Getting the Urge to Flip

Last fall, I was facilitating a department meeting to review our program review report and spring 2013 schedule.  Susan Ramones, a now former member of the department, seemed to be struggling with which set of classes would make the most sense given her varied responsibilities as the curriculum chair.  She announced that she "just wanted to teach, flip her class and do case studies."  This was the first time I had heard the words "flipped learning."  In the meeting, I asked "what was a flipped classroom." She stated it was a model in which the lecture was given online prior to classtime and during class students complete homework or case studies to learn and apply the information.

I was intrigued.  I started teaching the non-majors biology class about 5 years ago and at this point I feel pretty good about the materials I have developed:  lectures, labs, homework, exams and such.  Additionally, I split the 140 person class into two 75 person sections.  I think ultimately, for a flipped class, it will need to be 50 students.    Anyway, most of these students are just out of high school and coming to community college and not UC or CSU.  Even if they are not 18 years old, they all tend to struggle to understand what they need to learn, to have confidence that they can learn and to have a set strategies to apply to their learning.  I can put all the resources up on  a website, provide tutors and review sessions but I have come to think that time spent lecturing cannot ever address these three things.  So, how can I still teach biology and all they need to know and give them the best chance to learn?  My answer is the flipped classroom.

Thus, this year I will break-up my lecture material into 8-10 minute videos using Camtasia ( i think).  That means I will make about 10+ videos per chapter and an approximate total of 200 videos over the course of the next year.  Ya!

Next, I will research case studies, group work and other activities to complete during the class time.  Also, I need to think a great deal about how to get the students to buy into this type of teaching model, how to grade them....lots of stuff.

So, I have a basic model to start this process.....stay tuned

flipping out, L