Monterey Bay: The Magazine of CSU Monterey Bay Fall/Winter 2013, Vol. VI, No. II | Page 15

Flipping Out
Innovative professors turn
teaching upside down
by Joan Weiner

Photo by Leslie Kavasch ’14

W

hen students head
to some classes at
CSU Monterey Bay,
they’ve already learned the day’s
lesson – by watching online videos prepared by the instructor.
Without a lecture to listen
to, students spend class time
working in small groups, solving
problems with the help of the
faculty member.
It’s a technology-driven
teaching method known as the
“inverted classroom” because
it flips the traditional model of
classroom lecture and exercises
for homework – the lecture becomes homework and class time
is used for problem-solving.
It’s a model that is gaining in
popularity on campuses nationwide. When CSUMB faculty
members were recently asked
to submit proposals to promote
innovation in teaching and learning, many of the submissions
came from instructors interested
in flipping their classrooms.
Dr. Kate Lockwood, a professor of computer science and
information technology, uses the
method in programming classes,
a discipline where students learn
best by doing, she said.
“In a traditional model, I lecture at them and then send them
home to wrestle with how to
apply the material on their own,”

Dr. Lockwood said. “As a result,
many students get frustrated.”
In her inverted classroom,
students complete an online
workbook – which includes
videos, text and short exercises –
before coming to class.
“When they get into the
classroom, we jump right in and
start exploring how to apply the
material to new problems.”
An added benefit: Dr. Lockwood created the workbooks and
makes them available for free,
saving students the expense of a
$100-plus textbook.
Dr. Rachel Esselstein has
used the method in her math
classes for several years and has
worked to convince other faculty
members to adopt it.
“The inverted classroom
supports the notion that instructors are more than just lecturing
machines,” she said. “We can
share our passions and excitement for the material when we
are allowed to interact with the
students rather than just lecture
at them.”
Both professors say students
enjoy the inverted classroom
once they get the hang of it. At
first, many students are uncomfortable learning from a video
but they change their minds
when they realize they can pause
the video, rewind and replay it as

many times as they need to.
It also prompts students to
come to class prepared. Students
can’t participate without having
watched the video lecture.
“Their peers and the instructor hold these students accountable for keeping up in a way that
is not possible in a traditional
classroom,” Dr. Esselstein said.
“Lecturing is a basic cognitive skill for a student. All they’re
doing is taking in information,
writing notes and maybe asking
questions,” said Esselstein, who
introduced the new model to the
university in 2010.
“We send them home to do
homework because we’re asking
them to apply the knowledge.
This is the time that they need
the support of a teacher.”
Esselstein was inspired to flip
her classroom by the success of
the Khan Academy, which provides free online video tutorials
on a variety of topics.
“I try to convince
them that it’s better
than class, because
they can pause it,
they can watch it
as many times as
they want,”
Esselstein said.

Dr. Kate Lockwood and
Dr. Rachel Esselstein
have been campus
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