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There's relatively new instructional strategy called the "inverted classroom" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fli

There's relatively new instructional strategy called the "inverted classroom" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom). It's where students read texts and watch online lectures by master instructors, but then go to in-person classrooms to work on problems and get tutoring with individual attention, and the opportunity to interact with other students. The advantage is that students get really comprehensive exposure to the material. First from a formal lecture and then from in-classroom attention with questions and practice. It's sort of like standard college lectures and recitations with TA's except there's more emphasis on the recitations and the lectures are from really excellent instructors.

sidr 5y ago
This is just a rebranding/reinvention of the tutorial system at Oxbridge, so not really that new.
- wirthjason 5y ago
  I’m not familiar with it. Do you have more details on how the system works? Was it happening pre-YouTube-ization of education?
- toxik 5y ago
  It really isn’t, you shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss things.
wirthjason 5y ago
I remember hearing this from Sol Khan, who must be a fan of Plato because he went on to form an academy. I’d like to experience it. The model didn’t get started until after I finished college. I’ve done online classes, but they miss the in-person dialog component. In general the problem is that administration wants to see education “scale” and the flipper classroom is tied to people. You have to get everyone together at the same time and same place (in-person is best, but I guess Zoom might substitute). This puts a ceiling on scaling.
- bluGill 5y ago
  Lectures scale well. Once there over more than around 30 people in the room it isn't possible be interactive anyway. So a video of the best lecturer is better than the average lecturer in person. That video of the lecture can have a few students (ideally plants who are scripted to ask the right questions - though this is not an easy thing to get right), but for the most part once you are over 30 students nobody is interactive anyway. You still need that interactive instruction. The worse professor I had in college was still better than the ones at MIT - I've never been in the same state as MIT which means they were terrible at interacting with me. And of course the in person interaction does not scale.
- owl57 5y ago
  > I guess Zoom might substitute Yes, but not for everyone. I used the pandemic as a chance to get back into classroom and ask a lot of questions, and even deliberately chose my spring courses to be online every evening from Monday to Friday, wouldn't pull that off with commute. But I'm sure other people can get much more in-person, when the interaction starts with eye contact and not only when the student is bold enough to unmute.
tbihl 5y ago
This is the way all my successful courses were in secondary and post secondary school years ago, except with textbooks rather than videos. The inverted classroom is just learning correctly for people who can't use textbooks (which can be a difficult skill, so I don't mean to denigrate the improvement.)
xmprt 5y ago
I had one class like this in college and I loved it. It can be a mixed bag though. I think a lot of people came (and continued to come) to lecture thinking it would be a normal lecture so they wouldn't do any of the reading/slides before class. I'm not sure what they got out of it. On the other hand, knowing the material allowed me to follow along with what was being said and even predict some of the points the professor wasn't going to make in the future.

sidr 5y ago

This is just a rebranding/reinvention of the tutorial system at Oxbridge, so not really that new.

wirthjason 5y ago
I’m not familiar with it. Do you have more details on how the system works? Was it happening pre-YouTube-ization of education?
toxik 5y ago
It really isn’t, you shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss things.

wirthjason 5y ago

I remember hearing this from Sol Khan, who must be a fan of Plato because he went on to form an academy. I’d like to experience it. The model didn’t get started until after I finished college. I’ve done online classes, but they miss the in-person dialog component. In general the problem is that administration wants to see education “scale” and the flipper classroom is tied to people. You have to get everyone together at the same time and same place (in-person is best, but I guess Zoom might substitute). This puts a ceiling on scaling.

bluGill 5y ago
Lectures scale well. Once there over more than around 30 people in the room it isn't possible be interactive anyway. So a video of the best lecturer is better than the average lecturer in person. That video of the lecture can have a few students (ideally plants who are scripted to ask the right questions - though this is not an easy thing to get right), but for the most part once you are over 30 students nobody is interactive anyway. You still need that interactive instruction. The worse professor I had in college was still better than the ones at MIT - I've never been in the same state as MIT which means they were terrible at interacting with me. And of course the in person interaction does not scale.
owl57 5y ago
> I guess Zoom might substitute Yes, but not for everyone. I used the pandemic as a chance to get back into classroom and ask a lot of questions, and even deliberately chose my spring courses to be online every evening from Monday to Friday, wouldn't pull that off with commute. But I'm sure other people can get much more in-person, when the interaction starts with eye contact and not only when the student is bold enough to unmute.

tbihl 5y ago

This is the way all my successful courses were in secondary and post secondary school years ago, except with textbooks rather than videos. The inverted classroom is just learning correctly for people who can't use textbooks (which can be a difficult skill, so I don't mean to denigrate the improvement.)

xmprt 5y ago

I had one class like this in college and I loved it. It can be a mixed bag though. I think a lot of people came (and continued to come) to lecture thinking it would be a normal lecture so they wouldn't do any of the reading/slides before class. I'm not sure what they got out of it. On the other hand, knowing the material allowed me to follow along with what was being said and even predict some of the points the professor wasn't going to make in the future.