Day 19 of #productidea — Simple tool for flipped classrooms
This is part of my #productidea 30 day challenge on which each day I write about a new product idea.
Let me explain first what is a flipped classroom:
Flipped classroom is an instructional strategy and a type of blended learning that reverses the traditional educational arrangement by delivering instructional content, often online, outside of the classroom. It moves activities, including those that may have traditionally been considered homework, into the classroom. In a flipped classroom, students watch online lectures, collaborate in online discussions, or carry out research at home and engage in concepts in the classroom with the guidance of a mentor.
It’s getting popular within some teachers, because it allows them to use their time on school to engage with their students, practice exercises and solve doubts; instead of lecturing 80% of their time.
There are many tools to help teachers record videos, annotate YouTube videos, create presentations and forms. However, there doesn’t seem to be a simple tool to create a list of resources and checking questions.
There are many LMS (Learning management system) platforms that allow you to create courses, questions and upload videos, documents and homework. Some of them are very well built (not looking at you Moodle), but they could be expensive and they are a decision of the school’s management. A single teacher can’t and won’t decide to use it for just his class.
That’s where this product comes from. A single teacher can decide to use it for his course. He will create the list with the resources and questions, and he will share the link to his students. They will check the activities they have already done, and they will answer the checking questions. The following day the teacher will be able to see which specific questions raise more doubts and spend more time on those on the classroom.
This is one of the ideas that my friend Ariel Camus and I were planning to build a side project but never did. Someday!