STLHE 2016 SAPES

Blending courses and flipping them requires learners to participate more and take charge of their learning--it empowers them while at the same time changes the context of their learning (Owston, York, & Murtha 2013). We built a gamified online writing application, The Game of Writing (GwRIT), and used it and in-class writing activities to deliver a first-year academic writing course in a blended and flipped format. In this presentation we will outline the environment and then report on results of student learning within that environment. In a comparison of the blended learning format to the face-to-face format, students reported higher scores for their experience in the course (3.63/5 for blended; 3.20/5 for F2F) and for understanding of key concepts in the course (4.16/5 for blended; 3.80 for F2F). The blended learning students were also more likely to ask themselves questions to check their understanding of course materials and were more likely to go back and review course materials.