Flipping a Japanese language classroom

Seeing its impact from a student survey and YouTube analytics

Abstract

The ‘flipped classroom’ is gaining popularity in university teaching. However sceptics question if students actually come to classes prepared by viewing the given video. In this study, 163 university students enrolled in an intermediate level Japanese subject that was taught in a flipped mode were surveyed on their experiences of viewing the pre-learning video. The access records to the video were also analysed to determine how students behaved online. The survey showed only 50% of students had viewed the video regularly, but had done so thoroughly. On the other hand, 17% answered that they did not even attempt to access the video. This paper will present reasons the students gave for watching or not watching the video as a part of their learning and argue for an improved methodology.