FLIPPED CLASSROOM – A PEDAGOGICAL MODEL FOR ACTIVE LEARNING Nadezhda Angelova1, Gabriela Kiryakova2, Lina Yordanova3 Abstract The development of the information and communication technologies provides opportunities for implementation of new pedagogical models and approaches in education. These models allow students to participate actively in the learning process - interact and collaborate with other students and teachers. The aim of the current work is to present the benefits of one of the forms of blended learning - flipped classroom and to research how it can be used as a means of shifting from passive to active learning . Key Words: e-learning, blended learning, flipped classroom 1. INTRODUCTION The development of the Internet and new communication and information technologies have created new generation of users, called digital generation. The term describes those born between 1982 and 2002, who live in constant touch with the latest technology and social media. They prefer tools working in multitasking mode and permanent connectivity, characterized by active learning and collaboration. (Prensky, 2001), (McMahon, M., Pospisil, R., 2005) Scientists believe that the problem is not to get the attention of students, but the fact that they have changed their needs and expectations. Standard stereotype of the classroom where the teacher plays a major role is inappropriate and teachers should focus their efforts to provide a learner-centered environment and include activities for active learning. The pedagogical model flipped classroom reflects the change in the new generation of learners and allows more dynamic and effective interaction. This model is one of the forms of blended learning. The aim of the current work is to present the benefits of flipped classroom and to research how it can be used as a means of shifting from passive to active learning. The presented software tools are designed to help teachers in the creation of interactive video lessons and efficiently integrating them into the learning process. 2. NATURE OF THE FLIPPED CLASSROOM MODEL By definition, the flipped classroom model is presented as a technology in which learning activities traditionally carried out in the classroom are exported outside and vice versa. This model consists of two components and is realized with two educational techniques - interactive active learning in the classroom and computer assisted self-learning beyond. The essence of the model lies in the fact that students use specially selected and prepared video lectures for self preparation and thus increases the time for communication between the teacher and students in the classroom. (M.J. Lage and G. Platt, 2000) 2.1. Active learning methods Active learning is a learning model that allows students to do something and think about what they do. There are distinguished four main types of activities that promote active learning - individual activities, pair activities, activities in small groups and activities (projects), bringing together large groups of learners. The teacher should select the most appropriate activities to complete the specific goals and objectives determined for the course. These types of active learning activities can be implemented successfully in a traditional classroom course, blended course or online course created in LMS. (Zayapragassarazan, Z., Kumar, S., 2012) 2.2. Advantages and disadvantages of the model Growing interest in this training model provokes researchers to explore and discuss the benefits and negatives of its application ( Jon Bergmann, Jerry Overmyer and Brett Wilie, 2013), (7 things you should know about flipped classrooms, 2012). 2.2.1. Benefits  Allows devoting more time to study material according to individual pace and learning style of each student, the resources can be viewed in multiple extracurricular times.  Engaging learners and creating personal learning strategies depending on their progress.  Students’ social skills are supported by strategies for active learning through cooperation and collaboration that increase responsibility for their contribution to the group.  Improve learning achievement. Based on surveys on the use of this learning model can be concluded that students do better in tests and examinations. These results depend on many other criteria and therefore the conclusion can not be confirmed for the model as a whole. (Jacob Lowell Bishop, Matthew A Verleger, 2013).  Better communication and interaction with teacher during lecture time. In this way, the teacher will receive instant feedback on the student’s progress and help him to clear out which parts of the lesson are difficult for them. The most common mistakes being made in the use of new material will be track down and eliminate through discussion. 1 Trakia University, Faculty of Economics, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, nadja@uni-sz.bg Trakia University, Faculty of Economics, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, gabriela@uni-sz.bg 3 Trakia University, Faculty of Economics, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, lina@uni-sz.bg 2  Allows creation and presentation of learning resources in a suitable form, recording lectures, video on-screen demonstration of certain software, additional resources from video sharing platforms. Use of scenarios for active collaboration, group or individual projects, taking notes in lectures or limit access to the following resources in the course are part of the strategies for active learning. Preliminary examination of the material is the basis for conducting Just -in -time teaching. The teacher requires its students to read the resources at home and to come to lecture with knowledge that can be developed during the class time.  