From MOOCs to SPOCs… and from SPOCs to flipped classroom

Abstract

The concept of SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses) emerged as a way of describing the reuse of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) for complementing traditional on-campus teaching. But SPOCs can also drive an entire methodological change to make a better use of face-to-face time between students and teachers in the classroom. This paper presents the redesign and evaluation of a first-year programming course in several engineering degrees, with over 400 students overall, through the reuse of MOOCs as SPOCs on campus, combined with a flipped classroom strategy aimed at promoting active learning. Results from a students’ self-reported questionnaire show a very positive acceptance of the SPOC, which includes both videos and complementary formative activities, and an increase of motivation through the combination of the SPOC and activities implemented in lectures to flip the classroom.