1. 7th Annual PedRIO Conference Sara Smith & Martin Khechara
Supporting the student to link theory to practice : ‘flipping the practice based classroom’
7th Annual PedRIO Conference Sara Smith & Martin Khechara

2. Background
Many UG awards now are tasked with fostering professional as well as educational development in their students
Supporting the student to relate their academic studies to the world of work, encourage engagement and capability for practice can be a challenging task for tutors

3. Challenges to learning and teaching
A need to reframe and enhance approaches to supporting practitioner development has been acknowledged in a range of disciplines, but……
Relevant workplace experience
Large class size

4. Our journey The Basic flip Started small with a basic ‘flip’
Allowed the incorporation of a range of novel styles
Greater tutor-student interaction
Still identified issues with student engagement
Classroom based basic flip – recorded lectures for watching outside of class. Inclass workshops and activities to support knowledge development and application of knowledge to practical activities/problems – supported by tutor.

5. The Enhanced flip
Enabled evaluation of student understanding of flipped sessions and targeted in-class workshops
Supported student engagement – fostered in-class interactions and collaborations
Developed student confidence – breaking down peer/peer and student/tutor barriers
Flipped lectures
In-class also used a range of additional technologies to allow assessment of student understanding
Socrative – allowed students to participate anonymously. Identified areas students struggled with – also allowed them to see others were also struggling.
Allowed workshops to be more targeted to support areas identified as ‘problem’ areas
Improved engagement and application of knowledge to practice

6. The Flipped lab
Resulted in greater team working in class – watching and discussing vodcasts in class
Access to vodcasts afforded greater confidence in the lab and encouraged students to ‘have a go’
Tutors found sessions easier to manage. They identified that students accessed certain parts of the vodcasts more frequently - specific demonstration techniques
Having identified how the ‘enhanced flip’ engaged the reticent student and provided a safe space to ask questions – tried flipping a large first year laboratory class where there were issues of engagement, lack of confidence and poor performance
Developed ‘vodcasts’ to address theoretical concepts of practice as well as the practical application of these. PASSIVE learning not active

7. We’d been thinking about this…..
‘As a result of our study, we conclude that the positive impact of AR on motivation leads students to achieve higher levels of engagement in learning activities with less cognitive effort’.
Serio, D. A., Ibenez, M. B. and Kloos, C. D. (2013) Impact of an augmented reality system on students’ motivation for a visual art course. Computers & education

8. Augmented flipped lab Could AR improve the ‘flip’?
We wanted to provide additional information about equipment, processes or reagents
Other areas where barriers to learning had been identified
Demonstrations of how to perform specific tasks or techniques as micro-flips
Provide ‘just in time’ learning and support

9. We used two kinds of AR in our study
We have deployed QR codes and Auras that link to micro-videos of techniques instead of just flipping

11. Acceptability
Prepared
Transition
Inclusive
Interest
Confidence

12. Main findings…..
‘Augmented Flip’ –more inclusive learning environment allowing access to information via a range of different platforms
Not a replacement for tutors – useful additional resource
Improved students positive perception of their tutors on the module
Increased both engagement in practical exercised and motivation to take part
Supported transition into HE

13. Next Steps…..
Evaluate practical implications of wider rollout of AR across the curriculum and potential scalability
Issues around accessibility of appropriate devices
The technology needs to support the teachnology!