In this course we are going to follow a working method called "flipped classroom". I'll tell you what this means in a flash, but before let me remind you how ordinary courses work.
Ordinary courses are usually arranged in a way that you spend most of your time listening to the teacher, with little or no activity on your side. When the class is over, you get your homework assigned. Then you go home and do the homework on your own, with little or no help -let alone feedback of any kind, which very often takes days before you get it. Moreover, this feedback is usually limited to watching how the teacher corrects the homework on the blackboard, again with a few chances for you to participate. This arrangement leaves out valuable things like teamwork, individual and meaningful help, inmediate feedback or opportunities to apply what you know in relevant problems or projects.
So: what if the classes are "flipped"? What if the contents of the course are uploaded to the Internet, in a way that they can easily be accessed and studied at your own pace and...at home? What if the contents include videos, animations, interactive games and quizzes? What if we spend our class time together, putting our knowledge at work by solving relevant problems and developing purposeful projects by working in teams?
This is what a flipped classroom is about. Lectures become homework, so we can spend our valuable classroom time working in groups in relevant problems and projects, and having the teacher's feedback and guidance right away, when you need it and when it's meaningful.
Instead of lecturing you each class, I will upload the contents to a special platform called Sophia (which I will talk you about later on). Each week I'm going to assign you a section at Sophia. Your homework will be to read/watch the contents of the assigned section, and to take an online test at home using your own computer. These tests will be 20% of your final grades. Our class time is going to be spent mostly in the workshop, working in groups to solve problems or to develop projects closely related -but not limited- to the contents you will have read/watched at Sophia. Teamwork is 50% of your final grades. A final test at the end of each unit will complete your grades (30%).
