Flipping after a pandemic: A case study

Stephen R. D. George-Williams; Susan Hemsley; Francesca van den Berg; Timothy Lee

Authors

Stephen R. D. George-Williams The School of Chemistry, The University of Sydney, Sydney NSW 2006, Australia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2578-1187
Susan Hemsley The School of Chemistry, The University of Sydney, Sydney NSW 2006, Australia
Francesca van den Berg School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney NSW 2006, Australia
Timothy Lee School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney NSW 2006, Australia

Keywords:

questionnaires, interviews, contextualization, blended learning, active learning

Abstract

The idea of ‘flipping’ a course, i.e., delivering all content before class time and instead focusing on active learning opportunities, is not a new one. Studies have shown that these classrooms can increase student engagement and performance, while decreasing the required number of face-to-face hours (Karabulut‐Ilgu et al., 2018). However, it has also been shown that students state a lowered preference for these activities, believing they learn better in passive environments (Deslauriers et al., 2019).

This mismatch of student preference and actual performance is particularly important as the COVID-19 pandemic has seen extremely low attendance rates across most science lectures and tutorials worldwide. In this study, the method of content delivery was flipped in a single unit from 3 lectures and one tutorial a week to 1 workshop a week and all content delivered before class time. The laboratory content remained the same. In particular, we used:

lightboard videos made with Mayer’s Multimedia principles (Mayer, 2002) in mind,
a blended online delivery platform with interactive H5P embedded questions,
and full contextualised problem sets with weekly in-class quizzes.

Using a range of questionnaires and student/staff interviews, alongside marks analysis of the cohort, we have found:

1. High attendance rates.

2. Students preferred the new mode.

3. Tutors stated an increase in the ‘level’ of student questions.

4. Marks surprisingly remained the same!

REFERENCES

Deslauriers, L., McCarty, L. S., Miller, K., Callaghan, K., & Kestin, G. (2019). Measuring actual learning versus feeling of learning in response to being actively engaged in the classroom. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(39), 19251-19257.

Mayer, R. E. (2002). Multimedia learning. In Psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 41, pp. 85-139). Academic Press.

Karabulut‐Ilgu, A., Jaramillo Cherrez, N., & Jahren, C. T. (2018). A systematic review of research on the flipped learning method in engineering education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 49(3), 398-411.