Awardees: Mae Klinger and Maria Flanagan (HKS)

Summary: Awardees created a “do it yourself” flipping kit to help faculty across the University develop blended learning materials using Canvas.

Mae Klinger and Maria Flanagan, members of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Strengthening Learning and Teaching Excellence (SLATE) team, wanted to help faculty create their own blended learning materials using simple consumer-grade resources in the context of the university-wide Canvas platform.

The resulting DIY flipping kit empowers instructors to create materials independent of a media production team. The website outlines an introduction to “flipping,” the necessary steps to successfully flip your classroom, and points to additional resources to enable instructors to benefit from this pedagogical approach. Detailed tips – many from HKS faculty – are provided with examples of flipped content, best practices, and “lessons learned.”

While the team originally planned to develop the website in Canvas, a few design challenges drove them to switch to an Open Scholar platform, which ultimately allowed for more flexibility in terms of organization and presentation. The strong conceptual and visual design skills of Research Assistants Manar-ul Islam Swaby and Elizabeth Walbridge helped the website develop into a robust resource.

The “Flipping Kit” website meets an articulated need for HKS faculty but is also a valuable resource to anyone with an interest in flipping, and serves as a curation of resources and ideas accessible to the wider teaching community.