Flipping a PhD course using movies from a MOOC

Paper in proceeding, 2015

In this article, we present the results from an attempt to utilize parts of a MOOC in a PhD course employing a Flipped Classroom approach to teaching and learning. Based on the student feedback and teacher experiences, we examine, how students perceived the combination of videos from a MOOC and active learning activities in the classroom. We discuss advantages and disadvantages that we observed with using videos that we have not recorded ourselves and assess which type of active learning was perceived as most useful by our students. The results show that the waste majority of students experienced the videos and learning activities as very useful for their learning. The group discussions in the practice sessions were most appreciated. The MOOC videos enabled students to engage with the video content at their own pace, even though they were partly perceived as to broad and unspecific. In sum, teachers and students experienced the course as highly rewarding, but also time consuming.