POSITIVE EFFECTS OF THE FLIPPED LEARNING IN A MANAGEMENT COURSE

In the current environment where information is highly accessible, higher education must adapt their teaching methodologies where teachers are not only knowledge transmitters and where the learning process must be focused on competences and attitudes. New methodologies must provide students with the necessary tools to develop the crucial skills for the nowadays professional requirements, such as information searching capabilities, creative thinking or teamwork, among others, as well as motivate the students to the learning process. In this sense, it is important the implementation of participatory methodologies that make the students the centerpiece of the teaching-learning process and that let them being more autonomous to search and acquire new knowledge.

One methodology that was born to face the challenges that the new environment require is the flipped classroom. This methodology aims to change the way the classes are taught, “turning the class around”. Specifically, the flipped classroom methodology suggests developing in the classroom those activities that were usually done as homework and, in contrast, those activities that traditionally were developed in the classroom are now proposed as homework. By doing so, students should learn some concepts and theories before the lesson and apply them during the class time. When implementing this methodology, the teacher becomes a guide for the students.

The flipped classroom methodology was implemented in a management subject of the degree in Business Management at Universitat Jaume I (Spain). At the end of the course, the students fill in some surveys in order to measure the satisfaction with the methodology. After two courses of application of this methodology, the aim of this study is to explain the benefits of this methodology according to our results. The implementation of the flipped classroom has been positive both for the teachers of the subject and for the students, according to the results obtained in the surveys, and also taking into account the academic results obtained.