scale surveys on usefulness, relevance, and practicality, and comparison to final-exam items. Results based on 64 student responses indicate strong perceived learning improvement and deck usability, with high agreement and strong exam performance on Anki-linked questions.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages1

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Context

Objectives

Key Message and Findings

Survey Results

Deck Usefulness and Likert Outcomes

End-of-Unit Survey Time and Use

Final Exam Performance

Qualitative assessment of Anki as a tool for medical education Authors: Elliott J. Koshi, BS; Torbjoern N. Nielsen, BS; Bradley L. Fujiuchi, BS; Mattia J. Walter, BS; Chaz C. Kuniyoshi, BS; Damon H. Sakai, MD Department of Medical Education, University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA Context • Research has shown that active recall testing and spaced repetition improve long-term retention of information. 1 • Anki is a free, open-source platform that applies these concepts in the form of user-created flashcards. • Anki flashcards were developed for the first-year medical students at the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) . • Anki flashcards were based on topics covered in the cardiology and pulmonology unit, and organized into “decks” based on each problem-based learning (PBL) session. • After each “deck”was sent out, a follow-up survey asked for the perceived usefulness of the “deck” using the Likert scale. • To assess the project’s impact on students’ overall learning, 16 questions were included on their final exams [based on our Anki decks] . • Finally, an end-of-unit survey was sent out regarding the efficacy, relevance, and practicality of the flashcards using the Likert scale. Objectives 1. Provide an avenue for students to become acquainted with the Anki flashcard application, and provide an additional study resource for first-year medical students. 2. Contribute to first-year medical students’ learning of the relevant topics in cardiology and pulmonology. 3. Evaluate the effectiveness of flashcards, through the Anki platform, as a tool for learning in the medical curriculum. Key Message The data strongly suggests that the MD2 Anki Card Project was an effective tool for learning. Based on the 64 student responses (83% of the class) on the End-of-Unit survey, 100% used at least 7 of the 10 decks. Of these responses, 100% of the students“agreed” or “strongly agreed” that the MD2 Anki Project Decks improved their learning. Additionally, 81 .2 % of students spent an average of 2 hours or less each day, with 35 .9% of these students having spent less than 1 hour, on average, each day doing these flashcards. 100% of the students who responded to the End-ofUnit survey found the MD2 Anki Card Project material relevant to the PBL cases and “would like to see more Anki decks linked to PBL cases in the future.” The students scored well on the relevant final exam questions that were based on material from the MD2 Anki Card Project decks. The students scored an average of 89 .4 % across the 16 questions submitted to the final exam. This value was higher than the average PBL exam score of 85 . 1 %(p=0 .00024) and fell above the 75th percentile of 88 .8% . | Table 1. Complete results from individual Anki
Deck surveys | | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | Prompt: Did you find the deck useful for your studies? | | | | | | | % of students who responded | | | | | | Anki Deck number | N/A (Did not
use) | Strongly disagree | Somewhat disagree | Somewhat agree | Strongly agree | | 1 (n=56) | 7.1% | 3.6% | 0.0% | 14.3% | 75.0% | | 2 (n=74) | 10.8% | 2.7% | 0.0% | 17.6% | 68.9% | | 3 (n=74) | 9.5% | 2.7% | 0.0% | 9.5% | 78.4% | | 4 (n=74) | 12.2% | 4.1% | 0.0% | 8.1% | 75.7% | | 5 (n=73) | 4.1% | 1.4% | 0.0% | 9.6% | 84.9% | | 6 (n=74) | 6.8% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 10.8% | 82.4% | | 7 (n=73) | 5.5% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 5.5% | 89.0% | | 8 (n=74) | 4.1% | 0.0% | 1.4% | 6.8% | 87.8% | | 9 (n=74) | 4.1% | 1.4% | 0.0% | 2.7% | 91.9% | | 10 (n=39) | 2.6% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 7.7% | 89.7% | Figure 1. Perceived usefulness of individual Anki Decks % of Students that "Strongly agree" 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Anki Deck number Figure 1. The survey asked “Did you find the deck useful for your studies?” on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) -4 (strongly agree) . The dotted green line represents the linear trend. The red

FAQs

What is the purpose of the MD2 Anki Card Project?

The project provides a study resource for first-year medical students and supports learning of cardiology and pulmonology topics using Anki flashcards.

How were student perceptions of the Anki decks measured?

Students completed Likert-scale surveys after receiving decks, covering perceived usefulness, relevance to PBL material, and desired future expansion of deck content.

How did students perform on final exam questions linked to the Anki decks?

Students achieved a strong average score (89.4%) across 16 Anki-based exam questions, outperforming the average PBL exam score reported in the document.

Aug 29, 2026

Upload by Sarah