From Flipped to Flopped to Flexible classrooms in Higher Education?

Critical Reflections from Australia

Abstract

There is currently much hype about the blended learning model of the 'flipped classroom' in higher education in Australia. Many courses at Universities are being transformed into fully or partially flipped classrooms where students prepare for face-to-face classes beforehand so that inclass time is used for active and collaborative learning. We provide six risks related to the flipped classroom based on our critical reflections from designing and teaching a fully flipped classroom. We argue that students' satisfaction and engagement with the flipped classroom model is increasingly eroded by the number of flipped courses and the rising time demands for students and teachers. Other factors that risk the flipped classrooms becoming 'flopped classrooms' are the lack of prior training of students for self-motivated learning; and the dependence on skilled teachers to create inspiring and course content relevant pre-class activities and to run effective collaborative exercises in the class room.