At the recent IEEC (International Enterprise Educators Conference) a parallel session run by Peter Balan addressed this issue.  The PowerPoint of this paper will be available soon on the IEEC Conference website but Peter is also keen to create a network of thoughts and ideas around this so I would get in touch with him.  

Fantastic, I'm glad I'm not alone in this! will look forward to hearing more

The most effective way to ensure that your students have learned the assigned material is to give them a well-constructed assessment in class that matches the learning objectives for the "preparatory work"; this is the fundamental principle of the "flipping the classroom" concept critical to the Team-Based Learning (TBL) approach which has been around since the late 70s.  It is probably best to make it count toward their grade for maximal motivation, but it doesn't have to be that much.  I have had success with these sorts of assessments counting as little as 2.5% of their overall grade.

Increasingly, we are providing online self-assessment quizzes with the resources. To some extent, the question data may be randomised, so each student has a slightly different task. These are automarked and give students immediate feedback. Quizzes close automatically before class starts. 

Benefits:

• Efficient learning: Students know what they should ask about, before class. Sometimes students ask peers instead of lecturers, and we see "peer-learning" discussions. (There's a lot of literature on the value of learner-talk.)
• Efficient instruction: Staff can see (in the quiz results) which topics are most problematic, before class. 
• Targeted intervention: We can see which students are least successful and ensure that they get personal contact. We believe this increases attendance and time on task, improving their opportunity to learn.
• Mastery learning: When students are allowed unlimited reattempts on a short quiz which is clearly a preparation for something important, many practice until they get perfect scores, even if it has very low weight in their grade.
• Gamification: Form, sequence and timing of questions, feedback, and social rewards can be designed in and varied. For example, sometimes we automatically display class high-scores online, encouraging competition. This tends to result in students discussing the "best" way to respond. 

Risks:

• Fragmentation: This approach is okay for beginners who are gaining discrete foundation concepts. It's not good for project-based learning.
• Cost: developing and testing the online quizzes takes effort and time, before the course starts.
• Technology: For this to be fair, all of the technology (the server, network, and learner's device) must be reliable.

I am using this with my students this year - had a little dabble last year and it seemed fairly popular. I am going to use a fairly blended approach with three different groups across the three years of two degree programmes. For me (so far at least!) it's about giving students responsibility for their own learning. If they don't do the work then the discussion session has far less meaning for them and consequently they learn less. I like Russell's suggestions and might use some them - but they do put the responsibility back on the lecturer. I will let you know if I have to eat my words! 

HI,

I would create groups of students and I would ask from them to answer two to three questions (or I would ask from them to discuss a related subject) up on the specific material.I would also to like to monitor their answers using a online tool and respond to each one of them.(using a sophisticated collaborating writing tool).

Very interesting answers!

Any recommendation of a particular platform supporting 'Flip lectures'? Obviously, quite a few of the free ones can do, but it helps to hear about different experience.

What do you mean by platform?  Software?

How do you easily “flip” the classroom?  Flipping the classroom is a form of blended learning comprising of two parts. First, the teacher assigns direct instruction activities to be completed outside of class time, such as watching a movie or recorded lectures. Then, the class time is used to come together and engage in discussion, practice problems, or work on a project collaboratively and face-to-face. Social constructivists believe that this form of teaching makes the best use of time together. It also changes the role of the instructor to more of a coach or mentor and facilitator of learning. The access to better technology and more pre-recorded content online has made flipping the classroom easy.

Start with a learning management system that can hold the links to your assigned readings and videos or podcasts. Then determine what information in your course can be strictly delivered to students effectively without face-to-face engagement. For example, students do not need to sit together to watch a film, because normally one watches a film in a silent, individual manner. A brief introduction to a concept might be captured on video and given to the students as an advanced organizer. A short clip from YouTube or Vimeo might get students thinking before they come into class. Alternatively, the core content can be delivered this way in advance, and then the entire class time can be devoted to discussion, problem solving, practice, or extending the content.

