Our team selected online learning and Khan Academy (KA) as our modality, and Intro to HTML and CSS as the specific resource.
This post will discuss the impact that the Khan Academy modality may have had on learning and teaching, specifically by promoting flipped classroom delivery and providing the educational materials needed for instructors to easily transition to using a flipped classroom approach.
Khan Academy was one of the more prominent early promoters of the flipped classroom concept. Flipped classroom is an instructional strategy where the instructional material is delivered to students outside of the classroom, likely when students are at home, and students engage in classroom activities and study, some of which might usually be considered homework, with instructor support.
The idea of using a flipped classroom goes back at least as far as the 1990s (King, 1993), but the term flipped classroom may not have been used until around 2010 or maybe even 2011. Daniel Pink wrote an article about the concept in Sep 2010 but never called it flipped classroom, suggesting that the term might not have existed yet (Pink, 2010). It is not clear who used the term first, but Sal Khan of Khan Academy used the term a lot starting at least as far back as 2011 when he did a popular TED Talk that promoted Khan Academy and the flipped classroom concept (TED, 2011). The flipped classroom movement has been largely attributed to Sal Khan (Ash, 2012), and this TED Talk may have been what both popularized the term flipped classroom and started the movement.
Khan Academy provides the online lessons needed, in some subject areas, for instructors to easily transition to using a flipped classroom. Through promoting flipped classroom delivery and making these resources available, Khan Academy has allowed many instructors to easily make the transition to flipped classroom delivery.
Is the flipped classroom beneficial? According to Tucker (2012), using the flipped classroom provides “the opportunity to elevate teaching practice and the profession as a whole” (p. 82). Roehl (2013) found that a flipped classroom “allows teachers greater insight into students’ grasp of information and learning as a result of increased student/teacher interaction [and provides] the ability for the class to move forward despite both teacher and student absences” (p. 47).
Does learner exam performance suffer when flipping the classroom? Blair, Maharaj, and Primus (2016) ran the same course using both traditional and flipped delivery and found that student exam performance remained the same. They also found that students preferred the flipped classroom delivery method.
It is hard to say how many instructors have switched to the flipped classroom delivery method because of Khan Academy and how much benefit there is from this transition, but Khan Academy does appear to have made a substantial impact in this area. Without Khan Academy and the 2011 TED Talk, I doubt the concept of the flipped classroom would be nearly as popular as it is today.
What do you think of the flipped classroom approach? Do you prefer courses that use the flipped classroom approach? How much of a difference do you think the subject of the course has on how well flipped classroom delivery works? Have you watched the 2011 Khan Academy Ted Talk, and, if so, what are your thoughts on it?
References
Ash, K. (2012). Educators evaluate flipped classrooms. Education Week, 32(2), s6-s8. Retrieved from http://commons.marymount.edu/instructingonline/wp-content/uploads/sites/135/2013/07/Best-Practices-Flipped-Classroom.pdf
Blair, E., Maharaj, C., & Primus, S. (2016). Performance and perception in the flipped classroom. Education and Information Technologies, 21(6), 1465-1482.
King, A. (1993). From sage on the stage to guide on the side. College teaching, 41(1), 30-35. Retrieved from https://brioconsulting.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/SageOnTheStage.pdf
TED. (2011, Mar). Let’s use video to reinvent education | Salman Khan. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTFEUsudhfs
Pink. D. (2010, Sep). Think Tank: Flip-thinking – the new buzz word sweeping the US. The Telegraph. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/7996379/Daniel-Pinks-Think-Tank-Flip-thinking-the-new-buzz-word-sweeping-the-US.html
Roehl, A., Reddy, S. L., & Shannon, G. J. (2013). The flipped classroom: An opportunity to engage millennial students through active learning. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences, 105(2), 44.
Tucker, B. (2012). The flipped classroom. Education next, 12(1). Retrieved from http://www.msuedtechsandbox.com/MAETELy2-2015/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/the_flipped_classroom_article_2.pdf
Hi Jason, thanks for the presentation the other night, sorry I was unable to attend in person. I t is nice to put faces to all of you who I have not previously associated with in this way! In regard to your question, I have much interest in the flipped classroom, but as a secondary educator, I have only limited experience with it, here are my thoughts and potential drawbacks as an educational pedagogy (I have also only seen clips of the Khan Ted Talk). I think the potential for legitimate learning is enormous with this platform, but it hinges on several things. 1. engaging content. If the content is not delivered in an entertaining and manageable way for a self-directed learner, it risks becoming more of a burden as concepts need to be re-taught and the class time that was meant to be saved for one on one instruction/collaboration is squandered, I realise that the purpose of having lecture time outside of the classroom is to give time for further clarification in class the following day or whatever, but if the lesson is not engaging the risk is for the whole thing needin to be retaught. 2. Student motivation and at home access: my experience in high school is that student lives are quite busy, and they do not always have time/energy to watch lectures/activities on their own time, and part of what has held me back also is the digital divide, which in rural Canada is still very much a thing, not necessarily with access to devices, but access to online connectivity. What happens when the haves come to your class ahving a good grasp of the material and ready to move on, but the others need to access the school’s wifi just to download content?
