Have your students ever told you when you explain something in class that it seems easy, but the homework is not nearly as simple, and the tests are harder still? This brief discusses the implementation of a flipped classroom format aimed to address how to support student learning by increasing time spent, or actively engaging, with the instructor coaching rather than passively listening to lectures.
Introduction
In a standard layout of a university class, lectures are typically delivered during the in-person class hours. This time commonly consists of a verbal lecture from the instructor and accompanying presentation slides with questions from students permitted if they choose to raise their hand during the lecture or urged by the instructor at the end of the presentation.1 Following class, students are assigned out-of-class homework where the content is applied by the students without the instructor present. However, a flipped classroom format assigns students to engage in learning materials, such as pre-recorded lecture, prior to attending class.2 Therefore, class hours are reserved for implementation of material with in-class activities, homework, quizzes, problem solving, or group work all facilitated by the instructor.3 A flipped classroom can be applied to both lecture-based courses and lab-based courses.
During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, many instructors adjusted delivery of course material which resulted in more lectures being delivered electronically, whether live or pre-recorded.4 In some instances, instructions and background to a laboratory session were also recorded as students would use the laboratory space at varying times to complete their lab tasks with minimal physical interaction with other students. Limiting physical interaction was a primary goal when adjustments were made. Though that is no longer a primary educational goal, these recordings are valuable resources to build a flipped classroom. With edited or clipped recordings, less time is spent in person explaining procedures and equipment for the lab. Examples that would take hours or even days to demonstrate in real life can be sped up and condensed to highlight key moments of instruction and delivered in a matter of minutes.5 Students enter a lab session ready to begin the interactive or hands-on portion of the material having watched the pre-recorded lecture.6,7
For a flipped classroom to be successful, instructors need to dedicate time to collecting, creating, and organizing the content for student learning.6 From researchers Guo and others8 reviewing 6.9 million educational video watching sessions, they recommended for best engagement for instructors to discuss the topic enthusiastically without any concern to artificially slow down their pace of speech.
The flipped classroom approach was implemented for a 3-credit packaging design course—Packaging Design Theory/ Advanced Packaging Design Theory (PKSC 3200/FNPS 8200). The lecture period was scheduled for an hour each Monday and Wednesday morning, with an additional two-hour lab on Mondays held immediately following the lecture. The course is required for Packaging Science undergraduates and is modified and optional for graduate students. The course is centered around a group project to produce a new consumer packaged good with a supporting business plan while focusing on the packaging design. The class typically has 15-25 undergraduate students and 2-8 graduate students enrolled. The instructor divides students into teams by considering students’ self-proclaimed goals, working styles, and interests. During this particular semester there were six teams of five students which were instructed primarily using pre-recorded lectures. The primary instructor and teaching assistant (TA) had taught this course together for multiple years. A flipped classroom was implemented to permit more in-class scheduled time for team members to work with each other rather than attempting to schedule additional meeting times outside of the scheduled class hours.
Description of Teaching Activity
In order to structure the PKSC 3200/FNPS 8200 course as a flipped classroom, the instructor and TA met prior to the semester and outlined the course calendar to align the schedule to meet event deadlines, avoid scheduled packaging machine down-time, and consider departmental or career events where many students may be absent from class. The course objectives were reviewed, and key assessments were decided to evaluate students’ achievement of the course objectives. Team assignments were scheduled as stages of development towards the final submission of the team project. Individual assignments were scheduled to be due Sunday by 11:59 pm, prior to the Monday class where teams would have the majority of their scheduled time together. The individual assignments were simplified versions, or elements that contributed to the completion of the team assignments to assess contribution from each individual. Course learning content, including pre-recorded lecture segments, were scheduled for students to review prior to completing the individual assignments. All assignments and course learning content were loaded and accessible through Canvas, the learning management software used by the university. One module was allotted for each week’s expectations, course learning content, and assignments. Pre-recorded lectures of six minutes or less were programmed in each module on Canvas to open automatically on scheduled dates. The modules were fully accessible to students the week prior to needing to access the content of any given module.
