This document summarizes the results of flipping a large enrollment academic skills course from a traditional lecture format to a flipped classroom approach. In 2015, the course used weekly lectures and seminars (232 students). In 2016, weekly video lectures were assigned as pre-class work and class time involved structured activities in small groups (315 students). Assessment results showed no significant differences in average rubric scores or pass rates between the two cohorts. While flipping the course was viable, ensuring all students complete pre-class work can be challenging. Lessons learned include the need to balance in-class and pre-class work. The presenters plan to formalize formative assessment and continue improving the flipped approach.

1. Torstein Låg
Rannveig Grøm Sæle, Espen Bjørkedal, Morten Øvervoll
A flipped classroom intervention in a large
enrolment academic skills course
Paper presented at
Librarians' Information Literacy Annual Conference (LILAC),
Swansea, April 2017

2. This is the story of…
… an ongoing struggle,
… a near disaster,
… a moderate success,
… and some lessons learned.

3. Outline
•Background: Setting, problem
•The two cohorts, and how they were taught
•Assessment: The assignment and the grading rubric
•Results: Rubric scores, Fail/Withdraw/Pass rates
•Conclusions & Limitations
•Lessons learned and the road ahead

4. The setting

5. The problem
How to help students become adept and
information literate learners at university?

6. PSY-0700 Thinking, learning and
writing in higher education
Learning strategies
• Describe conditions conducive to learning
• Evaluate your own learning strategies
• Judge your own knowledge on a topic
• Planning for effective learning

7. PSY-0700 Thinking, learning and
writing in higher education
Basic practical skills
• Perform simple topic searches for scholarly literature using
appropriate resources
• Retrieve literature from library collections
• Construct text with a clear main message and clear
structure
• Cite sources correctly
• Keep an accurate reference list in APA style

8. PSY-0700 Thinking, learning and
writing in higher education
General academic skills
• Identify the main message of a text
• Recognise common forms of valid and invalid arguments
• Judge the soundness of arguments
• Build your own independet argument
• Use simple rules of thumb to judge the validity and
relevance of a source
• Use sources to support an argument
• Avoid plagiarism

9. Assessment
•Written home exam, student's own research question
•All specifics (including grading rubric and grader
instructions) available to students on first day of class

10. The grading rubric

11. The 2015 version
•232 students
•Weekly plenary lectures (2x45 min)
• Large auditorium
• Little or no interactivity
•Weekly "seminar" (2x45 min)
• Groups of 10-30 students
• Led by senior students
• Activities and discussion

12. Herbert Simon (1916 – 2001)
«Learning results from what the student
does and thinks and only from what the
student does and thinks. The teacher can
advance learning only by influencing what
the student does to learn.»
Quoted in Ambrose S.A., Bridges M.W., DiPietro M., et al. (2010) How learning
works: 7 research-based principles for smart teaching. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
(Portrait by Richard Rappaport, 1987. Wikimedia Commons.)

13. The essence of the flipped
classroom
IN THE CLASSROOM: OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM:
Teacher-centered,
"information transmission"
teaching
Student-centered learning
activities
What happens in the traditional model:
Not a lot
What happens in the flipped model:
flip

14. The 2016 version
• 315 students
• Weekly pre-class:
• 1-4 video lectures (approx. 10 min each; posted on Youtube;
links in LMS)
• Simple comprehension check quiz in LMS
• Mandatory pre-class assignement
• Weekly in-class (2x45 min)
• Groups of 10-25 students
• Led by authors
• Structured activity based on pre-class assignment
• NB!: Students were turned away if they had not done the pre-
class assignment.

15. Results: Average rubric score
60
62
64
66
68
70
Mean = 65.8
SD = 20.2
N = 187
Mean = 68.4
SD = 16.6
N = 226
Figure 1. Average rubric scores by cohort year. Bars represent SEM.
2015 2016
Unequal sample t-test, not
assuming equal variance (df
from Statterthwaite
correction):
t(359.6) = 1.4, p = .16
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Standardized mean difference:
Cohen's d = 0.14

16. Results: Pass vs. Fail
Pass Fail (Marginal row totals)
Traditional (2015) 123 (63 %) 72 (37 %) 195
Flipped (2016) 173 (68 %) 83 (32 %) 256
(Marginal column totals) 296 155 451 (Grand total)
Table 1. Pass rate in students who submitted an exam
Note. χ2= .99, p = .32

17. Results: Pass vs. Fail+Withdrawn
Pass F + W (Marginal row totals)
Traditional (2015) 123 (53 %) 109 (47 %) 232
Flipped (2016) 173 (55 %) 142 (45 %) 315
(Marginal column totals) 296 251 547 (Grand total)
Table 2. Pass rate in students who registered for the course
Note. χ2= .19, p = .66

18. Conclusions & Limitations
Limitations
• No random allocation
• No blinding
• Numerous possible
confounds
Conclusions
• Flipping a large
enrolment academic
skills course is viable
• Ensuring «uptake» can
be tricky

19. Lessons learned: Balance
“Balancing stones” by fotologic is licensed under CC BY 2.0

20. Road ahead
Formalising formative assessment
“Studying” by Scott Akerman is licensed under CC BY 2.0

21. Thank you…
…for your attention!
Correspondence about this presentation to: torstein.lag@uit.no