More US universities
blend online content with classroom teaching
If teaching is a
transaction, its terms are changing. A classroom is no longer just a lecture
hall. It's a discussion forum, an amphitheatre, a problem-solving arena and a
large laboratory .
Welcome to the concept of a
flipped classroom, or the turning around of teaching that allows re-purposing
time. What used to constitute classwork--opening a text book and reading
material from it--is now homework, but done before coming to the classroom.
While contact hours, the academic term that describes face-to-face meeting of a
teacher and a student, may have remained the same, course time has expanded exp
onentially , allowing faculty to do more; lecturing is among the last things
now done in class. When the class congregates, discus sions revolve aro und the
deeper aspects of learning. Faculty across top universities around the world
have seen value in this experiment and are liberating the classroom by
developing their own internal virtual courses.
“The possibilities of
teaching, of learning, of evaluating, of discussion, of team work, of problem
solving, go up exponentially ,“ said professor Deepak Phatak, Padma Shri
awardee and head of the Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology , IIT
Bombay . He and professor Sridhar Iyer use the flipped classroom model of
teaching and their research showed that engagement level shoots up by almost
twice as much as the traditional format of teaching.
In the US, most varsities
have developed their own internal MOOCs (massive online op-en courses) so that
they can use the blended (online and classroom delivery) model of teaching. As
Mitchell Daniels Jr, president of Purdue University , said, “Our faculty have
developed their own virtual te aching videos for students.MOOCs is a growing
phenomenon.“
In India, a non-profit, The
MooCxpress, is working with universities and colleges to develop their own
digital content and adopt the flipped classroom model of teaching. “ A teacher
is no longer at the centre of the class. Students steer the direction in which
teaching-learning takes place,“ said CEO Jimeet Shah.
With students having
different interest levels, grasping abilities and attention spans, Shah added,
the flipped model allows the teacher to give out basic information beforehand,
thus letting students take their own time to understand the ba sics. “Under the
flipped model there are no backbenchers Everyone is in the front row.“
The model has allowed Po
dar School, said principal Av nita Bir, to shift their focus from teachers to
learners. IIM Bangalore, too, has been using this model of teaching; some of
their MOOCs are now on edX The to-be started Bennett Uni versity (started by
the group that runs TOI) will also be using the flipped classroom mode of
delivery . “We are still debating the amount of con tent that will be delivered
thro ugh this mechanism, but it will be between 8% and 15%,“ said
vice-chancellor Yaj Medury . At S P Jain Global, the aptive multimedia online
adaptive multimedia online content exclusive to their students is available in
nine subjects, some of which have double modules and hence have 72 hours. So
468 hours or 25% is now dedicated to self-learning.The case is valid at BML
Munjal University, too, where 37% of the engineering course is studied outside
the class.
Focus on developing quali
ty teaching material has never been emphasized more than now. As former Harvard
University president Larry Summers said, “The institutions that will have the
greatest impact over the next 50 years in higher education will not actually be
the ones with the most vibrant campuses. They will be the ones that are centres
of creation of the best courses.“
He added that technology
held the power of achieving massive scale and providing for individual
customization. “Once I've filled my introductory economics course and it has
been put on the web, it can be watched by a million people just as it can be
watched by a hundred. That is the remarkable feature of education technology
what economists call a zero margin cost.“
TOI19JAN16
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