Course Materials Development for FLIP TEACHING
Course Materials Development for Flip Teaching Antonio E. Refre, Ph.D.(AppliedSciences/Engineering, KULeuven) School Director Informatics International College of Cainta aerefre@gmail.com, mobile: +639202431560 ABSTRACT Flip Teaching is an innovative teaching strategy which is currently being implemented by many educational institutions in the advanced countries such as the U. S. A. In the Philippines, it is practically non-existing. In order for Flip Teaching to succeed, the course materials should be instructionally designed very well. Considering the inadequate experience of most of the teachers in the Philippines with regards to instructional design, the author has devised an innovative method which resembles Rapid e-Learning. The product of this method is an e-book with an embedded flash slideshow of the lecture intended as the basis for the next day class activities. A self-exercise follows the slideshow to test comprehension of the matter presented. Considering that teachers in the Philippines do not, practically, get financial support for e-learning course materials development from the schools employing them, efforts have been made to acquire open-source/free software which can be used in the production of the e-book course materials. Furthermore, software that do not require steep learning curve are selected so that the teachers can DIY (Do-It-Yourself) the production of such course materials. Keywords: instructional design, ICT tools for course materials development, Rapid eLearning, reinventing education, flip teaching, flipped classroom
INTRODUCTION Flip teaching (or flipped classroom) is the brainchild of Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams who are pioneers in the field of using screen-casting in education. In 2004, both of them started teaching at Woodland Park High School in Woodland Park, Colorado. In the spring of 2007, they began recording their live lessons using screen capture software. They posted their lectures online so that their students could access them. When they did this, YouTube was just getting started and the world of online video was just in its infancy. Flip teaching is a form of blended learning which encompasses any use of technology to leverage the learning in a classroom, so a teacher can spend more time interacting with
students instead of lecturing. This is most commonly being done using teacher-created videos that students view outside of class time. It is also known as backwards classroom, reverse instruction, flipping the classroom, and reverse teaching.
The traditional pattern of teaching has been to assign students to read a section of a textbook after-school, which will then be discussed the next day in class. Students would then be assigned an assessment for homework to demonstrate their mastery of the topic. In flip teaching, the student first studies the topic by himself, typically using video lessons created by the instructor or shared by another educator, such as those provided by the Khan Academy. In the classroom, the pupil then tries to apply the knowledge by solving problems and doing practical work. The role of the classroom teacher is then to tutor the student when they become stuck, rather than to impart the initial lesson. This allows time inside the class to be used for additional learning-based activities, including use of differentiated instruction and project-based learning. Flip teaching allows more hands-on time with the instructor guiding the students, allowing them to assist the students when they are assimilating information and creating new ideas (upper end of Bloom's Taxonomy). Flipping the classroom has also proved to lessen the dropout rate among students, and an increase in the amount of information that the students learn. Many people speculate that flipping the classroom would be harmful to students who do not have access to the internet outside of school. However,
many teachers have found ways around this by burning CDs, and giving out thumb drives with the videos on it. As can be gleaned from the foregoing, the success of learning would depend a lot on the e-learning course materials. It goes without saying, that a well instructionally designed course materials impart instructions a lot better.
Course Materials Development Strategy To make the course material stand on its own, it should incorporate the principles of instructional design involving presentation and interaction. On the assessment aspect, the use of Bloom’s Taxonomy (.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_taxonomy) is recommended The author recommends the use of Rapid e-Learning Development methodology (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_learning). Typically, the teacher will create slides in PowerPoint, record narration on top of the slides, and then use software to add tests or even collaboration activities between the slides. The whole package is then sent, most often as an Adobe Flash file, to a learning management system or website. Instead of an Adobe Flash file, the author develops an e-book (DNL format) using the software DeskTopAuthor (see http://www.desktopauthor.com/). The following is the sequence of steps for the development a specific course material for an example course on Introduction to Computers (see also DrRefre’s Books: http://www.teachlearn-online.net/aerbooks/): Step 1 – Create the MS-PowerPoint of the lecture.
Step 2 – Convert every slide into an image: The following four images show how every slide is converted to jpeg images.
Step 3 – Conversion of the sequence of images into a Flash Slideshow using the trial version of the software Flash Slideshow Maker (http://www.flash-slideshowmaker.com/):
Step 4 – Create the e-book using the trial version of the authoring software DeskTopAuthor (http://desktopauthor.com/). Install this software into the computer. (a) Get the e-book template from http://www.teachlearn-online.net/aerbooks/; unzip
it; then, double-click the .dml file:
(b) Save as IntroComp to a specific folder; then click the Insert Text on the left panel
Insert Tools; type the title INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTERS:
(c) Modify the font size and color; then, click Insert Multimedia on the left panel:
(d) Get the .swf file produced by the software Flash Slideshow Maker and open it in
the e-book:
(e) In order that every slide could be viewed better, create a popup image on the e-
book:
(f) The following image shows the appearance of the source file after having
inserted the popup images of the 23 slides.
(g) Go to next page and insert text “SELF-TEST” as the title of the page; use the
Easy Form tool in adding question (for multiple-choice questions, the Answer Type is Radio box:
(h) After finishing the adding of questions, a submit button should be added:
(i) The final appearance of the test page:
(j) Save this and Package (2
packaged e-book: First Page:
2nd Page:
nd
Package) into a .dnl file. The following shows the
The foregoing finished online.net/aerbooks/
e-book
can
be
obtained
from
http://www.teachlearn-
CONCLUSION The flipped classroom has not only changed our classrooms, but many teachers from around the world have adopted the model and are using it to teach Foreign Language, Science, Math, elementary, middle, high school, and adults. One of the greatest benefits of flipping is that overall interaction increases: Teacher to student and student to student. Since the role of the teacher has changed from presenter of content to learning coach, the teachers spend their time talking to students. Practitioners of the various flipped classroom models are constantly tweaking, changing, rejecting, adding to, and generally trying to improve the model through direct experience with how effective it is for students. It's not "record your lecture once" and you're done; it is a part of a comprehensive instructional model that includes direct instruction, inquiry, practice, formative and summative assessment and much more. It also allows teachers to reflect on and develop quality and engaging learning opportunities and options for internalization, creation, and application of content rather than just fluff or time filling assignments. The author has gone through these activities in developing e-learning course materials for the Flipped Classroom taking into consideration the limitations of teachers and students in the Philippines when using educational technology.
WEBLIOGRAPHY 1. Blended Learning: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_learning 2. Flip Teaching: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_teaching 3. DrRefre’s School on the Web. http://www.teachlearn-online.net/aersow/ 4. DrRefre’s Seminar-Workshop in Online Teaching and Learning. http://www.teachlearn-online.net/olcteach/ 5. Flash Slideshow Maker. http://www.flash-slideshow-maker.com/ 6. Desktopauthor. http://www.desktopauthor.com/ 7. Bloom’s Taxonomy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom's_Taxonomy
END