Module 3C: Testing Out Active Engagement Strategies
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Module 3A: Intro to Active Student Engagement | Module 3B: Designing for Engagement | Module 3C: Test Out Active Engagement
Expected Time for Module 3C: 1-2 hours
Module 3C Description: Now that you have read about and designed active learning strategies, how would you plan to implement your flipped lecture/learning activity designs in your classroom or context? In this Module 3C, you will work on an implementation plan for your course or instructional situation. And if you feel ready, go ahead and try it out in your class now!
Module 3C Objectives: By the end of this module, you will have:
- Planned to implement a flipped classroom unit, session or course
- Tried out a flipped or active learning strategy in your classroom
Flipped Instruction Implementation
There are several approaches you could use to implement flipping in your classroom. Depending on your comfort level and previous experience, you can chose from a variety of approaches. You do not have to think about flipping as an all or nothing endeavor. You can ease into flipping if you just want to try it out on a small scale or you can redesign a whole semester course and jump into the deep end. However, no matter what approach you take, since this will probably be a new teaching/learning approach for you, please consider collecting data on how the approach works for both you and your students.
1. Baby Steps Approach
Try just using an online video or an active learning activity to supplement what you already do and see how that goes before dedicating a lot of time to rethink all of your lectures and course materials.
- Online videos can help students review for exams, and revisit traditional lecture material when they still have questions.
- Using an active learning activity to see if students can apply content from a traditional lecture will help you understand where students are getting stuck.
- Advantage - get to try out a new approach (either online or in a F2F classroom) and see how it goes for you before dedicating a lot time to redesigning on a larger scale. You can learn how it will go and then make adjustments as you go.
- Disadvantage - Students may experience disjointed course material if they do not understand the purpose of this new video or classroom activity or do not see the connections between traditional methods and flipped methods
2. Trial and Error Approach
Try out one or two full flipped components (video lecture with related in-class learning activity) for just one topic/content area of your course.
- Designing a full flipped component on a single topic will give you a better idea of how students will react to a full flipped course. However, plan the 'flipped' experience near the end of the semester so students do not come to expect that all course content will be flipped.
- Make sure you explain what a flipped activity is and why you are doing it (better for student buy in).
- Advantage - you can test out a full flipped component and see how it works for your students. If you explain what flipping means, and then collect feedback from them, students can help you improve the design and provide feedback for improvement. A full flipped component (online video/engaged learning activity) may be more successful since the two parts were designed together.
- Disadvantage - If done too early in the course, or just randomly across the course, students may be confused about flipping and the benefits of flipping.
3. Jumping into the Deep End - Just Do It Approach
Plan a full semester flip where all the content is presented in an online lecture format and all in-class sessions involve engaging students in active learning activities.
- A full flipped course will help condition students to the course expectations and will provide continuity across the full course.
- Designing a full flipped course may help you develop a more coherent and holistic approach to your course instead of just pockets of design.
- Advantage - students will know the expectations up front and learn to adapt to the new strategy as the semester goes along.
- Disadvantage - It will require a lot of time on your part to design a full flipped course and it may be better to try it out and learn from mistakes instead of designing it all one way and then having to go back and redesign if there is a problem. Students who do not like the flipped format will have a full semester of flipping and may resist the new strategy.
Evaluating Flipped Instruction
In addition to documenting if students are learning in your course (assessment), which you normally do, you should also consider collecting data/evidence to evaluate how the flipped approach is working in your context for both you and your students.
Think about what "Assessment" really means to you. How do you define assessment of student learning? What do you think are good measures of student learning and/or evaluating a course? Here are some open source assessment links available on the web to help to think about defining, designing, implementing and integrating assessment/evaluation.
First, think about assessment as a continuous cycle Links to an external site., not something that is once and done. The diagram in the link is a concise representation of what an assessment cycle is.
Second, when doing assessment think multiple measures - you should not just use one measure or type of assessment and you should decide what type of assessment to use based on your objectives/outcomes.
- Read about the Nine principles of best practice for assessing student learning (AAHE) that are seminal best practices for assessing student learning.
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