This past Wednesday, Campus Technology published an article that described the latest trends in research on flipped classrooms.  It discussed a research project by a Duke University Chemistry Professor Dorian Canelas.  She is teaching two sections of a course, one flipped and one in a traditional lecture format.  She plans to analyze test scores and other student outcomes.  An Associate Professor of Biology at Bay Path University is working on a project where he is attempting to isolate different aspects of his flipped classroom.  His project is described in the article as an example of “second generation research” on flipped classrooms.  You can read the article here.

The article underscores the importance of The Maryland Flipped Classroom Study for Higher Education.  Both of the studies discussed in the article involve only one faculty member.  The Harvey Mudd College study of flipped classrooms includes only six.  The sample size of the studies is actually getting smaller.  This problem has plagued research in higher education.  The Law of Large Numbers holds that in inductive reasoning studies with larger sample sizes take us closer to the truth.  So far we have 38 faculty members who have agreed to participate in our study and we have just started to promote it.  Because of the support we have received from all the flipped team members, we have a unique opportunity to contribute to this important discussion about the best approach to take to the college classroom.