NCLA 2015

Flipping LIB210: The Flipped Classroom Model in Action

Hu Womack

What is LIB210?

Lib 210: Social Science Research Sources and Strategies This half-semester course provides students with an understanding of the sources and strategies necessary for doing research in the social sciences (anthropology, communication, economics, education, political science, psychology, sociology, and women’s, gender and sexuality studies). Topics covered include strategies for developing research projects, resources available in each discipline, finding and evaluating sources and interpreting research results.

What are the Course Objectives?

Objective I - Students will be able to articulate and design an effective research process for research in the Social Sciences, including crafting a research question, selecting search terms and applying advanced searching techniques in a variety of environments. 

Objective II - Students will be able to define the various disciplines of the Social Sciences, articulate the interdisciplinarity of the Social Sciences and be able to recognize the various disciplines with an interest in any given topic. Additionally, students will begin to participate as a scholar in their discipline and apply the discipline in unexpected ways.  

Objective III -Students will gain a broad understanding of a wide variety of potential source types when doing Social Science research and will know where to go and how to locate primary sources, data sources, video and audio sources, government sources and sources from policy/think tank/NGO/IGO sources. 

Objective IV -Students will be proficient in the use of Zotero and the APA reference style and be able to recognize errors in citations and correct them to conform to APA rules. 

Objective V -Students will be exposed to innovative technologies via the Kindle Fire HD and demonstrate an ability to explore and evaluate new technologies.

What is the “Flipped Classroom”?

• The flipped classroom is a pedagogical model in which the typical lecture and homework elements of a course are reversed.

• The term “Flipped Classroom” is widely used to describe almost any class structure that provides prerecorded lectures followed by

in-class exercises.

“7 Things you should know about Flipped Classrooms” https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7081.pdf

What Technology Did We Use In This Class?

• Sakai for links to course content and gradebook• Google+ for required reflection outside of class• VoiceThread for viewing presentations and commenting • Kindle Fire tablets provided by ZSR

• Checked out these Kindles out like a book on the first day of class.

• Students responsible for returning them on the last day of class.

• Required an Amazon account to register the device. (But no required expenditures!)

• Apps on the Kindle Fire table:• Browzine, TED, LinkedIN, Twitter

What made this class different?

• Heavy use of technology• Sakai course organized by week• More time in class for active

learning exercises• All homework was graded

Student Feedback

“Your friends are registering for classes and have a choice between a Flipped Section of LIB 210 or a Traditional Lecture Section of LIB 210. They ask you which section they should register for. Describe how you would respond in convincing them to register for one section over the other.”

• I would recommend the flipped section of LIB 210 as the class discussions are more engaging when everyone has familiarized themselves with the material prior to the class itself.

• I would advise them to take a flipped section. It was helpful to take a hands-on approach to learning new research strategies and resources. Actually utilizing those strategies and skills through assignments and having the opportunity to ask questions after the fact makes applying them to other classes much easier.

• I very much preferred the flip class section. It was nice to be able to work out technology issues in class instead of struggling with them at home. I also felt like class time was never wasted by watching lectures or PowerPoints that I could've easily done at home on my own time. This course is so short that every minute of class time counts, and with the flipped classroom setting I very much felt that my time in the classroom was well spent.

• I enjoyed the Flipped Section of LIB 210 because it enabled me to sort of "learn" the material first through homework assignments, and then "really learn" the material during class time. I think the Flipped Classroom helped me to learn better because it helped my brain to begin thinking and learning about concepts before we even talked about them in class, at which point my learning was then solidified during the class period.

Results and Lessons Learned

• Examined the course content, reworked my course-level objectives and created class-level objective that aligned with the course-level objectives.

• Incorporated technologies ranging from VoiceThread to Twitter into the class in meaningful ways.

• Instructional designer, Sarah McCorkle, was key to the success of this project. Her experience with online education and flipping courses allowed me to quickly and effectively redesign this course.

• LIB210 better meets the needs of my students. • Learned that tablets were now an unnecessary part of

the course.• Managed expectations with discussions of why we

were doing a “flipped class.”

Questions and Activity

Questions?!

Activity:• Take five minutes and think about

how you can “flip” one of the classes you teach.

• Take five minutes and “pair and share” with the person beside you.

• Take five minutes and share with the room.

Contact Information

Hubert David Womack

BA’90, MBA ‘00, MLIS ’08

Instruction and Outreach Librarian

WFU Z. Smith Reynolds Library

womack@wfu.edu

336.758.4314