Flipped Classroom Course Research Articles

Combining self-reported and clickstream data to understand university students’ learning experiences and outcomes in flipped classrooms

This study examined the relationships between students’ self-reported perceptions of learning environment, students’ course marks, learning strategy and online study duration measured by clickstream data in an undergraduate flipped classroom course amongst a cohort of Australian first-year university students. The clickstream data identified two groups of students using two distinct learning strategies focusing either on completing the assessments in the course or on the learning activities preparing for the face-to-face learning. Students’ perceptions of learning environment were measured by a self-reported questionnaire. Using cluster analysis, students were grouped as either having positive or negative perceptions. Of the students who adopted a learning strategy focusing on assessments, a significantly higher proportion of them hold negative perceptions of learning environment. In contrast, amongst students who used a learning strategy focusing on completing the preparation activities, a significantly lower proportion of them had negative perceptions. Furthermore, students who hold negative perceptions were also found to study less hours than their classmates who had positive perceptions. The multiple regression analyses showed that self-reported perceptions could explain only 4.8% of variance in students’ course marks, whereas learning strategy and online study duration measured by clickstream data predicted around 17.2% of variance in students’ course marks.

Development and implementation of a case-based collaborative learning flipped classroom preclinical neurology course

This paper describes the development, content, structure, and implementation of a case-based collaborative learning, flipped classroom, integrated preclinical neurology, neuroanatomy, and neuroscience course for first year medical students at Harvard Medical School. We report the methods for pre-class preparation, in-class instruction, and evaluation; student feedback with respect to content, teaching method, and learning environment; and several lessons learned regarding how to optimize preparatory and in-class learning in a case-based flipped classroom course.

Promoting students as partners in a pilot study involving undergraduate students and instructors in Spanish as a foreign language courses

Through the student-as-partners (SaP) framework, this paper explores how this can enhance undergraduate Spanish as a foreign language flipped classroom courses and promote student engagement and satisfaction. Traditionally, higher education courses are designed and developed by faculty members; however, our pilot project proposed collaboration between students and instructors in the design and implementation of course activities. This paper explores the model’s effects and outcomes through four surveys administered at the end of the academic year. Each survey included key factors related to the learning experience: student enjoyment, emotional support, relatedness to peers, feedback from/for students, and content-related support. Collectively, these perspectives were used to reflect on the feedback provided, which helped us achieve our objective: the creation of teaching and learning resources to engage future cohorts and increase student retention. Although this model is presented in the foreign language context, it is transferable to any discipline.

Continuing professional development in general dentistry-experiences of an online flipped classroom.

Continuing professional development is a lifelong learning process. One pedagogical approach that can be used is active learning. Flipped classroom is a method that has been shown to improve deeper conceptual understanding. In an online setting, the method saves travel, time, and costs. To our knowledge, flipped classroom is rarely used in continuing professional education. This study in general dentistry explored experiences of an online flipped classroom course in continuing professional development. Fifteen dental hygienists, clinically active in general dental care, were interviewed. They were recruited from an online course on the latest classification system for periodontal diseases. The course had been conducted using an active learning and flipped classroom model. The interviews were semi-structured. Data were extracted using qualitative content analysis. The experiences of the dental hygienists could be summarized in three themes: Stimulation of knowledge gain through self-paced studies, The ease of virtual networking among colleagues, and Fostering of direct practical application through collaboration. New and emerging communication technology seems to open new possibilities for continuing professional development in general dentistry. Study participants felt that, in an online environment, mixing asynchronous and synchronous communication in a flipped classroom model facilitated learning in continuing professional development. Online active learning seems to work well in continuous professional development in general dentistry. After the course, the participating dental hygienists stated that they were able to use their new knowledge clinically and felt confident doing so.

Computer Education Curriculum Innovation Based on Flipped Classroom and Network Education Model

This article conducts a series of research on computer network courses based on “flipped classroom.” Teaching reform will be carried out for computer networks, but the results are mediocre. The author of this article has carefully considered and summarized computer network teaching based on his years of teaching experience and has put forward suggestions for widespread application. This article discusses the application of translation. The necessity and connotation of transitioning to classroom mode were emphasized, and the design of this teaching method was emphasized, adopting a three-step approach of “consolidating and improving knowledge after class.” Therefore, teachers should start from their own perspective, based on process preview, in class learning, and after class review, find the connection point between flipped classroom and computer network courses, reflect on the problems in teaching, and adopt targeted teaching methods to solve problems. This article provides guidance for improving teachers' teaching level.

