Text CITL Professor J: Flipped Hybrid

What challenges did you experience in transitioning to this hybrid style of delivery? What attracted you?

Initially I was trying to think about how to offer more opportunities for students to think critically about foreign policy concepts. My original course was dominated by lectures that took a lot of time, with little left for discussion and activities. The flipped classroom model intrigued me, as it would give me more time in class to have students engage in the things I wanted them to do, like discussing ideas, and they could do activities like lectures and quizzes outside of class. The biggest challenges for me were how to schedule for my class times and the kind of activities I could use for exploring key concepts. I also spent a fair amount of time also rethinking course content and choosing concepts I wanted to highlight and explore more deeply. How could I craft a more creative learning experience for students to think critically about the role Congress has in American foreign policy, for example? So I came up with an activity where students would read the letter Senator Tom Cotton and Senate Republicans sent to the Iranian leadership about the Iran Nuclear Deal before coming to class. In class, I had them analyze the text, picking out key phrases and ideas, and then engage in small group discussions about what they found. It was great to see how some of their small insights led to other larger ones. That was just one example of changes I made.

Describe a typical class session (or week's schedule)-whatever gives us an inside look at how it works.

The week starts off with me sending everyone an announcement about key things to look for in the weeks' material, what we will cover this week, and any important dates and housekeeping items I may have. Students start by doing the readings, watching lecture videos (or other videos I provide access to), and completing short, low-stakes learning checks on the readings and videos. In class, I make a quick housekeeping announcement with dates and info to remember, then we move right into discussions about the readings/lecture videos. It took a while for students to comply with doing their work before class, but they eventually saw that being unprepared was not good for them. After discussions, we move into whatever planned activities I have for them, and the students seem to like these very much. I've heard some amazing thing as they really dive deep into some concepts. After class, I ask everyone to complete a more formal assessment, which could be an open-book quiz, a discussion forum in Canvas, a short policy analysis, to show me how they are developing individually on mastering the material. Sometimes I'll notice that I need to revisit a concept, but for the most part they seemed to be more interested and more involved than previous classes I've had.

What communication (or learning) strategies do you use or find most effective?

I found that frequent communication in both in-person and online spaces is very important. In person, I use beginning and end of class time (no more than 5 minutes) to do quick housekeeping items such as upcoming due dates, important in-person class updates (e.g. if they need to prepare for class activities beforehand, what they need to bring, etc.), and other important information. I also use the Announcements tool to provide information that is also covered in the beginning-of-class housekeeping, as well as question prompts or key things to look for in the week's content. I also like to tie this to highlights from the previous week. I will also use Announcements for making any changes to the schedule or due dates that students need to know, that way they get those updates in writing and they are sent to them in an email as well as available in the Canvas course site.

Another thing I do is use the first 10 or so minutes of the in-person class to clear up what I call the 'muddiest points' where students call out points of confusion. I also use this method to address issues I see in the learning check quizzes (like commonly wrong answers). What's happened is that students make a habit of coming to class with questions or concerns about what they read or watched, and they're more likely to do their pre-work knowing they can receive help in class.

Advice for faculty who are just starting out?

For sure you need to plan out everything and use your time (and student time) wisely, but also COMMUNICATION IS KEY. Pay extra attention to how you set up everything that's used to communicate with your students (syllabus, weekly overviews, announcements) to let them know when activities are happening, when assessments are due, and WHERE they are happening or due (either during class time or on the Canvas course site). Also, be sure to afford your students avenues to provide you feedback on how the course is going from their experience. I've used student feedback to refine how I package the online portions of the course to be clearer, how in-class activities are run, and how I make sure that the online and in-person experiences reflect each other and connect to each other. I've posted some planning notes below if you want to share this with others.