Teaching and Learning

New Nonprofit Will Focus on Flipped and Active Learning

• By Rhea Kelly
• 05/23/18

A new nonprofit has just formed to focus on "identifying and supporting global standards for flipped learning and related active learning instruction." Known as the Academy of Active Learning Arts and Sciences (AALAS), the organization was created out of the Flipped Learning Global Initiative's Global Standards Project, an effort to establish an international framework for flipped learning. All of that project's activities are migrating to the new entity.

Through its research, education and accreditation efforts, the AALAS will "work to aggregate, validate and disseminate next-generation strategies in flipped learning," according to a news announcement. "As we enter the Flipped Learning 3.0 era, we now know that the magic of flipped learning doesn't happen in the videos, it happens in the classroom," said Jon Bergmann, chief academic officer of the Flipped Learning Global Initiative, in a statement. "Classroom mastery is the next frontier, and we are looking to AALAS to bring the general understanding of flipped learning into alignment with the most current global best practices."

"I think a lot of people have a rather naive conception of flipped learning. They think flipped learning is simply watching videos before class. That's it. Boom. Done," commented Eric Mazur, a professor at Harvard University, in a statement. "But it is a much deeper process, and that is why it's so terrifically important to have a greater conception of what flipped learning is."

For more information, go to the AALAS site.