Flipped Classroom with Poll Everywhere: Engaging Students with Active Learning in Large Group Settings

Abstract

Large group teaching has always been the most popular way of teaching from past decades. It is one of the most convenient and economical ways to transfer knowledge from the content expert to the learner. Educationists have always raised concerns about active learning in this method. The use of variety of methods would be included in classroom teaching and active learning should be encouraged. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of implementing flipped classroom with the Poll Everywhere tool on student engagement in large group teaching for active learning by students. Blended method of active learning using flipped classroom with the use of Poll Everywhere tool has been widely accepted by learners in large group teaching. Poll Everywhere tool is useful to get immediate feedback from learners which will help the teacher to focus more on the difficulty level of learners. As per the feedback given by learners during large group teaching in classroom, teaching strategies can be amended to spend more time on those areas which needs to be addressed within a time limit of lecture. Study was conducted on the undergraduate students of the second year (semester 4) from Biomedical Science Program at International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, between January to June 2014. Flipped classroom was introduced to same cohort of learners who were used to attend traditional class of learning for large group of teaching. Learners were well informed in advance with prior information of teaching learning material in elearning portal of university. Students were grouped in small groups and given some questions which were answered by using the Poll Everywhere tool in smart phones. Teacher centered learning will be changed into student centered learning and focused more on difficulty area of concepts. Combination of Poll Everywhere tool with flipped classroom was well accepted by students though needs lots of planning by teacher and high speed internet in university for effective learning method.