Transcript Evaluating the Flipped Classroom in an Undergraduate History

Evaluating the Flipped
Classroom in
an Undergraduate History Course
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?
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.
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).
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.
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/avirtual-analysis/
2 Ithaka reports on flipped classrooms:
• http://www.sr.ithaka.org/research-publications/InteractiveOnline-Learning-on-Campus
• http://www.sr.ithaka.org/sites/default/files/reports/sr-ithakainteractive-learning-online-at-public-universities.pdf