Continuous learning process - moving forward in the material, despite the absence of teacher or learner. This allows students who are engaged in other activities or absent due to illness to monitor and execute tasks in a timely manner.  Economic benefits - major universities and educational institutions can support the traditional lecture model with a large number of students in a lecture hall and make it more effective without the introduction of seminars and dividing students into smaller groups. (Berrett, 2012) 2.2.2. Limitations  Inability to apply to all subjects.  Internet accessibility limitation. When applying this learning model the teacher should be aware if students have access to the Internet in their homes and in the computer rooms in the institution. Providing CDs with materials for self-study could be a solution of this problem.  Lack of a sufficient number of computer labs. This limitation can be overcome by the initiative BYOD (bring your own device). The availability of mobile devices (laptops, tablets, smartphones) and a good Internet connection allow the teacher to make online collaboration with students during the lesson. This learning strategy will help students to achieve skills how to study effectively using this natural environment of mobility, communication and social media.  More responsibility of the students in the learning process. Transforming learners from passive into active users requires taking the main role in their learning process, being more responsible gives them more freedom to experiment.  Change in the way of teaching and acquiring new skills for teachers. They have to restructure and adapt lectures to flipped classroom model, which forces them to adopt new technologies to create resources for online presentation. Creating own their video tutorials challenge teachers to take a different view of the teaching process. They should find the best way to convey the most important lesson in the 5-6 minute video resources, to choose the most appropriate examples and plan time for discussions, collective and individual work. 2.2.3. Important requirements for successful application of the model According to some researchers (Miller, 2012) applying the flipped classroom model does not solve the problems in education and can not be used without prior definition of goals and objectives that have to be achieved. Teachers should use a pedagogical design and incorporate appropriate activities to assist the implementation of the model:  Motivation – it is not enough just to create video lectures, it is important to focus students’ attention to the applicability of knowledge, to stress on the importance and benefits of learning. Opportunities for implementing knowledge in real life will motivate them to learn.  Engaging attention– using an instructional design to create a flexible course including a variety of activities to engage students’ attention. Some of pedagogical techniques to stimulate active learning are project-based learning (PBL), game-based learning (GBL), Understanding by Design (UbD).  Technology – as the flipped classroom mainly consists of video lectures and resources it needs to provide the necessary tools for recording audio and video media for communication and interaction with the teacher. There are many software tools for creating audio and video materials and platforms through which these resources can be transformed into interactive video tutorials with build-in questions.  Feedback- created video should provoke a reaction in the students so the teacher can receive an immediate feedback to what extent this resource was useful and whether it has the intended impact for acquiring new knowledge. Some platforms suitable for models allow statistical assessments and monitoring success.  Place and time–The development of mobile technologies and applications created an opportunity to learn at a convenient time and place. The resources should be in an appropriate format and not too long so the students not to be bored. 3. OUR EXPERIENCE To test the benefits of a learning model it is necessary its application for a long period of time. Our team has an experience in using interactive active learning methods and some of them will be represented in next parts. 3.1. Just-in-time teaching The technology Just-in-time teaching (JiTT) is based on the following: before each session learners perform Web-based tasks, which examine the level of assimilation of the learning materials. Students prepared separately to be able to deal with the tasks. Teachers assess the level of students’ knowledge and become familiar with the problem areas. Activities during the exercise are determined by results achieved in the execution of preliminary tasks. Feedback is the basis of the technology JiTT. An important point is the active participation of learners and their contribution to the presentation of the learning materials. The learners use Web tools in their preliminary preparation on the topics for discussions with the lecturer. Our experience combined JiTT with an application of a wiki system for creating a course for