The Feasibility of Flipping: An Exploratory Analysis of the Flipped Classroom in a Developing Country

There has been an increased demand on educational institutions to provide students with value for money. The sociology course SOCI3035 Caribbean Social Problems with 111 students was transformed to a fully flipped course replacing several face-to-face lectures, tutorials and assessment with online versions as homework. Face to face lecture time featured small group discussions on content posted online. The need for exploration of student perspectives on the flipped classroom were important given the unique context in which it was implemented. That the University of the West Indies Cave Hill is located in a small island developing state, that its Blended Learning Policy had only been recently approved, Barbadian students had to begin paying tuition fees and the new GPA instituted a year prior presented a critical juncture for the introduction of new methods. Significantly more students indicated they would take another flipped class and their participation in F2F discussion in large classes increased using the flipped approach. Students also felt the breakout discussions of the flipped approach compensated for the large tutorial groups whose registration had moved from 20-25 students to approximately 40 students. It was found that the approach contributed to enhanced learning for the students.