Supporting our students to achieve academic success in the unfamiliar world of flipped and blended classrooms

The past few years have seen a rapid increase in the integration of flipped and blended modes of learning in the Australian university classroom. Flipped and blended learning incorporates both online and face-to-face interaction. This changing nature of delivery has created the need for students to adopt study patterns that incorporate learning outside the classroom. To enable the changes to flipped and blended learning, universities are directing considerable resources toward course redesign and the professional development of academics to design and administer these courses successfully. The design and delivery of flipped and blended classes involves three essential partners: the academics teaching the course (and their teaching teams, including tutors and lecturers), the students taking the course and the instructional designers creating the learning objects for the course and often assisting with course assessment, structure and design. This article presents a blended-learning model developed as the result of the examination of student feedback, the authors' professional experience and an extensive review of the literature. Also presented is a framework that proposes six essential inputs to a successful flipped or blended course, and provides detail regarding the types of activities that might be appropriate. The model and framework recommend a structured approach to assuring that all voices are heard and integrated in the flipped and blended design and delivery cycle, and that all parties are supported to assure learning and teaching success in this mode.