Flipping the Script: Using Flipgrid to Create Interactions

For those who haven’t had a chance to check out my course prototype, it’s an asynchronous online Science 9 Chemistry unit designed for students who need to be away from the face-to-face classroom for extended periods. In my experience, this typically applies to just one student at a time, usually travelling to their home country to visit family.

At first, I wasn’t sure how I could effectively incorporate interactions for this one student due to this format. However, after this week’s readings and some additional research, I’ve developed a solid game plan.

An article from Johns Hopkins University (Building Community in an Online Course) provided a simple yet effective strategy to begin the semester and get everyone acquainted with Flip (formerly Flipgrid). I will get each student (and I) to upload short introduction videos to Flip. To ensure engagement, each student will be required to respond to the person above and below them in the attendance roster, asking at least one question based on their video. Another idea from this article that I will incorporate is to create a Flip forum for students to ask any questions and answer their peers. This Q&A forum can be about class material, school protocol, etc. and can help to build connections amongst peers.

From Bates’ book, Teaching in a Digital Age (Online Collaborative Learning), I explored the Online Collaborative Learning (OCL) model, which encourages students to work together online to generate and refine ideas. To incorporate this idea into my online course, I plan to introduce a weekly or biweekly Flip discussion, where students will asynchronously respond to a brainstorm-type prompt and comment on others’ ideas.

Another resource I found, Barclay et al.’s Learning Activities for Hyflex Courses (Unit 3), provided a variety (30+) of structured activities. One that fits perfectly with my course is the 3-2-1 Reflection. I will use this activity after each main concept in the course by getting students to upload a Flip video listing 3 things they learned, 2 aspects they found particularly interesting, and 1 question they still have. To encourage interaction, they will also be required to respond to a peer’s question.

Here are two helpful tutorials if you are unfamiliar with Flip!

 

If you have any other ideas or have tried similar approaches, I’d love to hear your thoughts!