At the School of Languages and Cultures, Flip has been used as an engaging and authentic learning and assessment tool, very well suited to language learning. In an example of scenario-based learning in French, students recorded a very short video pitching their services as a tour guide to visitors to their city.
Flip has proven to be a useful tool more broadly for oral presentations, interviews, case studies and short authentic simulations in 12 different courses, including French, Korean, Japanese, Applied Linguistics and in Cross-Cultural Communication.
In a flipped COMU2040 classroom, students used Flip to convey and apply key learning from modules in cross-cultural communication. This became a regular oral reflective learning and assessment exercise, requiring students to record themselves explaining and exploring their conceptual knowledge from readings, lecture and workshop material in response to a prompt set by the teaching staff. This set of assessed tasks helped both reinforce learning and give the instructor insight quickly into what interested the students and how well they are understanding the material. If the set task involves students viewing each other’s videos, on board learning analytics allow evaluation of engagement in the task.
As an assessment, Flip is best suited for ongoing formative assessment, though it can be useful for low-stakes summative assessment as well. One of the strong learning outcomes of this type of assessment method is its potential to build student connectedness, sense of belonging and confidence, especially within an online environment. It is a technology they are comfortable and familiar with. It follows good assessment principles of being varied, progressive, emotive, while promoting peer-to-peer learning. It is ideally coupled with larger weighed assessment where students can provide both a written and verbal response to their reflection, essay, journal or other written assignment.
Details
- CLASS SIZE
- 20-40, 40-60
- CLASS LEVEL
- Second year
- ASSESSMENT SECURITY
- Medium security
- TIME REQUIREMENTS
- Low time
- CONDITIONS
- Identity verified
- FEATURES
- Authentic, Online
Advantages
Flip meets the needs of current social-emotional student engagement as it replicates how students engage with their other social media platforms (Instagram Reels, Snapchat, TikTok); whereby short videos are made to express, create, convey, articulate, and communicate ideas to one another. Another advantage is that from a teacher’s perspective, staff can easily sense a students’ level of comprehension, engagement, and participation as well as provide video feedback more efficiently and authentically. In particular, it gives students who are reluctant to speak in class a voice and allows the teacher the opportunity to listen to it. In particular, it gives students who are reluctant to speak in class a voice and allows the teacher the opportunity to listen to it. Lastly the use cases for Flip are endless, from debating, interviewing, mentoring, introducing, all the way to responding to professional placement through video reflections.
Challenges
Understanding the difference between a group (whole of course) and a topic (a tutorial class or a particular assignment task) in the online platform and being able navigate a new system are may present itself as a technical-related challenge.
Students need a phone or a laptop with a camera to use it (accessibility issues), and some students may feel that they might say the ‘wrong’ thing or feel uncomfortable recording themselves (privacy issues). There are also internet browser compatibility issues, in which Chrome and Firefox are preferred due to screen pop-up blocks from Safari (technology issues).
How it supports academic integrity
You can set the platform to require that students contribute using their UQ account in addition to video observation of students completing set tasks.
Authentic learning characteristics
Professional experience
Dr Samantha Disbray
s.disbray@uq.edu.au
My role in the School of Languages and Cultures is Lecturer in Endangered Languages.
My research focus is languages in education, in particular the role of policy, teaching and learning on Indigenous languages and cultural revival, revitalisation and maintenance. My approach to teaching and research is collaborative, community-guided and applied. This informed by my on-going self-reflexivity as a non-Indigenous woman and my experience living and working on unceded Kaurna, Arrernte, Warumungu, Warlpiri, Pintupi-Luritja and, since 2019, Jagera and Turrbal country.
After working as an adult educator, my research life began in 2004 with Warumungu linguist B Morrison Nakkamarra, investigating child language development in Tennant Creek, Central Australia, and the place of Warumungu and the contact language Wumpurrarni English in children's language repertoires. I completed my PhD in 2009. As regional linguist with the Northern Territory Department of Education, 2008-2013, I collaborated closely with Indigenous educators on curriculum design, professional learning and resource development. Returning to research, I have published articles, book chapters and a co-edited volume on the Northern Territory Bilingual Education program, with Warlpiri collaborator Barbara Martin on Warlpiri Bilingual Education and widely on national languages curriculum and policy.
From 2015-2019 I worked once again with Warumungu linguists and families to return and repurpose a set of archived recordings for language and cultural revitalisation through arts-based practice. In a current project with the Papunya Bilingual Collection Steering Committee, lead by Luritja elder Charlotte Phillipus and with sociologist Vivien Johnson, I continue to work on the return, safe-keeping, access and use of archival language and education materials. Find out more