Flip your classroom with Moodle™ Tools

Flipping the classroom is a blended learning approach that places the lecture time outside of the class time so that the teacher can spend more time during class interacting and working with students. In a flipped classroom students receive instruction and cover content first outside of class then apply what they have learned during class when they have access to the teacher to help answer questions and guide them as they practice new skills and apply acquired knowledge.

In the flipped classroom technology plays a large role particularly the use of teacher-developed videos or videos created by others like Khan Academy. In today’s blog post we will explore four Moodle™ tools for flipped classroom use.

When flipping a classroom course builders should place careful consideration on how instruction and course content will be delivered to students. There are several resource types available in Moodle™ however this post will focus on Page and Label. These two resources offer instructors flexibility in incorporating a variety of content types into their course including text images audio video embedded code or a combination of all of these.

The Page module allows you to input rich formatted text that is housed off the main page of the course. Moodle™ displays a link on the main page to the content making it easy to update saving you time. Use this resource to embed instructional media or content longer than a few sentences. Watch the following video on how to embed a video into a Page:

Labels offer course builders a way to add content directly to a course front page. They can provide information for course participants or simply provide clarity and organization. Use this resource as a way to offer small bites of information to students.

While most of the activity in a flipped classroom takes place during class time using the activity modules in Moodle™ can help track student understanding of content as well as prepare them for collaboration and face-to-face activities.

Advanced Forums allow course participants to exchange ideas by posting comments. Use the Q&A forum type to have students post a response to the current video before seeing what everyone else thought of it. Consider also using Advanced Forums as a “finger on the pulse” of student understanding. Anything that seems fuzzy can be clarified through an in-class activity further discussion or possibly a focused content section within the Moodle™ course.

The Assignment activity allows teachers to collect work from students review it and provide feedback including grades. This activity can be used to:

• Allow students to ask questions by probing with instructions such as ‘list three questions about the content that confused you or was unclear.’
• Ask students to reflect on what was learned in a running journal with the teacher offering feedback throughout the course.
• Collect answers. One way to check if students are watching the videos or other content is to add in an “Easter Egg” a hidden piece of information which must be turned in through the Assignment activity before they can participate in class.

Using Moodle™/Joule allows you to free up time from lecturing so you can focus on guiding students while they learn through interaction and collaboration in the classroom.

Happy Moodling,

~April