Flipping in Higher Ed (Part 2)

In my previous post, I discussed how instructors were beginning to feel a time crunch in assessing student skills and use of class time. As some colleges redesign academic calendars to fit more in, instructors are feeling the pinch in adaquately preparing students for the work place. The flipped classroom seems to be a reasonable solution for allowing more class time to be spent on assessing and teaching said skills.

Another huge benefit of the flipped classroom is allowing instructors to assess the soft skills that industry claims to be as important, if not more, than technical skills. I'm talking abou interdepence, collaboration, communication, personal responsibility, valuing othes, and ethics. While these skills are vitally important to a student's success in the work place, they are often difficult to assess and obtain in a classroom setting. Throw into the mix a traditional lecture based class, and instructors have very little means to measure those characteristics.

Through the use of a flipped classroom, instructors can not only build activities to obtain technical skills, but soft skills as well. Just as we urge instructors to design lessons backwards, with their learning objectives in mind, we also must ask them to plan with the end in mind for the soft skills. While it can be easy for an instructor to 'just know' if a student demonstrates certain soft skills, employers and students want to know the specifics. What does being personally responsible look like in a welding lab, or a nursing class? What OBSERVABLE and MEASUREABLE behaviors will a students exhibit that deems them to have excellent ethics or collaboration?

Only after we have clearly identified those observable and measureable behaviors can instructors then plan activities that allow students to demonstrate they possess those skills, while working to achieve a technical skill simultaneously. What a perfect blend? And although identifying those behaviors can be a bit daunting and cumbersome, industry will soon realize the stamp your institution in placing on its graduates. It won't be long before word catches on that graduates of your institution possess not only the technical skills needed, but more importantly the soft skills needed to help their prospective employer thrive in a new and improving world.

Yet, if you are stuck teaching in a lecture-based, teacher-centered classroom, how can you possibly begin to design activities for students so that you can witness these soft skills in action? Shouldn't your time with students be more valuable than standing in front of them, spoon feeding them information? Give flipping a try and reap the benefits that so many others are already noticing. Help prepare your students for the future by building an environment that thrives off of creativity, innovation, problem-solving, interdepence, collaboration, and personal accountability!

Flipping in Higher Ed (Part I)

As the demand for a skilled work force intensifies, the time instructors are able ti spend with students continues to shrink. Given copious budget constraints, academic calendar redesigns, and increased responsibilities, instructors are forced to carefully plan and implement each lesson to meet the needs of every student they encounter. How can instructors be sure that their students are learning? How does he/she know if the students have the skill set ready for the work force? Enter the flipped classroom in higher education.

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.