28% faster and 21% smarter: Replacing passive lectures with active learning
The Bottom Line Up Front
Lecture content can be taught using the Blank Slate platform — as in, no lecture needed — and learners can even apply this knowledge to solve new problems.
The Details
Lectures — whether in person or video-recorded — are a learning staple in workplaces and educational settings. But what if there were a more engaging and efficient way to learn — one that reduces the need for lectures altogether? A new study suggests that Blank Slate can do just that, teaching complex material in less time than a lecture while improving memory retention [1].
Research Questions
Emerging out of conversations with time-stretched special warfare teams in the Department of Defense, a team of cognitive scientists led by Dr. Leamarie Gordon of Assumption University asked:
- Can people learn new material via the Blank Slate platform, in the absence of a lecture?
- Can this approach save time relative to watching lectures?
Methods
📅 Day 1: 28 college students watched a lecture on an unfamiliar topic — we’ll call it Topic A.
📅 Weeks 1–4: Students used Blank Slate to learn about Topics A and B — topic B had no lecture.
📅 Day 30: Students took a final test with multiple-choice and essay questions on both topics. The test questions required students to apply their new knowledge.
Results
Shown in the learning curves above, on Day 1, students performed better on the topic that was lectured (Topic A) than the topic that was not lectured (Topic B). But by Day 8, students performed just as well on the content that they learned through Blank Slate — without ever watching a lecture — as they did on content that was lectured.
On the final memory tests on Day 30, which required participants to apply their new knowledge to solve new problems, there were no differences in final test performance for the lectured and not-lectured topics. As you’ll see in the bar graphs above, Blank Slate taught students a new topic equally well in the presence or absence of a lecture.
We also know from prior research that when people watch a lecture, they remember about 57% of it one month later [2]. In contrast, this new research found that people who learned a new topic solely using Blank Slate demonstrated 69% memory accuracy after a month. Further, the cumulative time spent using Blank Slate to learn a new topic was only 36 minutes on average, shorter than the typical 50-minute lecture.
In other words, using Blank Slate to learn new content took 28% less time than the traditional lecture method and resulted in 21% better memory retention after a month.
The Bottom Line
Lecture content can be taught to proficiency through Blank Slate’s platform. After using Blank Slate for just a few minutes each week, learners can even flexibly apply this knowledge to solve new problems. Whether you’re looking to cut down on training time, upgrade from passive to active learning, or simply improve knowledge retention for the long haul, the Blank Slate platform is ready to help.
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Amy Smith, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer, Blank Slate Technologies
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References:
Gordon, L. T., Hughes, G. I., & Smith, A. M. (2025). Modernizing the Flipped Classroom: Replacing Lecture Time With Asynchronous Spaced Retrieval. Teaching of Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/00986283251325842
McHugh, D., Feinn, R., McIlvenna, J., & Trevithick, M. (2021). A Random Controlled Trial to Examine the Efficacy of Blank Slate: A Novel Spaced Retrieval Tool with Real-Time Learning Analytics. Education Sciences, 11(3), 90. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11030090
