FLIPPING AFTER A PANDEMIC: A CASE STUDY OVER TWO YEARS

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, Jaramillo Cherrez, & Jahren, 2018). However, it has also been shown that students state a lowered preference for these activities, believing they learn better in passive environments (Deslauriers, McCarty, Miller, Callaghan, & Kestin, 2019).

This mismatch of student preference and actual performance is particularly important as the COVID-19 saw extremely low attendance rates across most science lectures and tutorials worldwide, which has not simply reversed in trend upon the return to on-campus learning. In this study, the method of content delivery was flipped in a single unit from three lectures and one tutorial a week to one longer workshop a week and all content delivered before class time. The laboratory content remained the same. In particular, we used:

• lightboard videos made with Meyer’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, we have investigated the impact of this mode over four subsequent semesters and will share the findings!

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.