Making Class Time Count: Designing for Active Learning in the Flipped Classroom

What is the flip?

So you’ve decided to “flip” your course, and you may be wondering, what exactly does that mean for my time with students? Has class time just been split between in-person lectures and online lectures? The answer to this question is, in short, no. A flipped classroom is not simply a course in which lectures have been recorded and course materials moved online. A flipped classroom is NOT synonymous with a “hybrid” class; a flipped course is a specific teaching strategy, and the key difference is what should and must be happening during your in-person (or synchronous) class meetings with students. The purpose of the flipped model is to shift initial exposure to content outside of class so that valuable class time can be devoted to meaningful and impactful learning activities that benefit from interaction with educators and peers, such as applying concepts, practicing skills, solving problems, receiving feedback, and addressing misconceptions. The primary question, then, is not “what will I lecture about in class?” but rather, “what can students do during class that they couldn’t do as effectively on their own?"

Re-envisioning the instructor's role

It is important to reimagine the role you play during those real-time class interactions with students and the way learning will happen.

Instead of using class time primarily to… Use class time to help students …
Provide an explanation of course content  Apply and examine important course concepts 
Solve problems while students watch  Solve problems on their own with coaching and feedback 
Lecture while students take notes  Discuss, analyze, create, practice, or make decisions related to course concepts 
List key terms and processes  Identify and correct misconceptions 
Describe upcoming assignments  Begin and practice authentic disciplinary tasks with instructor guidance 

Your expertise as the instructor still matters in the flipped classroom. In fact, it is even MORE important in the flipped classroom, and most valuable when you are diagnosing student thinking, asking and answering questions, modeling disciplinary reasoning, providing just-in-time targeted explanations, and giving real-time feedback when students need it the most. 

Five high-impact uses for synchronous class time

To help you determine how you might effectively design and capitalize on your time with students, below are some cornerstones of meaningful, active, and engaged learning, along with a few concrete strategies for each.

Retrieve and connect

Help students move pre-class learning into their working memory and identify gaps in understanding.  

You could try:

Example: Give students three questions about the pre-class materials and ask them to respond individually. Then ask the students to discuss their answers and compare reasoning with a partner before discussing the most challenging question as a class. 

Apply and practice

Provide students with opportunities to engage in the intellectual work of the discipline and put key concepts and practices into action.

You could try:

  • Case studies
  • Individual or group problem-solving
  • Worked-example or scenario analysis
  • Data interpretation
  • Skill practice
  • Practice with authentic disciplinary tasks 

Example: Instead of demonstrating chemistry problems yourself, organize students into groups and give them progressively more challenging problems while you circulate, observe, and provide coaching. 

Discuss and explain

Ask students to articulate their reasoning around disciplinary concepts and tasks to help reveal both understanding and misconceptions they may have. The key is to ask students to explain why they have selected a particular answer.

You could try:

Example: Provide small groups of students with a graph, dataset, primary source, image, passage, or experimental result, then ask them to determine a claim about the information, identify evidence that supports that claim, and provide reasoning about how the evidence supports their conclusion.  

Analyze, evaluate, and make decisions

Give students the opportunity to move beyond low-level recall into higher order thinking. 

You could try:

  • Evaluate competing solutions
  • Critique an example using disciplinary criteria
  • Rank alternatives
  • Analyze a case
  • Diagnose an error
  • Make and defend a recommendation with constraints 

Example: Provide students with a flawed solution, argument, interpretation, design, example, or procedure and have students analyze and determine what went wrong. Ask students to explain their analysis as well as how they would correct the flaws. 

Receive and use feedback

Utilize class time to provide students with immediate, responsive feedback. 

You could try:

  •  Peer review
  • Instructor coaching during practice
  • Error-analysis activities
  • Draft-and-revise exercises
  • Self-assessment activities
  • Collaborative review of examples

Example: Set up a “Gallery Walk” in class. Post student work, solutions, ideas, or responses around the room or in separate virtual spaces. Students rotate through examples in small groups and leave brief targeted feedback, responses, or reflections at each based on a question or criterion provided.

Check Yourself: Am I Using Class Time Actively?

Before finalizing your class plan, ask yourself:

  • Who is doing the most cognitive work: me or the students? (If YOU are doing more cognitive work, then you need to rethink your plan).
  • Are students doing something with the pre-class content, or are they just hearing it again?
  • Does the plan require students to apply, analyze, evaluate, explain, solve, or create?
  • Does the plan allow me to observe student thinking or identify misconceptions?
  • Will the students receive feedback on their thinking or performance?
  • Does the class plan benefit from being done with an instructor and/or peers present?
  • Is there clear alignment between what students will be doing in class and what they will be expected to do for assessments?
  • Would students get the same benefit by watching me do this on a video? (If the answer to this one is yes, then you need to rethink your plan). 

The flipped classroom model offers a valuable opportunity to capitalize on your time with students to help deepen their learning. Moving lecture and course content outside of the classroom creates space and time for the magic of active learning to happen.  For even more sample interactive techniques to make the most of your class time, see 228 Active Learning Strategies compiled by Kevin Yee.