Singapore spends $75 million to ‘flip’ classrooms

A university in Singapore will spend $75 million over five years to implement a new learning model - flipped classrooms. Students at Nanyang Technological University will get their course content online before they attend classes, and time in class will be spent learning in groups.

About 1500 or half of its courses will use this new method in the next five years, with 150 starting in the first year.

“Leveraging technology, such blended learning methods will allow our students to acquire knowledge better, be more motivated in their learning and also, more importantly, learn how to learn,” said Professor Kam Chan Hin, Senior Associate Provost (Undergraduate Education).

The university also launched a centre to support this new way of learning. Called The Hive, it replaces traditional classrooms with “smart classrooms” with clustered seating, LCD screens and wireless tools.

A second learning centre with more smart classrooms is being built and will be ready by 2017. Over the last three years, the university has upgraded most of its tutorial rooms with new technologies, it said.