Network Analytics to Unveil Links of Learning Strategies, Time Management, and Academic Performance in a Flipped Classroom

Preparatory learning tasks are considered critical for student success in flipped classroom courses. However, less is known regarding which learning strategies students use and when they use those strategies in a flipped classroom course. In this study, we aimed to address this research gap. In particular, we investigated mutual connections between learning strategies and time management, and their combined effects on students’ performance in flipped classrooms. To this end, we harnessed a network analytic approach based on epistemic network analysis (ENA) to analyze student trace data collected in an undergraduate engineering course (N = 290) with a flipped classroom design. Our findings suggest that high-performing students effectively used their study time and enacted learning strategies mainly linked to formative and summative assessment tasks. The students in the low-performing group enacted less diverse learning strategies and typically focused on video watching. We discuss several implications for research and instructional practice.

Exploration of flipped classroom approach to enhance critical thinking skills

Flipped classroom approach has become well-accepted and widely-used in different levels of education. Critical thinking was deemed as the core goal of higher education institutions to enhance students' competence advocated in the 21st century. The definition of critical thinking originating from Peter Facione was one of the most widely-accepted and commonly-used at present. The aim of the research was to explore a flipped classroom approach which was effective to enhance critical thinking skills proposed by Peter Facione, namely interpretation, analysis, inference, evaluation, explanation and self-regulation. This study selected 300 junior students majoring in business administration (100 students), international trade (100 students), and accounting (100 students) respectively of a private university in China, and took the Marketing flipped classroom course as an example. The quantitative research method was adopted in the research, and a questionnaire with 22 questions was used to collect data from the participants. The study involved two rounds. Each round involved three control classes with a traditional teaching instruction approach conducted and three experimental classes with a flipped classroom approach adopted. After analyzing and discussing the data collected, the research found that the flipped classroom approach promoted students' critical thinking skills to some extent. Through the study, a modified model of flipped classroom approach to enhance critical thinking skills was put forward. The modified model can be applied to more other courses at different levels, especially business courses. The research also had some limitations, including the 5-point Likert scale used, the representativeness and individual differences of participants, and the application of the study. In the future research, aspects regarding other skill development, effectiveness of course feedback and assessment, interdisciplinary knowledge, and implementation of the marketing plan etc.can be explored deeper.

Comparison of pharmacy student performance in a self-care therapeutics course conducted as a flipped classroom on-campus and remotely

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic required the University of Arizona R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy’s Self-Care Therapeutics course to be taught as a synchronous, live online course. The course has traditionally utilized a flipped-classroom to increase student engagement and improve learning performance. The goal of this study is to compare student performance in a flipped-classroom self-care therapeutics course taught to students attending class on-campus versus online via web-conferencing.MethodsThis study assessed examination performance of 118 students that took the class on-campus in 2019 and 125 students that took the class online in 2020. Course design was similar between the two cohorts, with each completing assigned pre-reading, an associated short multiple-choice quiz, in-class small group discussions and in-class large group faculty-led debrief. Both cohorts took pre-class quizzes and three examinations to assess their knowledge. Exam, quiz, overall class performance, and student experience was compared for the 2019 on-campus attending cohort and the 2020 online attending cohort.ResultsNo statistical differences were seen in the overall exam performance, the final course score, and the student experience between cohorts. Statistical differences (p = 0.02) were found between cohorts for the overall quiz performance, with the on-campus attending cohort performing slightly better than the online attending cohort (mean score of 88% compared to 84.4%).ConclusionExamination performance was similar for students taking a flipped-classroom course online and on-campus. Further research using data from multiple courses or from the same cohort, randomized, is needed to improve the internal and external validity of these findings.

Level of consistency between students' self-reported and observed study approaches in flipped classroom courses: How does it influence students' academic learning outcomes?

