Impact on completion

Fifteen faculty will be selected to participate in the Learning Community, having each committed to teaching at least one section of a STEM course using flipped lessons. We estimate that 750 students will be enrolled in these initial courses, and that successful faculty will promote these pedagogies throughout the university.

Potential lessons to be learned

The Learning Community participants will develop recommendations for other faculty to follow in developing flipped units to promote student learning.  As well, we will be better able to determine what resources are needed and which approaches are most productive in supporting improved student learning through these techniques.

Concept Description

At Columbus State University, we are dedicated to improving student learning outcomes in our STEM classes.  We propose to create a Faculty Learning Community, with two cohorts of faculty, to support STEM faculty as they commit to developing a “flipped class.”  By doing so, we anticipate important results.  First, students will retain course material better due to increases in active learning pedagogy (Weiman, 2014) resulting from flipping lectures, and ideally, will also improve their interest in and confidence in their understanding of the material (Herreid & Schiller, 2013). Second, this will improve student progression rates for STEM majors looking to move from core courses to upper division course work. Third, graduation rates for STEM majors should improve since larger numbers of students will succeed and will progress with stronger backgrounds through the curriculum. A fourth benefit will be that CSU students who are not STEM majors will also experience higher RPG rates since stronger results in student learning outcomes correlate to higher passing rates for these students within the core as well (Weiman, 2014).

At its heart, a flipped class uses a blended class format in order to provide basic background knowledge that can be delivered in a “lecture” format outside the class meeting times (Bergmann & Sams, 2012).  Delivering basic content outside of class meetings enables students to replay parts they need to see again, and frees instructional time to hone in on strategic concepts. Instructional techniques used during class time will vary, but will permit faculty to bring in active learning strategies proven to be more effective in increasing student learning outcomes (Freeman, 2014): students may work on projects during class time; cooperative group problem solving can be used extensively; active learning techniques can be used to deepen conceptual understanding; case studies can be examined and discussed as a class more deeply; and much more.  A flipped classroom allows students more support from faculty, and each other, as they learn new material.

Research, both in K-12 classrooms and college classrooms, supports the idea that active engagement strategies are more effective at not only attracting the attention of a greater number of students, but also in supporting student learning. In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Carl Weiman discusses a meta-analysis conducted of 225 studies comparing STEM classes taught using active learning approaches, and similar STEM classes taught using a traditional lecture technique. The analysis indicates students in traditional lecture courses were 1.5 times more likely to fail their courses than students in active learning environments (Weiman, 2014).  There are many ways in which active learning can be tailored to the needs of students, the teaching style of individual faculty, and the content of the course.  Active learning techniques are often time-intensive, and by flipping the lecture, faculty can provide students with more time for deep learning.

We will create a learning community for STEM faculty here at CSU in order to support those working to flip their courses.  One transformative goal is to have at least a 6% increase in the number of productive grades for courses developed by faculty in the learning community, as was seen in the meta-analysis of active learning strategies. This faculty learning community will have two cohorts: one will begin in Fall 2015, and the other will begin to meet in Spring 2016. The cohorts will work with a faculty facilitator as well as with staff from the CSU Center of Online Learning (COOL). The faculty facilitator will serve as an organizer and a mentor for other faculty as they plan these changes within their courses.  COOL staff will provide the technical assistance in implementing flipped lessons, including assistance and training in recording lessons, inserting closed captioning, and providing other resources as needed.  By creating a Faculty Learning Community, we are building local sustainability into this project: we will be training STEM faculty from a wide array of departments in these techniques, creating a community that will be self-supporting as faculty adapt these techniques, and that will aid CSU in establishing flipped pedagogies as a best practice after this project concludes. We also intend for this to be transformative. As faculty in the Learning Community succeed in improving student learning in their own classrooms, their teaching will inform and transform their other classes. Successful faculty will be eager to discuss these techniques with their colleagues, some of whom will also be motivated to transform their teaching, adding to local scalability efforts. Success in this project will permit the transformation of a substantial number of courses, both in the STEM and other disciplines.

In order to be a part of the learning community, faculty will identify which course they will be flipping, and commit to teaching that flipped class at least once in the 12 months immediately following initial participation.  Priority will be given to STEM courses in the General Education program that have a history of lower productive grade rates (a productive grade is an A, B, or C, as these are grades which permit the student to progress to upper level courses).  Those courses are identifiable using data in the Appendix from the last two academic years.  Ideally, faculty from all STEM disciplines (Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Geology, Math, Physics, and Psychology) will participate, and successes in those flipped classes will encourage other faculty in those departments to try this pedagogical approach as well (local scalability).

The Learning Community will meet approximately every three weeks, and lunch will be provided to participants.  In addition, faculty participants will be provided with reference books on active learning techniques as well as flipped classroom strategies. Participants will work closely with staff from COOL in learning how to use technology effectively in conveying material.

