"It Partly Breaks Up the Class Environment" - Experiences with Flipped Classroom as a Teaching Model in Higher Education

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to contribute to knowledge about how students in higher education experience and make use of flipped classroom to support learning. We have chosen a qualitative approach in order to gain deeper understanding of the students’ experiences with flipped classroom. Our starting-point is a teaching model linked to flipped classroom carried out with students at a university college in Norway. The teaching model contained video lectures, students’ work with sets of tasks, and class attendance. We investigated the students’ experiences with the teaching model through three focus group interviews, and identified four central categories: flexibility, structure, relevance and interaction. Our main finding indicates that the teaching model is individual-oriented. Less attention is paid to active and social learning opportunities. If digitalization in higher education is to promote learning, lecturers have to recognize interaction in order to support the students’ learning in flipped classrooms.