A New School Year, a New Approach

I’ve written a few posts over the past few years about flipping some of my courses. Flipping a course involves recording a screencast of the content and having students view the screencast for homework. When they come to class the next day, the teacher is available to work with them on the problems. So, the lecture part of teaching is “flipped” with the homework part.

This year, I’ve decided to hold my students more accountable for watching and understanding the material in my screencasts, and after talking with my department chair, I’m making some changes.

First, before they watch a screencast, I will hand out a worksheet (see attached file below for a sample) with the problems and examples that I cover in it. Students are expected to write the solutions to the examples as they watch, as well as fill in blanks where appropriate.

Second, I will ask them to solve one or two similar problems on their own before they come to class. I will check to make sure they’ve done them.

Third, I will see each student individually and ask her to solve a typical problem while I’m watching to make sure she has mastered the material.

Hopefully these steps will help my students take responsibility for learning the material I am including in their course’s screencasts.

Here’s the first worksheet for my College Algebra and Trigonometry Course:

Sec. 1.2 Worksheet

And here’s the corresponding screencast:

 

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