Blended not flipped (with apologies to James Bond)

Abstract

The ability to make learning resources readily available to students via course websites can mean that attendance falls and learning suffers. To address this it is necessary to engage students in different ways which provides an opportunity to change the delivery of courses. But the implementation of blended learning or the flipped classroom with greater engagement and interactivity with peers and learning content is not something that can be simply done. Each approach has its own particular pedagogy and requires particular support mechanisms. Here we present our experience of a coordinated approach to provide students with a comprehensive set of online learning resources and engage them in the classroom to encourage attendance and potentially deeper and more meaningful learning outcomes. The target group was first year environmental science students in their first semester. Three courses were adjusted to various levels to incorporate elements of a flipped classroom approach and/or a blended approach. Course coordinators worked with a pedagogical expert and an experienced science specialist who has considerable experience in digital and innovative approaches to university teaching. The paper presents each person’s goals, approaches and perceptions of the extent to which they were successful. Students’ impressions gleaned from their responses to the standard assessment of teaching will also be presented.