The new semester starts today. My start begins with the “Collaborative Learning for Problem Solving” course. By the way, in the second semester of last year, I incorporated a flipped classroom approach into this course. For more details on the Collaborative Learning for Problem Solving course, please see the inaugural issue of the Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts and Science.
Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts and Science
http://www.artsci.kyushu-u.ac.jp/kikanbulletin/
The first two sessions are designed to deepen understanding of the content, while the latter two are for output. Therefore, I have implemented the flipped classroom approach in the first two sessions. I do this for three classes. I purchased Adobe Presenter 10 (Win) to create teaching materials that synchronize slides with audio, exported them in HTML5, and made them available online. Since they are in HTML5, they can also be viewed on smartphones. Concerned about connection speeds, I did not include video of myself speaking. Each session is about 15 minutes long, and I asked students to watch them before class and complete a pre-class assignment: creating about one A4 page of notes. I had them print enough copies of these notes for their group members in the face-to-face group learning session, plus one for the instructor, and started the class with group learning under the assumption that they had already completed the work. In the group learning sessions, students share the notes they created, and the group work is based on that sharing. I conducted this with the hope that they would learn from each other by referencing how others summarize and write down information.
Even though the Collaborative Learning for Problem Solving course consists of two consecutive periods, time can surprisingly run short. I feel that if I include lectures, I need to carefully design the time allocation, including group learning. However, by incorporating the flipped classroom and being able to start directly with group learning, I have been able to incorporate more relaxed group learning sessions. While I was concerned about the submission rate for pre-class assignments, although there were some non-submissions in the first session, over 95% of the students completed and submitted them. In the second session, everyone submitted them.
I actually conducted an evaluation using a questionnaire. Here is what the evaluation looked like…
Roughly speaking, while there were many opinions that “the burden of pre-learning increased” and “feeling burdened by the fact that the class consists almost entirely of group learning,” the aspects of “being prepared for class” and “advancement in understanding the content” were evaluated positively. Also, regarding “whether this class style suits me,” it seems that a slightly higher number of students answered “I think so.” As for whether other classes should be done this way, strangely, many students answered “I don’t really think so” or “neither.” It might be content-dependent. Also, the fact that pre-learning materials could be viewed on smartphones was received quite favorably. However, when I asked “where did you watch the pre-learning materials?” with multiple choices, surprisingly, the majority of students answered “at home.” A few students said “while commuting” or “while traveling.” This is likely because of the relationship with the pre-class assignment of creating notes. I haven’t organized the data or created graphs yet, so there are some unclear points, but that is how it looks at a glance.
At the FLIT lecture, Professor Kogo gave a presentation on his practices, which is very helpful. Professor Kogo mentioned that he uses quizzes. If I were to do this in the Collaborative Learning for Problem Solving course, one idea might be to have students choose their own reasoning from multiple-choice options and then write the reasons and grounds for their choice in an LMS assignment or on an electronic bulletin board.
FLIT Public Seminar: Designing Flipped Classrooms to Enhance Learning Effectiveness
As seen in the evaluation results this time and the FLIT panel, since this style of class involves having students listen to lectures outside of class to promote input, and then enhancing interaction and providing peer support during class, it is, in a sense, natural that the burden on students increases. In fact, although it is a subjective evaluation, I feel that readiness and understanding for the class have been improved. Also, at our university, there are no 5th-period classes for first-year students with the aim of enriching out-of-class learning. Since such institutional aspects are well-established, I think the flipped classroom is one effective teaching style to make good use of that.
The new academic year has begun, but I would like to wait and see a little more before deciding on the introduction for the first semester’s Collaborative Learning for Problem Solving course. Also, regarding tools, in addition to Adobe Presenter, I would like to try Camtasia, which Professor Kogo uses, and Captivate, which I purchased last year. Choosing the tool that suits you is also important, isn’t it?
