Design and teach a course

Flipping and blending

The term Blended Learning can refer to the combining of any two approaches to learning. However, lately it has come to mean using both face to face and online approaches to teaching and learning. There are no rules that say how much face to face or how much online qualifies in order to be called blended.

It could be said that in HSC every course (except those completely online with no face to face components) is a blended learning course. Blended does not mean interactive or student-centered; it just means that at least one part is face to face and at least one part is online.

Another point about educational definitions is that from time to time, an old approach to teaching and learning is resurrected, given a make-over and a new name: this is what has happened with the Flipped Classroom.

There is nothing new about a flipped classroom - it refers to those teaching events where students encounter new knowledge for the first time outside of the class and 'discuss' what the new knowledge means inside the class.

If you have ever set your students a reading to do outside of the class, and then discussed what that reading means inside the class, then you have flipped your classroom.

The following presentation may help you to understand and implement flipped learning in your classes.