An Investigation of Design Features for Inverted Classroom Support Technology

Joslenne Pena, Mary Beth Rosson

College of Information Sciences & Technology

The Pennsylvania State University

Introduction

Technology is changing education

Instructors are constantly looking for new ways to engage students in an interactive environment

Presenting dry material through hands-on activities, active discussion, and problem solving

The inverted classroom has emerged as an exciting approach to teaching along with online, hybrid, and blended approaches

Different types of technologies are used to support it (hardware, software)

Literature Review

Inverted classroom (flipped, reverse, backwards) Lecture happens away from the classroom while homework occurs within [Lage et al, 2001]

Active learning and student-centered learning [Bishop and Verleger, 2013]

Handful of studies investigating student perception, student engagement and student assessment of the inverted classroom [Strayer, 2012]

Other studies compare traditional vs. non-traditional

Another set solely devoted to the pedagogical method i.e. content delivery, content creation, and curriculum development

Very positive reactions from both instructors and students – only increasing

Literature Review

Many tasks involved with inverted classroom implementation, therefore, various pieces of technology are used Tasks include video and audio creation, file management, document creation

The use of certain tools depends on a variety of factors

Resources available, cost limitations, willingness to learn, time constraints, type of material presented (topic, curriculum)

Examples of technology used include

Camtasia

PowerPoint

Adobe Captivate

Final Cut Pro

Doceri

Motivation & the gap

Rise of unconventional teaching methods like the inverted classroom (online, hybrid, blended) in the world of education, again, only increasing

Very few studies discuss their rationale behind tools or the design of custom support tools dedicated to inversion

One semester implementation – instructors can use anywhere between 3-8 tools and technologies to aid in various tasks MOOCs exist for large online courses, Angel/Blackboard for course management, why not

custom supported tool for inverted?

How can we make inverted classroom implementation easier and less time consuming?

Research Question

What are the design features of a tool that best supports the inverted classroom environment structure?

Methodology

Theoretical Framework – Activity Theory [Engestrom, 1990]

Human actions decomposed into components

Understanding the context and actions surrounding the outcome of an activity

Complex system with intricate hierarchical structures

Special attention paid to the instruments component

Fits HCI and education [Hashim and Jones, 2007]

Methodology

Interpretive epistemology Expand knowledge of the inverted classroom

Drawing from personal instructors experiences implementing the inverted classroom pedagogy

Exploring the tools and technologies instructors are using to support this teaching method

Research design Interview-based study of exploratory nature

Methodology

Examined the inverted classroom environment through literature and own interpretation of data

Components in this activity are aligned with the many parts of an inverted classroom structure

Data Collection

7 semi-structured interviews (35min – 80min) Audio recorded and manually transcribed

Snowball sampling method Encourage diversity in discipline and technology use

Instructor on PSU main campus and have implemented the pedagogy - Main criteria

Participants were PSU instructors across campus representing 4 colleges

Data Analysis

Initial coding process guided by Activity Theory

Second round of coding examined emergent themes not suggested by Activity Theory but relevant to design Using an open coding technique

Special focus given to the instruments component – representing tools and technology

Findings – instructors as subjects

All instructors were in STEM related disciplines, which [Gannod et al, 2008] argues best fit the inverted pedagogy

Heavy experience teaching and experience with online, hybrid, and blended courses (8-25 years)

4/7 instructors conduct education research and have an advanced degree in education

5/7 are women instructors, Lage argues women are more receptive to collaborative environments such as inverted classroom[Lage et al, 2001]

Findings – the surrounding community

[Linda] I saw another instructor showcasing their work at an event and I saw all the cool things they were doing which influenced me to try it out. Looking towards their on campus educational community for ideas and innovative teaching

strategies

[Harold] {Another colleague} has been really good to me. Here, Harold talks about his very positive experience with one senior-level colleague. This

colleague, over the years, has been extremely supportive of his various teaching strategies including the inverted classroom

Findings – inverted classroom as object

[Michelle] It allows me to cater material to different people at different times. There is more room to cover technical content and meet the needs of students.

[Tara] …the thing that I think is the sweet spot is to make the connection for the student. They are learning and they don’t even know they are learning, they are more engaged in the learning process.