Participants will also continue to meet regularly in order to discuss successes and frustrations, and to continue to learn about techniques that may be adopted in their own classrooms.  These discussions will also highlight pitfalls and the various ways to deal with them (Herried & Schiller). By the end of the first semester in the learning community, participants will have developed an outline for all flipped lectures to be developed, identified class activities to replace lecture, and have made at least 20% of the flip materials needed at minimum to teach a flipped course.  The members of the first cohort will continue to meet monthly to learn about effective techniques, as well as discuss challenges and successes. First-cohort-mentors will also discuss with second-cohort-mentors their own projects, extending the Learning Community so that members have near peers who are able to readily suggest solutions to challenges as they present themselves.

In April 2016, the Learning Community will host a forum on campus, presenting highlights of the work done by faculty in flipping new courses.  This will focus on the process and technology of flipping, on the diversity of interactive engagement activities now used in classes, and on the results in documenting improvements in student learning within these classes. This forum will support efforts in scalability on CSU’s campus, permitting other faculty across the disciplines to learn about these techniques, and thereby encouraging further the transformative nature of this project.  Facilitators will maintain a research log detailing the work of the learning communities, and will be responsible for presenting their work at conferences in order to promote scalability of this learning community’s approach to training faculty to flip their courses. 

Data will be collected in order to determine students’ perceptions of their own learning gains, and their confidence in their ability to apply the main course concepts to problem solving. Data will also be collected to determine improvements in student productive grade rates, as well as to document student learning gains in a particular course. Faculty participants will also be surveyed regarding their overall satisfaction, both after the first semester within their cohort, after teaching the flipped section for the first time, and at least one semester past the end of the grant, after the flipped section has been taught (potentially) for a second time. These surveys will evaluate faculty attitudes toward this reformed pedagogy. Such data will be critical in transforming the culture of STEM classrooms and in sustaining the faculty efforts after the project is concluded. To promote scalability throughout USG, successful faculty and the Learning Community Facilitators will be encouraged to present their work at conferences such as GCTM, GAS, GSTA, and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in STEM Conference hosted by the USG each year, among others, presenting both the results of flipping individual courses and the results of utilizing a learning community approach to support course transformation.

Because faculty will be recruited from across STEM and STEM education disciplines (over 10 different disciplines) no single measure seems appropriate to document improved student performance. However:

1. We expect that we will be able to see that students will be more engaged with and excited by what they are learning.  We will ask that participants have students participate in the SALG (Student Assessment of Learning Gains) as a way to measure that level of student engagement.
2. Students will better recognize concepts and principles of these courses, both within class and in new contexts, making connections that go beyond mere memorization. This should also be identifiable in the SALG.
3. Since student performance on midterm grades and grade distributions often improve in flipped classrooms, faculty will submit grade distributions for their course (stripped of student identifiers) for the flipped course, and where available, for the same course in a prior semester.
4. Some faculty consistently utilize pre and post tests for their courses. Those faculty that do so will submit pre/post test score distributions for their flipped course (stripped of student identifiers), and where available, for the same course in a prior semester.

Given the small size of the innovation budget, and the short timeline of the grant period, we feel that some short term gains may be measurable. However, the grant writing team strongly feel that this is a project in which the true gains will be observable not in the short term, but in the longer term, as faculty become more proficient at leading active learning sessions in class and at better framing flipped lectures. Long-term gains will also be noticeable as flipped classrooms become normative of classes here at CSU.

Project Plan

Goals:

• Develop a critical mass of faculty in STEM disciplines who are successful employing flipped instruction methods and who will share their experience with colleagues.
• Increase student learning and success rates in STEM courses.
• Improve student confidence in their abilities to apply course concepts, as measured by Student Assessment of Learning Gains.

Objectives:

• Recruit at least fifteen STEM faculty to participate in a learning community to support efforts to flip STEM classes. These classes will either be introductory level courses, or will otherwise be identified as courses that provide challenges to student progression in their majors.
• Train faculty in active learning strategies, in order to facilitate improved learning gains by students.
• Conduct a faculty forum for participants in the faculty learning community to share their experiences with other university faculty.
• Develop a list of recommendations by the participants for future faculty choosing to flip courses; post on COOL website and disseminate findings.
• Increase the number of students satisfying learning outcomes as measured by final exam scores, or by other metrics defined by the departments of the participating faculty.
• Increase number of productive grades in flipped courses, as defined by an overall 6% increase in students earning a grade of C or better, permitting students to progress to higher level coursework.
• Have 50% or more of surveyed students say they experienced moderate or large gains in confidence in their ability to apply course concepts.

Deliverables:

• Increase the number of flipped course sections taught in STEM disciplines (defined as Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Geology, Mathematics, Physics, and Psychology) by 15, the number of faculty we intend to recruit to participate in this project. Participants will begin to teach a flipped section within one year of their initial participation in the FLC. 

