The Flipped Classroom: From Global Trend to Taiwan’s Classrooms
As higher education worldwide talks about BYOD and flipped learning, where does Taiwan go next?
TronClass Hands-On Workshop: The Flipped Classroom
In its 2015 Horizon Report: Higher Education Edition, The New Media Consortium predicted that BYOD (bring your own device) and the flipped classroom would be widely adopted by higher-education institutions within a year. A survey by the European University Association further showed that as many as 70% of European colleges and universities already offer blended learning courses.
The international trend is clear, but putting it into practice requires hands-on work.
In May 2016, the Taiwan Digital Learning Association partnered with the Office of Information Services at Tamkang University and the WisdomGarden Research Center to host the "TronClass Hands-On Workshop: The Flipped Classroom" at Tamkang University Taipei Campus. Dr. Shen Chun-yi, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Educational Technology at Tamkang University, served as the instructor, guiding professors from various schools through the hands-on appeal of the flipped classroom.
The workshop was designed to move directly from theory into hands-on practice.
It opened with Dr. Shen sharing "New Discoveries in the Flipped Classroom" to give the attending professors a conceptual framework, followed by a "Big Questions in Course Creation" session that prompted them to consider which parts of their own courses were best suited to flipping. Then came the truly pivotal part: the professors prepared their own course materials and recorded their own micro-lessons, and finally, through a "Mobile Course-Creation Micro-Experience," experienced how to complete the course-creation workflow using mobile devices.
The core spirit of the flipped classroom has never been about moving lecture content into online videos, but about reallocating time inside and outside the classroom: shifting knowledge delivery to before class and reserving class time for discussion, application, and deep interaction. Yet to get professors genuinely willing to try it, conceptual explanation alone is far from enough—they have to do it themselves at least once.
That is precisely the point of this workshop: moving from understanding to doing.
Are you also thinking about which part of your course would be best moved before class for students to learn on their own? We invite you to share your thoughts in the comments.
Want to learn more? Let’s talk.
We welcome university teachers, teaching and learning development centers, and education technology partners to connect with WisdomGarden and explore together how the flipped classroom can genuinely reach every classroom.