Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: The Flipped Classroom for Library Instruction Video Transcript

Slide 1 - Title
Are you ready to reduce, reuse, and recyle your way to flipped library instruction? Then here we go!
Slide 2 Flipped Classroom at Cook Library
During the Spring of 2014 2013, Sara Arnold-Garza and 7 librarians from Towson Universitys Albert S.
Cook Library implemented flipped classroom information literacy sessions. This video will provide a
definition of the flipped classroom, some details about the Cook Library pilot, and the lessons we
learned.
Slide 3 What is the flipped classroom?
The simplest answer to the question What is the flipped classroom? is that what has typically been
lecture during class, and what has typically been homework after class, are flipped to make better use of
time and available technologies.
In flipped classrooms, students get new information provided before coming to class, through a short
video lecture, for example. Students then apply the new concepts and work through problem solving
during class with the support of their instructor and classmates.
There are a number of variations that theorists and practitioners have explored in their own adaptations
of the flipped classroom. For example, at Cook Library, we use videos that are shorter than 5 minutes
and focus on one particular learning outcome, perhaps combining a few videos as a pre-class
assignment. Others have chosen to make longer, lecture style videos, or interactive tutorials that require
student feedback to progress.
Slide 4 Characteristics
Due to this variability, there is not a single set of characteristics that describe the ideal flipped classroom
implementation. Some have argued that using this model results in improved student performance,
better classroom discussions, and improved student interaction and engagement.
At Cook, we implemented a flipped classroom pilot for library instruction for the following reasons:
Less class time spent on lecture means more time for students to practice skills,
We are excited about active learning, and more class time for students to work meant we could add
more active learning. Additionally, library instructors are present as students encounter difficulties
applying concepts and can help them work through this.
Using peer-learning activities gives students a chance to help each other through difficulties and share
their learning.
Student control in the classroom encourages them to take more responsibility for their own learning.

Slide 5 Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
These characteristics were illustrated by our experience and described here using a
Reduce/Reuse/Recycle framework.
Slide 6 - Reduce
One of our goals was to reduce or eradicate lecture during information literacy instruction sessions
Students do not absorb or find meaning in a lecture that attempts to tell them everything. Just getting
the basics of a mechanical process or being exposed to basic concepts of an idea are enough for them to
get started.
By assigning this abbreviated work ahead of class, students are only given what is absolutely necessary,
and more class time can be spent on encountering these processes or concepts at a deeper level to build
understanding of their significance in context.
The flipped classroom can also be one opportunity to create more student-centered instruction.
Although the instructor is setting the stage and scaffolding learning, students are required to take more
responsibility for driving their learning, completing pre-class work and participating during in-class
activities.
Class time is used for guiding students rather than lecturing, including more emphasis on active
learning, collaboration, and real-time feedback.
Slide 7 - Reuse
Although many examples of the flipped classroom include instructors pre-recording their regular lecture,
other types of materials can be repurposed.
In our case, the librarys Help Guides, instructional videos created over the last several years, were not
originally intended to be used as class materials, but they became the core elements of our pre-class
assignments.
These videos instruct on concepts like evaluating a source, building a search from your research
question, and getting around the library website - generally just a few minutes each.
In some cases we did not have a help guide already created that addressed a concept we wanted
students exposed to before coming to their library instruction session. In these cases, we depend on the
many instructional repositories librarians have developed, like PRIMO, ANTS, and MERLOT.
While creating your own materials gives you more control over the content, the flipped classroom lends
itself well to using other existing or found content.
Content can also be repackaged for different classes in a Learning Management System like Blackboard
or by using free or low cost quiz and survey resources like Google Forms, where you can embed and
deliver instruction materials and assessments.
Slide 8 - Recycle
We found that the flipped classroom required us to invest time and energy to create new instruction
based on established classroom activities and faculty relationships.
Although we had already been using active learning in most information literacy instruction, we found
that having more time for students to work in class meant planning more activities, scaffolded or broken
down to guide students through the learning process.
In the past, I might have decided to choose one activity to fit into a 15 minute period that matched with
that days objective, like using a database to find a source, or developing and using criteria to evaluate a
source.
With more time in class, these activities can be expanded and combined. I might ask students to draw
on what they saw in pre-class videos to brainstorm keywords for their topic, identify subject tags,
compare database features, and then find sources.
And unless youre teaching a credit-bearing information literacy class, faculty relationships are essential
for making the flipped classroom work.
Pick faculty members who are open to experimentation and will support your instructional goals.
Planning a flipped session may also be an opportunity to forge new collaborative relationships with your
faculty.
Slide 9 - Review
To review, we found the flipped classroom can be used for library instruction by reducing lecture and
instructor-centered teaching, reusing materials that you and others have already created, and recycling
class activities and faculty relationships

So let's take these concepts and practice with them!