Katja Köhler, Institut für Molekulare Systembiologie / Center for Active Learning, ETH Zürich:

In the “flipped” classroom approach, students engage with the course material outside the class, while in-class time is spent to apply the acquired knowledge through interactive exercises, discussions and group work. This active learning method provides students with possibilities to asses their knowledge and promotes students’ conceptual understanding. However, the implication of this teaching model in large classes remains challenging, and many science introductory courses at universities are still organized as traditional frontal lectures. Here, we describe the design, implementation, and evaluation of a flipped classroom introductory course in a Biology BSc program at a Swiss university.