Lance R Curtis
Lance R Curtis
  • Home
  • Values
  • Engineering
  • Literary Vision
  • Teaching
  • Pics Gallery
  • News
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Values
  • Engineering
  • Literary Vision
  • Teaching
  • Pics Gallery
  • News
  • Contact

My first flipped class

3/10/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
I’ve heard a lot about flipping classes and the advantages that it can give those students.  Eager to provide those advantages to my statistics students this semester, I decided to flip the class.  I wasn’t entirely convinced about it, mostly because I wasn’t exactly sure what it would involve.  After all, I have never done this before.  As the semester was about to start, I took the plunge and decided to try something new.

What I have found is much more work than I anticipated.  Flipping the class essentially means placing lectures on video so you can dedicate class time to more active learning activities.  It sounds great in theory.  But in practice it’s a whole lot of work!

I have to make two slide decks: one for the videos and the other for the in-class assignments.  The videos themselves are not that hard to make.  I broke down and paid the $15 yearly subscription to Screencast-o-matic, and it’s turned out to be some of the best $15 I’ve ever spent.  I do find some trouble uploading them into YouTube so that I can then place them into Blackboard for my course, more than anything with the time it takes to upload and process.  Making the actual MP4 file once I’ve done recording the video isn’t exactly instant either.

I could avoid the second deck if I just opened up the online homework assignment and started working out problems, but I want my students to understand the whys as well as the whats of the process.  Anyone can push button sin software, but not everyone knows what using different types of input means or how to interpret the results properly.  To that end, I create problems like the ones on their homework assignment so they have to think a bit more about what they are doing and why.  Plus my in-class slide deck shows them how to use the software, which is particular for just this class.

Picture
Of course, the proof is in the pudding.  My students are responding very positively to this new approach.  They love how they can view my lecture videos as many times as they want whenever they want.  And they appreciate the step-by-step procedures I outline in my in-class presentations.  Plus, the test scores so far are a little more than a full letter grade above what they were for my students in the same class a year ago.

Making these materials the same semester I am teaching the class is not the best way to go when flipping a class, but I am very pleased to see the satisfaction and learning in my students.  It really makes all the hard work I’m putting into flipping the class pay off.  Plus it gives me an extra sense of satisfaction knowing that I am the only instructor on campus — full-time or part-time — who is flipping this class, and I’m adjunct!

I really love my job and hope that eventually the hard work I am doing will pay off for my career as well as for my students.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Purpose

    Here you can find news and announcements I want to share.  In between I'll include reviews of the books I read.  Find me on Goodreads.com for more book reviews.

    Archives

    November 2022
    October 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2018
    October 2018
    July 2018
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    October 2015
    August 2015
    March 2014
    January 2014

    Categories

    All
    Books
    Career
    Culture
    Film
    Food
    Health
    Philosophy
    Social
    Sport / Training
    Travel

    RSS Feed

Home
Values

Pics Gallery
Engineering

News
Literary Vision

Contact
Teaching
Copyright © 2014-2022