Timeline:

• August 2015: project staff will order resources, recruit faculty in STEM disciplines to apply to participate in the first cohort. (Participants either will be developing and teaching a flipped class simultaneously, or will be designing a flipped course they will teach within a year.)  Team will develop a list of print and online resource guides to flipping, for distribution to the Learning Community, to facilitate access to best practices.
• September - December 2015: Cohort 1 meetings. Lunch provided for meetings every 3 weeks. Overview of resources available on campus, through Center of Online Learning (COOL).  Guest speakers, who have successfully flipped a class, will provide highlights of their process. Participants provided access to print resources, list of online resource guides.  Training by COOL staff in technical resources needed to implement flipped lessons. Discussion of active learning strategies.
• Recruit second cohort in early November.
• December 2015: Participants will have developed an outline for all flipped lectures to be developed, identified class activities to replace lecture, and have made at least 20% of the flip materials needed at minimum to teach a flipped course.
• January – April 2016: Cohort 1 will continue to meet at least monthly, to discuss challenges and successes in developing and implementing flipped materials. Will also meet at least once with Cohort 2 to act as additional sounding board and resource. The Cohort 2 will follow the pattern of meetings and work that Cohort 1 followed in September – December.
• March 2016: Plan for Flipped Classroom Forum, to be held in the Library.
• April 2016:  Forum will showcase flipped materials that have been developed, as well as presentation of early results in changes to classroom
• May 2016: Measures of success will be collected from all Learning Community participants for comparison to baseline data.  Participants in the Learning Community, together with faculty facilitators and staff from COOL, will develop recommendations for future adoption of flipped courses.
• In Fall 2016, Cohort 2 will continue to gather at least once a month to discuss successes and work through challenges in course transformation.

Flipped Classroom Learning Communities­ Logic Model  

Situation: At Columbus State University, we are interested in investigating ways to aid faculty in developing mechanisms to improve both student learning outcomes, and student success rates. We are convinced that this will improve RPG rates, not only for STEM majors, but for students in STEM core classes as well.

Project Budget

Funds will be provided to the CSU Center of Online Learning (COOL) to support the technological needs of faculty in developing flipped class resources.  These funds will support a student assistant working in COOL, devoted to aiding faculty in captioning, video-taping, and other support  devoted to this project ($8/hr * 19 hr/week * 31 weeks = $4,712), as well a software purchase (license for Captivate $288.  Total cost: $5,000.

Lunch will be provided to participants, guest presenters, and facilitators during each monthly learning community meeting, and refreshments will be provided during the end of year forum.  There will be one learning community cohort in Fall 2015, which will meet 4 times. This learning community will meet four additional times in Spring 2016. The second learning community will meet four times in Spring.  We anticipate spending $1,350 on lunches and refreshments.

Stipends will be paid to learning community participants and guest presenters. This will provide incentive for faculty to spend extra time in developing both flipped materials and active learning in-class materials over the course of a semester, and to implement them in a STEM course.  We plan to recruit 15 faculty to participate in the 2015-16 year, and will pay them each a $1000 stipend upon verification of materials after the first semester of participating in the learning community. Total cost: $15,000. 

Books will be purchased for each learning community member: one as a resource on techniques for flipping courses, and a second as a resource on active learning techniques appropriate to the STEM disciplines. We intend to budget $50 per participant. Total cost: $750.

Facilitators will be responsible for organizing sessions; for inviting guest speakers; for being available as a mentor to learning community participants to offer critiques and suggestions; for planning the forum to showcase the work of the learning communities; for the planning that will go on before the learning communities commence; and for planning sessions with an educational consultant specializing in this field.  Tentatively, co-authors Shaw and Howard will act as co-facilitators for the Learning Community, and Bridget Markwood will act as consultant. Total cost $2,900.

Total Project budget request: $25,000.

Project Evaluation

Appendix: Data from Available STEM Courses in Summary Format

*Note: Grade data reported in these appendices has been collected for other reports, and is not comprehensive to all STEM disciplines at CSU, nor is it identical for the two academic years reported.

**NP= non-productive grades total

References Used in Concept Description:

Bergmann, J., and Sams, A. (2012). Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day. International Society for Technology in Education, Washington, D.C.

Freeman, S., Eddy, S.L., McDonough, M., Smith, M.K., Okorafor, N., Jordt, H., and Wenderoth, M.P., (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 111 (23), 8410-8415.

Herreid, C.F., and Schiller, N.A., (2013). “Case Studies and the Flipped Classroom,” Journal of College Science Teaching, 42(5), 62-66.

Weiman, C.E., (2014. Large-scale comparison of science teaching methods sends clear message. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 111 (23), 8319-8320.