The Experience Of Three Flipped Classroom
Research: The Experience of Three Flipped Classrooms in an Urban University: An Exploration of Design Principles
Flipped classrooms have been talked about and implemented, but the design principals for successful flipped classrooms needs more attention. It’s hard for teachers to balance finite amounts of face-to-face class discussion time with demands of lectures and other learning activities.
To develop flipped class design principals that would ease that tension a study was conducted in three undergraduate flipped classrooms in 2012, including an Engineering course, a Sociology course and a Humanities course.
These three questions guided the study:
- How do the instructors interpret and apply ‘flipping’ to their classrooms?
- What are the students’ perceptions of the value of the flipped classroom?
- What are suggestions for the design of the flipped classrooms?
Nine principals of flipped classrooms were used:
- Give students an opportunity to be exposed to the classroom topics before class time.
Today this can include involvement on YouTube, and other social media.
- Give students incentive for preparing for face-to-face class time.
From the Engineering instructor:
To foster more interaction and connection between out-of-class and in-class activities, I required students to submit questions/comments on YouTube by giving them points on homework assignments. This drastically boosted the number of questions posted on YouTube and I used those as a springboard for the next lecture.
- Have a mechanism in place to assess student understanding.
Short quizzes (3–5 multi-choice questions) were created on Blackboard, and about 85% of students got all questions correct. here’s what one student said:
When I didn’t have enough time to watch the videos I just clicked on the link and then made up a question/comment so I got points on my homework.
- Be sure to clearly connect student’s class preparation activities with in-class activities.
The warning from many studies is that the lack of cohesive alignment in activities can distract students from engaging in those activities.
The Engineering teacher took this approach:
… I still required students to post questions on YouTube, but in class I had students self-assemble into groups and had them answer each other’s questions that were posed on YouTube. Groups were then asked to post their answer back onto YouTube in a reply. I met with each group for about 5 minutes to help answer any questions that the group could not.
- Provide clearly defined and well-structured guidance.
To support students understanding guiding prompts and instructions must be carefully designed.
One student commented:
Even though the concept of the “inverted classroom” project… were clear, what the actual project should have looked like when we were done was not.
- Provide enough time for students to carry out the assignments.
A challenge when there are only 24 hours in the day.
- Provide facilitation for building a learning community.
One student said:
The flipped classroom activities were valuable because they allowed me to network with people in the class.
- Provide prompt/adaptive feedback on individual or group works.
Students who are usually highly engaged sometimes get bored or can’t sustain their energy level.
- Provide technologies familiar and easy to access.
In this study the use of YouTube proved clever and useful.
Kim, M. K., Kim, S. M., Khera, O., & Getman, J. (2014). The experience of three flipped classrooms in an urban university: an exploration of design principles. The Internet and Higher Education, 22, 37-50.