The better blend? Flipping the principles of microeconomics classroom

While research on blended learning is abundant, research specific to blending in economics is much more limited.  The results of this limited research indicate that blending results in no significant difference in student learning compared to traditional face-to-face classes (Brown and Liedholm 2002; Cosgrove and Olitsky 2013; Olitsky and Cosgrove 2013; Terry and Lewer 2003) Some of these results need to be interpreted with caution because they do not control for selection bias (Brown and Liedholm 2002; Terry and Lewer 2003).  This study adds to the literature by providing a comprehensive analysis of a more extreme form of blending that is gaining in popularity and discerning any effects of this pedagogy on learning outcomes.  The goal of this project is to determine the effects of "flipping" the classroom on students’ learning in principles of microeconomics courses. For this study, the "flipped" classroom is defined as a blended course in which students meet in a face-to face class with the professor roughly 50 percent of the time and view pre-recorded online lectures for the other 50 percent of the time.  During the face-to-face class time, students work through concepts and applications in a workshop setting.  After controlling for a number of key background variables, we use a differences-in-differences with a matching estimator to test whether students in the flipped classes learn and can apply economic concepts and tools better than students in blended classes with no online lectures and interactive lectures during face-to-face class time.  Findings suggest modest differences between flipped and non-flipped courses.