`Flipped classroom' keeps one-way
lectures at bay
If teaching is a transaction, its
terms are changing. A classroom is no longer just a lecture hall. It's a
discussion forum, an amphi theatre, a problem-solving arena and a large laboratory.
Welcome
to the concept of a flipped classroom, or the turning around of teaching that
allows re-purposing time. What used to constitute classwork--opening a text
book and reading material from it--is now homework, but done before coming to
the classroom. While contact hours, the academic term that describes
face-to-face meeting of a teacher and a student, may have remained the same,
course time has expanded exponentially, allowing faculty to do more; lecturing
is among the last things now done in class. When the class congregates, discus
sions revolve around the deeper aspects of learning. Faculty across top
universities around the world have seen value in this experiment and are
liberating the classroom by developing their own internal virtual courses.
“The
possibilities of teaching, of learning, of evaluating, of discussion, of team
work, of problem solving, go up exponentially, “ said professor Deepak Phatak,
Padma Shri awardee and head of the Kanwal Rekhi School of Information
Technology , IIT Bombay . He and Professor Sridhar Iyer use the flipped
classroom model of teaching and their research showed that engagement level
shoots up by almost twice as much as the traditional format of teaching.
In
the US, most varsities have developed their own internal MOOCs (massive online
op-en courses) so that they can use the blended (online and classroom delivery)
model of teaching. As Mitchell Daniels Jr, president of Purdue University,
said, “Our faculty have developed their own virtual te aching videos for
students. MOOCs is a growing phenomenon.“
In
India, a non-profit, The MooCxpress, is working with universities and colleges
to develop their own digital content and adopt the flipped classroom model of
teaching. “A teacher is no longer at the centre of the class. Students steer
the direction in which teaching-learning takes place, “ said CEO Jimeet Shah.
With
students having different interest levels, grasping abilities and attention
spans, Shah added, the flipped model allows the teacher to give out basic
information beforehand, thus letting students take their own time to understand
the basics. “Under the flipped model there are no backbenchers everyone is in
the front row. “
The
model has allowed Podar School, said principal Avnita Bir, to shift their focus
from teachers to learners. IIM Bangalore, too, has been using this model of
teaching; some of their MOOCs are now on edX The to-be started Bennett University
(started by the group that runs TOI) will also be using the flipped classroom
mode of delivery . “We are still debating the amount of con tent that will be
delivered through this mechanism, but it will be between 8% and 15%,“ said
vice-chancellor Yaj Medury. At S P Jain Global, the active multimedia online
adaptive multimedia online content exclusive to their students is available in
nine subjects, some of which have double modules and hence have 72 hours. So
468 hours or 25% is now dedicated to self-learning. The case is valid at BML Munjal
University, too, where 37% of the engineering course is studied outside the
class.
Focus
on developing quality teaching material has never been emphasized more than
now. As former Harvard University president Larry Summers said, “The
institutions that will have the greatest impact over the next 50 years in
higher education will not actually be the ones with the most vibrant campuses.
They will be the ones that are centres of creation of the best courses. “
He
added that technology held the power of achieving massive scale and providing
for individual customization. “Once I've filled my introductory economics
course and it has been put on the web, it can be watched by a million people
just as it can be watched by a hundred. That is the remarkable feature of
education technology what economists call a zero margin cost.“
Source | Times of India | 19 January
2016
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
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