Preface the content with a leading question, or instructions for students to engage with it in a certain manner. You may ask them to stop the viewing or reading in certain sections and have specific questions or tasks for them to attend to at that point. And, make sure you include an accountability piece to the assigned task to ensure students watch or read the material, such as using the class time to speak directly to that particular content. Students need to trust that what they are required to do will be relevant for the ensuing class.

Excerpt from  Potvin, Rhen & Peat (2014, Pp 146-147) "Ten Strategies for Building Community with Educational Technology.  Brush Education. 

Dear Dr David,

Your suggestion is brilliant , will try this on those lower secondary kids ,and will find out what is the changes in their learning behavior .

In our school , kids just follow 100 % what we share with them without any question ask ! East Asia culture ! This is apply to Chinese school kids ! 

Dason: It may sound simplistic, but we assign point for revewing the "lecture" and record user responses to some activity or interactions built into the lecture material.  Also monitoring simple analytics like accessing the page or time on page (and letting students know we're doing it) may also prove helpful.

Thank so much all, very stimulating advice and discussion. Take home message so far: Setting up Flip learning requires skill and preparation not only for the facilitated session, but also considerable thought and skill and preparation in organising and assessing the preparatory work that the students must do.

Lakmal Abeysekera and I have recently published a paper on this topic, with a focus on student motivation and cognitive load. I can't upload due to publisher restrictions but feel free to request a copy. Beyond what is in that, I would say that the curriculum needs to be well aligned such that students understand the pre-work is absolutely critical to completing the assessment. Ramsden's advice is sage here: “From our students’ point of view, assessment always defines the actual curriculum”

Article Motivation and cognitive load in the flipped classroom: defi...

I'd love a copy (Are you sure that it can't be shared on this web-site?  Our publishers allow sharing on RG due to it being a closed group.  ( If not, my address is [email protected] --- thanks)

I have been using with success a simplified version of LTD (Learning through discussion - Rabow, Sage public. 1994) which means that student has to bring to the next session   a short structured note on required reading (including main idea, unkown words, links to previous knowledge and experiences...).  A structured discussion in groups of 5-7 members follows - to clarify,make synthesis, find open questions for plenary discussion (they present a short report). It takes some time (I do not use it for every session), but  is effective. For students, the participation, together with written products, counts for about 10% of the grade.

LTD or Learning through discussion sounds like a great way to ensure students have read the assignment and are prepared to participate in a thorough discussion. I have not tried this as of yet but certainly want to use this method to promote higher order thinking skills in my methods courses. I have however found greater participation when students are given discussion questions prior to class.

My own experience is rather mixed. Regardless of how I make the classes, I struggle with both absence and ill-prepared students.  I am very reluctant to use formal assessments to force the students to prepare, mainly because it would be at the expence of learning activities, by consuming my preparation time and/or time in class.

However, I have seen some improvements as I have changed the main learning activity. On the first delivery of discrete mathematics, I focused on traditional, individual exercises, and the classes would be used to answer questions and help students as required, mostly individually.  The result was that the students progressed at their own pace, which was much slower than the syllabus required. Most of them would spend hours gazing at the same problem, without making any progress and without asking.

I shifted to co-operative and collaborative work on the exercises.  I don't know the jargon, maybe that's LTD, I don't know.  The problems would not necessarily change from the individual regime, but instead of leaving the students to gaze at it in vain, I would combine group work and leading the solution on the blackboard quizzing students step by step. This appear to work better, but there is still students who are absent, who have spent no time preparing, or who have not understood much from their preparation.

Probably, I could get the students even more engaged by improving the exercises. Making good class activities (exercises or otherwise) is the main challenge of a flipped classroom approach. Making and distributing video is straight forward, but good exercises takes clever thought. That is really where the teacher has to put in his hours...

Now, I do not believe the students should learn too much from the videos before class. The classes should be the main learning venue. But they should have some ideas before the class, so that they are able to engage.

