Abstract:

Educational research has highlighted the benefits of the flipped classroom in fostering active and meaningful learning that encourages greater student engagement and ownership, as well as a deeper understanding of the subject matter. An educational experiment conducted at a Faculty of Business Administration and Management with a group of N=28 participants applied the flipped classroom methodology to ask students to produce a podcast analysing current economic affairs from a sociological perspective. The theoretical content was prepared by the students through readings available in the virtual classroom, on which they gave individual presentations in class, followed by whole-class discussions. The students also worked in pairs during face-to-face classes to analyse texts, videos and audio recordings on current economic affairs. Finally, the students produced, again in pairs, a podcast on current economic affairs based on sociological readings.

The evaluation of the course was carried out using a quantitative questionnaire with closed-ended multiple-choice questions on the course content, a podcast assessment rubric, and a 1–5 Likert scale measuring student satisfaction. The results of the rubric show that the methodology used enables students to achieve the learning outcomes of the Economic Sociology module: to understand the theories, methods, techniques and areas of application of Economic Sociology at a level supported by scientific publications; to identify, gather and interpret relevant data on social issues related to the business world; know how to communicate information on social issues in the business sphere using spoken and written language; and approach professional activity with respect for equality between people and democratic values. Furthermore, classroom observations confirmed the suitability of the methodology for fostering students’ organisational and planning skills and their autonomy in learning, as well as their critical thinking, use of technology, communication with their environment, teamwork and sensitivity to social issues.

In the satisfaction questionnaire, 57.7% of participants rated the level of interest the tasks aroused in them as 4, and 19.2% rated it as 5. 59% agreed at level 4 with the statement that the tasks enabled them to apply the course content, and 29.6% at level 5. The materials, however, were found to be motivating at level 3 by 34.6%, at level 4 by 30.8% and at level 5 by 23.1%. 44.4% also rated the extent to which the tasks seemed useful for their future careers at level 3. In the closed-ended questionnaire on the subject content, the mean was 7.07 out of 10, the mode was 8, the median was 7.5, the variance was 2.57 and the standard deviation was 1.60. It is therefore concluded that the methodology applied is suitable for achieving the learning outcomes and competences envisaged for the subject, as well as for learning its theoretical content. The study does, however, have limitations, such as the lack of a control group or the sample size. In future research, it would be advisable to work with samples representative of students from across the country and to carry out cross-cultural comparisons.

Keywords:

Education, flipped classroom, podcast, sociology, economy.