AIM(S) OF THE PROJECT

This project aims to examine the benefits of using online video lectures  for  flipped-classroom teaching in Problem-Based Learning (PBL). To achieve this, we propose a pilot project with online video lectures in the Information Studies Master’s degree at AAU-CPH that investigates how best to incorporate video lectures and transforming existing courses around them. Our findings  are expected to benefit all study programs at AAU. The pilot project consists of two  phases:  (1) capturing, editing, and providing existing lectures on video; and (2) investigating how to flip existing courses to take advantage of these lectures within the PBL paradigm.

MOTIVATION

There is a growing body of evidence for the positive effects of flipped-classroom teaching and the positive role the video lectures can play in this. Students are  highly  likely  to  watch  the  video lectures (Bishop and Verleger, 2013) and flipping the classroom using video lectures has also been shown to increase students’ preparedness (Falconer et al., 2012), examination scores (Means et al., 2009; Missildine et al., 2013), evaluations of lecture usefulness, instructor responsiveness, the course overall, the instructor’s performance (Foertsch et al., 2002), and  student  satisfaction (Yousef et al., 2014). It is still unclear, however, whether these conclusions also apply to a PBL curriculum (Bishop and  Verleger, 2013), where there is  an increased focus on being an active participant in learning rather than a passive recipient of knowledge (Dolmans et al., 2005).

We expect our project to produce the following outcomes:

• Improved knowledge of how video lectures can be integrated successfully as technological scaffolding (Yelland & Masters, 2007) into a pure PBL curriculum, both for individual courses and a complete degree.
• Increased time for lab sessions and case-based work, which allows for a stronger presence of pure PBL by working more on problem-solving and recognizing which skills the students need to acquire.
• Video lectures provide an additional learning resource that could benefit students with different learning styles as well as address the information overload problem common in PBL by focusing on which material is most relevant to students (Wood, 2003).
• Stabilizing or even increasing the number of meaningful PBL-focused teaching hours despite the continuous pressure of reduced university teaching funding
• More efficient use of resources by sharing video lectures between similar degrees offered both in Aalborg and Copenhagen

PROJECT PLAN & METHODOLOGY

We wish to dedicate a full year to each of the two phases in our pilot project: (1) one year to capture existing lectures spread over two semesters on video and establish an efficient practice for this, and (2) one year for incorporating the video resources into the degree by transforming existing courses into a flipped-classroom variant and evaluating this phase.

One important issues in phase 1 is to determine which lectures to capture and make available. Appendix A contains an overview of the courses we currently deem relevant for video capture, but not every single lecture will or should be captured on video. Lectures will be selected based on, among other things, their potential for effective transformation into active PBL sessions and how well their content can be split into relatively short five- to ten-minute topical videos that cover the individual topics needed in the student’s individual learning process (Carr-Chellman & Duchastel, 2000).

In phase 2 the main focus is on determining how to integrate video lectures into existing courses and how to flip the lectures they originated from into student-centered lab sessions. Examples of successful activities include (additional) case-based problem solving, the discussion of worked examples, and pre-class quizzes, which has been touted in many studies as a highly successful practice (Bishop and Verleger, 2013).

Throughout the  project we will perform a  running  qualitative and quantitative evaluation of how video lectures and flipped teaching are being received. This includes,  among  other,  studying student satisfaction, examination scores, study habits & preparedness, and will allow us to adjust the project to the students’ learning process.

PROJEKTANSVARLIG

Toine Bogers, toine@hum.aau.dk

PROJEKTDELTAGERE

Birger Larsen og Anders Drachen