“We've Flipped!” Innovative Teaching Methods: The Flipped Classroom

Today’s NP students face multiple challenges during their educational career.  Academic, clinical, work, and personal demands affect the student’s ability to learn and retain information.  Today’s students are also technologically savvy and accustomed to frequent changes in educational delivery. The flipped classroom provides an opportunity for students to learn didactic content on their own time, have more instructional support in the classroom, and utilize face-to-face time for interactive learning experiences.  The flipped classroom fundamentally shifts the responsibility for learning to the student, with faculty serving as facilitators.

At the beginning of the final academic year in the primary care NP program, students received a tablet device to utilize for classroom activities and clinical applications.  Faculty utilized numerous technologies to present didactic content to students including Tegrity, Adobe, Camtasia, and voice-over PowerPoint.  Students were expected to complete reading assignments, view, and listen to any recorded content lectures prior to attending class.  Advanced teaching of didactic content prepared students to have active and meaningful participation in case studies, critique of evidence and literature, participate in hands-on learning labs, and interact more fully with faculty and classmates. The tablet devices were used in case studies and classroom activities for use of web based reference materials and clinical applications, spot quizzes to assess learning, and for discussion and demonstration on use of electronic resources and clinical application tools.

Student feedback was that class is more interesting and engaging. Students liked the opportunity for immediate application of learning during classroom activities. The comfort with use of clinical applications on the tablet devices was also demonstrated by students in the clinical settings.