The Effectiveness of Course Flipping in General Chemistry -Does It Work?

The author has been involved in flipping classes in both on-line and face-to-face formats since 2008. In this study, I have flipped the Honors General Chemistry course sequence at Texas Tech University from the fall of 2010 through the fall of 2015. All of the pre-class lectures were recorded using the Mediasite platform and placed on Blackboard for students to watch in advance of class time. Online web learning homework assignments were used to determine if students had watched the lecture. Class time was used 1) in a discussion format to summarize lectures and clear up muddy conceptual points, and 2) to work advanced problems using a variety of active learning modalities. The efficacy of the method was determined by giving exams that had been given to other honors classes 5 years previously as a baseline and comparing exam results, as well as through standardized ACS content exams. I was especially interested in the pre-post differential percentile rankings as an indication of improvement in student learning outcomes over time. A 40-question Likert assessment and a 40-question free-response assessment were also given to the students in a pre-post format. Results of the various assessments, as well as the effectiveness of the method for different student cohorts, are discussed.