Using Student Approaches to Learning research as a theoretical framework, the present study used both self-reported and observational log data to understand students' study approaches in a flipped classroom course amongst 143 computer science undergraduate students. Specifically, it aimed to examine: 1) to what extent students' study approaches identified by self-reported and observational log data are consistent with each other; and 2) to what extent students' academic learning outcomes differ between students who showed consistent and inconsistent study approaches by self-reported and observational log data. Using The Revised Study Process Questionnaire, students were clustered as reporting either a Deep or a Surface Study Approach. Using frequencies of students' participation in five online learning activities, they were classified as adopting either an Active or a Passive Study Approach. A 2 x 2 cross-tabulation showed a positive and moderate association between clusters of students' study approaches resulted from two types of data. Amongst students who self-reported a Deep Study Approach, the proportion of students who adopted an Active Study Approach (80.7%) was significantly higher than those who adopted a Passive Study Approach (19.3%). In contrast, of the students who self-reported a Surface Study Approach, the proportion of students who used a Passive Study Approach (51.2%) was significantly higher than those who used an Active Study Approach (48.8%). Furthermore, students who had good study approaches by both self-report and observation did not differ from students who adopted an Active study approach by observation but reported a Surface Study Approach on course grades. Likewise, there was no significant difference in terms of academic learning outcomes between those who had poor study approaches by both self-report and observation and those who adopted Passive study approach by observation but reported a Deep Study Approach. Future studies may consider incorporating some qualitative methods in order to find out possible reasons behind the inconsistencies between self-reported and observed study approaches.

Relations between Students’ Study Approaches, Perceptions of the Learning Environment, and Academic Achievement in Flipped Classroom Learning: Evidence from Self-Reported and Process Data

This study examined the extent to which relations between students’ perceptions of the learning environment, academic achievement, and study approaches measured by both self-reported and process data were consistent amongst 323 engineering students in a flipped classroom course. A hierarchical cluster analysis on four self-reported scales identified deep and surface study approaches. Students reporting deep approaches obtained significantly better marks than those reporting surface approaches. An agglomerative sequence clustering on sequences of students’ online interactions found four observed study approaches: two focused on content and two focused on assessment. Students adopting content-focused approaches performed significantly better than those employing assessment-focused ones. Two cross-tabulations revealed consistency of relational patterns between perceptions of the learning environment and study approaches by self-reported or process data. Amongst students with better perceptions, a significantly higher proportion of them reported deep approaches than surface approaches. Amongst students using content-focused approaches, significantly higher proportions of them held positive perceptions than negative perceptions. The study results suggest to teachers that fostering a better learning environment, helping students understand how online and in-person components are integrated, and equipping them with knowledge and principles of flipped classroom learning would be useful to enhance students’ learning experiences in flipped classroom courses.

Do Direct and Indirect Recommendations Facilitate Students’ Self-Regulated Learning in Flipped Classroom Online Activities? Findings from Two Studies

Self-regulated learning (SRL) is a prerequisite for successful learning. However, many students report having difficulties in completing individual online tasks outside the classroom in flipped learning contexts. Therefore, additional support for students should be provided to help them improve their SRL skills. Studies have examined the effects of prompts (e.g., questions) to facilitate SRL but have paid less attention to exploring how different types of recommendations for SRL activities may affect students’ SRL skills, course engagement and learning performance. We conducted two studies using direct and indirect recommendations for 77 undergraduate students in the faculty of education in two flipped classroom courses. The direct recommendation approach suggested specific follow-up SRL activities in various learning tasks, whereas the indirect recommendation approach provided students with general SRL hints but left them to identify what specific SRL activities they should use in the next step. To evaluate the impact of each recommendation approach, we measured the students’ self-reported SRL skills, online behaviors, course engagement and learning performance. The results suggested that direct recommendations were useful in improving students’ engagement in online SRL activities and in sustaining their motivation for SRL, while indirect recommendations played a major role in reminding students of the need to self-regulate their learning. Both types of recommendations could significantly affect the quality of students’ online learning. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications for future SRL recommendation research.

