7 Things You Need to Know about Flipped Classrooms
from Learning Technology Services at UW-Stout
1. What Is It?
A flipped classroom is a pedagogical concept that reverses the traditional model of
instruction characteristic of a lecture-based class, where students typically would
receive a lecture in class and work through homework problems with very little
assistance. In a flipped classroom, the lectures and course content are reviewed
outside of the classroom, often via technology, in order to free up time for discussion
of concepts, problem-solving, hands-on activities, and active learning in the classroom.
Many associate “flipping” with creating pre-recorded lectures, but it is not limited to
this.
At-A-Glance
• Lecture materials, course content, and other
resources are visited outside of class
• Promotes active learning
• Creates materials that appeal to diverse
learners
Who to Contact
Learning Technology Services
Melissa Castillo
castillom@uwstout.edu
715-232-2622
2. Who Is Doing It?
Renee Gunderson (ITM 134, 383, 444) requires her students to complete step-by-step
online labs, and access additional materials, including PowerPoint slides and videos.
Students are required to complete worksheets and bring these to class, prepared for
discussion.
Kevin W. Tharp (ICT 375) puts a variety of learning materials online and allows his
students to choose the medium that is preferable to them. These learning materials
range from a series of mini-lectures created in Tegrity (Lecture Capture), Camtasia
recordings, textual materials, and readings. He also provides ongoing surveys to gather
student feedback on the materials.
Todd Zimmerman (PHYS 281) uses Camtasia to create short video lectures and
uploads these to YouTube. As a result, students are able to spend more in-class time
working through problems and discussing difficult concepts.
Steve Nold (BIO 136, 370) structures his lecture sections around a three-part process
built upon team-based learning and just-in-time teaching principles. Students read
Khan Academy
the weekly chapters and come to class ready to take an individual quiz. They then
http://www.khanacademy.org/
take the quiz as a team, and discuss the results as a class. On day two of covering a
chapter, students participate in writing assignments where they describe concepts.
TED Talk: Salman Khan
http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_ Day three is spent using vocabulary and concepts to problem solve and work through
case studies. A post-quiz is used to assess students’ learning.
use_video_to_reinvent_education.html
Related Sites
Flipped Learning Network
http://flippedclassroom.org/
Arthur Kneeland (BIO 141, 242) supplements his course materials with Khan Academy
videos. Students in BIO 242 contribute to a class blog.
3. How Does It Work? What Can You Do?
There is no single approach to flipping a classroom. Some strategies for flipping your
classroom can include, but are not limited to:
• Use Tegrity Lecture Capture to record lectures during or outside of class, allowing
students to access the recordings at any time.
• Use the LTS Multimedia studio to produce Camtasia recordings for a number of
purposes. For example, you can create a 2-5 minute narrated PowerPoint or minilecture that students can watch prior to class. Quizzing students on the recordings
can help to assess learning.
• Use Jing to create brief video tutorials to provide an overview of a software
application or clarify a concept.
• Use polling tools like Qualtrics, Poll Everywhere, or Socrative for quizzing. Modify
the current day’s instruction in light of the polling or quiz results.
• Assign reading materials and have students present on a key point(s) during class or
in video format. Students can create their own recordings in
Tegrity or Jing.
• Incorporate open educational resources into your course,
such as a TED Talk or Khan Academy video.
• Assign readings and other materials online and have students
come prepared to discuss concepts or take a quiz.
• Many tools allow for instructors to receive direct feedback on
their lectures and course materials. Students can take surveys
about the course materials, respond to D2L forum topics,
or add questions to Tegrity Lecture Capture. Instructors can
then adapt their materials or create new ones to enhance
understanding. Instructors can also reuse videos, or edit them
to fit the needs of a future course.
4. Why Is It Significant?
Even though she assigned readings, Renee found that students
were not reading the material and coming to class unprepared.
Certification exam scores and classroom participation was low. A
change needed to be made. Upon flipping her ITM-444 course,
she found that external certification exam scores were better and
classroom participation was much better, so then she applied
this method to all of her courses. Last year, she had a freshmen
course, used the same method used in her other courses with
them, and their scores improved significantly over previous
semesters in which this course was taught.
Kevin receives direct surveys on his materials for formative
assessment that allows him to see what works and what doesn’t.
He is also able to target students who are struggling and have not
watched his mini-lectures or accessed other learning materials.
This allows him to adapt his materials or create new ones to
enhance student learning.
5. What Are the Implications for Teaching & Learning?
The flipped classroom creates a shift from an instructorcentered to a student-centered environment, which may cause
the instructor to feel as though they are giving up control in
the classroom. Likewise, instructors and students may need to
overcome mental barriers that cause them to assume traditional
roles.
In a flipped classroom, instructors are able to spend less time
lecturing and covering content from assigned readings, which
allows for more in-class time to be spent on evaluating and
interpreting the materials. A commonly used phrase associated
with flipping is that the instructor is no longer “a sage on the stage,
but a guide on the side.” The instructor serves as a facilitator that
can help students to apply problem-solving techniques and master
the material rather than simply passively consuming content.
6. What Are the Downsides? Things to Consider?
Flipping takes preparation and organization, not only to organize
or record lectures and course content, but also to plan the inclass activities. One might want to start slow and try flipping only
a few class sessions in any given semester to see if any aspects of
the model need to be modified or adapted.
Students might be initially resistant to the model, not
understanding why they must review specific content, such as a
lecture, outside of class. When flipping, be clear on expectations
as to how students should be reviewing and accessing content
outside of the classroom. It takes work to create an active
learning environment, where students come equipped and
remain engaged.
One should also consider issues of accessibility when creating
recorded lectures or other forms of multimedia. Captioning
videos is one way to promote accessibility, but takes time and
advanced planning.
7. Where Is It Going at UW-Stout?
Learning Technology Services (LTS) is finding that more and
more UW-Stout instructors are increasingly utilizing similar
instructional strategies and are continuing to leverage
technology to implement or facilitate the flipped classroom. If
you are currently having success with flipping your classroom or
are interested in learning more about ways you can flip, please
contact Learning Technology Services.