Flipped Language Classroom : A Case Study of an Interdisciplinary Course Project

Abstract

In Finland, teaching and learning in higher educations have become more and more virtual, opening new possibilities and creating challenges for both teachers and students. Higher education institutes in Finland work very closely with the surrounding society and businesses, changing the present and the future of both the universities and the business world. Teachers in universities must be aware of the constantly changing demands of the world for which they are educating the students, and this can sometimes be overwhelming. This paper describes a case study of a university language course on which a project was carried out for a real customer company. The lessons were organized both in a normal as well as a virtual classroom. The idea of this course was to teach IT students 1) English language and 2) working in a virtual learning environment as well as 3) introduce them to the flipped classroom method. This type of interdisciplinary teaching context offers many possibilities to students for showcasing their learning since the outcome can be measured and evaluated in various ways. Flipped classroom as a teaching method requires a lot from teachers but offers them a real way of becoming an agent for change. On this course, the theory was the practice.