[Nicole] I definitely prefer flipped, I mean, the online, as you can imagine-very separated from the students, I don’t know what they look like, yeah… I don’t like it. Somehow with the flipped course they feel like I’m on their side. Here Michelle, Tara, and Nicole discuss the positive experiences they had using the inverted

model

Findings – inverted classroom as object

[Linda] Yeah I almost got fired. I had students really angry, saying they didn’t learn anything. It was extremely frustrating.

[Joe] The concept works great if the student is participating and buying into it… it’s a perfectly valid concept, the problem is that students are not that self-directed.

[Joe] Automating a bad process just makes a bad process more efficient… the bad thing is if you didn’t sign up for that, “I didn’t ask to be indoctrinated into a certain way of thinking”. Joe and Linda discuss their negative experiences. Linda tried the model once but decided to

give it another shot after almost being fired and ended up with a positive experience. In contrast, Joe tried the model but decided to disregard it, as he found it does not work

Findings – technology and tools as instruments

[Harold] I have already expressed my displeasure about the replacement of Angel, yeah but Angel sucks, yeah but I’ve already learned it, we are all gonna be lost. I know what it takes to break technology. I keep separate excel workbooks, I don’t trust Angel.

[Tara] Angel sucks! There’s not that many other tools to use, I put a syllabus and readings and assignments and I use it because it’s within the system.

[Nicole] Yeah, Angel is totally, it’s dinosaur-ish, I have thought about using yammer. I spend a lot of time in the summer with my kids, so if I’m sitting there and I got my phone and someone pings me a question in yammer I can answer it, I can’t do that through Angel, it’s not intuitive.

[Joe] I use Angel as mostly a communication tool, emails, and announcements. TAs and LAs assist with answering questions online. Here, Harold, Tara, Nicole, and Joe talk about their use of Angel (CMS). Most of them see Angel in

a negative light because of its usability, learnability, and functionality. There are also talks at PSU about replacing Angel which is affecting how they see it.

Findings – technology and tools as instruments

[Tara] I think that when you leverage these tools there is an approach-ability that they have to it… they find it more accessible and more current… they create a tiny more sense of community.

[Tara] I think a baseline system that has functionality in it, basic tools that everyone can use but do not restrict people

[Joe] I use a peer review submission that I wrote because Angel doesn't have anything useful.

[Nicole] the user should have some preferences, I don’t want this or that, there’s so much on Angel… why are we not including mobile instead we tell students to put it away?

[Nicole] the technology piece that I have really been looking for, videos in 10-15min chunks, you should have questions dispersed throughout the video or after a 10minute video, and you test for understanding… i don’t think the videos are interactive enough… I’ve thought about using clickers in class. Here Tara, Joe, Nicole discuss their use of other tools besides Angel to support inversion.

Furthermore, they suggest features or requirements for a technology that can be designed to support inversion, or in many cases, is better than Angel.

Discussion

Design implications Did not find extremely specific and detailed features

Angel (CMS) constantly used as a benchmark, mostly seen negatively

Value convenience, functionality, customization, cross-compatibility, and flexibility

Instructors carry the “As long as it works” attitude

Limit Angel usage to pursue other options for tools, spending more time on various tasks

Discussion

Theoretical implications Broad and basic application of Activity Theory , interested in one component

Actions surrounding the inverted classroom are numerous and complex

Instruments play a role in shifting effectiveness and outcome of activity which for the purposes of this study is learning

Community does have an influence over subjects and tools

Rules implemented by an instructor affect student interaction with content and instruments

Contradictions between these components create tensional relationships

Conclusion

The inverted classroom is a very complex activity with many aspects

Instructors are using a variety of technologies to assist them in their inverted implementations

Perhaps the model best suits computing disciplines

Although we did not get as detailed design features as expected, basic thoughts did arise Build a tool that is responsive

Cross-compatibility

Customized choices (instructors may enable or disable components)

Personalization

Better Angel? (using a CMS structure as a template)

Limitations

Time constraints Participants contacted us after data collection phase (will be considered for next phase in

study)

Bigger sample size desired

Absence of triangulation

Generalizations to other populations cannot be made Inverted implementations are unique to every instructor

Future Work

Same study on a larger scale with multiple data sources (observation, focus groups)

Quantitative study involving surveys or questionnaires

Mixed methods approach

Design-based research with low-fidelity prototype development, usability testing and use cases Iterative design process of prototype through agile methods

Thorough content analysis of literature

Study on liberal arts/humanities instructors?

References

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References (cont.)

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