The flipped classroom is an education trend that has generated a lot of buzz, but some educators have struggled to create or find videos that are both short enough and engaging enough to hold students’ attention. Yet, three free resources can help educators do that—and more.
During a webinar hosted by edWeb.net [1], a professional social network for the education community, Shannon Holden—a former middle and high school teacher, principal, and now an online educator—described how the free resources found via TED-Ed, Khan Academy, and Sophia have been used by educators to flip their classroom.
“I always tell educators interested in flipped learning that you can’t flip every lesson, maybe one or two a week. But these resources can help educators maintain their flipped classroom without spending a lot of time,” Holden said.
Proponents of the flipped classroom say the method—which has students watch short videos of concepts at home and come to school the next day prepared with questions, and sometimes having completed a post-video quiz—grabs students’ attention and uses class time for student collaboration and beneficial conversations about the new lesson.
Some critics point out that not all students have access to home internet or computers on which to watch assigned videos, and many parents initially are taken aback when their children come home without traditional homework.
But educators who are interested in the flipped classroom can check out these three free resources to get started.
(Next page: How educators are using Khan Academy to flip their classroom)
Khan Academy [2]:
- Every video on the site was built using screencasting software and developed by Salman Khan.
- The site is a nonprofit funded by investors, such as Bill Gates.
- Once you sign up for a free account, you have access to all videos and lessons.
- Users can find lessons by topic or by subject.
- Students can log into their account, click on their name at the top of the page, and then click on the ‘coaches’ tab to select their teacher. Once they select their coach, the coach can control what each student watches.
- Students can have more than one coach.
- For math and science videos, students can elect to see how a problem was solved step-by-step, either through text or video, by clicking ‘show the next step’ button.
- Coaches have access to all of their students’ activities and achievements.
- Coaches are able to access ‘class stats,’ which reveals how many students have viewed a video, as well as which students have viewed the video.
- Khan Academy provides a ‘teacher toolkit’ that explains how to get started, how to implement Khan Academy into the classroom, and provides resources for students.
(Next page: Sophia and TED-Ed)
Sophia [3]:
- Teachers have personal dashboards and students can have a personal login.
- The site provides three different types of organization: tutorials, playlists, or groups.
- To create a tutorial, teachers use a built-in screen recording tool to make short videos or add PowerPoint and PDF files, choose what subject describes the tutorial, hit “create,” and add closed-captioning if desired.
- Sophia provides a video on how to create a quiz for a tutorial.
- To create a playlist, teachers can create an ordered set of tutorials for students to follow. Students can use these for a structured course, or create their own playlist as a study guide. Click “create playlist,” drag and drop videos in the desired order, and then add a name and description.
- There are many playlists available pre-made for educators and students.
- Creating a group allows teachers to create a private classroom or study group. Teachers and students (if the teacher allows for this ability) can upload content, communicate with other group members, and students have the ability to submit coursework and projects.
- Users can make an unlimited number of tutorials, playlists, and groups. Everything created can be viewed and organized on the dashboard.
- Sophia provides a five-question quiz, “What kind of learner are you?” to help each member determine if they’re a visual, verbal, auditory, interpersonal, or applied learner.
TED-Ed [4]:
- The site provides tutorials (written, audio, and video) on how to create a lesson for a flipped classroom.
- Each video has the option to meet the video’s creators.
- Teachers can find videos in a series, by subject, or by “best flips”—the videos already in TED-Ed’s library.
- The site works in conjunction with YouTube, so that educators can choose any video from YouTube and incorporate it into their lesson.
- Each video has an option to “dig deeper,” providing further resources on the video’s topic.
- Educators can use the assessment attached to the video (available in multiple choice or short answer questions), or they can create their own.
- When teachers “borrow” the video, lesson, and assessment, they get a unique URL to share with students, meaning this URL will not link or advertise any other video on the site.
- When students use the URL, the teacher gets the results of their quiz.
- If an educator’s lesson is nominated and accepted, an animator will make an animated version of the lesson.
For more information on each of these flipped classroom resources, as well as more digital resources and links, check out the archived version of this webinar [5].