Flipped Classroom model is an inverted and technologically advanced form of the traditional teaching method, where the lessons are watched at home and later discussed/clarified along with the homework in the presence of a teacher. It allows teachers to
deliver instructions online and to become a facilitator during class hours.
The main motto behind flipping a classroom is to provide students with sufficient time to work on what really matters. In this model, teachers need to create effective lesson contents for students. Nowadays’ educational technology helps educators by saving their precious effort and time. Administrators, Educators & Decision makers are trying to find the best online resources which enhance students’ learning. The best solution is to engage the students with MOOCs ( Massive Open Online Courses). MOOCs are the standard lectures uploaded online by professors and educators. In this article, we let you know how MOOCs help educators in flipping their classroom.
An extremely useful tool to provide students with better resources:
For flipping a classroom, what teachers need to do is to create lesson tutorials as well as presentations that can be watched by students at home or outside the classroom. MOOCs are more than just presentations and videos, they are a comprehensive set of online study material and courses. Popular initiatives like Coursera, iTunesU, Udacity, EdX etc., provide MOOCs that contain standard lesson contents which help students learn at their own pace.
Learning through MOOCs becomes even more effective if there is an authentic interaction between students and teachers; this is possible with a Flipped Classroom model, where students go through MOOCs and teachers clear their doubts in the class hours.
Helps teachers provide flipped lessons according to a student’s learning style:
Different students learn differently. Some students learn by watching practical experiments, some by animations while many others by effective tutorials and presentations. It’s difficult for an educator to create flipped lessons by concentrating on each individual student’s learning style, but MOOCs surely help them overcome this difficulty. There are hundreds of MOOCs for every concept to choose from and select the best one to engage each of your students with.
If you’re having good expertise, you can create MOOCs on web platforms like Coursera, Udemi, Udacity, EdX etc., you can make your MOOC interesting by interacting with your students online, observing their responses through polls and quizzes, assessing their performance and designing personalized instructions before reaching the classroom.
Saves Teachers’ precious time and effort:
MOOCs are really beneficial to teachers in the Flipped Classroom model. While flipping a classroom, creating lesson tutorials takes more than half of their preparation time. If lesson tutorials get replaced by MOOCs, educators will be free to spend their time on the work that really matters. They can improve their teaching skills, concentrate on each and every student to assess individually and design personalized instructions for them. What educators actually need to do is to provide a personalized learning environment for students so that they can perform their best learning; MOOCs assist teachers utilize their free time to provide a personalized learning environment that supports flipped classroom model as well.
MOOCs play a significant role in the Education system by bringing high quality & interactive learning content accessible to anyone at anytime. They assist Educational Institutions not only in academic service but also help them grow professionally. To know more, you may refer our previous article “How Can MOOCs Help Educational Institutions in Professional Development?”.
There is no doubt that Flipped Classroom model is a revolutionary idea. It will become even more effective if MOOCs are introduced into it. We hope this information is useful for you to know how MOOCs help teachers in flipping their classroom. We’d like to know your personal views on this topic. Please share with us in the comment box.