Teachers

How do I create a card deck for my students?

Written by the TestFLE team. Updated 13 November 2026

In short

In “My materials”, “New card deck” creates a deck of cards to flip or a picture to explore. You add texts, images and sounds to it, then you share it with students or link it to a material, with no mark.

Who this is for, and what you need first

Who this is for: Teachers whose school has chosen the Library option, including school administrators.
What you need first: The Library option, chosen by your school.
To link the deck to a material: a material already in the library.

Creating the deck

In the sidebar, click “Library”.
If you wish, open the folder of “My materials” where the deck should go.
In the “My materials” header, click “New card deck”.
In “Deck title”, type the title, for example “First-group verbs”.
Under “Deck kind”, choose “Cards to flip” or “Picture to explore”.
Click “Create”. The deck editor opens at once.

The kind is chosen once only: it does not change afterwards. A “Cards to flip” deck has a front and a back. A “Picture to explore” deck carries a background picture and zones: the student touches a zone, and the word appears and is read aloud. Neither gives a mark or a score: they are revision aids.

Creating a deck of cards to flip, adding two cards, generating the sounds, then previewing

Filling in a deck of cards to flip

In the editor, click “Add a card”.
Type the text of the “Front” and that of the “Back”. Each text has 2,000 characters at most.
To add an image or a sound to a side, click “Image or audio” under that side and choose the file.
Repeat for each card. “Move up” and “Move down” change the order of the cards; “Remove card” deletes a card.
Click “Save”.
To hear the text of a side, click “Generate the sound”, or “Generate the missing sounds” for the whole deck. These buttons stay greyed out as long as the deck has unsaved changes.
Click “Preview” to see the deck as the student will see it.

Each side must carry at least a text, an image or a sound. A card with only one side filled in blocks saving, and the screen names the card and the side (“Card 2 has nothing on its back: each side needs at least a text, an image or an audio.”). A card that is completely empty is ignored without a message. A deck has 500 cards at most.

Filling in a picture to explore

In the editor, drop the background picture into the drop zone. It is saved as soon as it is uploaded.
Click on the picture, where the first zone should be: a zone is placed and the cursor moves to the word field.
Type the word of the zone in “Word of zone 1”. It has 80 characters at most.
Repeat for the other zones. Drag a zone to move it; the size button (“small”, “medium”, “large”) sets its size; “Remove the zone” deletes it.
Click “Save”. As long as a new zone has not been saved, sound generation stays greyed out (“Save the deck before generating sounds: a new zone does not exist yet for the server.”).
To hear the word of a zone, click “Generate the sound”, or “Generate all missing sounds”. “Upload a sound” lets you send your own recording.
Click “Preview”.

The editor counts the zones above their list (“Zones (6 / 30)”): a picture carries 30 at most. Each zone must have its word. Zones can only be placed once the background picture has been uploaded (“Upload the background picture first: zones are placed on it.”).

Editor of a picture to explore with six zones placed on the picture and their list of words

A deck can stand alone or go with a material. To link it, click the “Link to a material” icon on its row, choose the material in “Linked material”, then click “Save”. The students who have access to the material then also have access to the deck, and they find it from the window where they view the material. The link follows the material’s access in real time: linking the deck to a material already shared with a class opens it to that class at once. To unlink the deck, choose “No material”.

You can also share the deck directly, with the “Share with students” icon on its row: the window is the same as for a material, described in sharing a material with my students. An access opened directly is added to the access inherited from the material, and survives unlinking.

Going further

Understanding the settings and special cases

Printing the cards

The cards can be printed, on the teacher’s side as on the student’s: they are memory aids to cut out. In the editor, “Print” opens the browser’s print window. By default, the layout is double-sided: eight cards per A4 sheet, with the backs placed to fall behind their fronts. The “No duplex: fold-over” box places the front and the back side by side, on a single side of the sheet: you cut, fold along the line, and the card is made. Pictures to explore have no “Print” button.

What does text-to-speech read?

“Generate the sound” has the text of a side (or the word of a zone) read in French, by a single voice that you do not choose. The generated sound becomes the audio of the side. The text read has 1,000 characters at most: beyond that, generation is refused (“The text must not exceed 1000 characters.”).

Generation reads the saved text: it stays greyed out as long as the deck has unsaved changes (“Save the deck before generating sounds: the server reads the text it knows.”). “Generate the missing sounds” touches neither a sound you have uploaded nor a generated sound that is up to date. It does, however, redo a sound that has become out of date, when the text has changed since (“The word has changed since: sound to regenerate.”). The “Regenerate the sound” button of a side replaces the sound of that side, whether it was uploaded or generated.

Uploaded images and sounds

A side carries one image and one sound at most. An image is in JPEG, PNG, GIF or WebP format, 20 MB at most; a sound is in mp3, wav, ogg or m4a format, 200 MB at most. A video is not accepted on a card. Images wider than 1600 px are downsized before upload, and the original is not kept. The file is sent as soon as you choose it; it is only linked to the card when the deck is saved, and any file left unused is deleted then.

When you add a file to a side, the screen reminds you not to include your students in it (“Do not include your students in this file: we advise against it.”). All these files count towards the library’s storage space, shared with the materials.

For a background picture, “Replace the picture” uploads another picture. If its proportions are different, the zones shift: the screen asks you to check them (“A picture with different proportions shifts the zones: check them after replacing.”).

Removing a deck

The “Remove deck” icon opens a confirmation window (“Remove this card deck?” or “Remove this picture deck?”). It announces two effects: the images and the sounds are deleted from the server, and the text of the cards or the zones are kept, but no longer visible. The open access is closed: students no longer see the deck. The screen does not offer to restore it.

If saving is refused

A side text that is too long is refused (“Card 2, front: 2000 characters max.”).
A deck of more than 500 cards is refused (“A deck cannot exceed 500 cards.”), as is a picture with more than 30 zones (“A picture cannot carry more than 30 zones.”).
An empty zone word is flagged before sending (“Zone 2: write the word it reveals.”).
An image or a sound that is too large is refused (“File too large for this media type (image): 20 MB at most.” or “File too large for this media type (audio): 200 MB at most.”), as is a file whose content does not match its extension (“The file’s content does not match its extension.”).
When the library space is full, the screen gives the space used and the space available (“Not enough library space:” followed by the GB used, the quota and the space available), then advises you to delete materials or to request an extension.
If text-to-speech fails, the screen says so (“Text-to-speech generation failed.”) and changes nothing. Try again later; a sound already generated stays in place.