The flipped classroom: Design considerations and Moodle

One of the novel ideas in teaching that heavily relies on current technology is the “flipped classroom” approach. In a flipped classroom the traditional lecture and homework sessions are inverted. Students are provided with online material in order to gain necessary knowledge before class, while class time is devoted to clarifications and application of this knowledge. The hypothesis is that there could be deep and creative discussions when teacher and students physically meet. This paper presents design considerations for flipped classrooms, and discusses how Moodle can facilitate communication and information sharing in such classrooms. Furthermore, it provides guidelines for supporting out-of-class instruction in the flipped model by using quizzes and feedback in Moodle, and comments on the potential to follow student use of resources by using Moodle reports. This paper concludes with a discussion of the opportunities and challenges when implementing the flipped model in a virtual learning environment (VLE) like Moodle.