In common usage, flipping a classroom usually implies having the student teach themselves the basic material and the class time used for digging in, working on examples, explaining what was not understood. Essentially, the concept is to use the students’ out-of-class and class time differently.

We designed our first, formal flipping situation in the mid 1990's, for a course in Harvard's MBA program. A special lab exercise was created to lead the students through the concepts and issues related to the topic; to create a common understanding of what the challenges were, what was salient in the situation and data. The class then explored methods and concepts that could address the issues discovered by the students in the lab. In this way, the students were able to place the methods and concepts in context and 'comprehend'. It was similar to the way the material was introduced in a traditional class on the subject; where the context is created before introducing the applicable theories and methods. However, in this case, the lab was used to explore the subject instead of working on a specific assignment, allowing the students to explore at their own speed, level of understanding, and then the class time was used differently, leveraging this foundation.

We have seen many instructors take this concept literally, succeeding in some rare instances, and failing in most. Why is this simple concept so difficult to actually deploy and get right? We believe that part of the problem is that it sounds simple and on the surface looks simple.

Here are a few observations...

• Flipping depends on what the students can actually do on their own and what assumptions are made about this skill and level of expertise, the suitability of the material/content being flipped, and how the in-class follow up is performed. It also depends on the actual material and design of the learning module used in the flipping. Four moving parts, all need to be balanced and well executed.
• Flipping is not an all or nothing in our view. One has to think about what part of a lesson can be or should be self-learned, self-executed.
• Flipping is not limited to out-of-class time. You can flip part of a lecture during the lecture via peer instruction.
• All of the course elements need to be considered, not just pre-class preparation. For example, tutorials and labs can be used for flipping the order of learning as well.
• Motivation is a difficult issue to deal with. Why should a student actually ‘get into a topic’ beyond the minimal necessary to pass a quiz used as an incentive measure? A core course in a discipline will be view differently from a tangential course in a program or an elective in the program or general elective. Why bother? Why engage?

• The out-of-class material choices can help with motivation. Students seem to enjoy exploring the context, discovering issues, thinking about real situations. This is more fun than trying to learn a new theory or concept, and it is more relatable if the material is wisely chosen.
• Self-learning requires discipline, effort, and skill! It is not easy. It is harder than waiting for the class and trying examples later. For students to engage, it has to be perceived and experienced as ‘easier’ and worthwhile.
• What can be self-learned? Think about Bloom’s levels and what can be actually self-learned and dived into versus what needs to be discussed, explored together in a classroom.

We have flipped various parts of courses...

• Concept introduction
• The students explored a phenomenon before class in an individual, self-guided lab to understand the issues, the challenges, the context. The students did not learn solutions on their own, but had a chance to understand the topic so that when the actual solution methodology or ‘science’ was applied, the students would have a foundation to work from; an understanding of the problem.
• Relationship discovery
• The students were given tools to use that exposed them to quantitative relationships; learned through exploring, experimentation. Learning the basics before discussing the underlying assumptions, strengths and weaknesses, subtle insights in class.
• Facts and basic knowledge
• The students are given problems or challenges to look into, research on their own. Not the dry reading of prepared lecture notes, but an active hunt, find, and interpret exercise to gather facts and discover how to discover and learn. The class time is then used to consolidate, deal with bad ‘discovery’ outcomes, etc. and how to use the facts and knowledge; what can be learned from the newly acquired knowledge, what does it mean in the context of the course and learning outcomes.
• Primary material
• With senior students in elective, seminar style courses, we have regularly had student teams self-study a topic and prepare a lecture on the topic. Note the use of teams, not individual learning. Some teams would do the main lecture, some would do a tutorial on the material. These activities occur later in the course, and require careful and diplomatic adjustments where necessary. Students in their senior year will soon be in the work force without formal instructors and many will have to learn new material and teach others. This is not for the faint of heart. The results are worth it, but it is quite the ride. This approach brings a bit of the think-pair-share method into the game, as well as possible peer instruction.

Common mistakes we have observed and some suggestions...

• Trying to flip every lecture, the entire course
• Each topic needs to be considered and thought through. It is very unlikely that every topic in a course is suitable for flipping and it is unfortunate when everything looks like a nail to the one holding a hammer. You can beat on almost everything with a hammer, but that does not mean that the process or result are going to be what you want.
• Not accounting for the students’ ability or skill in self-learning

• Without being taught, we do not think that most students have the skill and expertise to self-learn. Students need to be taught how to self-learn and this important facet appears to be often overlooked by instructors.
• Relying too much on individual learning
• We think flipping is best when there is a mix of individual and paired/team learning for each topic. Peer instruction is important for independent learning until the students know how to self-learn effectively and efficiently. It is possible to have paired learning outside of the classroom.
• Underestimating the value of classroom interaction when designing the flipped content
• During an actual class, students can ask questions, the instructor can read the class and the order and process can be more dynamic and guided with smaller chunks of time between feedback. In individual learning, the student can go for long periods of time down the wrong path, confused, building up ‘learning’ that is not right or appropriate before the actual class. This is one reason why we prefer to focus on activities that create context and not the formation of new ideas per se.
• Failure to deal with reality
• What happens after the students have done their bit, before class? This of course depends on what was flipped and what students were expected to ‘learn’ on their own. Rest assured that some students will not have done the work. Others put some time in, but really did not do enough. Some might have actually tried to really ‘learn’, but were dazed and confused. The class time needs to address the majority of the cases and manage the outliers. We usually start off the class with a quick review of what was explored and the major 'ahaa' moments.
• Failure to provide value during student time
• The student time needs to have some ‘ahaa’ or learning moments where the students feel that they actually learned something and got something out of the exercise. A subsequent quiz is not enough. The students need to find value during the self-learning.
• Failure to provide added value during class time
• The class time needs to add value to what the students did on their own. There has to be new ‘ahaa’ moments or ways of hooking into the perplexities or interesting bits that were self-learned, self-executed. This can be done by having the students attempt to demonstrate their mastery of the material via peer instruction, attempting an exercise of some form and then debriefing, discussion, and then another exercise. The students need to have a chance to test their knowledge, adjust, and try again.
• False faith in quizzes
• Some instructors use a short quiz at the start of the formal class to 'test' and 'motivate' the students to do what is expected of them. If a short quiz is used, it should probe the actual learning and comprehension by the student and not the memorization or factual elements. If the comprehension style question is used, the students will self-realize that they actually learned something about the course content, and not that their memory worked, once again, for them.

Further reading

• https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/resources/reflection-framework-and-prompts
• https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/lecturing-and-presenting/online-activities-and-assessment-flipped-classroom
• https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/lecturing-and-presenting/class-activities-and-assessment-flipped-classroom