To Flip or Not to Flip: The Story of a ‘Flipped Classroom’, its Elements and Advantages

Once upon a time, not so long ago, a corporate trainer was conducting a program on Steven Covey’s ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, wherein he showcased the 7 Habits in the traditional training approach of lecture, examples, role-plays, learning outcomes and assessments, the homework being reading the actual book as a personal discovery, reinforcement and guide to the participants in their immediate future. A quarter after the program, a post-training assessment noted that the participants still had not read the book and a fairly sizeable number were not aligned with the Habits.

A year later, the trainer embarked on a different approach. He handed over copies of the book to each of the participants, with a timeline to finish, and mailed video links of Steven Covey on the book. He extended the timeline by a few days to ensure completion by all participants, ran a couple of online quizzes, and then commenced the training program. The program wasted no time on narrating the Habits, as they were all easily recalled by the participants. Instead, program time was devoted to application of these concepts, clarifying them, and detecting and eradicating errors in thinking. Collaboration ensured social interaction among students from various divisions in the company, making it easier for them to learn and support their peers. More time was spent on case studies and role-plays thus making the learning real and hard-hitting. Post-training assessments witnessed greater alignment with the Habits, with reports, peers and managers also rating the participants higher than they did with the earlier traditional approach.

The Difference: The trainer had ‘flipped’ the traditional classroom training approach by sharing the core content of the program, in advance with the participants to read and absorb at leisure, helped along by some preparatory quizzes. By the time the participants arrived for the program, they had a fairly good idea of the concepts disclosed and discussed in the book.

The Advantages

•       Quality time thus can be spent on application and clarification.
•       Students take on more responsibility for their own learning and experimentation and apply higher-order thinking.
•       Greater focus on concept exploration (the core content as part of preparation), meaning making (quizzes, blogging during preparation) and application of knowledge (problem-based learning, role plays in the training program).

The Elements

•       Core content can be anything from a book, a video lecture, articles, e content available on computers and mobiles.
•       Facilitation techniques could be simple quizzes, polling, blogs, and online discussions.
•       Application and hands-on practice comprise the core of the training program.

Are you game for a flipped classroom training? Go for it and tell us how you benefited!