Don’t Flip Out! Practical Strategies for Flipping Your Class Lauren CalimerisKatherine M. Sauer Saint John Fisher CollegeUniversity of Colorado 9 th Annual Economics Teaching Conference October 24 th – 25 th 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 outside of class time List of concepts students will initially encounter during a real time lecture. Textbook? Article? Website? Recorded lecture? how? Use your lecture

Delivering the Content 1.Use what’s already available: - Khan AcademyKhan Academy - Learn LibertyLearn 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: Katherine Sauer, Ph.D Lauren Calimeris Kocman