Flipping out? What you need to know about the Flipped Classroom

This GradHacker post was written by Andrea Zellner, PhD candidate at Michigan State University, @andreazellner

The traditional model of the lecture and learning cycle has long been to deliver the lecture during class and to send students home to do homework and perhaps engage in a discussion or two afterwards. The flipped classroom flips this model on its head: through lecture capture software, lectures can be captured on video for students to watch home, freeing up class time for hands-on learning activities and discussion.

To my mind, this method works better for some subject areas than others. On the one hand, I took an online math  course one semester, and one that was face-to-face the next semester. How I missed the ability to pause the lecture and rewind it to re-listen to a particularly tricky concept! On the other hand, in a writing course, for example, there is (hopefully) not too much lecture to replace so it may not be as useful in terms of freeing up time that is normally taken for lecturing.

If you are interested or intrigued to learn more about flipping your classroom, I've compiled a number of links below that provide a variety of perspectives on the practice. In the end, it is up to the instructor to make this work in the best way for students. For example, hour-long Powerpoints are largely insufferable in person or online. Making the best pedagogical choices that are most likely to lead to student learning are still required, flipped classroom or not.

In addition, we are happy to note that Gradhacker will be adding a podcast to our repertoire. Our first guest is Dr. Kenneth A. Frank, who will be discussing flipping his classroom in a doctoral level Quantitative Methods course.  Look for details here and on http://www.gradhacker.org soon!

 Links:

• "Exploding the Lecture" by  Steven Kolowich on Inside Higher Ed: Professor tries improving lectures by removing them from class
• "Vodcasting and the Flipped Classroom": a good introduction; includes videos
• "The Flipped Class: What it is and What it is Not" by Jon Bergmann, Jerry Overmyer and Brett Wilie
• Guide from TechSmith: "Teachers Use Technology to Flip Their Classrooms"

Flipped Classroom Infographic:

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media