The Flipped Classroom Opportunities within The Hybrid Learning Approach in the UAE

Abstract

Many higher education institutions are focusing on flipped classroom to gain the benefits that can be reaped for the institution, the students and teachers. The attractiveness of the flipped classroom is increasing, due to the Covid-19 situation and the promptly switch to the online teaching approach by many institutions. Based on the researchers' preliminary investigation, the utilization of flipped classrooms approach among educators is still not fully exploited. This initial and seed research aims to investigate students' and educators' point of view concerning the application of the flipped classroom concept. This qualitative research is based on interviews of focus groups, observations and mini structured surveys that aim to answer the main research question how the students and educator view flipped classroom. The researchers collected data from some 300 students and about ten educator form information systems and engineering disciplines. The research results reveal that students, as well as educators, are aware of flipped classrooms but more training in the tools and concepts of the flipped classroom is required. Flipped classrooms can bring enormous benefits to students, institutions and educators. The outcomes of this research work showed that students and educators prefer the flipped classroom approach in some aspects. In this paper, we provide and discuss the employment of the flipped classroom idea in a hybrid learning setting. We trust that this is an innovative learning strategy when the proper modern technology is utilized. Such as the utilization of smart gadgets to perform different tasks, like teaching, designing question bank, assessment of students, feedback…etc. We further focus on the use of information technology as well as the development of the course content. This paper provides a case study of hybrid learning flipped classroom at HCT. As the HCT is running completely hybrid in the last couple of years. As a result of this study in the United Arab Emirates, 62% of the teachers were comfortable with flipped classrooms