#medlibs daiquiri: flipped classroom/blended learning

Edit: Transcript available at http://bit.ly/131gqrI 

Thursday, May 21st get ready to imbibe the #medlibs daiquiri frappé. Take 1.5 oz light-dry teaching methods, the juice of 1 instructional designer, 1 tsp assessment, some crushed ice, 10 drops of librarian know-how and set the  blender to learn. Molly Knapp & Amy Blevins host.

Definitions, examples, links after the jump

Flipped classrooms put the traditional lecture portion of learning in the hands of the student (who watches it on their own time) and brings the "homework" to the lecture hall in the form of active learning assignments and group tasks. Blended learning is "a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online delivery of content and instruction with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace." Together they represent a sea change in higher education instructional design. 

What does a blended learning library experience look like? Here's an example from ALA's Information Literacy Instruction Discussion List:

I just had the most successful one-shot I have ever taught and while I’m sure others have thought of this I thought I’d share. I’ve been doing lots of reading about flipping the classroom and experiential learning and have wanted to try these techniques for a while but as you all know when you have only one chance to reach the students sometimes you stick to the tried and true. But this quarter I worked with a young and experimental teacher and we talked about my idea and agreed to try it. Before class I determined the resources I felt would best work for their assignment and made 5 short videos that essentially showed what I would have demoed in class. These were posted to a Libguide. The teacher assigned them to 5 different groups and told them they would receive points for the project. Their assignment was that before class each student would watch their assigned video and then spend some time playing with the assigned resource in order to learn how it worked. When we met in class I did a brief intro to the library sort of thing and then let them meet for about 5 minutes in groups. Then each group got up, ran the computer and taught the rest of the class how to use their resource. Of course I jumped in a couple of times to add a few more things I wanted the class to know. What I really liked was #1 no one got that glazed over look that seems to happen way too often, especially in those just after lunch classes. Everyone stayed engaged through the class.  #2- They all had clearly watched the video and learned how to use their database (and in a couple cases taught me something new- did you know you could set the Ebrary interface to be in another language?). #3- I was really impressed by how well they did and I hope this will give them the confidence to feel they can tackle any database. #4 those videos are there for them to return to if they get confused. And best of all they really seemed to enjoy the class and took it seriously. They were much more engaged listening to each other than they ever are listening to me. AND it was a really easy stress free class to teach. The teacher loved it so all around goodness. 

How relevant are these teaching methods for health science librarians? Julie McGowan's Jan 2012 article "Evolution, revolution, or obsolescence: an examination of writings on the future of health sciences libraries" notes:

In education, librarians have been challenged to create new learning tools using Web 2.0 technologies, provide instruction as part of the clinical team, contribute to continuing medical education programs, train health care professionals in cultural competencies, and become virtual educators. Core educational competencies required for these new roles include knowledge of health care concepts, vocabulary, and the practice of health care; technical knowledge of relevant learning environments and information systems; knowledge of teaching methods, curricular design, and assessment; and knowledge of electronic learning environments

For a #medlibs example, consider this paper from MLA 2012: Bringing New Methods into Library Instruction: A Case Study in Team Based Learning 

Let's discuss, share, question, critique and deconstruct library instruction. Here's some starter questions:

Have you used flipped classrooms in library instruction?
How can we incorporate active learning into the the traditional library lecture?
How can technology be used to provide active library instruction?

& some links

• What Is The Flipped Classroom Model And Why Is It Amazing? (With Infographic): http://www.forbes.com/sites/pascalemmanuelgobry/2012/12/11/what-is-the-flipped-classroom-model-and-why-is-it-amazing-with-infographic/
• Blended Learning Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_learning
• Healthcare librarians and learner support: a review of competences and methods. Health Info Libr J. 2005 Dec;22 Suppl 2:42-50.View in PubMed