I just wanted to exchange my most recent attempt to use a flip styled lecture. Within an international wildlife law module I deliver, the sessions can get quite 'dry'.  The cohort are an enthusiastic group of mature students in the 3rd year of their degree programme.  To 'spice' things up and challenge them, I decided to divide my lecture up (which was normally a lecture with much question bouncing / discussion taking place) and gave a section to each pair of students at the beginning of the lecturer slot.  I stipulated the pairings rather than let them decide.  The aim was to challenge them using Yerkes-Dodson's theory of maximum learning takes place when arousal is heightened, though obviously there is a pivotal point at which heightened arousal becomes anxiety and detrimental to learning - so knowing your students well and ensuring you have the right balance is key here!  There is a lack of confidence/speaking across the cohort too, so I asked each pair to present their section to their peers; thus, they had 2 hrs to digest the material I gave them and investigate any terms they didn't know before presenting to the group. I also considered Eysenck's introvert:extrovert continuum model when I paired them up in preparation for presenting later, so a 'stronger' and 'weaker' individual were paired together - the intention was that they would support each other.  They were told to take ownership of the slides they had and change however they liked - add more if they wanted to explain something in greater detail or wanted to add definitions, etc.  After 2 hrs of digesting, they had to present in the order I gave them, which followed my original lecture structure.  The lesson worked extremely well - ALL of the cohort took ownership of the materials and supported each other in both the investigation of the subject and whilst presenting.  Obviously, when thinking about doing this with this group I had considered Csikszentmihalyi's 'flow' theory regarding optimal performance in terms of challenge level and skill level and balancing these with the students involved with this task. We saved each presentation and they all received a copy of each other's presentation and the original presentation. I considered this session a total success - they all rose to the challenges and fully engaged in the whole process!  Ownership of the materials was key as was the balancing the students' capabilities to the different 'models' considered in the planning of the session - I could not have done this session with 1st year students per se, but will use something similar that balances their knowledge and characteristics appropriately!!  Whilst this may not be a 'true' flipped lecture, I was extremely pleased with how a session that can be very 'dry' was so fully engaged with by the students and they made big steps in their personal development too!  Obviously, this worked because it was a one in a highly mixed bag of approaches to delivering the module - if I used it, or something like it, every week it would have been received less positively.  Variety of delivery methods is also a key point here!         

Great example!  I find that methods where students 'construct' their knowledge and I act as an 'architect of learning experiences' are the most powerful.  Yours is a wonderful example of this. 

I fully understand your challenges in getting students to engage with the materials pre your flipped lecture session.  Have any of you tried TED/TEDEd?  If you find an appropriate / relevant subject area video (which has the depth of knowledge/quality of information suitable for your learners) on TED, then you can use it in TEDEd and build in questions and discussion pieces to ensure they have viewed the video prior to the lecture and absorbed the info you particularly wanted them to extract through the questions/discussion you set. 

I find flipped sessions work better with degree students than say Level 2 or 3 - its about balancing the challenge and their skills with their enthusiasm.  Generally, I find enthusiasm and knowledge are 'higher' in degree students, who are also more focussed!  Its difficult but appears to be the way many institutions are 'pushing' staff to deliver sessions - there are obvious reasons why this is favourable to institutions in the present climate!  I'm looking forward to reading Phillip Dawson's paper above, which I've just downloaded!  Has anyone else seen other publications that look at the students' perceptions / experiences of impacts from changes in delivery methods?   

Hi Dason,

Great question - I guess it is the age old question in education - how to engage students in their own learning - I have been trying a "flipped approach" (although I sometimes joke about it being a "flopped approach" for a few years now. My experience has been reflective of much of my experience in education - namely that students engaged in their learning benefit from the opportunity to come to workshops and tutorials with some core understandings that can then be developed further. Other students who do not engage with the online material come along  and say "huh". I have written about the issue in a conference paper about mathematics education to undergraduate students presented to a recent Stem Conference. Conference details are as follows

Larkin, K. (2014). Restructuring a pre-service teacher mathematics education course to develop Mathematics Content Knowledge (MCK) and Mathematics Pedagogical Content Knowledge (MPCK). Paper presented at STEM 2014: STEM Education and our Planet: Making Connections Across Contexts, Vancouver, (July 12 - 15). Acknowledged as Best Paper Award at this conference.

