Sunday, June 23, 2013

BIALL 2013 Flipping the Classroom: Revolutionising Legal Reseach Training at the University of Salford


This plenary session was by Nicola Sales. Main gist of it below…

Reasons for Flipping Training

A lot of the profession are not trained to teach, some are. The Law School in her university is very new being opened in 2007. She worked with the academic teaching team on another training model. There was however 10 / 15% attendance from those being trained, training lecture style, no knowledge
transfer obvious, they were passive, no enthusiasm in those that did attend.

Common training experience, looking out to a lot of blank faces.  Hands on experience was offered in addition above the lectures to those who attended. Again, this had very low attendance and didn’t transfer knowledge.

The Flipping The Classroom / Training Room model

This dates to the 1990s and is popular in America. The trainer becomes ‘the guide on the side’ rather than directing and in charge at the front start to end.
She then compared the traditional model to flipping the classroom model.
Traditional Training is
Trainer led
Participants observe
Involves demonstrations
Follow guide instruction
Participants perform training activity
Feed back discussion

Flipped training is where

Trainer provides content prior to participants attending training
Training session as participant led
Problem based learning activities
Discussion
Participants receive support and guidance

Flipped steps to learning

[This was shown as a progressive curve]

Engagement with knowledge – Remembers knowledge – Applying theory – Creative research

Pros and Cons of Flipping the Classroom Model

Hard to appeal to everyone with any training style
Needs to be used in the right place and the right context

Plus Points

Individuals own and control their own learning
Can study in advance as much as need / feel necessary
Don’t get left behind in session
Manages expectations
Can leave training online after for students to catch up on content if need be
More interaction
Peer to peer

Bad Points

Letting go of telling people how to do something is hard
Temptation to put up too much content to study first
Need access to software and equipment
Takes time to create the information to be studied in advance
Promoting the materials
Aclimatising to new way of doing training

Practical Points to Consider for Any Training

Is it appropriate to flip?
Flipping would achieve what?
How encourage? Embed in module

Actual Academic Experience Using Method

70% of attendees had done the pre-reading before attending sessions
Very minimal materials for actual sessions – 4 ppt slides and worksheets
Didn’t repeat the pre-reading content for those who hadn’t done it
91% attendance
Good feedback and academic outcomes
Students enjoyed
Gave an identity hook for the sessions
Short, compact, straight to point

Issues to Think About

Where to host pre-reading materials – private YouTube channel, VLE?
Learning modules – releasing material on a time release basis before it’s needed
Decide how much content to give – she gave about 40 mins worth, but will pare it down for next time using the feedback to decide what’s most important
If content already exists which can be freely used then use it, don’t reinvent for sake of it
Consider formats and mix e.g. voiceover over Powerpoint slides, Prezi etc
Lots of free software that might suffice or priced options e.g. Jing, Cantasia
Took 3 months to put together the new module approach working part-time

Top 10 Tips

Short video pre-reading content should only last 3 / 4 mins each
Repurpose content that already exists
Use free software
Natural voice will come through after while
Focus learning content
Time release learning
Resist repetition
Remember to use more than videos
Create relevant tasks

Be flexible

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