Flipping the Classroom: A Pedagogical Approach to Applying Clinical Judgment by Engaging, Interacting, and Collaborating with Nursing Students

Abstract

The flipped-classroom format offers students opportunities for engagement and ownership of learning by enabling them to make sense of their views and perspectives and connect their personal and professional experiences. Student engagement and the infusion of active learning are core concepts of the educational process; given the present generation of students’ exhibited preference for digital literacy, experiential learning, interactivity, and immediacy, technology is increasingly being integrated into higher education milieus to enhance student involvement and knowledge attainment. Combined with the changing curriculum needs in nursing education today, a core course in the undergraduate program of an Ontario university was recently redesigned through implementation of a flipped-classroom format; experiential teaching/learning approaches were integrated to provide a greater opportunity for application of clinical judgment. The flipped-classroom format included prerecorded lecture modules, online forums and quizzes, unfolding-case studies, a classroom student-response system, and lab activities. Outcomes and recommendations are provided on the basis of this implementation.