Finally, subject matter I think has a huge bearing on success/interest. If I am not interested in a topic, I am not likely to go and seek out asynchronous learning tool to feed my disinterest/struggles with the content, although if I know the content to presented in a fun and engaging way, this could be remedied. Converesly, I am likely to seek out more information (hello WWII documentaries!) if I am already interested in the content. Sorry for the rambly post, hope it is helpful!
Hi Marshall,
Thanks for your comment. Here’s my take on some of those points.
I think there’s only a risk of the content delivery being poor if it’s f2f. Why would a flipped classroom instructor choose bad recorded lectures for their students? It seems like one of the strengths of the flipped classroom is that instructors can select excellent recorded lectures.
If students don’t do the expected work, whether it’s a flipped classroom or not, they risk failing.
In a flipped classroom, recorded lectures can be given to students in advance on a DVD or flash drive, so internet access isn’t needed.
It’s good to see that this discussion has included the need for thoughtful design of a flipped classroom approach, and consideration of the learners’ life circumstances outside of the classroom. As is being discussed, any web content that needs to be viewed and engaged with before a subsequent active-learning classroom session that assumes knowledge of that content needs careful design thought put into it, beyond just putting a bunch of lecture notes online. A framework of expectations needs to be built around it, including ways to ensure students are engaging with the material, as well as having scaffolding in place for those who are struggling with it, tools for peer support and possibly contacting the instructor, and so forth. Flipped classroom instructors also required careful design of the F-F components, including taking time for summarizing, reviewing and constantly assessing the levels of participation and comprehension of participating students in order to ensure the class is keeping up to speed. Also, as part of the planning of a flipped classroom approach, and early in the course, instructors would do well to survey students to determine the assets as well as challenges they might have using this approach, including access to the Internet and other required technologies.
Hi Jason,
Thanks for sharing your insights into Khan Academy and the flipped classroom approach. I have not read about or experienced a flipped classroom, but your post has intrigued me. I can definitely see how self motivated and directed adult learners could benefit from reviewing materials and lectures from home, to then engage in meaningful discussions and activities to expand on concepts in a classroom context. Does Khan Academy have a classroom context?
As Irwin mentioned, I can see it working best when clear frameworks are established, and some direction is created around what aspects of readings etc. are the focus. I just had a flashback to situations in my past where instructors asked us to do readings before class, and then had an activity to move forward from there set up. Frequently not all learners had done the readings, and many had varied comprehension of content/concepts to bring the the discussions and activities. This resulted in some students effectively teaching the others (or doing all the work). Are there best practices around how to deal with this? Or is it beneficial for learning for students to teach each other?
I can see how those who have delved deeper and spent the time could definitely expand on their learning, but those who haven’t done the work struggling. Does Khan establish a framework and determine prior knowledge before starting the courses? What role does peer to peer instruction play in the classroom components?
All very interesting. I’ll have a look at the TED video. Thanks again.
Hi Stuart,
“Does Khan Academy have a classroom context?”
Not really. Khan Academy promotes the idea of using their content to flip classrooms, but this isn’t the primary intent of Khan Academy. If someone is learning entirely through Khan Academy (or another online service) then I don’t think the concept of a flipped classroom makes sense. Khan Academy does have places to ask questions, so if students are stuck then they can get help.
Khan Academy is mostly focused on STEM subjects (with exceptions). In those areas it’s not common for students to do readings and then discuss them (perhaps it should be more common but it’s not, and I say this having taken about 40 STEM courses). It’s more about students learning concepts and practicing them or they’ll fail their exams.
If instructors want students to discuss readings, don’t they always expect learners to do the readings outside of class, assuming the readings aren’t super short? I guess I’m not sure how this is relevant to Khan Academy or the flipped classroom.
Students teaching each other, or a ‘teach-back’ as it’s often called, is a commonly used technique around here. I’ve never studied the literature on it, but as far as I can tell it works well.
Khan Academy isn’t divided into courses. Learners can jump in wherever they think is appropriate. If they find the content too easy or too hard they can move back or move forward.
Khanacademy.org and all the content is fully open without the need to login, so with just a few minutes of navigating around you can probably get a better sense of what’s there and how it works. Note that the math and programming/computer science subjects have custom learning tools on Khan Academy, so they’ll be different from say chemistry or biology. For example, in programming it gives you an online editor to work through exercises, but the last time I looked at chemistry it just provides videos and questions. It’s worth checking out the math and programming subjects a bit to see how they’re doing them.
Thanks for the comment. I hope I covered your main questions!