ICT subject. The students had to learn by themselves how to create wiki pages and be responsible for writing the content. Individual tasks have been successful in acquiring knowledge and skills in the curriculum as well as group works. It has been proven that the education efficiency does not depend on the used technology but on the methods of training which are applied. When learners are more active the training itself improves. An active learning environment in which students participate in the presentation of the material and interact with both the teacher and each other is much more effective than traditional, in which the active side is the teacher and students are passive. (Angelova N., L. Yordanova, G. Kiryakova, Y. Tzvetanova, 2006) 3.2. QR codes QR code is a marker tool of Augmented Reality. The code can contain a variety of information, such as additional data supporting the learning process, locations of objects, videos, school initiatives and others. Using QR codes in Biostatistics course led to a better level of students’ knowledge. Each code contains embedded link to a video tutorial created by our team and uploaded to YouTube. The students can scan the codes by their mobile devices and watch videos. This provoke their interest in QR technology and besides knowledge of the particular discipline they acquire skills to work with this tool of augmented reality. 77% of students agree that it is a good learning tool, which is a matter of interest and innovation. About the usage of specific learning resources 67% of the students conclude that their access to educational content is easy, but only 26% prefer it for every day. (Pencheva Al., N. Angelova, L. Yordanova, H. Mitev, 2014) 3.3. Screen casting Including video lessons with demonstrations of practical tasks using MS Excel and MS Access, increazed the students’ success in the disciplines of Informatics and Biostatistics. Although flipped classroom model was not fully implemented, these video resources have been very useful for students’ self-training. The survey carried out among them cleared out that they prefer video tutorials lasting between 5 and 10 minutes, and the average number of replays is between 1 and 2. Concerning quality of the videos students reported that these resources are interesting and understandable. The appropriately way tutorials are served prompted them to use the power of Web 2.0 technologies in their learning process. Next step ahead is to incorporate more interactivity inside the videos. A solution for that is including questions at any time of the video to provide feedback not only for students but also for the teacher. At the moment resources are uploaded in LMS Moodle using the opportunities of lesson activity for interaction and creating branches for learning paths. (Angelova, N., L. Yordanova, 2014) 4. FREE SOFTWARE TOOLS FOR CREATING LESSONS SUITABLE FOR FLIPPED CLASSROOM MODEL Besides Moodle there are a number of other online based platforms that offer functionality for creating lessons including video resources. In addition there is an opportunity for adding text information explaining the lesson, tools for taking notes while watching it, build in questions during the video or at the end demanding answers from students. This allows tracking the learning progress and makes students active participants in their own learning process. Next list of some online platforms, we recommend, will help teachers to build video lessons suitable for flipped classroom model: EduCanon is a tool for creating interactive video tutorials, including questions at some point in the execution of the video. Teachers can create their courses and enroll students thus have the opportunity to track their performance. (EduCanon) Teachem is a platform based on the Ted-ed model. Users can create lessons based on videos from YouTube and teachers can add comments using flash cards or ask questions during the video. The platform allows teachers to create their own class with different status of accessibility (public, private) and to determine which users can view video tutorials. Collaboration with other teachers and users is also available. (Teachem) VideoNotes is an extremely easy and convenient tool that connects to Google Drive and allows taking notes while watching videos on YouTube. Provides an opportunity for collaboration and sharing like simple Google document. Teacher can use it as an assignment for students for individual or group work. (VideoNotes) Bluebbr is a simple and easy to use online tool transforming a selected video clip from YouTube into interactive video lesson by adding multiple choice questions. The users receive an immediate feedback and can compare the results of different participants who watched the video lesson and have answered the questions. (Blubbr) Zaption is a platform for creating interactive video tutorials, including videos, slides, text and questions that may appear during the lesson in different places. Used video clips are from YouTube, Vimeo, PBS, or National Geographic. Offers the ability to track the activity and success of the participants. (Zaption) EdPuzzle is a platform uses video resources from Khan Academy, Ted, Vimeo, TeacherTube, Learn Zillion etc. There are two types of users – a teacher and a student. Teachers can create lessons, courses, assignments and monitor the students’ participation and success. Created video tutorials can be shared