Flipping the Classroom: Revolutionising Legal Research Training

Abstract

At the University of Salford it is a struggle to find sufficient timetable space to deliver in-depth legal research training to new first year students. The training delivered often alienated students due to the information overload they experienced. Timetable pressures resulted in sessions being librarian-led with little interaction with students. This left students feeling overwhelmed, often nervous of using the library and performing research. As a result law students resorted to using Google as their academic research tool of choice. To combat these problems the Law Librarian, Nicola Sales, implemented the innovative training concept of ‘flipping the classroom’. Rather than using teaching time to instruct students in ‘how to’ perform research by demonstrating resources and concepts, the classroom was flipped so students studied online content before entering the classroom. Face to face teaching time was then spent actively learning through practical tasks and discussion to consolidate student learning. Students took responsibility for their own learning and teaching sessions were based on group work and discussion, facilitated by the librarian rather than being librarian-led. This article is based on the presentation, ‘Flipping Training’ delivered at the BIALL Conference 2013. It will look at how the ‘flipping the classroom’ concept works and how it has been implemented at the University of Salford. It will examine the benefits and drawbacks of flipping training as well as ideas for implementing flipped training within other organisations.