The course learning content was mostly a collection of videos from various sources: pre-recorded lectures from the instructors with accompanying slides with either voice over or cuts between facial view and visual examples, custom-made tutorials, YouTube video segments, and social media clips. Special attention was given to ensure the video clips were of appropriate length for student engagement.3 Other course learning content included examples from past-semester students’ work, websites, and slide presentations to read and review.
Students would arrive to class Monday mornings with the expectation they had reviewed the pre-recorded learning material and had completed and submitted their individual assignments on Canvas. Time was allotted at the beginning of class for questions about the content, or application of the content to report and share with the class. After a brief discussion, some class periods were dedicated to interactive in-class learning activities and the other days teams were permitted open working time together to complete team assignments progressing towards the completion of the final project. The instructor and/or TA would visit each team and discuss project progress and provide feedback and guidance to improve the project or complete the next step. Open feedback time allowed for individual questions. In a small group setting students tend to feel more comfortable to ask questions. In addition, the instructor and TA provided written feedback on the submitted assignments on Canvas.
Discussion of Outcomes
Flipping the classroom reduced, but did not eliminate, the time students needed to meet with their teams outside of class to complete team assignments. Additional time was spent by individuals working outside of class hours for reviewing the course learning material, completing individual assignments, and fulfilling assigned tasks from the team for the team assignments. After discussing with students casually, and reading more formal feedback from students, it was determined that individual students spent less time outside of class hours to complete the projects and individual assignments when using a flipped classroom. However, some students indicated that the course was too demanding of their time. It was observed some teams did not utilize all of the class time and left 30-60 minutes prior to the scheduled end of class. Perhaps if the students utilized all of the time allotted for class, they would feel that the course is less demanding of their personal time.
Instructor preparation throughout the semester prior to a class period typically took about 10 minutes to briefly review the topic and any upcoming assignments. This is drastically less instructor preparation time required than without a flipped classroom format.
Early on in the semester, students expressed that “Canvas is so organized!”. From the start of the semester, students could see the layout of assignments, due dates, grade points, and topics, then as the weeks passed by, they could see details about assignments and instructions as the modules were published.
Figure 1. The effect of implementing a pre-class quiz about preparation for class
At the mid-term of the semester, the TA asked a sample of the highest-scoring students about the pre-class course learning material and how much and how often they completed what was expected of them. Because even highly dedicated students of the class reported to only sometimes complete the course learning material, the instructors added a two-part low-point accountability quiz to be completed after completing the learning material for the week. The two-part graded quiz asked one question to summarize, in at least two complete sentences, what the student learned from the course learning material and another question to honestly self-report what percentage of the material was actually reviewed. A few weeks after the implementation of the quiz, a zero-point feedback survey was given to the 27 students to self-report how often they reviewed the pre-class course learning material prior to, and after, the implementation of the pre-class quizzes (Figure 1). On average, with the implementation of a low-point pre-class quiz, students self-reported to more frequently or more completely review the course learning material.
Students were unfamiliar with the concept of a flipped classroom replacing in-class lecture time with either instructor assistance or organized active learning time. Students expressed a range of emotions about the flipped classroom format. Some students requested typical in-class lectures on course and evaluator feedback forms, some said they enjoyed the flipped classroom approach, and others expressed disappointment if an organized learning activity was taught in class because they expressed it was limiting time to work on projects. Basically, some students began to expect all class time to be scheduled open working time for their teams. A significant portion of students expressed discontent that course material and assignments seemed repetitive or that individual assignments felt like busywork. When viewing the pre-class course learning materials, students enjoyed videos where they saw the instructor’s face and heard their voice. Overall, students received more customized feedback using the flipped classroom format. Engaged students received guidance every class session in addition to the specific feedback they received on submitted assignments since there was so much instructor-facing team working time.
