Abstract:

The concept of “flipped learning” or “flipped classroom” when referring to learning and development activities is rapidly gaining ground in the education sector. It is commonly used as a contrast term to the traditional classroom in which teacher was the main focus and responsible for all of the teaching/learning process. Today, the learners have become active participants in their personal learning trajectories and it is undeniable that ICT has played a pivotal role in transforming education. However, while much has been said and reflected upon course design, implementation and expected outcomes, it is now necessary to focus on the main stakeholders of the learning process: the students.

This study provides a case study of a language school in Portugal dedicated to adult life-long learning with in-company training courses. We will briefly present how the flipped learning model has been adapted into our school’s teaching methodologies as well as the features, exercises and tasks used on our e-learning platform. Additionally, we will provide the result of feedback questionnaires that were applied to both the students and teachers of our programs.

From our experience, we have verified that the instructional, multimedia, interactive activities that are used to foster knowledge in the flipped learning model are many times insufficient to provide adequate training results. It is our perspective that ICT in elearning courses implies constant management and design of learning environments. Basically, everyone (from the school, organisation, teachers to learners) should collaborate in order to develop competences. If students’ interests, personal and professional interests and learning profiles are not met, then instead of flipping the learning environment we will be tossing our pedagogical efforts out of the classroom.

Keywords:

Flipped learning, b-learning, evaluation, life-long learning.