Using the Flipped Classroom, Blended Learning and Learning Management Systems
to Adapt Teaching Processes to Meet the Challenges of the Quarter System

Andrew TIDMARSH
English Education Center, Institute for Education and Student Support, Ehime University

Introduction
In the rush to embrace the benefits of global
integration in education, many universities across Japan

before giving concrete examples from actual teachingmaterials of how this was achieved, with particularreference to use of Learning Management Systems(LMS), such as Schoology or Moodle.

have decided to introduce the quarter system wherepreviously classes were scheduled in 15 week semesters.
The stated purpose of this change is to facilitate theUsing the Flipped Classroom Model

movement of students between courses, since the new

In many traditional teaching approaches, learners

schedule ﬁts more closely with those of other countries

are given instruction during classes and are expected(Yonezawa, 2014). In 2016, Ehime University followed in

to demonstrate their understanding of this material in

the footsteps of prestigious institutions such as Waseda

exercises or practice activities as part of their homework.

University and also made the switch to using quarters.

In this model, scheduled classroom time is very much

When thinking about the change for teachers, it

the most important part of a course, and other activities

is possible to ﬁnd that there are some signiﬁcantsuch as homework are seen as secondary. However, inadvantages to teaching using the new quarter system.

recent years this kind of teacher-centric instructional

However, despite this, it is still necessary to adapt

model (Brooks, 2002) has fallen out of favour, especiallyinstruction and teaching processes to deal with thein classrooms in North America and Europe.

change. When thinking about the shift from using

One of the most popular well-established alternatives

the longer semesters to much shorter quarters, it

has become known as theis important to consider how the student learningname suggests,

experience will be aﬀected. In anticipating potential

during class are re-allocated as homework, and practicepitfalls that may lie ahead, teaching methods can be

activities once done as homework become the focal point

adapted and materials changed ahead of time to reduceof classes (Lage, Platt & Tregalia, 2000). In this way,

stress for students. This also makes it possible tothe traditional instructional model isleverage the strengths of having twice-weekly classes

inverted model, there is a great deal of emphasis placed

over a shorter length of time, so that learning outcomeson using a variety of activities during classes that oﬀer

are actually improved.

diﬀerentiated learning opportunities for students in an

In this article, I want to set out the speciﬁc changes

ﬂipped classroom . As theprocesses that traditionally took place

ﬂipped . In theeﬀort to make their time more signiﬁcant (Rajesh, 2015).

that I made for two courses in relation to the shift from

One popular way of implementing a ﬂipped classroom

semesters to quarters. In each case, I will brieﬂy set out

model is for teachers to record videos of themselves

the potential problems that might arise using the quarter

explaining teaching points, requiring students tosystem. Following this, I will present blended learningview these videos online at home. With the advent

as a highly beneﬁcial teaching approach for this changeof sophisticated LMS features and technologies, it isin circumstances. From here I will describe the teachingpossible to track which students have viewed this videos,rationale behind how these problems can be addressed

and which students have not, thus allowing for accurate

using blended learning and ﬂipped classroom approaches,

tracking of learner engagement. Following these videos,

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Andrew TIDMARSH

students are commonly allocatedshort online tests,

written assignments, quizzes, polls or puzzles based on
this instruction.

Using Blended Learning in Combination
with the Flipped Classroom

The outcome of structuring out-of-classroom time in

Although the flipped classroom model may bethis way is that teachers have more freedom to makeappropriate for speaking classes in which students

classes productive for every student. In-class time canrequire less in the way of explicit instruction andbe focused on activities that cannot be easily carried out

signiﬁcantly more opportunities for practice, writingfor homework, such as group discussions, questioning theclasses may require a somewhat diﬀerent approach.

teacher, or practical exercises. In using the traditional

While CLT has the advantage of de-emphasising smaller

teaching model, time for questioning the teacher can

mistakes in production, the same beneﬁt does not

be severely limited by the fact that a certain amountnecessarily accrue to approaches for teaching writing.

material must be covered during the class, meaning thatIndeed, proﬁciency and competency are commonly underquestions often have to left until the end. When using

close scrutiny in writing examinations and therefore

the ﬂipped classroom model, the entire class period

teaching must reﬂect this fact.

can easily be dedicated to questioning the teacher if

For writing classes, teaching that incorporates anecessary, which can sometimes be seen as a better use

signiﬁcant amount of error correction and teacher-of classroom time.

led instruction, even to smaller groups has more in

Since the ﬂipped classroom model is very often

common with traditional approaches than a pure ﬂipped

accompanied by extensive use of technology, theseclassroom. However, this does not mean that students

materials produced for these new kinds of learning

cannot in these classes beneﬁt from materials accessed

processes become easily accessible outside the classroom.