and embedded in other web environments (eg LMS) and can be viewed in a guest mode. Thus eliminates the requirement of registration in different platforms, but disables possibility for tracking and monitoring. (EdPuzzle) Figure1: Embeded video lesson into a Moodle course BlendSpaces – This platform provides the ability to create interactive video tutorials by incorporating elements from various sources, text and quizzes. When participant reviews a lesson there is an opportunity to comment and evaluate it by ratings (buttons “like” and “dislike”). The platform provides statistics about the number of views for each lesson, duration of viewing and students’ success. The teacher can assign resources and students to his courses created in the platform. The ability to embed resources makes them an universal tool for publishing in various places on the web. (BlendSpaces) Advantages of online platforms for creating lessons for the flipped classroom model:  free, web based  user friendly interface, drag&drop;  creating courses and assigning students;  using different types of resources – text, pictures, videos, questions;  sharing and embedding in web;  immediate feedback  tracking progress of assigned students;  reusing video tutorials created by other teachers in the platform;  interactivity - disruption of the video at a certain point in response to a question; Disadvantages  Inability for export, standards are not supported;  Some platforms require registration to be able to solve quizzes.  Inability to transfer the marks from these platforms to LMS. 5. CONCLUSIONS Exploring the students’ attitude to this kind of training by using surveys among students in our university can make the following conclusions:  In general most students prefer video lectures comparing with traditional way of teaching – 68%.  There is a small group of students who do not like to watch videos – they are getting tired, not able to concentrate, prefer to listen to the speaker and others. We think these students are persons that do not like changes in general and they are afraid of taking responsibility. Reversing the activities in the classroom and beyond are not always accepted easy and immediately by the students. For many reasons some of them prefer the old methods of teaching to which they are accustomed. For example, realizing that this method will require more effort from them; do not have sufficient motivation to learn; it is not easy for them to meet the changes and challenges in their life. The existence of such category of students requires the transition to this model of training to be realized gradual and smooth. Good practice is a systematic use of tests before each lecture as an assessment of the previous and current topic. That requires the teacher to preset a task for students to look for resources on the next topic. The next step is giving a well prepared materials and a list of major issues of the topics for discussion for the next lecture or exercise. The flipped classroom model provides opportunities for active learning and is in line with the new requirements of digital native students. The model improves students’ learning achievement. The activities‘flipping brings up the communication between the teacher and students on a higher lever and provides more time for discussions during lessons. Successful application depends on the skills of the teacher to include a variety of active learning activities to engage the attention and stimulate motivation of students. The reviewed software tools support teachers in creating interactive video tutorials and enhance the interest of students to the latest web technologies. 6. REFERENCES Jon Bergmann, Jerry Overmyer and Brett Wilie. (09 07 2013 r.). The Flipped Class: Myths vs. Reality. Изтеглено на 20 08 2014 r. от www.thedailyriff.com: http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/the-flipped-class-conversation-689.php 7 things you should know about flipped classrooms. (07 02 2012 r.). Изтеглено на 20 08 2014 r. от www.educause.edu: http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/7-things-you-should-know-about-flipped-classrooms Angelova N., L. Yordanova, G. Kiryakova, Y. Tzvetanova. (2006). Usage of Wiki systems for developing learning courses. Proceeding of International scientific conference Unitech (pp. p. 267-271). Gabrovo: ISSN10:954-683-353-3, vol 3. Angelova, N., L. Yordanova. (2014). Using video resources in e-learning and platforms for sharing learning materials. Proceeding of the Vth National Conference of E-learning, (pp. pp. 139-145). Rousse. Berrett, D. (19 02 2012 r.). How 'Flipping' the Classroom Can Improve the. Изтеглено на 20 08 2014 r. от chronicle.com: http://chronicle.com/article/How-Flipping-the-Classroom/130857/ BlendSpaces. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.blendspace.com Blubbr. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.blubbr.tv EdPuzzle. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://edpuzzle.com EduCanon. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.educanon.com Jacob Lowell Bishop, Matthew A Verleger. (2013). The Flipped Classroom: A Survey of the Research. 120th ASEE Annual Conference&Exposition, (стр. Paper ID #6219). Atlanta. M.J. Lage and G. Platt. (2000). The internet and the inverted classroom. The Journal of Economic Education, 31(1). McMahon, M., Pospisil, R. (2005). 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