FOSTERING FEEDBACK
Behind the scenes of Harvard’s new “flipped classrooms” is a collaborative effort at the University to evaluate their impact on pedagogy and the student experience.
Staff from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching, and the HarvardX research team are conducting focus groups and surveys on each flipped classroom course this semester, according to Andrew D. Ho, research director at HarvardX.
A survey of students in “China” due to be released in November showed relatively positive opinions about new online modules for the course, Ho said.
“I was surprised to the degree how positive people were,” said Ho, who is also an associate professor at the Graduate School of Education. “On average...[the students] found them to be very useful.”
Robert A. Lue, faculty director of HarvardX and director of the Bok Center, said that the pedagogy behind active learning is based on a vast body of social science literature. In particular, Lue noted that educational research has shown evidence of the initial difficulties of switching to flipped classrooms.
“It’s well-documented that the first time you do a flipped classroom, it's uncomfortable because it's so different,” Lue said.
As Harvard’s online presence continues to expand—HarvardX plans to add nine new courses over the next year—on-campus incorporation of online materials will continue, with feedback from ongoing efforts to determine the best methods for conducting undergraduate classes.
“We are in active research mode of constant improvement, and we have systematic data collection going on,” Ho said.
STANDING BY BRICKS AND MORTAR
Although the flipped classroom has become an increasingly common structure for Harvard courses in the past few years, some professors stand by more conventional methods of teaching.
Two of the on-campus courses available to undergraduates that have been or are currently being offered on the HarvardX platform, Ethical Reasoning 22: “Justice” and Computer Science 50: “Introduction to Computer Science,” are still taught in the traditional live classroom format.
"I have never required or even encouraged on-campus students in ‘Justice’ to watch my online lectures before class,” government professor Michael J. Sandel wrote in an email, pointing to the crucial role of student participation in his lectures.
“To have students watch online lectures in advance would risk dampening the spontaneous, unpredictable, and open-ended quality of the discussions we have in Sanders Theater," Sandel wrote.
Philosophy professor Edward J. Hall, who signed a letter asking for more faculty oversight over HarvardX, echoed Sandel’s sentiment. Although Hall said that the evaluative components of virtual courses can be very beneficial for students, teaching should only be done in person.
“As far as I'm concerned, nothing can properly substitute for what I do in lecture,” Hall said.
—Staff writer Amna H. Hashmi can be reached at amnahashmi@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @amna_hashmi.
—Staff writer Cynthia W. Shih can be reached at cshih@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter at @CShih7.