Flipped Classroom in Organic Chemistry I

This past fall, I restructured an Organic Chemistry I class into a flipped classroom format. Using the Panopto software, I recorded 86 short (4-14 minute) videos, in which I presented the content that I used to cover in 36 50-minute lectures. Students were assigned 1-3 videos to watch before each class; in class, after fielding student questions, I gave a short quiz on the main concepts presented in the videos. The students then spent the rest of the class working problems, with me serving as a coach. Students spent the entire class period actively engaged with the material, rather than passively listening and copying what I wrote on the board. Furthermore, they had the expert (me) in the room while they grappled with what is often the most challenging aspect of chemistry -- how to solve problems. Students were very pleased with the format: in a mid-semester survey, they unanimously voted to continue it for the remainder of the semester, and end-of-semester course evaluations remained positive. More importantly, students who previously would most likely have gotten C\u27s in my course got B\u27s instead. The flipped classroom can thus work to encourage active learning in a core science course that is typically taught in lecture format even at liberal arts colleges