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Flipped Learning Approach
Teaching as we typically conceive it involves the teacher lead a session before setting students off to practice, explore and develop their knowledge based on the information they have been given. In contrast, Flipped Learning, as the name suggests, inverts the traditional approach and instead encourages a learner-centred approach that encourages students to be active in deciding the format or approach of a lesson based on their own understanding or particular interest in relation to the topic.
This page explores the concept of Flipped Learning and how you might successfully implement it within your own Teaching and Learning practice.
Setting Expectations
It’s important to be clear with your instructions for students and clearly setting your expectations of them from the beginning of your module. Building habits early on is essential to a flipped learning approach as students often need to alter their expectations about how they will be working and interacting with the content.
Didactic teaching has become so heavily embedded that many students may need time to adjust and unlearn this approach to learning before settling comfortably into a flipped learning approach. It’s important, then, to set your expectations for your students early on, clearly communicating and demonstrating the teaching and learning approach you will be taking.
You may want to start simple in early weeks, giving students shorter tasks to complete prior to the session that gradually build up to longer or more challenging tasks. Similarly, you may want to gradually build up the student-influenced section of the session, starting out with just a short activity that fills the first 15 minutes of the session, but building towards more student-led activities across the semester or year.
Accountability is also an important part of successful flipped learning. If students do not see or understand the direct impact of the pre-session work that they’re given, they’re unlikely to complete it. It’s essential, therefore, to clearly explain to students why they are doing the work and how it will influence the teaching session that follows.
Digital Tools for Flipped Learning
Talis Elevate & Annotation
Talis Elevate is a tool to support your students’ active engagement with the resources you recommend for their learning. The Elevate platform allows you and your students to leave comments on texts, images, and media you upload, enabling direct engagement with learning resources. Using Elevate, students can collaborate directly with their classmates within the resources they are using together for their learning.
You can set pre-reading for students within Talis Elevate, encouraging them to annotate the text, leave comments and respond to comments left by otheres. This community aspect creates an element of accountability, as well as clearly explaining to students how this work will feed into the teaching session that will follow.
The data recorded within Talis Elevate also allows you to see which students are engaging and help identify those who may need additional support.
Panopto & Microlectures
Panopto is the University of Lincoln’s lecture recording and video management system that allows you to record, edit and embed video content within your Blackboard modules. In addition, Panopto can be used for student video submissions, and for creating and providing students with video that was recoded outside of the classroom.
Consider the different ways you might make use of Panopto, whether it’s creating microlectures that mean your live teaching sessions can be used for open discussion rather than didactic knowledge delivery or getting students to create their own videos as shareable learning resources. The latter may also be a suitable alternative for student presentations, depending on what skills you want students to demonstrate.
Padlet & Research/Resource Collation
Padlet is an online virtual “bulletin” board, where students and teachers can collaborate, reflect, share links and pictures, in a secure location.
You may ask students to contribute to a shared resource prior to a session that will then be used to guide and inform discussions and/or activities within the live session. For example, each student may be asked to speak briefly about the element they added, or the live session may consist of creating presentations in groups based on the area to which they contributed before presenting back to the class.
MS Forms & Pulse Checking
Microsoft Forms is a web-based application that lets you design and analyse online forms, surveys, quizzes, and polls.
By setting a quiz that students must complete and attain a certain mark on prior to a session, you are ensuring that students have a fundamental level of knowledge on a subject. The information could be integrated into the Form itself, either in the initial information, or by including videos within the questions that students must watch in order to obtain the necessary information. This approach can help to ensure students have knowledge of a certain level prioir to live sessions, but the information you gather can also be helpful for creating groups with a range of abilites or differing experiences for group work.
It’s helpful to give learners a deadline for completing the task and a rough idea for how long they should be spending on the quiz so that they can effectively plan their learning.
Activity Ideation
It is a common misconception that the pre-activity for a Flipped Learning approach has to be a more typically didactic element, such as watching a recorded lecture. In actuality, the pre-session idea can take any format you’d like and often is most effective when it encourages active learning from your students. Think about what it is that you want to gain from the pre-activity.
- Do you want your students to gain a new skill?
- Do you want your students to learn a new piece of information and be able to apply it or consider how it applies to their own experience?
- Do you want to gauge students’ abilities or confidence levels in order to understand the appropriate difficulty level for a session?
- Do you want students to prepare some thoughts, ideas, and/or questions ready for discussion?
When designing your flipped learning, it’s important to think about what it is you’re trying to achieve and then considering which tool can best support you in this approach. The above suggestions may give you some starting points, but you may also find it helpful to explore the full range of digital tools supported at the University by consulting our Resources Hub (web).