Don’t Flip Out!
Practical Strategies
for
Flipping Your Class
Lauren Calimeris
Katherine M. Sauer
Saint John Fisher College
lcalimeris@sjfc.edu
University of Colorado
katherine.sauer@cu.edu
9th Annual Economics Teaching Conference
October 24th – 25th 2013 - Austin, TX
In a traditional
classroom, the instructor
lectures on the most
important material.
Students apply the
concepts outside of
class.
In a flipped (inverted)
classroom, students are
predominantly exposed
to the lecture material
outside of class.
Students spend class
time engaged in active
learning.
Ask Yourself
the Fundamental Question
In order to help my students learn,
what is the best use of my
face-to-face time with them?
Corollary:
If my students actually
read the text and came to class
prepared, what would I choose to do
with my class time?
Benefits of the Flip
Students
 self-paced
 watch, pause, re-watch lectures as necessary
 active learning during class time
 instructor accessibility
Instructors
 creativity
 revamp, rethink, redesign course
 interaction with students
Get Clear on Why You Want to Flip Your
Class
A few possible reasons
 administrative pressure
 increase student learning
 portfolio
 sounds interesting / ready to try something new
Deciding on a Course to Invert
Choose a course you know well.
 be familiar with the concepts that the students pick
up easily & the concepts the students struggle with
 draw upon course resources that you’ve previously
created
Start From the Learning Objectives
1. What are the course’s current learning objectives?
Are they measurable?
Do they need to be revised/updated?
2. For each learning objective, specify appropriate
intermediate learning objectives.
Course Learning Objective:
Explain the features & implications of competitive
& noncompetitive market structures.
Intermediate Learning Objective (1 of several):
Graphically illustrate the profit-maximizing level
of output & price for a firm in a monopoly
market.
3. For each intermediate learning objective, list the
necessary fundamental concepts.
Fundamental Concepts:
- profit maximization rule (marginal
revenue, marginal cost)
- graphs of cost curves (types of costs)
- price determination
4. For each fundamental concept, how necessary is it that
you lecture on the concept in real time?
 Is the text clear and the concept readily
understood from reading?
 Is it helpful that the students hear the concept
explained by you, but not necessarily in real time?
 Is it a concept that really is best learned with
you lecturing and allowing for student questions
along the way?
List of concepts
students will
initially
encounter during
a real time
lecture.
List of concepts
students will
initially
encounter
outside of class
time
Use your lecture
Textbook?
how?
Article?
Website?
Recorded lecture?
Delivering the Content
1. Use what’s already available:
- Khan Academy
- Learn Liberty
- Yale or other “free” video lectures
- Freakonomics
- Other resources
2. Record your own
 Echo360 Personal Capture
 Camtasia/Jing
 Wacom Tablet
 iPad:
Explain Everything, ShowMe, Educreations,
ScreenChomp, Knowmia Teach
Planning the Class Time
1. Check to see that students have come prepared.
 online questions prior to class
 “ticket” to participate
 brief quiz
Be sure to incentivize the preparation.
 give it some weight in the course grade
Allow for the concept of a “pass” (perhaps 2).
 can be used if not prepared
 can be used if not in class
2. Decide on an active learning technique for applying
the concept & discovering more concepts
 case studies
 classroom experiments
 discussion
 cooperative learning
 context-rich problems
 clickers
 interactive lecture demonstrations
 Just-in-Time Teaching
Very helpful books:
Helping Students Learn in a Learner-Centered
Environment by Terry Doyle (Stylus Publishing)
Learner-Centered Teaching by Maryellen Weimer
(Jossey-Bass)
Developing Learner-Centered Teaching by Phyllis
Blumberg (Jossey-Bass)
Cautions
1. Flipping a course is time consuming.
2. When you examine your course learning objectives,
you might find yourself re-thinking your whole course.
3. Students can be resistive to learner-centered courses.
4. Use technology judiciously.
5. Does your institution have different fees for “hybrid”
classes?
My Experiences
Why I flipped:
 Taught micro principles many times
 Wanted to add more activities to course
 General course improvement/engage students
 College encourages teaching innovations
 Combine teaching & research
Research thus far:
 Positive student perceptions/reception
 Anecdotal gains in outcomes
 Not much in economics, especially college
The Experiment
 Flip one section, do the other traditional
 Teach back to back
 Randomly choose which to flip
 Both sections have same:
• Aplia assignments
• Midterm exams
• Notes
• Some in-class problems
 Outcomes: midterm & final exam test scores,
student perceptions, & time on task
The Flip
 All lectures recorded on Echo 360
• Same notes/material as in class
• PPT based (some text, some hand written)
 5-21 minutes
 0-4 videos for homework
 Daily quizzes (drop 6)
 In class
• Mind maps
• Experiments
• Worksheets
• Article Analyses
• Aplia Fridays
 Groups, pairs, individual
Thus far
 Students seem to enjoy it
 I do!
 The good
• Get to know students
• Class time fun!
• Creativity
• Ability to focus on “important” stuff in class
 The bad
• Extra prep
• Flexible (hard for me)
• Students don’t watch videos/take notes
Advice
 Start early
 Shorter clips
 Have videos prepped through at least first half of
course
 Schedule extra time/flex days
 Use resources (people, existing clips, etc.)
 Very clear directions
Your Turn!
Individually
 Pick a course
 Choose ONE section (start small)
 Brainstorm how you would expose them to
material
 Come up with three activities in class
In groups
 Share concept/section to flip
 Share activities
 Make suggestions & brainstorm
Questions?
Comments?
Keep in touch:
lcalimeris@sjfc.edu
Lauren Calimeris Kocman
585-899-3855
katherine.sauer@cu.edu
Katherine Sauer, Ph.D.
303-735-6820