Evaluating the Flipped Classroom in an Undergraduate History Course held midterm constant (controlled for sat and gpa) quasi-experimental Yiran Zhao and Andrew Ho presented by Tiffany Wong Harvard Graduate School of Education

What is a flipped classroom? Flipped learning, or the flipped classroom, refers to pedagogical practices that allow students to learn course contents traditionally delivered in classroom lectures prior to class, with the help of technology including but not limited to online videos. Students spend class time engaging in active learning activities and may also receive individually targeted feedback from instructors (Hamdan, McKnight, McKnight, & Afstrom, 2013).

Motivation We wanted to better understand the impact of flipped classrooms on student learning in the humanities. Does it make students more motivated/do they like it more? More importantly, does it impact learning? measuring student learning (not just opinion) flipped classroom using mooc material (not just online material broadly)

Quasi-experimental Design Holding the midterm exam fixed from the last (traditional, non-flipped) administration, controlling for differences in rater stringency, controlling for differences in GPA and SAT scores. We administered a survey to the 37 enrolled students in the fall of 2013 for the purpose of understanding their opinions about the flipped classroom model. We compared student learning—as measured by a common midterm exam score—from two administrations of the undergraduate Chinese history course (Societies of the World 12: China; abbreviated SW12): in the fall of 2013 (the “flipped” version) and in the fall of 2011 (the “traditional” version). We obtained student learning data from 33 students in 2013 and 65 students in 2011.

Results Across a range of specifications, our models suggest that there is no statistically significant difference in the midterm exam scores.  Survey results: a larger percent of students preferred the flipped classroom (46%) than preferred the traditional classroom (38%) (16% had no preference). motivation:  Lots of people are doing flipped classroom (check out lit review) Does it make students more motivated/do they like it more? More importantly, does it impact learning? 2) Design: Holding the midterm exam fixed from the last (traditional, non-flipped) administration, controlling for differences in rater stringency, controlling for differences in GPA and SAT scores.  sample of students had 2011 and 2013 graders grade and average (find diff in average) use that difference to make the 2011 score in the same scale as 2013 score results: in open-ended responses, students’ stated reasons for preferring the flipped model included the following: The online modules were convenient and engaging. Modules effectively substituted for the lectures and allowed more time for active student participation in class. The short video segments made it easy to digest the contents. Students could hear various perspectives in discussions to help them learn better. Discussions were effective when students came prepared with the same background knowledge and when a high proportion of students engaged in dialogue .• In open-ended responses, students’ stated reasons for preferring the traditional model included the following: The workload was too heavy. The online assessments had shortcomings. The discussions were of low quality. The cold-calling was stressful and could negatively affect the flow and quality of discussions. Some students preferred that class be used for lectures and not discussions. incoming SAT and GPA were not signifcantly different comparing the two

Recommendations This design should be implemented broadly to track the impact of flipped classroom (and any other) implementation over time. Flipped classrooms and blended learning are still in their nascent stages, more thought needs to go into the implementation. Student expectations should be made explicit to them. all classrooms should have fixed assessment (possibly low stakes) to measure learning longitudinally (midterms, pool of questions, low stakes) The results are a helpful contrast to self-reported questionnaires, which are find mixed opinions about nascent flipped classroom implementations

For More Information: go to:http://harvardx.harvard.edu/files/harvardx/files/evaluating_the_flipped_classroom_-_zhao_and_ho.pdf Jenny Bergeron’s report on blended learning: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2014/07/a-virtual-analysis/ 2 Ithaka reports on flipped classrooms:  http://www.sr.ithaka.org/research-publications/Interactive-Online-Learning-on-Campus http://www.sr.ithaka.org/sites/default/files/reports/sr-ithaka-interactive-learning-online-at-public-universities.pdf