Flip Your Classroom with Microsimulations
Let’s face it, educators don’t have it easy.
Most instructors have probably heard their students say, “I couldn’t do the homework last night because I didn’t understand it.”
Answering questions from yesterday, covering new material, answering new questions from today, and all while trying to provide personalized attention to each student in an hour or less is a Herculean task.
One way some teachers are trying to reclaim their classroom time is through the flipped classroom model.
The flipped classroom strategy provides students with new material, often digital, to interact with outside the classroom while bringing typical homework-type problems and projects into it.
How the Flipped Classroom Model Started
One of the early instances of the flipped classroom model comes from 2007.
Two Colorado high school teachers, Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams, began recording video lectures and posting them online for students who had missed class.
Before they knew it, other students began watching the lectures too. Bergmann and Sams saw a huge boost in student participation.
The recorded lectures allowed students to review them on their own time and come to class more prepared.
Benefits of a Flipped Classroom
The flipped classroom model provides benefits for both students and teachers.
When students can learn new material at their own pace at home, teachers can use classroom time as a place to answer questions and work through problems together.
It’s rare that a teacher can focus in on a single student’s questions, but in a flipped classroom, as students do their work, they become available for the kind of personal attention some students really need.
Students like to be independent and work at their own pace. Because a flipped classroom encourages the student to learn how they want to, it brings out the best in each individual. According to Flipped Learning Network, 71% of teachers who flipped their classes noticed improved grades.
How Microsimulations Fit in Your Flipped Classroom
At Marketplace Simulations, we work hard to provide innovative solutions that empower higher education professors.
Our flagship simulations are effective but can require a class time commitment that not every instructor is able to give.
For those interested in tools for a flipped classroom or just a lighter entry into simulation technology, our Microsimulations are the perfect solution.
Marketplace Microsimulations are short, cloud-based game-like exercises that help give your students an overview of business fundamentals.
The 10 to 25-minute-long Microsimulations cover business concepts like internet marketing, product design, accounting, production scheduling, and more.
Much like the content that you would post online for a flipped classroom, microsims include brief video lectures, mixing in short interactive challenges so that students can engage and practice the business concept.
Microsimulations are completely customizable to your course schedule, so you have control of what students will learn and when. No downloads are required and providing student access is as easy as sharing a link.
Next semester will be here before you know it, see for yourself how Marketplace Microsimulations, when combined with a flipped classroom model, will make your course more engaging and your students’ learning experience that much more rewarding.