Title:	FLIPPED LEARNING IN A UNIVERSITY EFL COURSE: THE MERITS OF A COLLABORATIVE LEARNING APPROACH
Author(s):	Yasushige Ishikawa, Craig Smith, Masayuki Murakami, Kate Maher, Norihisa Wada
ISBN:	978-989-8533-32-6
Editors:	Piet Kommers and Pedro Isaías
Year:	2015
Edition:	Single
Keywords:	Blended Learning, Flipped Learning, Collaborative Learning, the Inkling Habitat website, the LINE Social Networking System, Mobile Online access devices
Type:	Full Paper
First Page:	35
Last Page:	42
Language:	English
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Full Contents:	click to dowload
Paper Abstract:	This paper reports on a pilot study in which researchers explored new ways to design and to implement an original English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Flipped Learning (FL) course at a university in Japan. FL in this course-based action research study was defined as a form of Blended Learning in which students in small groups engaged in outside-of-class e-learning preparatory tasks, on a website called Inkling Habitat, for in-class Collaborative Learning activities. A FL approach was adopted in an effort to raise the current low levels of student participation in e-learning activities in EFL courses. In order to sustain the motivation levels needed for on-going engagement in the outside-of-class e-learning tasks, messages were sent by the teacher to the students by means of an online social networking system (SNS) called LINE (http://line.me/en/). The messages were available on the students’ primary means of internet access and SNS communication with their peers, mobile devices such as cell phones and tablet computers, and also on PC-based platforms. The students’ post-course evaluations revealed that the students used their mobile devices for all of the online components of the course and not PC-based platforms. The students described the preparatory materials on the Inkling Habitat website as interesting and the students reported that they conducted research on the topics of the online reading texts by using URL research-site links which were included with the materials. The students reported that the e-mentoring messages sent by the teacher encouraged them to collaborate with each other on the online tasks. Moreover, the students said that they were active participants in the in-class Collaborative Learning tasks. They believed that the support provided by the teacher online and in class helped them engage actively in the in-class discussions. The pilot study indicated that there is justification for the development of other FL courses that are based on teacher support for student collaboration on learning tasks in small groups online and in class. In future the planning of courses which feature e-learning activities should be based on an assumption that students will use mobile devices to access the internet and to communicate with their peers.
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