Reflection of Outcomes
Adapting to a flipped classroom format does not come without its growing pains. A large investment of time from the instructor is needed to flip the course format prior to the first day of class. Preparing all of the content, writing clear instructions in the assignment directions, creating rubrics, and organizing all of the course pre-recorded materials on Canvas required a large investment of time. By investing time prior to the start of the semester, the return in time saved is reaped throughout the semester and in semesters to follow. Less time is spent on restating lectures. Wording and examples can be optimized for clarity. No key concepts would be at risk of being omitted. There are a plethora of benefits for an instructor to flip their course format.2,7,9
Students benefit from the flipped format as well. Students who cannot attend in-person class on occasion do not need to miss out on key learning concepts with pre-recorded lectures. Students can choose to re-wind portions of the lecture, re-visit the lecture entirely, or watch the lecture at a faster or slower speed.6 Additionally, there is no issue with being able to hear clearly or see the board as long as the recordings are prepared well and include closed captions. Overall, the students appreciated a video format for the pre-class course learning material. Keeping the videos as short as possible, preferably less than 10 minutes, and expressing the information succinctly is ideal. By having automatic start times partway through a video, cutting out portions of a video, or remaking content to express the information more succinctly is ideal.5,8 Implementing videos with the instructors face visible or even just their voice used seems to communicate a better sense of connection and essentially increases the instructor-facing time with the students while giving students the sense that the information is not easily acquired from more accessible or cheaper alternative sources.
Students were not accustomed to the flipped classroom format which created some challenges. Students were missing key learning material if they did not review the course learning material prior to class. They expected vital information to be presented during class as a lecture, and some students in the PKSC 3200/FNPS 8200 requested typical in-class lectures on course and instructor evaluation forms. Having a dedicated time for questions about the learning material at the start of each class was beneficial, but since students rarely brought up questions in this setting, finding a different format for students to submit questions is recommended. Overall, students seemed hesitant to raise their hand and call attention to themselves, but they were more likely to share if discussing in small group settings with instructors circulating the room to help teams stay on topic.
Although in higher education the responsibility may seem to be on the adult learner to learn, accountability is helpful for learning. Lawson and others10 found that pairing quizzes with learning video content was immensely more effective for students’ learning than it was without the quiz questions. Similarly, the implementation of simple pre-class quizzes in this course was helpful for student engagement. However, the quiz questions would ideally be designed to verify understanding of the learning material rather than simple completion questions or lenient grading. If students feel as if they do not have to truly take in the learning material in order to receive full points, they will likely simplify their efforts, which in turn leads to difficulty later on in the semester as the project builds upon itself. The value and purpose brought by the pre-class course learning material needs to be communicated by the instructor and paired with graded points.
With the open working time given in class, students began to expect minimal homework to be done outside of class hours. For this, perhaps a review of the university expectations for outside-of-class workload hours per credit hour would help orient students’ expectations. Open work hours held during class hours seemed to reduce how much the students valued attending class or remaining in class for the full scheduled period. Adjustments were later made to provide more structure and guidance for teams to better utilize their class time rather than seek alternative meeting times outside of class which can be difficult to coordinate. Providing scheduled feedback from the instructor and TA during class hours was also helpful for individuals and teams to remain present and more engaged and for the instructor and TA to better know the students and their projects.
Since a flipped classroom creates an environment with more student-to-instructor time, more feedback can be given to students as they work. Implementing discussions around how to give and receive feedback effectively helps students be prepared for what could feel like a critique of their work. With feedback being given by more than one instructor and being received by more than one team member, a system for recording feedback and next steps is needed to align expectations. By requiring the students to record the feedback in their own words, the instructor can verify the synthesis of what was requested.
Many of the downsides to a flipped classroom format are results of this format not being viewed as the norm. If more instructors within the same program coordinated to adopt the flipped classroom simultaneously, students could more quickly adjust their expectations and adapt to the new format. The benefits increase as the flipped classroom format is utilized by more instructors over time.
