Flipping history and taking attendance

Last fall I taught a class with a peak enrollment of 84. We are required to document attendance where I teach so I therefore have to come up with some way to take roll each day. Yeah, like I am going to read out 84 names each time we meet (at least through the late-semester drop deadline). So I had a challenge with how I would take attendance in an efficient manner. I could have passed around a paper and asked them to sign in but I wanted to connect taking attendance to a learning activity.


I had another (minor) challenge with my textbook. I use one that is free and available online, which is great for my students' budgets and eases my angst about reducing that part of the opportunity cost of their education. The problem is that the test bank is also available online, so it would hardly be an effective check on whether my students had read the book to make them take a quiz using those questions. I guess I could have written new questions but was concerned about the opportunity cost in terms of my instructional development time. But I still like to do something to make sure that my students have done the reading *before* I lecture on topics related to a particular chapter.

I used the emerging "flipping" trend to solve these issues. My class met twice a week for 80 minutes, and I flipped the last quarter of each class. I already divide my class into small groups for the major assignment in the class, so I decided to take advantage of that and have those same groups spend that time writing their own exam questions, taking their own attendance, and building the rapport that would help them complete the group project successfully.

For each chapter the text also included a list of key terms and critical thinking questions, so each week we had "key term Monday" and "critical thinking Wednesday." On Mondays each group was required to write five Twitter-style definitions of key terms and on Wednesdays each group answered one critical thinking question. From their submissions I made some of the questions for the exams. I used a Google Form to collect their responses during class, including a list of who was in attendance.

I already expect students to bring technology to class as I infrequently do polling and encourage them to text or Tweet their questions during lecture. For the group activity, two group members commit to bring technology to class and a third commits to taking notes and filling out the online form after class in case the first two bailed.

I used the final exam to assess the effectiveness of these activities. It includes a reflection question that asks them which assignments and class activities they enjoyed the most and which they found challenging. A total of 69 students completed the final exam, and two listed the critical thinking exercises as a challenge. One of them wrote, "It was hard for me to understand so much info after reading to be able to come up with a well gathered answer, but thanks to my group it was easier to understand."

What surprised me was how many students listed the flipped activities as what they enjoyed the most. The following were among the 36 who wrote that these were their favorite activities:

• "We had the opportunity to be creative and that made it easier to remember the vocabulary."
• "With the critical thinking exercises, I was able to apply what I read and include my opinion on the question. I liked how I was also able to see what others had to say for the question."
• "Not only did they help us learn the material better, they were fun and creative and required some well learned cooperation. These daily assignments gave the class a stronger sense of continuity to me and made each week flow nicer."

As revealed by these quotes, the flipped activities also helped students become more comfortable with doing group work. My students seldom have prior experience working in groups, and each semester there are some who express concern about being dependent on others for their grade in class. More often than not, those students realize that they can pass the class and even do well despite having to share the learning process with teammates who might be less interested in academic success. The final part of that reflection question on the final exam asks what skills they practiced or learned that will be most valuable as they pursue their educational or professional goals. One wrote, "I think that the most valuable I've learned from this class was that to always be prepared. I learned that when there are people counting on you, you start doing your work just because you don't want to let them down."