The Promising Syllabus

I just returned from the OnCourse National Conference.  The OnCourse crowd is truly a wonderful bunch of folks.  I always feel inspired by the workshops focusing on how to get students to engage their minds in order to draw-out understanding and to learn about themselves.  And, since I am a life-long learner, I always pick up something for myself as a learner too.  

One of the things I have been considering as of late is the first day of my flipped class.  I can feel inside me how I want it to be different but have not created the syllabus or lesson.  One of my OnCourse workshops presented a "promising syllabus."  The syllabus becomes the first lesson on how the class will be conducted and begins the process of shifting students into a more active learning approach.  I really like the idea of telling students the kinds of experiences they will have in the class to learn biology.

The promising syllabus is based on the work of Ken Bain in his book What the Best College Teachers Do.  In summary, your syllabus provides an invitation to the course and lays out the promises and opportunities that the course offers the student.  So, for my biology course I started to think about the content, experiences and promises I want to communicate to my students on that first day.  Here is how I am beginning to break it down.

·        Content Goals for the first week

o   What is flipped learning

o   What kind of learner are you

o   Syllabus and Schedule

o   YouTube

o   Learning Catalytics

o   Relate to Biology – Looking for an essay on biology and learning science

·        Experience

o   Model using videos for direct instruction

o   Confidence, inspiration, fun, empowerment

o   Group work

·        Promises – First Draft

o   Learn biology in a way that allows you to explore and test your ideas, perceptions and understanding. 

o   To give you regular feedback from me and your peers so you can better gage your understanding and learning.

o   Learn biology to gain an awareness of how science works, and how science answers questions about the natural world

o   Learn about biological principles through video, games, group work and case studies.

It is still a work in progress but it matches the more student centered course I am developing and I like that. 

I still have videos to make and I am about half-way through writing my new lab manual.  You think they might consider giving me another semester?    Well, I can dream. 

Stay tuned…..

Defining Flipped Learning by the flipped learning network

Greetings, 

The flipped learning network released a definition for flipped learning.  I think this will be useful to have a working definition that we can all share and use to communicate and describe flipped learning.  Stay Tuned....

Definition of Flipped Learning 
Released March 12, 2014

To counter common misconceptions and bring clarity to discussions about “Flipped Learning,” the governing board and key leaders of the Flipped Learning Network (FLN) announced a formal definition of the term. They also released the Four Pillars of F-L-I-P™ and a checklist of eleven indicators that educators must incorporate into their practice. The group of experienced flipped educators also draws a distinction between Flipped Learning and a Flipped Classroom.

For a PDF of the Definition, Pillars and Indicators, click here.

Cook'in with Camtasia

Greetings Everyone
I just finished making my thirtieth (30) video for my flipping introductory biology class.  I have learned much about the process and want to share a few things.

• More pictures, videos and animations and less words.  I started using my Powerpoint. and screen-casting myself presenting my power-point but I soon realized that was same kind of presentation I had been doing in class and the kind I wanted to change.  So I quickly changed my ways ( need to go back and change some of those first videos) and now, I use the PowerPoint lectures as a foundation.  I hide all the word  slides and use them as the script for the images.  I interweave videos and animations in between my descriptions to make them more active presentation.

• Camtasia will allow you to  remove the sound track and talk over an animation.  I do this when the animation is excellent but the description just does not fit my material.  This flexibility can really help to create screen-casts for your particular student population.

• A good picture is as good as a video.  Especially if you use the Camtasia tools like zooming in and call-outs.  You can make a dynamic presentation with just a still photo.

• Record those great flash animations and gifs and then use them as demonstrations.  I have a particular flash animation about diffusion that allows me to change the temperature, size of the balls, and other parameters.  I used it to create a video to explain the movement of matter and diffusion.  It was very visual and made the point well.

While producing thirty videos is an accomplishment, I need to make about 30 more.  But, I am flipping ready to meet the challenge.

stay tuned......