An overview of an instructional model used in a 2009 community college teaching experiment by Michelle Pacansky-Brock including student survey results. VoiceThread was used as an online formative assessment tool to provide scaffolding of individualized learning and support for cognitive growth to improve students' higher order thinking skills. Transforming class time from passive to active learning opened opportunities for relevant, active learning activities.

1. Improving Deep
Learning with
VoiceThread
a Flipped Classroom Model
Michelle Pacansky-Brock
brocansky@gmail.com
http://www.TeachingWithoutWalls.com
@brocansky

2. What is deep learning?
“Deep learning — learning associated with higher-
order cognitive tasks — is typically contrasted with
rote memorization. Memorization may help students
pass an exam, but it doesn’t necessarily expand
students’ understanding of the world around them,
help them make connections across disciplines, or
promote the application of knowledge and skills in
new situations.”
“The Heart of Student Success.”
http://www.ccsse.org/

4. Keys to Improving College
Degree Attainment Rate:
• Morememorization less
rote
deep learning,
• Faculty development should
foster new ways of teaching
to meet today’s students’
learning preferences and
challenges
http://www.ccsse.org/

7. Source: Weiss-McGrath Report, 1992

8. How can VoiceThread be used to
improve learning in a lecture-based
learning environment?

9. Did the audio and video
Student Survey
comments increase the
sense that your instructor
from my online class
was present in your
learning experience?
94% 98%
Audio strongly agreed Video strongly agreed
or agreed or agreed
Pacansky-Brock, 2008. 101 online students surveyed, 88% response rate

10. Provides built-in support for
learners with cognitive disabilities.

11. Times have changed.

12. Why hasn’t this?

13. How Can Technology
Be Used To:
• create more time for active learning in
undergraduate classes that rely heavily on
lecture?
• design inclusive learning environments that
meet the needs of more students?
• increase interactions between students-
instructor and students-students beyond the
classroom?

14. My “Flipped” Students’ Comments:
evidence of deep learning
“I learned more than I ever thought I would. ...
I will take some of the lessons I learned here
with me for the rest of my life.”
“In traditional lecture classes you feel like you
are being forcefed the information, but in this
class you felt like you were living the history in
each of the learning units and truly connecting
to the material.”

15. My “Flipped” Students’ Comments:
evidence of deep learning
“I really enjoyed the class and I understood the
content a lot better than I would have in just a
traditional classroom setting.”
“I have to admit it did take a little getting use to,
and did require you to become a little more
organized, BUT the richness in the information
was a wonderful trade off. I feel as though I
walked through the 1920's in Paris and was able
to breathe in the atmosphere...”

16. My “Flipped” Students’ Comments:
evidence of deep learning
“[The class] made me look at the images I
see every day in a new way. I also liked the
way that the class was set up. I think that
more classes should be taught this way.”
“The material presented in this class prompted
me to evaluate my experiences as a female in
terms of my connections to females who have
lived before me, females now and those who
will soon arrive on the scene.”

17. Face-to-Face Learning
© Laurie Burruss
from this to this

18. Time for a 21st Century Makeover!

19. How Did It Work?

20. Mobile Lectures
Listen or read
by Ed Yourdon CC-BY-NC

21. Effect on Student Learning?

22. Having the option to read or listen to a lecture
increased my ability to achieve the learning
objectives.
70%
52.5%
35%
17.5% 92.5% =
strongly
Strongly Agree agreed/agreed
0%
Neutral

23. When given the option to read or listen to a
lecture, which option did you choose?
50%
40% 37.5%
30% 25%
15% 12.5%
15%
read
both 0%
read, sometimes neither
listened

24. Why did you choose this lecture
format?
70%
67%
52.5%
35%
22% 17.5%
Meets 11%
my learning Most 0%
style convenient It’s what I’m
for me used to Didn’t want
doing to deal with
more
technology

25. Improve higher
order thinking
skills
by transforming
classtime from
passive to active
learning.

26. 5. Summative
Assessment
(in-class)
4. Online Formative
Assessment
(post-class)
3. Discussions,
Critiques, Debate
(in class)
2. Online Formative
Assessment
(pre-class)
1. Mobile Lecture
(pre-class)
Unit: Learning Objectives

27. Online Pre- and Post-Class
Formative Assessments
cloud application
no cost to student
provides conversations around media
comments in voice, video or text

28. Learning Unit Learning Unit Learning Unit
Learning Objectives Learning Objectives Learning Objectives
Reading Reading Reading
Mobile Lecture Mobile Lecture Mobile Lecture
Pre-Class VoiceThread Pre-Class VoiceThread Pre-Class VoiceThread
In-Class Activities In-Class Activities In-Class Activities
Post-Class VoiceThread Post-Class VoiceThread Post-Class VoiceThread
Summative Assessments
Individual Essays/Short Answer/Multiple Choice
Research Project of Student’s Choice

29. pre-class
Online Formative Assessments
Engage background knowledge and assess lower order
thinking skills, aligned with lecture content.

30. pre-class
Online Formative Assessments

31. pre-class in class post-class

32. post-class
Online Formative Assessments

33. Student Feedback:
VoiceThread
• “I liked the voicethreads the best because it helped
make me think in other ways and get different
perspectives from my fellow students.”
• “...created an environment for people to do well who
don’t always do best in a classroom environment if
they’re afraid to talk in class or if the class is run by a
group of students who dominate the conversation.”
• “... helped me to really understand the content we
were learning and also get feedback from other
students and from our professor as well.”

34. Interacting with my classmates in
the VoiceThreads increased our
sense of community when in class.
81%
strongly agreed
or agreed
Pacansky-Brock, 2009. 77% response rate.

35. THE VARIETY IN THE LEARNING
MATERIALS HELPED ME REACH THE
LEARNING OBJECTIVES.
77% response rate

36. THIS CLASS HELPED ME
UNDERSTAND HOW I LEARN BEST.
77% response rate
41% 40%
15%

37. By completing the lectures outside the
classroom, the time we spent in class was
more relevant to my own learning.
50%
41% 41% 37.5%
25%
15% 12.5%
Strongly Agree
4% 0%
Neutral 81% = strongly
agree/agree
Strongly Disagree

38. Student Interview
Listen to the full 20-minute interview at:
http://www.box.net/shared/eygt08tvmi

39. by Valerie Everett on Flickr
Michelle Pacansky-Brock
brocansky@gmail.com
www.teachingwithoutwalls.com