Over the past couple of decades, there have been rapid advancements in the field of technology which transformed the pedagogical strategies in higher education. Online education, emphasis on technology dependent learning strategies and increasing stress on the cost effectiveness have mounted pressure on academics to come up with innovative instructional methods which are flexible, user-friendly, empowering and student-centred. Collaboration and sharing practices would be the most sensible response to these demands. This paper shares and explores the experiences of flipping an online classroom with a large cohort of externally enrolled Undergraduate Nursing and Midwifery students in a regional Australian university. A major assessment activity of the unit and the preparatory online workshop for this assessment activity was flipped to elicit active participation and ownership of learning. The flipped activity and the innovative mode of delivery was an effort to elicit engagement and ownership of learning for the Nursing and Midwifery students. There was a need to create communication strategies both synchronous and asynchronous to offer a flexible learning mode to this external cohort and initiate higher order thinking such as analysis, synthesis and critical introspection. The design, implementation, and evaluation of this active learning strategy are examined of using the theoretical framework, Community of Inquiry by Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2000). There is pressure on academics to adapt to blended learning approaches as part of cost-effectiveness and the online shift of university education; however, additional time and technical support are needed to fulfill the demand. The teacher needs to be comfortable with the task and technology to create scholarly interactions and trusting associations with the learner. The students’ accountability to engage in the task, in a student-centred model of pedagogical strategy which reinforced higher order thinking was the key to this successfully flipped task.

1. Experiences of Flipping an
Online Classroom: An
appraisal using Community
of Inquiry Framework
Leena Panicker
Lecturer
Charles Darwin University
leena.panicker@cdu.edu.au

2. 22
What do pirates and
academics have in
common?

3. 33
What was flipped? • Assessment activity and its preparation
• Research and Evidence Based Practice unit
• Core unit in the Nursing and Midwifery Degree
• Essay- Critical analysis of original research (60% weight)
• For external students –online students, 202nos.

4. 44
Why flipped? • The assessment is linked to a mandatory competency
• The assessment covers three learning outcomes of the
unit
• Perceived as a challenging assessment
• Prior evidence of poor engagement (10%)
• University’s strategic plan to use active learning

5. 55

6. 66
Theories and
concepts behind
flipped classroom
• Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives
• Kolb’ experiential learning
• Learning theories of Piaget and Vygotsky
• Constructivism
• Dewey’ concepts of ‘community’ and ‘inquiry’
• Community of Inquiry (COI) Framework by Garrison,
Anderson and Archer (2001)

7. 77
Community of
Inquiry Framework
(used with the permission of the
theorists)
Elements of Educational experience by Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2010)

8. 88
Cognitive presence (COI framework)
• Triggering event
– read article
• Exploration
– query in discussion board
(Padlet)
• Integration
– deliberation and critical
discussion in online
classroom
• Resolution
– reflective discussion post
and summative assessment.

9. 99
The flipped activity

10. 1010
Social presence
(COI framework)
Elements of Educational experience by Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2010)
• Safe, open, non-threatening
environment
• Embrace every opportunity
to communicate
• Acknowledge student
participation
• Sense of belonging and
ownership of process

11. 1111
Teacher presence
(COI framework)
Elements of Educational experience by Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2010)
Challenging in online teaching
• Design and organisation
• Facilitating discourse
• Direct instruction

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Student performance- 65% increase in engagement

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Comparison of Statistical Summary of Grades
Grade
Without flip With flip
Students
(numerical)
Students
(percentage)
Students
(numerical)
Students
(percentage)
HD 12 7% 25 10%
D 29 16% 81 33%
C 33 19% 54 22%
P 45 25% 28 12%
F 17 9% 14 6%
W 41 24% 43 17%
Total 177 100% 245 100%

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Student responses
“The workshop presented inspired me to go
that little bit deeper into the research
studies. This unit and indeed the online
workshops have instilled confidence in being
able to being the journey of critical review
of journal articles”.
“As I was reading the assignment
information, I was expecting to have
trouble with and really dislike writing this
assignment but to my surprise I actually
enjoyed it! Yes, it was difficult as it was my
first time ever doing something like this
workshop, but it was worth it”.

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Challenges to flip
• Preparation time
• Lack of engagement in pre class activity
• Reluctance to move from traditional
learning style
• Use of technology
• Limited research evidence on
effectiveness

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What did I learn?
• Preparation is crucial
(teacher ,content, student)
• Content and context of flip must be
explicit to the learners
• Decide ‘what to flip, when to flip, and
how to flip’

17. 1717
References • Panicker, L. (2017). Experiences of flipping an online
classroom: An appraisal using Community of Inquiry
Framework. Paper presented at the Worldwide Nursing
Conference, Singapore. Retrieved from
http://dl4.globalstf.org/?wpsc-product=experiences-of-
flipping-an-online-classroom-an-appraisal-using-community-
of-inquiry-framework
• The Community of Inquiry Multi-author Blog
https://coi.athabascau.ca/
• Garrison, D.R., Anderson, T. & Archer, W. (2010). The First
Decade of the Community of Inquiry Framework: A
Retrospective. Internet and Higher Education. 13,p.2-9.
DOI: 10.1016/j.iheduc.2009.10.003
• Padlet, online interactive board
https://padlet.com/