Cheers, Kevin.

I am looking at this question from the point of view of a" staff developer" , trying to introduce university lecturers into interactive teaching by "immersing" them into this experience. Then, we discuss possibilites of transferring it into their classes. One of the major obstacles is the lack of understanding and support of this approach in their  academic environment. It is not easy to be "the lone wolf". For students, it may be too different from their usual experiences.

But sometimes it is successful, after all!

Dear Dr Evans,

Your post has led to a great discussion!

I wanted to mention a recent article by Heiner, Banet and Weiman at Univ. of British Columbia:

"Preparing students for class: How to get 80% of students reading the textbook before class," American Journal of Physics, 82, 989, 2014.

http://scitation.aip.org/content/aapt/journal/ajp/82/10/10.1119/1.4895008

They describe a targeted intervention involving "pre-reading assignments" designed to get students to read before class.  Their method includes an online quiz, but goes beyond a grade-based incentive alone:

"To formally test this, we implemented two specific features: (1) the reading is very specific and closely linked to the material and activities to be covered in the upcoming class(es), and (2) the online quiz asks questions that explicitly refer to specific page numbers and figures in the textbook."

They tested their intervention in large enrollment undergraduate physics and biology classes, measuring students' self-reported time spent reasding before class,  with examination of  electronic logs to check accuracy of these self reports.  The authors find that >80% of students report regular use and study of the textbook before class, with almost all student self-reports verified as accurate.  Many of these students reported benefits to their own learning to reading before class, suggesting that the intervention helps students see the learning value of studying a textbook to prepare for class.    Correlations between final exam performance and motivation to read were also found, although the authors are careful to stress that their findings cannot determine whether the pre-reading directly leads to gains in content understanding.  

Hi Dason,

We used pre-questions to prepare our pre-service teachers of English last two terms at Stockholm University. A small self-assessment quiz and/or small assignments which they could do before a seminar.

Even though, this was a lot of work but I believe flipped learning (or specific guidelines for preparation for each seminar before hand) prepares the students. The above-mentioned techniques do not still guarantee that the students will read all the material, but many did skim. How do I know, you may ask? We also organised each seminar in such a way that both lecture and group work was involved. We started with recaptualizing previous seminar's knowledge. I personally organised my seminars in small group formats (for at least 15 minutes from the total duration) and used Think-Pair-Share as a tool for discussing some parts of the seminar reading. I could clearly see who came prepared and who didn't BUT discussion in groups of four helped "transfer" learning from more prepared students to less. After group discussions of four, I carried out the discussions with the whole class taking one aspect of the reading and writing it on the board. Most questions were prepared keeping in mind Bloom's taxonomy.

I used "the muddiest technique" for every single seminar asking them to write 2 things they understood, and one thing they would like to know more about. I looked at each and every response and incorporated their responses into the next seminar. I noticed higher satisfaction level among students when they had written down those 3 points and when their responses were addressed in the next seminar. I also used online discussion forum to start discussion "related" to the syllabus but just like Dylan William's work shows that only one third of the students raise their hands when a teacher asks a question in the class, discussion forums also show similar kind of statistics.

I hope my reflections were helpful.

Best regards,

Alia

I believe that an online face-to-face video lecture with students before few days of the actual lecture is necessary to make students reflect and engage in class, I tried online video lectures last summer for students who had problems in learning in a real class and I noticed that outcome of learning is much better.

Sorry for being skeptical about this topic. “ You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink”. We can only hope for the best.

“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."

"Marcus Aurelius"

It is possible to encourage students to self-read about the title of the lesson, and to discuss and understand what they have reached, and there is a very important strategy in this matter called KWL.

Good Information Dr. Russell Waldron, Thank You.

Thanks Dr. Kevin Larkin.