Flipping Your Course

In its simplest terms, the flipped classroom is about viewing and/or listening to lectures during one’s own time which frees up face-to-face class time for experiential exercises, group discussion, and question and answer sessions.

It’s called “the flipped classroom.” While there is no one model, the core idea is to flip the common instructional approach.  With teacher-created videos and interactive lessons, instruction that used to occur in class is now accessed at home, in advance of class. Class becomes the place to work through problems, advance concepts, and engage in collaborative learning. Most importantly, all aspects of instruction can be rethought to best maximize the scarcest learning resource—time. Flipped classroom teachers almost universally agree that it’s not the instructional videos on their own, but how they are integrated into an overall approach, that makes the difference.

Many educational technology tools can be used in instruction; however, one fundamentally useful tool in teaching is the screencast. A screencast can provide learners a student-centered and engaging learning experience in both distance and traditional learning settings. Screencasts enable teachers to create a digital recording of any instructional activity performed on a computer screen, and they can be used as learning resources, learning tasks, and learning support.
The following article focuses on educational screencasts. The topics explored include an overview of screencasting, its benefits, the flipped classroom, screencast software, tools, planning, and teacher-created screencasts. 

Screencasting to Engage Learning, by Michael F. Ruffini, EDUCAUSE Review