FLIPPED LEARNING DRIVEN BY STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY OF A FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASS

Flipped learning, also known as the flipped classroom model, made the top of the emerging technology list in the 2013 Higher Education Edition of the NMC Horizon Report jointly published by the New Media Consortium (NMC) and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). Derived from a two-decade-old concept and rejuvenated by new technology, it catches the eyes of the educators from elementary to graduate programs by allowing them to bring more hand-on practices into the classroom while moving content coverage online. While technology enables content access prior to class, it also brings more distraction to learning. How to design a course that can make the flipped learning more effective? Using a Chinese language class as an experiment field, this paper presents ways to draw students into a flipped learning process. In the past five years from 2008 through 2013, a number of instructional strategies have been implemented into the beginning and intermediate Chinese Language classes offer at DePaul University. By presenting these strategies and by sharing students' reaction and feedback to these strategies, the paper provides an analysis of the evolvement of curriculum design to make flipped learning more effective and more engaging to the students.