Implementing Flipped Classroom in the Digital Learning Environment

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020, all schools faced unpredictable challenges, and alternative solutions were needed to optimize the functioning of the educational process. One of these was the implementation of the “flipped classroom” in teaching practice. This idea gave rise to the concept of the online flipped classroom, which allows students to continue their educational work in a high-quality, engaging, and attractive way, even outside the physical classroom. Furthermore, the online flipped classroom has proven to be as effective as the traditional one, mainly because it promotes students’ self-directed learning, activity, motivation, collaboration, and successful interactions due to its flexible structure. The study provides a theoretical insight into the application of this teaching method in the period of distance learning and analyzes its advantages and challenges. The most common challenges were found to be difficult access to the Internet and thus to learning materials, the lack of digital skills of teachers, the time and effort required to create videos, the design of a creative learning environment, and the facilitation of different types of activities and teaching materials, which contribute significantly to students’ motivation to learn under exceptional circumstances. Students’ free access to computer equipment and internet connections from home played a key role. Therefore, the flipped classroom approach requires government investment in building/upgrading appropriate information and communication infrastructure, additional teacher commitment, and investment in teachers’ professional development.