As K-12 has adopted to changes regarding curriculum, budget, and time with students, higher ed. is slowly following suit. Many instructors at the college I work at (Northeast Wisconsin Technical College) have been eager to learn how they might be able to flip their lecture and utilize their class time with students in a more meaningful and productive manner. Gone are the days of a straight 1-hour lecture. Welcome the days of collaboration, problem solving, critical thinking, and interdependence. Instructors are utilizing the little time they have students to assess whether learning has taken place and if students are ready to be tested on a given set of skills/competencies.
Take one of our Medical Assistant instructors for example. Students are required to learn the billing and information system utilized by industry in the Green Bay Area. Students need hands-on, practical use of this system in order to understand its functions. Instead of spreading hours in class teaching the system, our instructor has flipped her lessons to provide students the pertinent details. Thus, she is providing class time to work in small groups so that students can practice the skills necessary to show they understand how to use the system and overcome glitches that may occur. All the while being present to help students if and when they struggle.
We also have a physics instructor that utilizes the flipped classroom exclusively to give students the lecture component of her class outside of lecture time. By nature, this course is designed to have a lecture component and lab component. Traditional instructors would use lecture time to give students the necessary notes and formulas, and ask them to complete practice problems and scenarios outside of class time as homework. For our instructor, she found students coming to lab with plenty of questions and misconceptions about the topic that was to be learned.
Through flipping, she found that students struggled less with writing down and obtaining the material, and more with applying their knowledge to practical problems. She was now able to work more closely with students on applying the knowledge to problems, clear any misconceptions, thus preparing them for the lab exercises at a more successful rate. This instructor has valued the time she has with students to make sure she is available when they are present in her class. In doing so, she has seen her course success rates increase dramatically.
While these are only a few of the many examples of flipping at the collegiate level, instructors would be hard pressed not to think about applying flipping to their classes. Helping students understand the practical applications and skills necessary for a given set of learning requirements will help them be more successful in industry. And we've only touched the surface in the benefits. Next time we will look at the employ ability/soft skills that can be learned through flipped learning.
We also have a physics instructor that utilizes the flipped classroom exclusively to give students the lecture component of her class outside of lecture time. By nature, this course is designed to have a lecture component and lab component. Traditional instructors would use lecture time to give students the necessary notes and formulas, and ask them to complete practice problems and scenarios outside of class time as homework. For our instructor, she found students coming to lab with plenty of questions and misconceptions about the topic that was to be learned.
Through flipping, she found that students struggled less with writing down and obtaining the material, and more with applying their knowledge to practical problems. She was now able to work more closely with students on applying the knowledge to problems, clear any misconceptions, thus preparing them for the lab exercises at a more successful rate. This instructor has valued the time she has with students to make sure she is available when they are present in her class. In doing so, she has seen her course success rates increase dramatically.
While these are only a few of the many examples of flipping at the collegiate level, instructors would be hard pressed not to think about applying flipping to their classes. Helping students understand the practical applications and skills necessary for a given set of learning requirements will help them be more successful in industry. And we've only touched the surface in the benefits. Next time we will look at the employ ability/soft skills that can be learned through flipped learning.
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