Design and Evaluation of a Flipped Course Adopting the Holistic Flipped Classroom Approach

Abstract

There has been a paradigm shift in the modern classroom from teacher-centered, in-class lecture in a physical classroom, to student-centered, blended learning in a flipped classroom. However, many university teachers are having difficulties in designing effective learning instructions or activities for a flipped course. Aiming to explore the validity of the flipped learning concept in a higher education context, an innovative flipped course was designed and implemented using an advanced learning platform to create a holistic flipped classroom environment. A survey, an interview, and computer system logs were used to evaluate the effectiveness of such a pedagogical method. It was found that the "Holistic Flipped Classroom" approach was effective: students reported that they were satisfied with the course, their attendance improved, and their study efforts increased. It was also found that the transactional distance changed during the learning process: highly motivated students performed much better comparatively than less motivated ones. Although this approach has shown positive results, some students retained their former passive learning habits, and this became the main obstruction to full adoption. Finally, for the practitioner, case examples and suggestions are provided to address the design, implementation and adoption issues.