out-of-class. In this way, the halfway-house of using a

In many situations, certain LMS usage has risen

blended learning approach becomes a logical solution

precisely because of its portablity and accessiblity toto increasing practice time in class while retaining

students. In the case of LMS whose developers produced

necessary teacher-led instructional activities.

smartphone applications, as in the case of Schoology, it
is much easier for students to access learning materials
because they are automatically formatted for hardware
with smaller screens at the software level.
It is important to note that the rationale behind using aﬂipped classroom is more important than the means used

How does the flipped classroom or
blended learning help for Quarter Systemclasses?
Reviewing Content

to achieve it. Bergmann and Sams (2013) see the model

Naturally with the switch from having classes once

as a way to make the best use of scheduled classroom

a week to twice a week, learning becomes a moretime, rather than deﬁning it narrowly in terms of its

intensive experience. In the semester system, students

methodology. In this way, it may be better to think of the

had the luxury of a week between classes that allowed

ﬂipped classroom as a teaching philosophy rather thanthem a great deal of freedom to review class content

an approach.

and complete homework. However, when following the

In the context of second language learning, deploying
the ﬂipped classroom model is attractive, particularly

quarter system, this luxury is no longer available forstudents.

in terms of how it may beneﬁt development of the

For students with classes on the daytime schedule,

productive skills, namely, speaking and writing. This

there are only ever two or three full days to wait before

model allows for a large increase in time available forthe next class arrives. Students who have classes inpractice during class periods, which has particular

the sixth or seventh period on the night-time schedule

relevance for practitioners following the ideology

unfortunately have to keep up with a much faster pace,of communicative language teaching (CLT), whichand beneﬁt from only one full day between classes

emphasises learning speaking through interaction, as

on Tuesdays and Thursdays. When we take into

opposed to learning speaking through writing, as in theconsideration the fact that students have to follow thegrammar translation approach.

quarter schedule for their other classes too, it becomes
clear that the opportunities for self-study and review

54

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Using the Flipped Classroom, Blended Learning and Learning Management Systems to Adapt Teaching Processes to Meet the Challenges of the Quarter System

during the week become more limited.

permitted absence policy.

In this respect, a course that makes use of the ﬂipped

While this situation was less of an issue when classes

classroom model is beneﬁcial because learning material

followed the semester system, under the quarter system,is already made available online for students to process

it now becomes somewhat more serious. First of all,before class, and this means that they can easily

because classes are scheduled so close to each other,review it at any time during the course. One signiﬁcantmultiple-day absences may now involve missing two

advantage of using an LMS here is that it does notclasses, where under the semester system it was only

matter when students ﬁnd themselves with time free forone class. What is more, since the pace of learning isreview, because the materials are always available. This

accelerated, especially in classes that teach productive

therefore helps students to schedule their revision work

processes such as the speaking and writing classes,around the commitments of part-time jobs and otherstudents may ﬁnd it harder to catch up with theiractivities for example.

classmates when returning. In these cases, students canalways rely on classmates or the teacher to give themStudent Fatigue
Under the quarter system regime, classes are notscheduled on Wednesdays. One of the consequences ofsummaries of missed classes. However, this may beconsiderably less eﬀective than completing activities withthe help of the teacher and classmates in class.

this is that the schedule is compacted into four days

However, if students are able to use an LMS in arather than ﬁve under the semester system. This means

ﬂipped classroom scenario, it means that they can morethat the potential for students to be tired when arriving

easily ascertain what materials they need to absorb to

at class is increased, because each day of their schedule

recover from their absence. Furthermore, they can see

is likely to be slightly busier than it would have been

how the new information ﬁts into structures they haveunder the semester system. This might be further

already learned about in previous classes. However,compounded by scheduling of sports events and othersince practice tasks and activities to promote deeper

activities on class days.

understanding take place in scheduled class time when

Blended learning allows teachers to mitigate against

the classroom is ﬂipped, absentee students are still at

this aﬀective ﬁlter situation by providing students witha signiﬁcant disadvantage to their classmates when it

eﬀective ways of consolidating learning after classes,

comes to the beneﬁts of sustained practice.

especially in an interactive manner. Students who attend

Now that it has been demonstrated that the ﬂippedclass with a high level of fatigue are unlikely to retainclassroom, blended learning and using an LMS can help

new information as eﬀectively as those students who

students in certain diﬃcult situations under the quarter

were not tired, but use of the blended learning model

system, I will present two short case studies by way

involves producing LMS content and activities thatof examples. The ﬁrst of these refers to the speaking

can serve as a safety net for these learners. Quizzes

course, which is taken by all ﬁrst year students indesigned to test understanding after class can be used

quarter 1. The second study looks at the writing course

in conjunction with handouts or sections from textbooks,

which is taken by all ﬁrst year students in the thirdand can easily be turned into social and competitive

quarter.

activities with classmates, something which becomes
especially straightforward when accessing an LMS on asmartphone.