Evaluation of a newly developed flipped-classroom course on interprofessional practice in health care for medical students

ABSTRACT Interprofessional education is expected to promote collaborative practice and should therefore be included in health professionals’ curricula. Reports on interprofessional curricular development and its evaluation are rare. We therefore undertook a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative evaluation of a new, mandatory course on interprofessional collaboration for medical students during their third year of the Bachelor of Medicine study programme. The newly developed and implemented course spans over six weeks and was designed in a hybrid, flipped-classroom format. It incorporates experience- and case-based learning as well as interactions with other health professionals. Each student completes an eLearning and a clinical workshadowing individually before attending the – due to the pandemic – virtual live lectures. To assess quality and usefulness of teaching-learning formats and course structure to learn about interprofessional collaboration and to develop interprofessional competencies and identity, a quantitative and qualitative evaluation was performed with more than 280 medical students and 26 nurse educators from teaching hospitals using online surveys (open & closed-ended format). Data were analyzed descriptively and using content analysis processes. Students appreciated the flipped-classroom concept, the real-world case-based learning scenarios with interprofessional lecturer teams, and the possibility of an experience-based learning opportunity in the clinical setting including interaction with students and professionals from other health professions. Interprofessional identity did not change during the course. Evaluation data showed that the course is a promising approach for teaching-learning interprofessional competencies to medical students. The evaluation revealed three factors that determined the success of this course, namely, a flipped-classroom concept, the individual workshadowing of medical students with another health professional, mainly nurses, and live sessions with interprofessional teaching-learning teams. The course structure and teaching-learning methods showed potential and could serve as a template for interprofessional course development in other institutions and on other course topics.

Using a Flipped Classroom to Compare 2 Ultrasonography Operating Methods to Improve Practice in Ultrasound Detection Acupuncture.

Ultrasound (US) detection acupuncture (UDA) is an innovative acupuncture technique that uses ultrasonography (USG) to detect the depth of the lung before performing acupuncture on the points around the chest to avoid puncturing the lungs. For acupuncturists to use UDA appropriately, it is crucial to have a good operating method to identify the pleura with USG. This study compared 2 US operating methods through active learning in a "flipped classroom" setting for acupuncture students. Students and interns were recruited to complete the UDA flipped classroom course and evaluate the operations of 2 US methods on either of 2 simulation models: (1) a single B-mode or (2) a combined M-mode + B-mode. Participants were interviewed and satisfaction surveys were administered to obtain feedback. A total of 37 participants completed the course and evaluations. The combined mode had better measurement accuracy, acupuncture safety, and operating time (P < 0.05), and no pneumothoraxes occurred. Among both participant groups, the combined mode allowed the student group to learn quickly and the intern group to become more proficient. Both interviews and satisfaction surveys yielded positive feedback. Using a combined mode for UDA can improve its performance greatly. The combined mode is definitely helpful for learning and promotion of UDA.

Maintaining informatics training learning outcomes with a COVID-19 era shift to a fully online flipped course

The emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic forced us to adapt our recently developed informatics training serving a variety of students as well as faculty and staff. The successful flipped classroom course series (a hybrid-format with both asynchronous online learning and in-person synchronous components) was shifted to a fully online format with the synchronous portion now held via web-based video conference. We repeated our participant survey at the end of each of the 3 one-credit courses to compare student satisfaction and learning outcomes achievement to the original offering. The responses were overall very positive again with a slight response distribution improvement in some measures of satisfaction. Likewise, students reported similar achievement of the learning outcomes across all courses with some Unixcourse objectives receiving higher competency agreement in the new, fully online version. Overall, the fully online version of the course series was equally successful, if not more so, than the original version with a physical classroom session each week. Given that participants also had strong agreement with a new question that they would prefer online class meetings instead of in a classroom, even if there wasn’t a global pandemic (citing a variety of logistical reasons such as “convenience of screen sharing,” parking issues, and job-related time constraints), the fully online version of the informatics training will be retained.

