At many institutions teaching and learning has been transformed in the last decade through the use of educational technologies. The support of strong leadership, careful strategic planning and the development of a culture of teaching innovation, risk-taking and change are recognized as key components in this transformation (Bates & Sangra, 2011). Educational developers have a role in this transformation by providing instructors with opportunities for exploring and implementing the latest in teaching and learning practices. As online, blended and hybrid course designs have become part of post-secondary educational course offerings, a growing literature on blended learning (Garrison & Vaughan, 2008) supports the effectiveness of this model. A recent area of interest at our institution, particularly in the sciences, is a type of blended learning design called the “flipped class”, popular as a way to engage students more actively and encourage more collaborative learning in the classroom while also promoting self-directed learning in the online environment (Berrett, 2012).
In this session we will share how we have introduced instructors to the “flipped class” model and how we subsequently connected with faculty who had participated in our flipped class workshops over the past year to find out how they were integrating the model into their course designs. Participants’ feedback indicated that a small proportion of instructors had implemented truly flipped classes, where students “receive content from technology and apply knowledge with help from the instructor” (Margulieux, Bujak, McCracken & Majerich, 2012), but many had, in the words of one of our participants, created more of a “tilt” than a flip in their course. We will describe some of the “tilts” that our instructors developed and how they have increased active learning for students and will seek input from participants on their experiences with introducing technology into their teaching practices to develop “tilts”. The intended outcome of this roundtable discussion is a better understanding of whether this strategy of model adaptation and bottom-up change is an important part of how educators can create innovative and meaningful educational experiences for students and if these adaptations can have a significant impact on the transformation of teaching and learning.