What is it? Why would I flip my class?

Flipped teaching is the process of moving lecture content from face-to-face class time to before class by assigning it as homework. This allows for more interactive forms of learning to take place during class. Flipped teaching often involves students watching lecture videos as homework. Flipped teaching is also known as flip teaching, reverse teaching and the inverted classroom.

The main goal of flipped teaching is to make time for meaningful discussions, interaction, activities and application of course content during face-to-face sessions.

Flipping the Classroom: Simply Speaking

Credit: Penn State Teaching and Learning with Technology

An Overview of Flipped Teaching: Fred Phillips, Edwards School of Business

Excerpt from President Ilene Busch-Vishniac's address at the 2012 Celebration of Teaching

How do I flip my class?

Brainstorm ways to take your traditional lecture content and convert it into content that students can view or explore at home. Most often this involves providing students with a slideshow and/or a video lecture, but there are many other ways for students to explore the content at home. If you are making videos, it is recommended that you create a series of short lecture videos no more than ten minutes in length, rather than one long video.

To create a video lecture, you could create a screen cast video on your computer. To learn how to make and upload a screencast video, explore these resources.

Creating a Screencast:

• QuickTime Player for Mac:  written instructions 

• Screencast-O-Matic for PC and Mac:  written instructions 

• Advanced users who want editing, zooming and other features should try Camtasia for Mac or PC
• For more specific assistance, including adding handwriting to your videos, please contact Ryan at the GMCTE.

Using other instructors' videos

Another approach to flipped teaching is to direct students to video resources that are already available online. Performing a simple Google search may lead you to a wealth of previously created material. 

Here are some suggested sites:

• MIT Video: http://video.mit.edu/
• Webcast Berkeley: http://webcast.berkeley.edu/
• University of Oxford Podcasts: http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/
• Stanford YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/StanfordUniversity/
• CornellCast: http://www.cornell.edu/video/
• Khan Academy: http://www.khanacademy.org/
• TED Ed: http://ed.ted.com/lessons
• Academic Earth: http://www.academicearth.org/subjects/
• iTunes U: http://www.apple.com/ca/education/itunes-u/

How do I use the in-class time?

The main goal of flipped teaching is to be able to have time to apply the content during face-to-face sessions. You could use class time to do use problem sets, discussions, debates, group work, projects, inquiry or problem-based learning, case-based learning, experiential learning, field-based instruction and other student-centred teaching strategies.

Flipping a class without using videos

Lecture videos are not the only way to flip your class. You can have students engage in other activities prior to coming to class that would cover your traditional lecture material. One example of this is outlined in the Niels Koehncke interview below.

A Flipped Teaching Approach to Case-Based Learning: Niels Koehncke, Department of Medicine

Other reading and resources

• Penn State: 7 Things You Need to Know about Flipping the Classroom
• Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture for Higher Education blogpost
• Explores the entire concept and all of the different aspects of flipping your class
• Suggests different software and hardware 
• The Flipped Class: What it is and What it is Not article
• Should you Flip Your Classroom? blogpost
• Five Best Practices for the Flipped Classroom blogpost
• The Flipped Classroom Infographic
• Strayer, J. F. (2007). The effects of the classroom flip on the learning environment: A comparison of learning activity in a traditional classroom and a flip classroom that used an intelligent tutoring system (Doctoral dissertation, The Ohio State University). Retrieved from http://etd.ohiolink.edu/send-pdf.cgi/Strayer%20Jeremy.pdf?osu1189523914&dl=y

• Day, J. A. & Foley, J. D. (2006). Evaluating a web lecture intervention in a human-computer interaction course. IEEE Transactions on Education. 49(4), 420-431. 

• Kim, E., Byun, H., & Lee, O. (2012). Course redesign using flipped instructional model. Retrieved from http://icome.bnu.edu.cn/sites/default/files/Full_Paper/Parallel%20Sessions/8.20%20afternoon%20Parallel%20Sessions%201/Mini%20Meeting%20Room%EF%BC%88Floor%203%EF%BC%89/5-Course%20Redesign%20using%20Flipped%20Instructional%20Model.docx
• Johnson, G. B. (2013). Student perceptions of the flipped classroom. (Unpublished master’s thesis). University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Retrieved from https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/44070

• On October 29, 2012 we hosted a panel on Flipped Teaching as part of Usask's Tech Week. This was filmed using the lecture capture system at the University of Saskatchewan. The panel was hosted by Ryan Banow and the panelists were Dr. Richard Schwier and Dr. John Moraros.