How many times have you been sitting in a lecture — whether in school or in the workplace — and thought, “What a waste of time”? The speaker might be good and the topic of interest, but we sometimes feel we could just as well have read it on our own, in the comfort of our armchair or while sipping a latte at the local coffeehouse. Why not use that face-to-face time in the classroom to really do something? That’s flipped learning.
From kindergarten through college, instructors have started to see value in reversing the process. Instead of giving a lecture and then assigning homework, students watch the lecture online first at their own pace. They can back up and view it again if they need to or watch it in intervals as their schedule allows. That allows for more effective use of classroom time for students, providing more opportunity to discuss the online lecture, then work on group projects and do activities.
Imagine what this could look like in the workplace. Technology training? No problem. Use self-paced training to learn the features of an application, then meet with other users to problem solve and consider application of the features. Instead of a room full of people listening passively to a speaker, you could have a room full of fellow employees having roundtable discussions, sharing their experiences as they work through the online learning, learning insights from one another, as well as discussing challenges of a situation or technical processes and arriving at best practices and solutions as a group. Not only might it make learning more interesting and productive, it would allow teams to build stronger connections with each other.
This isn’t to suggest that we abandon the presentation format altogether. With effectively designed slides, you can give a dynamic presentation that’s engaging and informative. But for best results, it’s important that a speaker be intentional about the format that will work best — not what’s best for the presenter, but what’s best for the learners.
If you’d like to give flipped learning a try, take one of those well-prepared presentations and record it. (PowerPoint has a built-in recording feature that lets you save a narrated presentation to a movie format.) Require your learners to view the recording before coming to class or to a training session, and then plan how you’ll use the class time most effectively. Most students are eager to have time with a subject matter expert, so take advantage of that opportunity. Need an example? You could have a set of activities to work through, with you stepping in to provide support as needed. Or have a topic and divide the group into smaller groups to discuss, and then come back together to share the best ideas. The possibilities are endless.
If you’d like to learn more about flipped learning, this month’s T+D magazine (a publication from the American Society of Training & Development) has a great article that breaks it all down.
Have you tried flipped learning? If so, what was your experience? What feedback did you get from your learners? Tell us about it!
Photo Credit: runfardvs via Compfight cc
Sue Maden is Education & Training Manager for Burns & McDonnell. She oversees Burns & McDonnell University, providing professional growth and development to move employees’ careers forward. Sue creates resources for instructors to improve the course development process, simplifies access to learning for employees and looks for ways to increase benefits of collaboration and informal learning at Burns & McDonnell.
The post Flipped Learning: Making the Most of Face Time in the Classroom appeared first on The Burns & McDonnell Careers Blog.
