5 ways to flip the classroom with Interactive Video | FeedbackFruits tips

1. Let students take charge of the discussion

You probably knew you could add question and discussion threads yourself as a teacher. But did you know you can also allow students to post their own questions? Enabling this feature allows the student to switch roles and pose guided questions to the rest of their class. You can even respond as a teacher!

Providing space for this can help students gain autonomy and confidence with critical thinking and taking part in discussions, building their knowledge in a collaborative space. Incidentally, this is the core idea behind FeedbackFruits: making communication in education a two-way street.

Figure 1. Allow students to make contributions

2. Make use of deadlines and time windows

How often is it that everyone completes their homework on time? No matter how many times it’s mentioned in the syllabus, on the LMS, or in weekly emails, students often forget when, where or how to hand in work (if it was indeed completed on time). With deadlines in Interactive Video, you can not only require steps to be completed on time in order to receive more points, but with time windows and extensions, you can be as specific as you like with giving individuals more time, and pre-determining when steps will be open for completion. 

The benefit of this is increased structure and flexibility - and this results in students who (at least in theory) know what is expected of them, at what time, and in what mode. Also good to know: notifications in the activity and via email also prompt students to remember upcoming deadlines!

Figure 2. Set deadlines and time windows for assignments

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3. Consider going anonymous

It’s certainly not exclusive to Interactive Study Materials, but anonymity is one of the most-used features in Interactive Video, as well as our other tools. There are obvious cases where it doesn’t work - like with smaller, more intimate study groups where students know each other’s communication styles - but for the majority of classes, there are often places where anonymity can help. The result is generating a more fair, unbiased discussion, where the impact of students’ potential friendships or rivalries, or inherent biases based on names, are removed from the equation. 

With this feature, students won't see each other’s names, but rather fruity pseudonyms which conceal the identity of, for example, who has responded to your discussion thread or answered a question. And remember, teachers will always have full visibility on student names regardless of anonymity settings.

Figure 3. Anonymous setting

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4. Change what grading means

When it comes to assessment, there are many ideas about how to implement fairer, authentic, meaningful practices, with some schools removing grades entirely. With the ability to configure grading in Interactive Video and our other tools, you communicate to students how important it is to, for example, complete discussions, answer questions (correctly or not), write reflections, or engage with their peers. As your course is your expertise, you know best which factors are the most important to focus students towards what matters most. 

Do you want students to know that answering questions about the material is important, but don't want to pressure them to already have the correct answers? Then configure the grades to reward the answering of questions, but not whether they were answered correctly. In this way, a student who gets everything ‘wrong’ can still get full points for trying. This can do wonders for motivation and pre-class preparation.

5. Make it accessible

Not everyone learns the same way. We’ve worked with frameworks such as Inclusive Course Design  and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) which invite us to consider how knowledge should be  expressed, represented, and communicated to address different learning needs. And it’s undeniable that some learners benefit more from other modes of representation: audio; video; text; images, etc.

So even though you’re using a video, consider whether students might benefit from added layers of accessibility:

• Is the audio understandable to everyone, also from different backgrounds? Do you need to add subtitles?
• Are written instructions sufficient or might learners benefit from an image or audio attachment?
• Do students know how/when/where to contact you or their peers for questions about the material?

Conclusion

These considerations are the tip of the iceberg, and in general, accessibility should be considered throughout the course design and not just at the end. However, making use of these sorts of features can result in a more engaging, personable, and nourishing learning experience for more students.

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