Cramberry.NET - An online Flashcard System for teachers and students

Cramberry.net remixes an age old study helper, flash cards, and adds greater functionality, social interaction, and ease of use into one package.  The paramount idea for Cramberry seems to be its ease of use.  I had the opportunity to create a set of flash cards for a student that I tutor, and in less than 5 minutes, I had signed up for an account and was creating Flash Cards for this student.

When you create a new stack of flash cards (called a “set”) Cramberry asks for two items, a name for the set and if you would like to share the set of Flashcards with everyone on Cramberry.  If you choose to keep the stack private, Cramberry only allows you to access and use the set of Flashcards.  If you want other people to use the cards as well (for example, students in your class, or in my case the student who I tutor) you can check the box “Allow others to use this set”  and Cramberry provides a link to the set of Flashcards.  The only requirement for the person(s) you are trying to share with is that they also have a Cramberry account.  Once they do, they can simply click on the link that you provide, and the Flashcards appear, ready for use immediately.

Cramberry has a very spartan interface and it clearly understands that it is a Flashcard system and no more.  What Cramberry does well, it does very well.  I can see a couple areas for improvement, though.  For example, Cramberry does not allow any formatting of either the question or the answer.  This is ideal if the answer is simple a word or sentence, but if you are attempting to use Cramberry for more complex topics with bullet points, or images, Cramberry will not work for you. After I posted the original article, Cramberry commented (see below) and let me know that there is in fact a way to add simple formatting to a flash card using “Textile”.  Cramberry also informed us that there are new features on the horizon such as bulleted lists and paragraphs.  I can’t wait!

There is also no way to limit your Flashcards to specific users.  You can either share or not, there is no middle ground.  This may not matter to many, but if a teacher wants to use Cramberry for his/her class, and only those students, Cramberry does not allow that.

With that said, I was very impressed with Cramberry over all and am continuing to use it with the student who I tutor.  I can see Cramberry as a great solution for teachers who want to create a predefined set of study aids for their students, or students who want to improve their skills in a particular area.  I recommend you check out Cramberry.