Starting on July 19, I will be leading a 3-week, intensive online course on the “flipped” or “inverted” classroom. This is the first professional development course offered by Hybrid Pedagogy as part of its new Digital Pedagogy Lab. What follows is a draft syllabus for the course. I’m still finalizing the reading list, and will post that once it is set.
If you’re interested in the course, you can register here. There is a $100 early-bird discount for those who register by July 5.
Overview
What does an active, engaged, student-oriented class look like?
By definition, every student-oriented class will look different. To the extent that they look the same, classes are not really centered around the students and their work. While we can define “inverted” or “flipped” pedagogy in some specific ways, the emphasis on student activity and agency means that inverted pedagogy must be characterized by a diversity of practices and results.
In this course, we will explore the diversity of practices that are typically associated with the inverted/flipped classroom, taking both a practical and a critical perspective. On the practical side, we will study each of these techniques (including the “basic flip,” inquiry-driven learning, peer instruction, etc.), engaging both peer-reviewed research and instructor/student anecdotes, and create lesson plans for our own courses that are consistent with the technique. On the critical side, we will analyze the implicit values and goals of each technique, and the ends (if any) towards which each technique can and should be employed. The course will conclude with a final project, in which we’ll produce a complete syllabus/plan for a course we’ll teach in the near future, and a subset of lesson plans/materials, based on one or more of the practices engaged in the course.
Because inverted pedagogy privileges active, experiential learning, as well as collaborative work and peer feedback, we will take an inverted approach to the course: student work will be the central focus of the course, and collaboration and peer instruction will be employed throughout the course. Thus, we’ll gain both informational and experiential understanding of many of the practices we explore.
A certificate of completion is available at the end of the course. This course counts towards Hybrid Pedagogy’s forthcoming Certification Program in Critical Digital Pedagogy.
Required materials
There are no required purchases. All reading materials will be open-access or provided for study purposes within the private course Learning Management System (LMS). You will, however, need a few free tech tools/accounts:
- A public blog. If you do not already have one, or want to use a separate site for this course, I highly recommend the Known platform, especially for beginners seeking a quick start.
- A public Twitter account. Pseudonyms are allowed, but please let your course colleagues and me know your pseudonym!
- Other online resources TBA. We are still exploring what online discussion and file/link-sharing tool(s) will be best for this course’s format.
Schedule and coursework
The course will be divided into three one-week units.
Unit I: July 19–25
Topics
- Personal introductions
- What is the “flipped”/”inverted” class model?
- Video microlectures/screencasting
- Active student work in class
- Just-in-time teaching (JiTT)
Readings
Final reading list TBA.
Schedule
Following is a schedule overview. Full assignment prompts will be provided in the course LMS.
Before Monday morning: Blog post: personal introduction.
Before Monday morning: Blog post: pre-reading reflection.
Before Tuesday morning: Blog post: reading response.
Before Wednesay morning: Post comments on at least three other particpants’ personal introductions and reading responses.
Before Thursday morning: Blog post: lesson plan (pre-class HW, class activity/content, follow-up HW) based on one or more methods covered in the readings.
Before Friday morning: Post comments on at least three other participants’ lesson plans.
Before Friday morning: Blog post: follow-up reflection/”exit ticket”.
I also anticipate having two opportunities for synchronous discussion during Unit I. Schedule and format (Twitter/video-chat/etc.) will be determined by a poll of course participants.
Unit II: July 26–August 1
Topics
- Peer Instruction & “clickers”
- Inquiry-driven learning
- Problem-based learning
Readings
Final reading list TBA.
Schedule
Following is a schedule overview. Full assignment prompts will be provided in the course LMS.
Before Monday morning: Blog post: pre-reading reflection.
Before Tuesday morning: Blog post: reading response.
Before Wednesay morning: Post comments on at least three other particpants’ personal introductions and reading responses.
Before Thursday morning: Blog post: lesson plan (pre-class HW, class activity/content, follow-up HW) based on one or more methods covered in the readings.
Before Friday morning: Post comments on at least three other participants’ lesson plans.
Before Friday morning: Blog post: follow-up reflection/”exit ticket”.
I also anticipate having two opportunities for synchronous discussion during Unit II. Schedule and format (Twitter/video-chat/etc.) will be determined by a poll of course participants.
Unit III: August 2–8
Before Friday morning: Final project.
Create a full course plan for a real course you intend to teach in the coming year, based on one or more of the inverted-pedagogy practices explord in this course. Post it publicly on your course blog.
Create a complete, detailed syllabus for the course, as well as at least two weeks of materials, including class activities, instructor-generated resources, homework assignments, projects, and/or tests, as appropriate. Some of these materials should be revisions of materials created in Units I and II, taking instructor and colleague feedback into account.
Assessment
In general, this is a course with no grades. However, I will provide comments and feedback on all work completed on schedule. Also, participants will be able to obtain a certificate of completion, if so desired.
To obtain a certificate of completion, participants complete 85% of the assigned work. To obtain a certification with distinction, participants complete 95% of the assigned work, and draw on optional readings or other non-required materials in at least 50% of the written blog posts (pre-reading reflections, reading responses, and follow-up reflections).
To certify completion, make a copy of this Google Document (link forthcoming), which contains a list of all the course assignments. For each assignment completed, insert a link to your blog post (or the blog post on which you commented). At the end of the course, share the document with me (kris@hybridpedagogy.org).
Contacting the instructor
The best ways to reach me during the course are email and Twitter. Please allow up to 24 hours for a response, though during summer courses, I tend to respond much more quickly than that during morning and afternoon. Messages sent on Saturday or Sunday will likely not receive a reply until Monday.
About this syllabus
This syllabus is a summary of course objectives and content, not a contract. All information in this syllabus is subject to change, with sufficient advanced notice provided by the instructor. I will also consider proposals for changes or individually appropriate alternate forms of assessment from participants enrolled in the course.