CynthiaN

University of Utah Electrical & Computer Engineering Professor Cynthia Furse is one of the leading Utah educators on “flipping” classrooms in order to engage students more while in class.

Furse, who also is the U’s associate vice president for research, has been teaching other higher-education faculty this inventive form of instruction, and last month she was the keynote speaker at the Empowering Teaching Excellence (ETE) Conference at Utah State University. A streaming video of her lecture, “A Busy Professor’s Guide to Sanely Flipping Your Class,” is available here.

Flipping classrooms involves reversing the traditional teaching method: The lectures are captured on video and posted online where students view them at home instead of doing homework. That leaves time in the classroom for more interaction between the students and teacher and spurs more discussion on real-world applications.