Investigating the effectiveness of the flipped classroom on the learners’ perceived teaching, social and cognitive presence in online courses

With the increasing use of information technologies in the field of education, it is now possible to create flexible learning environments without temporal and spatial barriers on the Internet. These environments enable learners to access various learning materials, share their findings, and discuss with other online participants. Despite the dramatic increase in web-based courses and learners enrolling in these courses, there are many indications that the mentioned courses have failed to meet the needs of learners and learners remember unpleasant experiences from such contexts. One of the relatively new methods in teaching is flipped classroom. The underlying idea of the flipped classroom is that instructional materials are presented outside the classroom, and on the other hand, the classroom time is used for interaction and conceptual transformation. Also, the community of inquiry (CoI) framework created by Garrison et . (2001) has been extensively applied and explored. It is probably the most frequently used model based on technology for a constructivist learning design. According to Garrison et al, learners can learn collaboratively and as a group in an inquiry community when there is a shared cognitive, social, and teaching presence. learning experiences are formed through the interaction of cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence. Garrison et al. claim that the common nature of cognitive, social, and teaching presence leads to the creation of an inquiry community, in which a cooperative learning experience is created for learners. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of using the flipped classroom on the learners’ perceived teaching, social and cognitive presence in online courses. 

This study was quasi-experimental in terms of research method, using pre-test and post-test design with experimental and control groups. The population of the research included all the students of Tehran in the academic year of 1400-1401, using Convenience sampling. A total of 58 people were selected and randomly assigned to the experimental group (30 students) and control group (28 students). Research instruments included CoI survey instrument developed by Arbaugh et al. (2008) along with rubric for online discussions analysis (Social presence: indicators by Rourke et . (1999), teaching presence: indicators by Anderson et al. (2001), and cognitive presence: indicators by Park (2009)). To analyze the data, descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation), and inferential statistics, i.e., the multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), and the chi-squared test were used.

The results of MANCOVA showed that the experimental group had better progress for all types of presence (teaching, social & cognitive) in posttest compared to the control group(p<0.05). Also calculated chi-square test showed that frequency of produced semantic units for all types of presence (teaching, social & cognitive) in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group (p>0.05).

The results of this research proved the potential of flipped classroom pedagogy in learner’s progress in the three key factors of the community of inquiry framework, i.e. cognitive, social and teaching presence. Also the findings of research can lead to the improvement of offered education in web-based courses and are useful for those who are involved designing and implementing web-based education.