Robin had undertaken her study because she wanted to explore How to help students develop into “more purposeful, self-directed learners” (Hutchings & Shulman 1999:11).This was a course on writing.

Robin had two groups of students that she undertook some research with. All her students are not traditional University students they are all considered at risk in this setting in terms of achievement and they come from racially, socially and economic diverse groups.

Group one had 17 students and Robin had taught them the previous term and so for this term she taught them the same way with seven weeks of short lectures, active learning activities and writing workshops as time permitted.

Group two had 18 students and this was their first course and so Robin wanted to use the “flipped” classroom with them. These students had seven weeks of videos that they needed to watch prior to each class and then class time was used for active learning activities and writing workshops.

Robin then collected data from the flipped group only about their learning through an anonymous online surveymonkey questionnaire which had 13 likert scale type questions and she collected data from blackboard the VLE around student activity. Results were:

• 88% of students either did or mostly viewed the videos
• 78% mostly or did give the videos their full attention
• 33% most of the time took notes and 61% sometimes did

They were also asked to use statements to describe how they watched/used the videos

• 83% enjoyed the videos as much as class lectures
• 88% said they understood the material much better
• 100% said they liked using the time in class to do activities and ask questions

There were also some qualitative comments about using the videos which included they liked stopping the videos to take notes, they liked being able to re-watch the videos and it made them more responsible for their learning.

Robin also looked at the results and these students needed to gain a C to pass. In the traditional class all students either got C- or C and in the flipped class all students got a C or a C+. Robin knows that further work is needed to show any effect.

The conclusions from this work were that this change to “flipped” learning allowed the lecturer to incorporate more active learning, students were generally positive about this and their results were at least as good and, the classroom had positive dynamics and increased interaction.

In terms of Weimer’s (2002) five dimensions of learner-centred teaching this study had met the first four of

• Balance of power – this was more equal
• Function of the content – students were able to draw on knowledge from the videos
• Role of the instructor – changed to be more facilitator
• Responsibility for learning – students felt more responsible

The fifth dimension was around purposes and processes of assessment and at present Robin had made no changes to this so could not include this.

Hutchings P & Shulman L (1999) The scholarship of teaching: New elaborations, new developments Change 31 (5) p10-15

Weimer M (2002, 2013) Learner-centred teaching: Five key changes to practice San Francisco CA Jossey-Bass