“Flipped Classroom” is one of the buzzwords of the 21st Century teacher, but what does it really mean?  The term describes a teaching model where the typical lecture and homework elements of a course are reversed.  It is oftentimes associated with blended classrooms and active learning.

In a flipped class, the instructor creates or curates a collection of  high-quality audio-visual lecture materials for students to review outside of class. The students review the information in the lecture materials at their own pace to prepare for  higher-level learning activities in class. During classtime, the instructor guides students through active, collaborative activities where the information students reviewed in the online lectures is analyzed, evaluated, and used to create meaning or new information.

Although this model has much potential for improving learning outcomes by addressing the multiple modalities through which  students learn, flipped classrooms take substantial planning to implement effectively. To learn more about this popular teaching model, and if it is right for your students, we recommend reviewing the following resources.

• Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Flipped Classrooms
• The Flipped Class: Myths vs. Reality
• The Flipped Classroom:  Increasing Instructional Effectiveness in Higher Education with Blended Learning Technology
• How ‘Flipping’ the Classroom Can Improve the Traditional Lecture
• Are You Ready to Flip?
• Flipped Learning Resource Guide - In-depth Guide
• The Flipped Learning Network: A professional learning community for teachers using screencasting in education
• Technologies that Support Flipped Classrooms at MATC