Effect of a flipped classroom course to foster medical students’ AI literacy with a focus on medical imaging: a single group pre-and post-test study

BackgroundThe use of artificial intelligence applications in medicine is becoming increasingly common. At the same time, however, there are few initiatives to teach this important and timely topic to medical students. One reason for this is the predetermined medical curriculum, which leaves very little room for new topics that were not included before. We present a flipped classroom course designed to give undergraduate medical students an elaborated first impression of AI and to increase their “AI readiness”.MethodsThe course was tested and evaluated at Bonn Medical School in Germany with medical students in semester three or higher and consisted of a mixture of online self-study units and online classroom lessons. While the online content provided the theoretical underpinnings and demonstrated different perspectives on AI in medical imaging, the classroom sessions offered deeper insight into how “human” diagnostic decision-making differs from AI diagnoses. This was achieved through interactive exercises in which students first diagnosed medical image data themselves and then compared their results with the AI diagnoses. We adapted the “Medical Artificial Intelligence Scale for Medical Students” to evaluate differences in “AI readiness” before and after taking part in the course. These differences were measured by calculating the so called “comparative self-assessment gain” (CSA gain) which enables a valid and reliable representation of changes in behaviour, attitudes, or knowledge.ResultsWe found a statistically significant increase in perceived AI readiness. While values of CSA gain were different across items and factors, the overall CSA gain regarding AI readiness was satisfactory.ConclusionAttending a course developed to increase knowledge about AI in medical imaging can increase self-perceived AI readiness in medical students.

Deep Learning-Based Teaching Strategies of Ideological and Political Courses Under the Background of Educational Psychology.

At present, low teaching efficiency has been the common problem of ideological and political education in colleges and universities in China. It is essential to improve the teaching efficiency and realize the intelligent information transformation of the ideological and political courses in colleges and universities. First, the relationship between ideological and political courses and the educational psychology of college students was analyzed based on the theoretical characteristics of educational psychology and college ideological and political courses. Additionally, the teaching efficiency of ideological and political courses based on deep learning (DL) was analyzed through a literature survey. Combined with online teaching modes such as the flipped classroom and Massive Open Online Courses, a comprehensive online teaching mode of college ideological and political courses was proposed via educational psychology and the Single Shot MutiBox Detector networks of DL. Then, a total of 100 research subjects were selected randomly from the freshmen and sophomores of the Southwest University of Science and Technology, and their acceptability to the online ideological and political courses was analyzed by a questionnaire survey. The results show that the adopted questionnaire had high reliability and validity, and the proportion of respondents of different genders, grades, and majors was essentially balanced. More than half of the students had a good understanding of the comprehensive ideological and political courses and made progress in their values, ideology, morals, and knowledge reserves. More than half of the students had a positive attitude to the course, and they thought that the class atmosphere of the course was active, which was conducive to a satisfactory learning effect. This indicates that the teaching strategy of ideological and political courses in colleges and universities that integrates educational psychology, DL, and online information can attract students. The contribution of this study is that the research outcome can be applied to the concrete formulation of the teaching strategies of ideological and political courses for college students.

Designing a Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Virtual Curriculum: Assessment of Medical Student Knowledge, Surgical Skill, and Community Building

