I think we all have a good idea of what the flipped classroom looks like. The flipping involves a lot of collaboration and, hopefully, engagement, on the students’ part. There are many tools available to do this both online and in-class. Many have tried different tools, but discussion forums tends to be by far the most popular. Students have said that they might have three or four classes with active discussion forums, which relates to a lot of posting. What options to the discussion forums have you tried in your courses to get students synthesizing course content?
By Ken Harmel
For face-to-face classes, one technique I use is to have students discuss the topics in groups of 3 or
4(random groups, usually done through slips of colored paper). Then the group posts the summary of their discussion to the BB Discussion Forum. As a class, we look at the different submissions and have a class discussion about them. The length of time needed to do this depends on the topic. It can take as little as 20 minutes — good to use at the beginning of class to “set the stage” for the lesson.
Thank you for your valuable input Colleen. I trust that your information will be helpful for those looking for ideas.