The Flipped Class

Undergraduate statistics courses are perceived as challenging by both students and instructors. Students’ attitudes, motivation, math anxiety, and preparedness can negatively impact the student and instructor experience and have the potential to negatively impact student learning. This article describes an attempt to address some of these challenges through structural and procedural changes to an undergraduate statistics course that is required for social science majors. The traditional lecture/homework structure of the course was “flipped” so that the majority of basic knowledge acquisition moved out of the classroom, making room for interactive activities during class time. The described changes had a positive impact on students’ attitudes toward the class and instructor as well as on students’ performance in the class.