Explore the effectiveness of using flipped classroom for university students to learn photo editing techniques

Flipped classroom is an emerging blended type of learning pedagogy. This study attempted to examine whether flipped classroom was an effective pedagogy for learning photo editing techniques. The study was conducted based on a design-based research (DBR) which aims for understanding how, when, and why educational innovations work in practice. This paper aims to report the initial findings of the first stage of DBR. There were a total of nine classes who took the course at the same time and two classes were taught by the author. These two classes self-learned photo editing techniques online via videos at their own time and place prior to taking classes in the following week. Their pre-test, post-test and overall final grades at the end of the semester were compared in order to understand the effectiveness of flipped classroom initiative better. Comparing the pre- and post-test scores, a significant difference was found. Although both classes had almost identical pre-test results, one class performed better than the other class in the post-test. However, there were no significant differences between their final scores. The findings provide another perspective on implementation of flipped classroom for university students.