Case Study 1: Speaking Course
Preparing content for conversations: using the ﬂipped

Student Absenceclassroom model

Unlike the situation for other faculties, the English

In the speaking course, students terminal assessment

Education Center has a fairly strict policy, permitting

is based on their ability to conduct short conversations

only three unexplained absences, or twenty percent

in English with a classmate, which is scored based onof scheduled class time, rather than 33% elsewhere.

certain criteria primarily relating their use or non-

Nonetheless, there are always students who need touse of proper interactional structures. In this sense, themake full use of this allocation, since events such as

thrust of the course is not to pay attention to the small

weddings or educational trips are not covered by thedetails of pronunciation or producing perfect grammar

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Andrew TIDMARSH

Figure 1: Example of ﬂipped classroom materials from LMS for speaking coursein every utterance, but achieving a level of ﬂuency thatallows reasonably comfortable completion of a basic
conversation. In this sense, the ﬁnal test loosely follows
the tradition of CLT, although students may be initiallymore inﬂuenced by grammar translation methods as ahangover of their junior-high and high school days.
In classes that do not use the ﬂipped model, students
are usually expected to prepare content for speaking
practice, as well as participate in the practice itself. For
example, in a class leading to a speaking activity focusedon talking about travel destinations, students might ﬁrst
complete vocabulary tasks related to the topic, thenprepare a written

conversation before ﬁnally moving

on to the speaking activity.
One of the major drawbacks for this style of instruction
it can signiﬁcantly constrain the amount of time available
to students for speaking practice. This may be further
compounded by the fact that many students often requireor desire to spend copious amounts of time on becoming
completely comfortable with their prepared conversations
before moving to the speaking activities. This isespecially true of students who prefer the methods ofjunior-high school.
For the speaking course, since practice time is at apremium and the switch to the quarter system makes it
diﬃcult to assign speaking practice tasks with classmates
Figure 2: Example of ﬂipped classroom homework
activity from speaking course

as homework, it was clear that ﬂipping the classroom
would be the best way forward. Rather than recording
videos, teaching items were presented as short one or56

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Using the Flipped Classroom, Blended Learning and Learning Management Systems to Adapt Teaching Processes to Meet the Challenges of the Quarter System

two paragraph explanations, marked in the title with

Applying the ﬂipped classroom model to the speaking

LEARN . These teaching points were accompanied

course is particularly fruitful for increasing the amountby a sample conversation. It is important to note thatof time available for speaking practice with classmatesteaching items presented in this way were distilled toin English. Under a conservative estimate, compared toleave only the most fundamental principles for students

classes following more traditional approaches, practiceto learn, because the focus of many in-class activities

time may jump from around 25 minutes to over 50

allowed them to work out the practicalities of applying

minutes, and more in certain cases. While there arethese principles for themselves and as part of a team.

limitations on the amount of time that can be allocatedIn the example of teaching materials presented

for practice, such as routines like taking attendance,

here on the LMS in use (Schoology), students read a

explaining homework or giving short breaks, students

short explanation of small talk and big talk. This is

who are absent still beneﬁt. If, for example, a student

accompanied by transcript of an example conversation,

misses one class not applying the ﬂipped model, they

which has the small and big talk elements labelled

might miss only 25 minutes of practice time, as well

(Figure 1). In the next stage of their homework, students

as the teacher-led instruction. When using the ﬂipped

are then required to generate keywords for diﬀerent

classroom, they might miss 50 minutes of practicesmall talk topics on a handout (Figure 2). Note thattime, but they will still practice longer when all classes

students are not required to write full sentences, since

are totalled, and they will still be able to follow thethis would encourage them to simply read their work

instructional materials on the LMS. This amounts to a

aloud. Instead, the limitation of keywords only means

net beneﬁt on the part of the student even though thethat ﬂuency development is encouraged.

quarter system makes the course more intensive.

As students have completed these two tasks, the main
practice tasks in scheduled classes can proceed much
more quickly than under traditional models of teaching.

