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This article assesses Reacting to the Past , a humanities role-immersion pedagogy that is popular at many colleges and universities in the United States. This pedagogy has been found to have many learning gains compared to traditional face-to-face teaching, but has not been adequately compared to online versions of the course. The findings of the article suggest that while learning gains can be achieved that are comparable to face-to-face versions of the course, student satisfaction was lower. The article concludes not by rejecting the online Reacting to the Past , however, but by suggesting possible ways to incorporate successful elements of it within a blended approach. These findings will be of interest to people interested in this particular pedagogy, but also to those who are interested in the general comparison between online and face-to-face learning and teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible teaching and learning and the ‘flipped classroom’ are current buzzwords in higher education in Australia and elsewhere in the world. They are reflections of the progressive change in higher education over the last few decades towards more student-and learning centred pedagogies and practices, which are made possible through new technologies and more delivery of online and blended (combination of face-to-face and online components) courses. The increasing personalising and flexibility of learning in higher education requires equal attention spent to assessment practices to ensure a cohesive learning experience. This paper provides the findings and conclusions of a study about a flipped classroom, which also included flexible assessment components. The study showed that students enjoy and are more engaged in a flipped classroom, prefer a blended learning to a fully online learning approach, want and require clear structure and guidelines, and strongly value flexible assessment through more choices and control. The main concern of higher education teachers is the time commitment and lack of institutional support for flipping classrooms and providing flexible assessment. It is argued that personalising learning requires more personalising of assessment, and that it is mainly the responsibility of teachers and institutions to develop ‘flexible students’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Flipped Classroom design has arguably revolutionized teaching across the globe. In this article we report the first comprehensive meta-analysis of its effects on student performance, relative to traditional teaching models, across disciplines and education level. We included 198 studies comprising 33,678 students in our meta-analysis. There were 174 studies conducted at the tertiary level, 21 at secondary, and three at primary school level. Overall, the flipped classroom had a moderate positive effect (g =.50) on student performance. The flipped classroom was beneficial regardless of discipline, with effect sizes ranging from weak (i.e., for IT, g = 0.30; k = 14) to strong (i.e., for humanities, g = 0.98; k = 34). Testing of other moderators relating to group sizes, in-class activities, pre-class testing, and the sophistication of a flipped classroom design provide evidence to suggest that the primary contributing factor to the flipped classroom effect is the opportunity it provides for structured, active learning and problem-solving. • Comprehensive meta-analysis of effects of flipped classroom vs traditional teaching on student performance (k = 198). • Positive moderate effect of flipped classrooms on student performance (g = 0.50). • The flipped classroom is beneficial regardless of discipline and education level. • Effect sizes range from weak (e.g., IT: g = 0.30; k = 14) to strong (e.g., humanities: g = 0.98; k = 34). • Analysis of moderators suggest key ingredient is opportunity for structured, active learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]