Flip The Classroom - Whats It all about? Tips and why you should use it in your teaching
As this image illustrates, Flipped Classroom is giving your students homework before they come to class, so more active learning can happen while you are with your students.
Flip the classroom is really taking off worldwide and the results are showing better learning is taking place. When you think of a traditional lecture, students are largely receiving information from you as the teacher and writing notes as they go - a teacher centered approach. Technology is now challenging this approach - because it's now very easy for students to receive this information through the internet.
21st Century Learning is based around a Student centered approach - this is where Flipped Classroom can work really well. Anyone now has the ability to easily record lectures and share with your students before they get to class. With tools such as Echo360, once they arrive you will even know who has watched the recordings and then use your time with your students to get them doing activities where they attention is on them and the engagement levels are up.
I'm In! ... How Do I Start?
The tool my institution (CPIT) uses to record lectures is Echo360. This is simple to use and automatically publishes to your Moodle Course. For those of you who don't have access to Echo360, check with your institution on whether they have screen recording software. Camtasia and Adobe Presenter are popular ones id recommend, otherwise there are a number of free out there (but they usually have limitations. Google 'free screen recording software' to see what's out there.
Tips for Flipped Classroom:
Keep your videos short, ideally less than 10 minutes.
Don't just repeat an hour long lecture - segment them into topics or mico topics. They will be easier to update and re-use next time and your students will appreciate it being in smaller segments.
Set an expectation with your students around watching before they attend class. Its really important they know why its benefical to them. In Echo360 you have analytics to see who is watching and how long they are watching for.
Use those analytics to understand your students engagement levels and to reflect on your own teaching.
Build questions into the content to students know what to expect when they come to class.
Encourage students to use the discussion tool in Echo360. They can ask questions while they are engaging with the content and you can address those either in the forum or before class.
Share your experiences with other teachers.
Seek feedback from your students, particularly on your class activities. Did they feel more engaged in their learning
Check out this website for some good Active Learning Strategies