Flipping Out: Preflip Planning

First Year Academic Librarian Experience, Teachingflipped classroom, instruction, library instructionKim

One of my current professional goals is to experiment with new ways to improve my library instruction sessions and grow as an instructor. So when our residency librarian decided to lead a group of instruction librarians to test the “flipped classroom” in library instruction, I welcomed the opportunity to discover how “flipping” might transform my classes. Given the previous interest in “flipping” here at ACRLog, I’ve also decided to share a bit of my planning, implementation, and reflection to continue the discussion about “flipping out” in the library world.

At first, re-envisioning my instruction sessions was a bit overwhelming – although I am still a newbie library instructor, I spent a great amount of time last semester crafting lessons and developing my own teaching style. I can only image how daunting this may seem to more experienced instructors who have honed their own lessons and style over several years of teaching!

Although I’ve used different lesson planning methods during graduate school classes and in my first semester of teaching, (e.g., Backward Design and Madeline Hunter’s model), I had trouble using these methods to plan my flip. Pretty soon, I found myself falling back to the “5 W’s” –  Who, What, When, and Why - to organize my thoughts. My considerations for each question are below.

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Photo: By Ted Hood (Courtesy of State Library of New South Wales)

WHO: Who are the students in my flipped class? Who is the professor? Which class will lead to the most successful flipped experience?

If considering only learning outcomes and session materials, nearly any of my instruction sessions could be flipped. However, since the professor for my assigned freshman seminar class is equally interested  in trying out new instruction techniques, I decided his class would be a good match for the trial flipped sessions. Due to his support and investment in the process, I feel confident he will actually distribute pre-class materials to students and will motivate students to complete the assigned pre-class work. (As an added bonus, I also have three, 75-minute instruction sessions with this class, which leaves a cushion to “catch-up” if for some reason the entire flipped experience falls apart.)

WHAT: What are the student learning outcomes? What will students learn through pre-class materials? What activities will students complete during class to cement learning?

Answering these questions has been the most difficult part of planning my flipped classroom. During my “regular” classes, I already try to involve students with hands-on, active learning experiences whenever possible. The challenge with the “flip” has been to make those activities more complex, pushing students to deeper levels of learning, as well as to identify what types of pre-class background students need to successfully complete those activities. Our residency librarian presented this as “What are the basics students should come to class knowing? What are the complexities that in-class sessions will address?”

Like many of the librarians in our “flipping” group, I am using the library’s existing collection of online tutorials as the basis of my flipped materials. I decided to give students 2-3 short videos to watch before class to cover  basic skills, like the “click-by-click” mechanics of searching a database and the beginnings of constructing a search. Then, in-class activities will challenge them to apply those skills to their group research project at increasingly challenging levels.

WHERE: How will flipped materials be organized and delivered to students?

I’m already a big fan of using Google Forms to collect student feedback at the end of instruction sessions. Since I wanted to pair the pre-class videos with a measure of how many students completed the activities and how well they understood the material, Google Forms once again turned out to be an easy solution. For each flipped session, I created a Google form with links to videos along with quiz questions, and the course professor will distribute the form to students before our session.

WHEN: When should students complete pre-class activities?

The week before our in-class session, students will have access to the pre-class materials. Any earlier and I worry the connection between pre-class videos and in-class activities would be lost. This decision was fairly easy to nail down, and getting the date on my calendar is a good reminder finish materials with enough time to review the plan with the professor, distribute to students, etc.

WHY: Why is “flipping” an method I want to try for library instruction?

Although “flipping” is one way I’m fulfilling my goal to explore new instructional techniques, the deeper I dig into planning, the more I think it’s a model that can be useful in library instruction. Most of the librarians I work with or have observed are already moving away from lectures and database demonstrations. But it’s hard to jump into more complex applications and exploratory activities during a traditional 50 or 60 minute class if students don’t have a basic foundation on which to build advanced skills. Off-loading the procedural instructions, like how to navigate the library’s website or basic catalog searching, to pre-class activities can free up in-class time for librarians to help students work through more complex activities.

My flipped experiment is also allowing me to carve out a chunk of in-class time to address additional material, including brainstorming and concept mapping. Last semester, I noticed students in the seminar struggling to craft a manageable research question, which later affected their ability to construct effective searches and to evaluate information for it’s relevancy to their topic. This semester, since I’m providing some of the procedural instruction outside of class, I can accommodate more hands-on experiences into the class and set students up for better guided learning.

Ready, Set, Go!

The first round of pre-class materials is going out to students this week, and our first in-class session is next week! I am excited for student responses to the pre-class material to start coming in and to dive into the full flipped experience. I’m planning to report back in March with my thoughts about how the flip unfolds!

Do you have experience with the flipped classroom? What considerations do you think are vital when planning “the flip?”

5 thoughts on “Flipping Out: Preflip Planning

  1. spacer Gary A. says:

    I think that your first point – the “Who” in your model – is probably the most important one, because if you don’t have any buy-in from the faculty member, it undermines the rest of your work. In that same vein, one of the key things that I’ve found to be important is that faculty members have to get comfortable with the idea that a flipped library workshop is going to be a lot messier than a more lecture based one. If they are not comfortable with that in their own teaching, then it can be hard for them to think it’s OK when you come in, but then again, maybe you can educate them as well.

    I’ve done a few flipped classroom library workshops and they are 100% more enjoyable for everyone involved as far as I’m concerned. It took me a while to get to the point where everything fell together, though, and even then I couldn’t make it work for every class. The lesson I took from this is that even if you can’t flip the whole class, you can sometimes still flip a part of it and that’s better than nothing. Good luck and please write again about how everything goes.

  2. spacer Candice Benjes-Small says:

    Hi Kim,

    Our instruction team started flipping some classes this semester. In addition to your great outline, consider:
    1. Will the professor make sure the students complete the pre-class materials?
    2. How can you check to see if the students have done these materials?
    3. What will you do with the students who have not?

    Also, we had a few issues with a class that had an unusual assignment. Our standard tutorials did not cover exactly what they needed.

    Overall though, the librarians and professors who have participated in our flipped experiment really liked it. Initial student feedback has been very positive.

  3. Pingback: Flip for It | Librarian Squared
  4. spacer Kim says:

    Thanks for your suggestions, Candice! These are definitely some concerns that we’ve talked about in our flipped planning.

    I am hoping that asking student to submit the Google form will help me track if students are completing the pre-class activity. They’ll also be working in groups during class, so I’m crossing my fingers that at least one person in each group has completed the pre-class material. If not, then I guess I’m back to my original lesson plan spacer

  5. Pingback: ACRLog » Flipping Out: Reflections Upon Landing

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