Case Study 2: Writing Course

Students are already familiar with the terms

Previewing class content and testing understanding

small

talk and big talk , and therefore this streamlines the
directions necessary to set up longer practice activities
in class.

with blended learning
In the writing course, students are assessed by wayof a test of their paragraph writing abilities. Given 45

Figure 3: Example of preview quiz for writing course, blended learning model

大学教育実践ジャーナル 第16号 201857

Andrew TIDMARSH

minutes, students should be able to construct a logicalnew content.

and reasonably grammatically sound eight sentence

In the activity presented here (Figure 3), students

paragraph. For this test, assessment criteria focus on thewill have already been learning about the key principles

structural integrity and development of core ideas, rather

before writing topic sentences, but now have tothan focusing simply on pure grammatical accuracy,

connect this old knowledge with new information about

the very things to which students may already besupporting sentences. Prior to this activity, students areaccustomed.

directed to read key information from their textbook,

Since process writing to achieve the stated end result

before demonstrating their understanding by selecting

may be somewhat unfamiliar territory for some students,

good examples of the target language. This content

the course naturally must allow more time for newis reviewed with practice activities in class, before an

information to be processed, interpreted and absorbed.

additional review activity which is set for homework.

There is a signiﬁcant amount of trial and error that must

A key beneﬁt of using activities such as these is

be seen through before practice inevitably yields thethe result of reducing pressure on students to ﬁnd thedesired results.

correct answer in class. Since these preview activities

As has already been discussed, teaching writing

are completed individually for homework, they cannot

necessitates more intervention from instructors and thisfeel the shame of making mistakes in front of others, andis especially true when introducing new structures thatit serves as a

students need to learn to follow. This is one of the mainused in class. Reducing the pressure to answer without

reasons why a pure ﬂipped classroom approach would be

mistakes becomes important in quarter system, sincemuch less eﬀective and why a blended learning approach

there is less time between classes for students to recoverin concert with extensive use of an LMS was deployed.

their pride.

dry run for similar exercises that areOver the duration of the writing course, students
must acquire skills in creating four distinct kinds ofsentence, as well a developing critical thinking skills

Conclusion

to some extent. This means that students commonly

The application of the quarter system to the scheduling

focus on a speciﬁc kind of sentence for a class or twoof classes serves up some exciting possibilities for

before moving on to the next type. This approach is

students to study abroad if they so desire, but it should

perfectly valid, but if students are absent it may cause

not be detrimental to the learning experience at any

problems in following the content of the next classpoint. It is vital that teachers are proactive in anticipating

attended, because the new knowledge builds on the old.

problems and designing their classes, activities andWhile this may be troublesome if a traditional classroom

processes to avoid students losing out from the fasterapproach is followed, instructors using a blended learningpace of learning that the quarter system brings.

model accompanied by well-designed materials on an

In this account I have presented blended learning and

LMS can avoid students running into problems in thatthe ﬂipped classroom model as having signiﬁcant beneﬁts

additional learning opportunities are provided to those

if used within the quarter system structure. These

already available in class. This is also beneﬁcial for thosemodels can eﬀectively mitigate against the possible

students who ﬁnd themselves subject to the aﬀective

eﬀects of student absence, fatigue and reduced time forﬁlter at any time.

review, especially when used in concert with an LMS. In

In the classes under discussion here, students werelooking at two examples of actual teaching practice, it

assigned preview and review activities on the LMS

becomes clear that these models cannot be successfully

that eﬀectively make a sandwich of the course content

used exclusively, but rather, instructors may ﬁnd that itpresented in class, which is also reinforced with shortis better to pick and choose elements from both to create

practice activities. Structuring the course content in thisthe most constructive learning environment for language

way creates a natural ﬂow, progressing from each kindteaching, especially when considering the productiveof sentence to the other, allowing students to understandskills. To this end, I would encourage teachers to think

how their skills are developing towards an end goal. This

critically about how well their instruction leverages thestrategy is also eﬀective because it allows students toadvantages of the quarter system, and where the possible

review previous content as part of the introduction to

downsides could be ameliorated using methods similar to58

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Using the Flipped Classroom, Blended Learning and Learning Management Systems to Adapt Teaching Processes to Meet the Challenges of the Quarter Systemthose presented here.
References
Yonezawa, A. (2014). Japanʼs challenge of fostering

GlobalHuman Resources : Policy debates and practices. Japan
Labor Review, 11(2), 37-52.

Sams, A., & Bergmann, J. (2013). Flip your students' learning.
Educational leadership, 70(6), 16-20.

Brooks, J. G. (2002). Schooling for life: Reclaiming the essence oflearning. ASCD.

Lage, M. J., Platt, G. J., & Treglia, M. (2000). Inverting theclassroom: A gateway to creating an inclusive learning
environment. The Journal of Economic Education, 31(1), 30-43.

Rajesh, M. (2015). Revolution in communication technologies:
impact on distance education. Turkish Online Journal ofDistance Education, 16(1).

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