Friday 5 June 2015

An approach to Flipping the Classroom in Politics, By Matthew Wyman

The approach taken

I have used audio recordings (in MP3 format) with accompanying slides to take the place of lectures on my second year Russian politics module. As well as 12 hours of recordings, this frees up space to provide 20 or 21 hours of seminars instead of the 8 I would normally provide.

Advantages

It enables us to cover the curriculum for the module in much greater detail than previously. But at the same time it requires a great deal less preparation from me, as I don't have to prepare to give the same lecture year after year, enabling me to focus more on making the seminar time valuable, as well as providing good resources, giving more feedback, and all the other things that help enhance the student experience.

Disadvantages

I think 50 minute length is just not needed when you are exploiting audio-visual technology. A larger number of shorter recordings would be more user friendly.

Recommendations

I would pay a bit more attention to exploring the wide range of technologies I could use for lecture capture. I would also consider making the recordings available via you tube rather than the KLE for easier accessibility (you can still restrict access).