Discussion of Potential for Adoption in Other Courses
Utilizing technology to flip portions of the class can have benefits for both students and the instructor.7, 9 Instructors spend less time preparing and delivering lectures, and more time interacting with students. Students have more time in class receiving assistance from the instructor, and getting questions addressed immediately. Group work is easier to accomplish by minimizing the need to coordinate schedules outside of class hours. Although a flipped classroom format benefits both the students and the instructors, a discussion held at the beginning of the semester explaining the reasoning for the format may orient students how to effectively utilize the format of the class. The beginning of the semester is vital to setting expectations for the rhythm of the course.
Overcoming the challenges of flipping a classroom does require effort and coordination. Students will likely focus their attention and effort on grading points associated with the class. In order for students to arrive to class prepared, or to remain in attendance during class hours, instructors implementing a flipped classroom format will likely need to be accompanied by the implementation of graded quizzes or check off tasks. Additionally, coordinating with one or more other instructors in the same program to implement a flipped classroom format would likely improve the outcome as the students become more accustomed to the format. When adapting to a flipped classroom format, the instructor should consider which content supports the student learning objectives and refine accordingly. When providing videos, the need for closed captioning or written transcripts is an important consideration for accessibility. Resources offer other practical advice and considerations for instructors when developing material for a flipped classroom.9
If an instructor is interested in implementing a flipped classroom approach, they can start small. Consider if background information, assignment explanation, or lab instruction could be pre-recorded and delivered outside of class time to allow for more instructor-to-student time in class. Pre-recorded course content can also be referenced by students when they are working on assignments outside of class. Classroom time spent on lecturing could be vastly reduced and reserved for hands-on learning activities, application of the material, or other group work on projects. Although implementing a flipped classroom requires an initial investment of time by the instructor and accountability from the students, flipping a classroom increases instructor-to-student interactions and support during class/lab time for improved learning.
References Cited
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2. Zheng, L., Bhagat, K. K., Zhen, Y., & Zhang, X. (2020). The effectiveness of the flipped classroom on students’ learning achievement and learning motivation. Educational Technology & Society, 23(1), 1–15.
3. Gardner, J. G. (2012). The inverted agricultural economics classroom: A new way to teach? A new way to learn? In Agricultural & Applied Economics Association Annual Meeting. Washington.
4. Nkomo, L. M., & Daniel, B. K. (2021). Sentiment analysis of student engagement with lecture recording. TechTrends, 65(2), 213–224. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-020-00563-8
5. Alayrac, J.-B., Bojanowski, P., Agrawal, N., Sivic, J., Laptev, I., & Lacoste-Julien, S. (2018). Learning from narrated instruction videos. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 40(9), 2194–2208. https://doi.org/10.1109/tpami.2017.2749223
6. Conner, N. W., Rubenstein, E. D., DiBenedetto, C. A., Stripling, C. T., Roberts, T. G., & Stedman, N. L. (2014). Examining student perceptions of flipping an agricultural teaching methods course. Journal of Agricultural Education, 55(5), 65–77. https://doi.org/10.5032/jae.2014.05065
7. Makarem, S. C. (2015). Using online video lectures to enrich traditional face-to-face courses. International Journal of Instruction, 8(2), 155–164. https://doi.org/10.12973/iji.2015.8212a
8. Guo, P. J., Kim, J., & Rubin, R. (2014). How Video Production Affects Student Engagement: An Empirical Study of MOOC Videos. In Proceedings of the first ACM conference on Learning @ scale conferences (L@S ’14) (pp. 41–50). New York, NY; Association for Computing Machinery.
9. Costa, K., & Pacansky-Brock, M. (2023). 99 tips for creating simple and sustainable educational videos: A guide for online teachers and flipped classes. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
10. Lawson, T. J., Bodle, J. H., Houlette, M. A., & Haubner, R. R. (2006). Guiding questions enhance student learning from educational videos. Teaching of Psychology, 33(1), 31–33. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328023top3301_7
