Strategies for enhancing online flipped learning: a systematic review of empirical studies during the COVID-19 pandemic

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted schools and universities worldwide to switch to the online delivery of instructional activities. The use of fully online flipped learning correspondingly increased. This review identifies the challenges to this instructional approach and the elements required for effective course design and implementation across studies during the first two years of the pandemic (i.e. 2020–2021). The aim of this review is to draw on the experience gained through pandemic-led passive practices to establish a foundation for active instructional improvement. In the included articles (N = 70), new challenges (e.g. students’ poor in-class participation, instructors’ inability to observe students on-screen, and the lack of tangible hands-on practice) emerged when offering flipped courses remotely online. Using the identified course-design elements, this review proposes a RAISE design framework which can inform future practice in five aspects: Resources (e.g. providing instructional videos), Activities (e.g. stressing the application of knowledge and skills), Institutional facilitation (e.g. allocating budgets for educational technology), Support (e.g. employing online tools for student response and collaboration), and Evaluation (e.g. providing formative assessment and instructor feedback). This instructional approach can serve as an alternative to offering quality education independent of locations or during interruptions of campus operations.