PURPOSE: Virtual and interactive learning are the future of plastic surgery education.1 This shift is essential in the COVID-19 era, as medical students have been displaced from clinical rotations into virtual classrooms resulting in losses of traditional opportunities to learn about plastic and reconstructive surgery. The impact of this pandemic is far-reaching and may adversely influence interest in surgical specialties, diversity in anatomic knowledge, and hands-on surgical experience. We aimed to provide medical students worldwide with a virtual educational opportunity and developed the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Virtual Curriculum (PRSVC), a structured, four-week, flipped classroom course with virtual clinical case discussions and surgical skills workshops. Additional programming was available for medical students applying to or considering applying into plastic surgery residency programs to socialize with each other and build community. METHODS: We designed and implemented a structured, four-week educational curriculum, which included curated learning modules that covered main topics within plastic surgery. Students were provided daily assignments from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons Resident Education Curriculum and DeckerMed Plastic Surgery Core Curriculum, which were available to all enrolled participants free of charge. As an adjunct to the educational coursework, students had opportunities to participate in biweekly, small group virtual flipped classroom case discussions and weekly surgical skills workshops. Pre- and postcourse surveys were administered and analyzed using SPSS. RESULTS: In total, 303 medical students and recent graduates (43.4% fourth-years) from 18 countries enrolled in the course in June 2020. An estimated 182 students completed the precourse survey (60% response rate), and of those, 50.0% (n = 91) completed the postcourse survey for paired comparison. About two-thirds were medical students in the United States and the remaining one-third of students were from Canada and other international countries. Over one-third did not have home plastic surgery programs, and almost half of the participants reported having an educational experience scheduled for June 2020 cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Students reported significant improvement in confidence discussing the relevant anatomy, work-up, and surgical approaches to clinical cases, as well as confidence in knowledge of all topic areas (P < 0.001). Confidence in suturing and knot-tying techniques significantly improved among workshop participants (P < 0.001). Students applying to residency programs this cycle felt significantly more prepared for sub-internships (P < 0.001) and significantly more connected to the community of applicants (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Virtual Curriculum improved knowledge, surgical skills, and community in the field among medical student participants. This course may serve to inform other surgical subspecialties in developing similar virtual educational opportunities and also serve to provide a paradigm for structured virtual learning activities for students interested in plastic surgery. REFERENCE: 1. Ali K, Colchado D, Davis MJ, et al. Online resources in plastic surgery education: a toolbox for modern trainees and plastic surgeons. Plast Reconstr Surg Glob Open. 2020;8(7):e2894. Published 2020 Jul 17. doi:10.1097/GOX.0000000000002894

Agile Change to Digital Teaching during and after Corona Pandemic for Flipped Classroom Courses

The Corona Pandemic has a major impact on teaching at universities. Various stakeholders have to face new challenges when face-to-face courses are no longer feasible. The management of higher education institutions, teachers and their teams as well as the IT and didactics support are called upon to develop digital teaching and learning formats at short notice. This article aims to identify specific tasks and responsibilities with the help of two literature analyses and to transfer the results into a holistic overview of agile change for Flipped Classroom courses. This overview is based on a Change Management (CM) process to which tasks of agile development and change are assigned. It thus combines both short-term development under time pressure from an agile perspective as well as long-term necessary steps of CM. The necessity and usefulness of such an overview was determined before its creation. For this purpose, a short quantitative survey was conducted with 65 people, who have already passed through the entire CM-process of digital change in higher education teaching and are therefore regarded as experts. The usefulness and necessity of the overview were confirmed. The concluding recommendations for action address the possible use of the overview, the implementation of individual tasks and the joint action of the stakeholders during and also after the Corona Pandemic, which should support the change to digital higher education teaching.

Online supplementation for teaching evidence-based medicine: feasibility of a randomised-controlled trial

Background and ObjectivesAs teaching technology advances, medical education is increasingly using digital mediums and exploring instructional models such as the flipped classroom and blended learning courses, where the in-class taught...

Student perceptions and performance in a traditional, flipped classroom, and online introductory soil science course

Innovative didactive strategies such as online learning and flipped classroom can improve student performance while maximizing university resources and personnel. Assessing how students perceive courses designed using these strategies, as well as perform within them, is becoming increasingly important. An introductory soil science course at a 4-year land-grant university was taught (1) face-to-face (FTF, n = 110) with one 50-minute lecture per week and a 2-hour lab twice per week, using (2) flipped classroom (FC, n = 31) design in which most instruction occurred online with a 2-hour lab once per week, and (3) fully and asynchronously online (OL, n = 23). Students completed an end of the semester survey designed to assess perceptions of course utility, the utility of course components, and engagement level in the course. Proportional odds regression models and log odds ratios were used to assess how student perceptions of and performance in this course were influenced by teaching method or student class standing. Class standing had the strongest influence on responses to perception and engagement questions, while teaching method minimally influenced responses to perception and engagement questions. Furthermore, students with the largest odds of expressing potentially less positive perceptions – in this case sophomores – also had the largest odds of performing poorly in the course. These results suggest that FC and OL are viable options which can extend university resources, impact, and accessibility, and that student perceptions of college courses, which in this study varied by class standing, can influence their performance. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10899995.2021.1965419