Flipping fantastic!

Have you heard the phrase "flip the classroom"? It's a trend we see in adult education that spans throughout many different countries (Bloom, 1979). A peer at another college first introduced me to the concept. Knowing her successes in the classroom, I listened. Here are 5 concepts she shared with me to prepare me for embarking on a "flipped" style of learning.

1) It's more work initially

Even getting your head around the classroom concept, that for many of us may be foreign, can be a struggle let alone anticipating where the students needs and questions will go during this new format. An instructor initially trying a "flip the classroom" model may find the work load prohibitive. Making pre recorded video lectures, scenario development for classroom use and additional pre-reading assignments will take time, however, like any new curriculum once it has been created and had a dry run, future courses are dramatically more hands free. Lage, Platt and Treglia outline various methods and preparations for a successful flipped set up in their paper Inverting the Classroom.

2) It forces you to be a flexible and dynamic facilitator

Streams of questions can go sideways and leap far ahead into content yet to come with this style of dynamic learning. Developing critical thinking in our students means the application of the lesson can widen greatly from what you formally use to present in a traditional lecture with set scenarios. Now, students are more likely to share their own stories to relate to the material. Instructors must be well versed and flexible in order to best support a class, especially the larger class sizes.

3) Other faculty may not be supportive

Myself, had I not had a respected peer encouraging me, I would have been less likely to try making changes. Having a supportive and experienced mentor was a major influence for my own decision making when trying new things. One challenge my peer found was, while she was well suited for a dynamic teaching style, a number of her fellow faculty were not inclined to try it on for size. Whether due to a lack of understanding, aptitude or disagreement with the philosophy, the end result is the same. A lack of support among faculty is not uncommon and can compound the following issue:

4) Students may not be supportive

I've experienced this myself when initiating activities that do not follow a behavioral format (Adult Learning, 2014, pp.26-29) whether for learning or examination. Many of us are creatures of habit and change is not always comfortable. When we are spending a good deal of time and money in our education, it is understandable that some resistance may be felt among the ranks; especially upon the first exposure to a "flipped" style.

In our program, our students are also in classes from 8:30 am to 4:00 Monday to Friday plus an extra 5.5 hours one to two nights per week depending on where they are in the course. This is not including community events that occur throughout the year, often on weekends. While a "flipped" style can save them time on homework after the lecture, it can be a steep argument to get the necessary pre reading work time in, to make the class the best learning environment for all. Lage et. al also indicate varying levels of emotional maturity and access to the necessary electronics for pre viewing lectures can negatively impact the experience.

5) Grades will go up.

In my peers experience she saw a rise in grade point average by approximately 10%. This is an excellent point in favour of a "flipped" style, however, it must be in place before you will see the results that earn the buy in from fellow staff and students to begin to overcome the hurtles listed above.

I recently initiated a research project where we took set packages of lectures and created groups consisting of a student or more from each of the four terms in our two year diploma program.

88 students in co-teaching groups on "Beach Day"

While we will tweak the design for future "Beach Days" - that's right - we did our classes on the beach, we did find students enjoyed the learning and received more stress relief from the co-operative and more self directed learning style compared to a traditional indoor lecture setting. A handful of students did not feel this learning would suit them, and chose not to participate. Once faculty member was very unsure, but was swayed by the end of the day, seeing it actually produce viable outcomes.

We will be evaluating the student feed back as well as reviewing grades and self reported confidence once the term has ended and look forward to discovering our own correlations.

I'm hopeful we will see at very least no change in performance on exam questions relating to the material we covered that day. At best, a greater confidence and proficiency in the written and practical examinations.

Worst case scenario, we flip it up some more.