The accountability factor is one of the reasons why the flipped classroom is an appropriate way to educate osteopathic medical students from the millennial generation. Although the birth years vary depending on the source, generally, millennials were born between 1982 and 2002. Because they grew up in the early years of digital technology, including online communication and social media, they are considered “digital natives.”
4 Millennials also tend to be distracted more easily, which can impede learning through traditional lecture models.
4 As a result, millennials crave active learning methods that challenge them and offer the ability to control the pace of their learning.
4 A flipped classroom can provide all of these aspects of learning.
For example, a video module, videotaped lecture, or active learning session before a face-to-face encounter helps millennial learners stay active to the tasks at hand. A flipped classroom also allows students to replay a part of a lecture or modules they would like to learn again if needed.
4 Because the flipped classroom is “student centered,” millennial learners can fully engage and be in charge of their own learning.
5 People who tend to succeed in the flipped classroom have high levels of self-motivation.
6 Although intrinsic motivation is innate, “the maintenance and enhancement of intrinsic motivation depends on the social and environmental conditions surrounding the individual.”
7 Allowing the millennial learner freedom to participate in learning before in-person sessions gives them autonomy and allows them to view the subject matter in their own time and space and learn at their own pace.
8 The face-to-face part of the flipped classroom then encourages deep and meaningful interaction with others, allowing for high order of thinking.
9 The need for peer-to-faculty interactions is imperative in medical education, and this interaction occurs in the flipped classroom.
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Responses from students have been positive, with surveys showing that most millennial students have enjoyed their experience with the flipped classroom method of teaching.
11 For example, in one survey,
12 millennial students preferred the variety of learning formats that the flipped classroom provided.