4B. Knowledge Acquisition
Clarifying the core knowledge that students will need, and differentiating that from the skills students will develop to do something with that knowledge, is a particularly important step for any instructor who wants to move to a hybrid, online or 'flipped' course design.
What is the best way for students to learn basic content knowledge?
Perhaps the most common format for fully face-to-face courses is for students to read a textbook (or other assigned material) before class and then attend a class where they sit and listen to the instructor deliver a lecture for 50 to 75 minutes. While there is good reason to believe that this is not a very effective model for deep learning, particularly at higher levels of development, reading outside of class and attending / watching a lecture ARE very efficient methods for students to acquire basic content knowledge.
The term "flipping" the classroom refers to moving the majority of this content acquisition outside the classroom; for example, by recording lectures and putting those online for students to watch asynchronously, prior to attending a face-to-face or synchronous online class. The instructor can then use that synchronous class time to engage students in much more interactive activities to develop more complex skills. Before we move onto a discussion of those activities, watch the video below for a brief overview of best practices for recording lecture videos: