Sue Hardman's presentation for Brunel University London's Learning and Teaching Symposium 2015

1. The ‘flipped classroom’ and
video lectures
Sue Hardman
Teaching fellow in Accounting
Brunel Business School

2. A flipped classroom
‘’Inverting the classroom means that events that
have traditionally taken place inside the
classroom now take place outside the classroom
and vice versa’’
(Lage et al, 2000)
Video lectures/assigned reading – outside
Practice exercises/ problem solving - inside

3. Pros
• Availability of information 24/7
• Research showing video lectures slightly
outperform in-person lectures (Cohen et al 1981)
• Amplification and duplication of information at a
low cost.
• Enhances student experience
• Delivers desirable skills, e.g. problem solving
• Enables automation of suitable tasks, whilst
freeing classroom and contact time for ‘active
learning’

4. Cons
• Are any form of lecture a good mode of informational
transfer?
• What happens if students don’t do the preparatory
work
• Do all students have equality of access to internet
• Could be seen as a reduction in accessibility of staff for
students
• Why come to University if the material is all online.
• I am not very competent at using technology so I don’t
know where to start to get these ‘video lectures’

5. Personal experience
• This was the position I was in last September.
• I wanted to solve some of the pedagogical: issues
I had in two modules:
– Year 1 Introduction to accounting
• 350+ in lecture theatre with poor behaviour
• Skills based module
• Transitional expection gap of students
– Year 5 Financial Reporting
• Block teaching over 4.5 weeks (8hrs/week)
• International students (ESL)
• Reliance on passive transfer of knowledge

6. What did I want to do?
• Year 5
– Foster a process of enquiry to encourage students to
read appropriate literature and engage in academic
debate
– Move away from rote learning of exam answers
– Use active learning, i.e ‘engaging student in the
learning process’ (Prince 2004)
But
controlling teacher in me feared sending students
off to exams without covering the topic in class

7. What did I do
• Selected one of the theoretical topics
• Created a 30 minute video lecture covering the main
arguments
• Asked the students to watch it over the weekend
• On the following Monday held a ‘whiteboard debate’
• Two teams were responsible for putting relevant points
(incl. references), either for or against the use of ‘Fair
Value Accounting’ on the two whiteboards
• Then held the debate
• Students photographed the whiteboards!

8. What happened
• A few students walked out!
• Some students were watching the video at the
same time as constructing the argument on the
whiteboard
• Some were googling on their ipads
• We got two full boards of good points, had a
spirited debate
• In the exam those students who opted to answer
a question on the topic wrote some excellent,
well referenced answers

9. How did I create the video?
Remember I am technologically challenged!
• Used ‘Preview’ (used to be called Panopto)
• A function of the lecture capture software
‘Revise’, which has two functions
– ‘Review’ is the function used to record your
lectures in the lecture theatres at Brunel
– ‘Preview’ can be installed on your desk top PC so
you can make your own video lectures
• Preview is what I am using now!

10. Preview
• This software enables you to capture/record
three things at once
• Sound - voice
• PowerPoint presentation
• Video Camera

11. What do you need?
• The SOFTWARE installed on your PC.
• Your Blackboard modules added to revise.
• If you want to record more than a PowerPoint
and voice – VISUALISER
• For best results – TWO MONITORS
• The telephone number of the AV Dept, on a
sticky!

12. Once I started, I just couldn’t stop!
• I started to see this software solving all sorts
of teaching problems
• I started making videos for all sorts of topics
e.g. Examination guidance

13. What about year 1
• This was a different problem from the Masters
students
• I needed to combine inquiry learning with instruction
as financial accounting at this level is largely low level,
procedural, algorithmic concepts
• Students have 2x 1hour lectures per week plus a one
hour problem based seminar.
• H001 is not equipped to demonstrate skills based
learning
• Student feedback was that the lecture didn’t teach
them anything and they didn’t feel prepared for their
seminar

14. Analogy
• Some people may say accountants ‘cook the books’!
• But a cooking analogy is quite appropriate
• Have you ever watched a cookery programme and thought I
can do that.
• Then halfway through realised you can’t remember what goes
in when and how long you whisk/cook etc
• You look it up in a recipe book, but sometimes that doesn’t
help, e.g. it may not answer your query.
• That’s why Delia now puts all her cookery demonstrations
online.
• Its more effective.
• Let me demonstrate how easy this is using PREVIEW

15. MG1052 Introduction to
Accounting
Video lecture
Calculating VAT

16. Question
How much VAT have I paid on a bill:
a. For £500 excluding Vat
b. For £600 including VAT
When VAT is 20%

17. Answers
a. £500 X 20/100 = £100
a. £600 x 20/120 = £100

18. "MG3600 on 2/23/2015 (Mon)"is now readyto view.
Folder:C.MG3600.A.2014-5.YEAR: MG3600 AuditingandAssurance (A 2014/5 YEAR)
View:http://lecture-capture.brunel.ac.uk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=9ee6ae8f-183f-
4b31-b646-e6a8010a8a38
Edit:http://lecture-capture.brunel.ac.uk/Panopto/Pages/Editor/Default.aspx#9ee6ae8f-
183f-4b31-b646-e6a8010a8a38
Share:http://lecture-capture.brunel.ac.uk/Panopto/Pages/Sessions/List.aspx?id=9ee6ae8f-
183f-4b31-b646-e6a8010a8a38&modalPage=SessionShare
Additional outputformats:http://lecture-
capture.brunel.ac.uk/Panopto/Pages/Sessions/List.aspx?id=9ee6ae8f-183f-4b31-b646-
e6a8010a8a38&modalPage=SessionOutputs
Email received when ready

19. Student feedback
• Thank you for getting in touch about Panopto. It
would help me to understand why you find it a
help? What is it about it that aids your learning?
(Me)
• I have attended all your seminars and yet I still
find it difficult to understand. one of the main
reason is that when everyone discuss there (sic)
point its really difficult for me take down all the
notes in the class. Also during the presentation
you add on points which I miss all the time
(student with learning disability statement)

20. First year student feedback
Hello Sue,
I would just like to say, I have been revising the
module, and I have discovered that the Panopto
Lecture Recordings were extremely useful.
Coming from a student who has never studied
accounting before, such an example came
extremely handy when I needed something to
refer back to, and it made it a lot easier to
visualise

21. First year student feedback
• Hey sue can u please do a video on ratios
please as soon as you get this, I understand
better from your practical videos. they have
helped me so much without them I would
have had trouble understanding the question I
am really grateful thank you so much.

22. Reflection
• If, like me, you are interested in using aspects of the
Revise software to address an issue in your practice, I
encourage you to reflect on the following steps first:
• Step 1: Identify your current or desired teaching style.
• Step 2: Ask yourself this question: Given my style, do I
currently use class time to teach any low level,
procedural, algorithmic concepts?
• Step 3: If yes, you could use Preview to create
opportunities for students to obtain this information
outside of the classroom.
• Step 4: Could you use Preview to encourage reflection
and synthesis of homework-based instruction

23. Good Practice?
As we are all aware, teaching can be
a very powerful, and often very
personal act, where the right way is
as diverse as the students we are
blessed to work with.

24. References
• Cohen, Ebeling & Kulik. A metaanalysis of outcome studies of visual based
instruction. Educational Technology Research and Development, 29(1)26-36,1981
• M.J. Lage, G. Platt and M Treglia. Inverting the classroom: A gateway to creating an
inclusive learning environment. Journal of Economic Education, 31(1):30-43,2000
• M. Prince. Does active learning work? A review of the research. Journal of
Enginneering Education – Washington, 93:223-232,2004